| Chernobog | |
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Other Names |
Chernobog, Diabol, Zcerneboch, Zcerneboth, Zernebug, Chernabog |
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First Appearance |
Slavic Myth |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Chernobog (lit. "Black God") appears in Helmold's Chronicle as a god of misfortune worshipped by the Wagri and Obodrites. Researchers do not agree on the status of Chernobog and many scholars recognize the authenticity of this theonym. Many scholars believe that it is a pseudo-deity, and Chernobog may have originally meant "bad fate", and later associated with the Christian devil. His opposite was Belobog (lit. "White God").
The 12th-century German monk and chronicler Helmold, who accompanied the Christianization missions to the Elbe Slavs, describes in his Chronicle of the Slavs the cult of Chernobog:
Also, the Slavs have a strange delusion. At their feasts and carousals, they pass about a bowl over which they utter words, I should not say of consecration but of execration, in the name of two gods — of the good one, as well as of the bad one — professing that all propitious fortune is arranged by the good god, adverse, by the bad god. Hence, also, in their language, they call the bad god Diabol, or Zcerneboch, that is, the black god.
In 1538, the Pomeranian chronicler Thomas Kantzow in his Chronicle of Pomerania wrote:
I have heretofore related all manner of faithlessness and idolatry, in which they had engaged before the time of the German Empire. Earlier yet, their ways are said to have been even more pagan. They placed their kings and lords, who ruled well, above the gods and honored the said men as gods after their death. In addition, they worshiped the sun and the moon and, lastly, two gods whom they venerated above all other gods. One [of them] they called Bialbug, that is the white god; him they held for a good god. The other one they called Zernebug, that is the black god; him they held for a god who did harm. Therefore, they honored Bialbug, because he did them good and so that he might continue to do them good. Zernebug, on the other hand, they honored so that he should not harm them. And they appeased the said Zernebug by sacrificing people, for they believed that there was no better way of assuaging him than with human blood, which is actually true, if only they had seen it in the right light: that Zernebug seeks nothing other than the death of Man's body and soul.
Chernobog also appears in the anonymous Historia Caminensis as the god of the Vandals, which is based on a work by Münster (both works speak of the "error of the Manichaeans").
An alternative version of Chernobog named Chernabog appears in the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. The following program is printed in Rimsky-Korsakov's edition of Night on Bald Mountain, published in 1886 by V. Bessel and Co.:
Subterranean sounds of non-human voices. Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed by that of Chernobog. Glorification of Chernobog and Black Service. Sabbath. At the height of the sabbath, the distant ringing of a village church bell is heard; it disperses the spirits of darkness. Morning.
In Glorification of Chernobog from Mlada, Voyslava and her father Mstivoy, the Prince of Retra, have poisoned Mlada, the betrothed of Yaromir, Prince of Arkona. Voyslava sells her soul to Morena, an evil goddess, to obtain her aid in making Yaromir forget Mlada so she may have him to herself. In act 3, the shade (ghost) of Mlada leads Yaromir up the slopes of Mount Triglav to a pine wood in a gorge on top of the mountain. Mlada's shade joins a gathering of the spirits of the dead. She expresses in mime to Yaromir the wish to be reunited with him in the kingdom of dead souls. He is eager to join her. However, there is a rumbling sound announcing the appearance, apparently from underground, of the following fantastic characters.
The evil spirits sing in a strange demonic language, in the manner of the "demons and the damned" of Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust. Morena calls on Chernobog to help make Yaromir forsake Mlada. Kashchey determines that Morena and Chernobog will be successful if Yaromir is seduced by another. Chernobog commands Yaromir's soul to separate from his body, and for Queen Cleopatra to appear. Instantly the scene changes to a hall in Egypt, where the shade of Cleopatra attempts to entice Yaromir's soul to her side with a seductive dance. She almost succeeds in doing so when a cock crow announcing the break of day causes the entire infernal host to vanish. Yaromir awakens and ponders the mysterious events he has witnessed.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Chernobog from before January 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
- Chronicle of the Slavs (1168–1169)
- Chronicle of Pomerania (1538)
- Cosmographiae universalis (1550)
- Historia Caminensis
- Ivanhoe (1820)
- Glorification of Chernobog from Mlada (1872)
- Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad from The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1880)
- Night on Bald Mountain (1886)