PERUN - God of Thunder

Perun is the Slavic god of thunder and the sky. He should not be confused with Svarog, who is also a god of the sky because Svarog is the god of the universe, and Perun belongs to the lower sky, which could be interpreted as the atmosphere. 

He is one of the most powerful Slavic gods. He represents the destroyer because he is the god of bad weather and natural disasters. Perun is a member of the biggest and the most powerful Slavic trinity (Triglav) together with Svarog and Svetovid . In many places, Perun is mentioned as Svarog's and Veles's brother.

Perun also represents the punisher of perjury, as well as the punisher of evil in general. Perun punishes the evil and disobedient by closing the heavenly door to them. He punishes for perjury during the life of the perjurer and uses lightnings in the process of punishing. In many written documents from the early Middle Ages (Nestor's Chronicle, Sbornik Paisijev (Paisije's Anthology), Sofyskij Sobor), and even in peace contracts can be seen that the Slavs swore to obey Perun himself and he was supposed to punish and curse any man who would break the contract. Perun was most often mentioned and frequently satanised in the Christian notes from the early middle ages. This shows us that the cult of Perun was deeply implanted in the Slavs. Their dedication to Perun can also be seen in the fact that many geographical places and plants bear his name (Perun's peak, and Perun's coast in Russia, Perunja ves in Slovenia, mountain Perin in Bulgaria, perunika is iris germanica, etc.). Even today there are sayings and curses with Perun's name in some Slavic languages. 'Go to hell' is 'do Paroma' in Slovakian, where Parom represents Perun. The word 'thunder' is 'piorun' in Polish. The Baltic Slavs called 'Thursday' – 'perendan'.

The name Perun is made from the suffix -un, or -unj (-унь) which signifies the doer of an action, and the root 'per' which means to hit, to break, to smash. Thus Perun indicates a hitter, a breaker, a smasher, a thunderer, and also a deity – the destroyer, the demolisher. This was the reason why natural disasters were attributed to him.

Legends tell us that thunders are heard because of the clattering of the wheels while Perun is riding in his coach in the sky. On statues, Perun was portreyed as a strong man with a beard. Parts of his clothes tell us that he is a warrior in his armour. There are some notions of Perun with a stone sledgehammer in his hand, which he throws at people and petrifies them. There are also notions of him with a bow, which used to be identified with a rainbow, and when he used it, the arrows would turn into lightnings.

Perun was also associated with fire and fiery animals. Perun's animal was a fiery rooster, which is a sort of Slavic Fenix. His beings were also dragons. Rites related to fire were connected with Perun. Next to the idol the eternal fire was burning, which should not be extinguished in any case because, otherwise, all the servants in the temple would be hurt. Perun was also a fighter against droughts. According to one theory, he had an influence on the rain.

As far as plants are concerned, the Perun's plant was an Oak tree. Even today, the Serbs call a kind of an oak tree 'grm', which originates in the word 'grmeti', which means 'to thunder'. It is thus obvious that grm was dedicated to thunder, i.e. Perun. Of the other plants there are iris, sage, nettle, apple, and houseleek. The animals which symbolised him are a he-chamois, and a European bison. When they did not have temples, the Slavs prayed to Perun in groves, at sacrificial altars, and under oak trees.

After the arrival of Christianity, the role of Perun was taken over by St. Elijah. Perun, as well as the stories about him remained in the folk tradition, but some of them took the form of St Elijah stories, and the others had to change the name of the main character. The Church satanised Perun, probably because of his strong cult and strong influence on people's lives.