Mythical beings and gods populate the lands of the Slavs. Slavic mythology recognizes a single, all-powerful deity despite being a polytheistic tradition. Svarog is the supreme deity to whom all other gods answer. Despite being no match for Perun’s strength, Svarog was honoured as the God who made and ruled over all others. In addition, he led over Svarga. The word “Svarga” had a similar meaning to the Slavic peoples of the afterlife and the realm of the gods and the dead. Some historians claim he is the father of the sun deity Dadbog and the God Svaroi. Svarog represents the heavens, forging iron, and the element of fire. They used the Greek gods Uranus and Hephaestus as analogues (blacksmith god). According to folklore, Svarog created the Sun and placed it in the sky.
Very little of pre-Christian Slav mythology has survived to the present day, but it seems that the name Svarog comes from the Sanskrit and Veda “Svar,” both of which mean “shines” or “gleams,” and the Slavic word “Svarg,” which means “heaven.” It’s possible that the term wasn’t originally from India but came to Iran through that country. Svarog appeared to be a passive guy in the sky, a belief shared by many Indo-European cultures. The Greek god Works exemplifies this belief, who was rendered powerless after creating the earth. Writer Mike Dixon-Kennedy claims multiple temples were devoted to Svarog, where victorious armies could lay their standards and animals and possibly humans were sacrificed under Svarog’s name.
It’s fascinating that Svarog was worshipped by Poles, Croats, and other nations while being known as Perun in Russian mythology. He was viewed as a god by the natives, and they did it in sacred woods set aside to pay homage to this deity. The Eastern Slavic God Svarog is associated with fire and hearth. At the same time, his sons Dadbog represent the Sun and Svaroii, a blacksmith god comparable to the Greek Hephaestus—the God of sunlight, light, and fire in the South Slavic religion. Svarga, the God of the heavens, was dreaded by the Scythians, who were influenced by Slovenian culture.
The sun deity Svarog was also revered as a guardian of the forge and those who worked in that profession. His sons, however, inherited his throne as the rising Sun and the deity of fire. Dadbog was elevated to the status of the sun god, and Svaroii was given control over the hearth. However, it is unclear if the Svaroi is a singular deity or if he stands in for all of Svarog’s offspring. Stories tell us that while Svarog was sleeping, he dreamed up this universe and gave it to Perun and the other gods to look after. Though he has little direct control over the human world of his dreams, he has tremendous sway over the goodwill of the other gods. When he finally comes to, it’ll be game over for everyone.
The absence of reliable sources about Svarog is the greatest obstacle. His name appears in nearly every historical document, but little is known about him. Therefore, we need to rely on folk songs and stories about Svarog, which are notoriously vague and difficult to decipher. Consequently, it is unsurprising that there are many myths and legends about this deity. While many gods in Slavic mythology exist, they should all acknowledge Svarog as their ultimate creator.
He has unfathomable power because he commands all the gods when he sleeps—keeping quiet lest we disturb his sleep. I’m crossing my fingers that he’s a deep sleeper, but you might want to tone it down and disable the alarm if he isn’t. An account of the birth of Svarog’s sons may be found within the Book of Kolyada’s narrative of the origin of the earthly realm, one of numerous such myths involving Svarog. According to the legend, a gigantic duck plucked a massive rock known as the Alatyr-stone from the deep ocean. The duck intended to keep the stone in its beak because of the powerful enchantment it contained. When Svarog discovered the duck, he whispered a sentence that made the stone too heavy for the duck to carry.
The boulder quickly grew into a mighty mountain. Then it became a repository for the lore of the gods (the Vedas) and an intermediary between the divine and mortal realms. As a result, Svarog decided that the stone must remain hidden from all men. Here, he tried using his hammer to break through the rock, but all he did was make sparks. From these embers arose the ratichi, or gods. Among them was the mighty God of fire, Semargl. As a result, the powerful winds increased, giving birth to Stribog, the deity of the wind.
Subsequently, the duck carrying the stone gave birth to a massive black snake. In a snake attack, the snake sent to destroy the stone attacked it, sending it crashing to the ground. Once the rock hit the ground, it became visible to the human race. Dark energies were born and spread like black sparks when the plunge hit the world. Now Semargl has begun fighting the snake and its army, but he was quickly overwhelmed, and the planet was soon plunged into darkness and overrun by the snake’s supporters. Semargl, having been defeated, ascended with the massive snake to the smithy in Heaven. Upon witnessing this, Svarog seized the snake by the tongue, domesticated it to plough all fields of the earth and sent its followers to the underworld.
After this triumphant event, a half-horse named Kitovras built a shrine around the stone, with the altar representing the spot where Svarog communicated with humans. According to Slavic mythology, it was here that Svarog first showed man how to prepare meals using cheese and milk curds, and the Slavs have since revered these ingredients as a divine gift. Since then, Svarog has occasionally been credited as the maker of the material universe because of this stone.
And Svarog had also made the heavenly blue region of Svarga, where the Slavic forefathers were thought to reside after they died. It is possible that Norse & Greek mythology each played a role in shaping one or both of these ideas. This clash of mythologies is not unheard of in other regions of Slavic myth, so it’s not entirely out of the question. The stars in the sky were viewed as the grandfathers’ eyes as they watched over the Slavic people from the Blue Svarga. Instead of using words or magic to bring forth physical reality, as Veles does, Svarog relies on his hands. He provided the Slavs with fire to keep warm and cook with and the Sun-Ra (sun), whose name eventually became the Slavic word for happiness. In addition to showering the Slavs with presents, he came down to earth to help plough the fields.
The first is an axe to defend their homeland; the second is a bowl for making holy liquids, and the third is a pair of tongs for forging weapons. His final and maybe most significant contribution was developing ground and a space-based time circle. With the story of Svarog and Dy, the Book on Kolyada makes its last substantial reference to Svarog.
While Svarog was enjoying his meal, three bloodied soldiers entered the hall, claiming they had already been attacked by Volt-giants of Dy, the God of the sky & thunder, led by his son, Churila. This infuriated Svarog, so he mustered the celestial army and headed for the Uralian kingdom of Dy. Svarog’s troops, upon arriving, defeated Dy’s warriors and imprisoned his royal folks beneath the mountains. Svarog & his sons then decided to celebrate their success by hosting a banquet in the castle of Dy.
In Slavic mythology, Dabog is credited with sustaining life on Earth. In addition to being the progenitor of the Slavic people, he was also their patron deity of the afterlife. Dabog was one of the most renowned gods in Slav myth due to his widespread mention in historical records and the subsequent proof of his adoration across all Slavic nations. Dabog was one of the eight statues constructed by King Vladimir in the vicinity of Kiev in 980, as mentioned for the first time in the Kievan Rus’ ‘Primary Chronicle.
Fire was the most important human resource throughout the winter, and Dabog patronised the home fireplace and the fire itself. The fire was beautiful and dangerous; it could lead a man to the abyss or burn down his home at any moment. Having a warm fire to come home to was essential to staying alive, and as a result, many traditions revolve around fire worship. Dabog also served as the rain god. Rain is often represented by the letter “da” in his name, so he goes by “Dadbog” in many different Slovenian dialects. The importance of rain was based on the fact that it was necessary for the crop. People engaged in various rituals to bring about the rainfall above.
The Slavs believed themselves to be direct ancestors of the gods and spoke to them on an equal footing. The Dabog’s grandchildren saw themselves as his biological offspring. Due to the low life expectancy of the time, it was uncommon for the son to have known his grandfather. One of Svarog’s sons is named Dabog. Dabog was almost certainly one of Svarog’s two sons, though exactly how it happened is unknown. Each day, Dabog died and went to the abyss, only to rise again the next morning to ride a white horse or a carriage into the sky. This exemplifies the recurrence of life and death that is central to many ancient religions and cultures, including Slavic paganism.
Dabog, or lame Daba as he was known in Serb tradition, was nearly always shown as an evil demon, which may attest to his demonic nature in the afterlife. The Serbs, including Dabog, were established as disabled older men wearing bear skin and stumbling after a wolf. Regarding animal reincarnation, the wolf is the symbol of choice. As his descendants, the Serbs have adopted the wolf as their sacred animal because it is the Dabog’s symbol. Dabog has indeed been demonized since the spread of Christianity. Over time, he became the most potent of the demons and the Christian God’s chief adversary. Potentially contributing factors include his attire of a dark bearskin and his resemblance to a disabled older man, including one eye. According to pagan mythology, he also spent considerable time in the underworld. However, the powerful Dabog cult may have been the root of the problem and needed to be eliminated at any cost. Later in Christianity, St. Sava adopted characteristics of Dabog; in folklore, he is portrayed as a shepherd who pursues the wolf.