Chernobog

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chernobog (also spelled Crnobog, Czernobog, Černobog or Zernebog, each name meaning Black God) is a mysterious Slavic deity of whom much has been speculated but little can be said. It is indicated he was a dark and cursed god, but it is questionable how important he really was to ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity.

1 Sources
2 Folklore
3 In popular culture

[edit] Sources

The only historic source on Slavic paganism mentioning this god is the 12th-century Chronica Slavorum, a work written by German priest Helmold which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish and Polabian tribes who were at that time still resisting the growing pressure of Christianization. Helmold wrote that: The Slavs, they say, have one peculiar custom: during feasts, they pass a goblet amongst them in circle, for purpose not to praise, but rather to curse in the names of gods, good and evil, for every good thing praising a good god, and for every bad thing cursing an evil god. This god of woe in their language is called Diabolous or Zherneboh, meaning black god.

[edit] Folklore

A veneration of this deity perhaps survived in folklore of several Slavic nations. In some South Slavic vernaculars, there exists an interesting phrase do zla boga (meaning "to [the] evil god," or perhaps "to [the] evil [of] God," which may denote ownership rather than some dark attribute), used as an attribute to express something which is exceedingly negative. No-one is really aware of the literal meaning of these words anymore; exclamations such as Ovo je do zla boga dosadno!, To je do zla boga glupo! can be safely translated as "This is devilishly boring!", "That is immensely stupid!" without any actual loss in meaning. The word Bog ("God"), however, in all Slavic languages today is used as personal name of the Christian God, who, according to Christian beliefs, is not evil; thus, the expression zli bog, "evil god", could be a relic from pagan antiquity. If we assume that Crnobog indeed was an evil and dark god of the ancient Slavs (or perhaps merely an evil aspect of some other deity), we may conjecture this expression was some ancient curse invoking him.

[edit] In popular culture

Chernobog has made appearances in various media:

[edit] Novels

The "Russian series" of fantasy novels by C. J. Cherryh (as "Chernevog").
American Gods by Neil Gaiman, (as "Czernobog"), where he exists in the winter and is replaced by his brother Bielebog in the springtime. Czernobog/Bielebog live in a Chicago apartment with the three Zoryas.
The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer (as "Chernobog").
The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling (as "Tchernobog") where following a terrible cataclysm the suriviving Russians abandon Christianity and worship "Tchernobog" in rites involving cannibalism.

[edit] Film

As Chernabog, he features in the "Night On Bald Mountain" sequence in Disney's Fantasia (1940).

[edit] Role-playing games

"Chernobog" is the name of a planet overrun by parasitic alien lifeforms in the game Fading Suns.
"Chernobo" is the name of one of the mysterious "marodeures" in the Primal Punk RPG Degenesis.

[edit] Computer and video games

"Tchernobog" is the final boss of Blood.
"Czernobog" is the level 3 dark Fusion monster that Yuri Hyuga can fuse into and become in Shadow Hearts.
The Fantasia depiction of Chernabog is one of the final bosses in Square Enix's videogame Kingdom Hearts.
Chernobog is a boss in Digital Devil Saga 2, and a playable demon/random encounter in the loosely related Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. In both games, Chernobog brandishes a sword, and is a man shaped like an Enoki Mushroom (Enokitake), whose head is a skull that grows the mushroom cap on top. He is of course surrounded by dozens of smaller enoki mushrooms.
"Chernobog" is the name of a planet in the turn-based computer strategy game entitled "Emperor of the Fading Suns." It was the planet from which the Symbiot threat emerged, a race of parasites that bonds with humans to create intelligent, biological horrors. The Symbiots developed space travel and became a danger to the entire galaxy, and are a symbol of primal evil in the Fading Suns universe.
There is a red version of Chernabog's head as a decorative carpet available during halloween in Disney's massive online multiplayer game, Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom.
Chernobog is also the name of a monster in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, as a Palette swap of the general Shadow monster.