We praise Svarog, Grandfather of Gods who is to whole Gods' kin forefather and Creator of everything
living, eternal spring that flows in the summer and everywhere and in
winter and never it freezes...
( From the Book of Veles Plank 11/a)
Svarog is the God Creator.
Great god of blacksmithing, law and fire.
The origin of Svarog’s name can
be traced to the language of Indo-European people, that is to say
Sanskrit. Although an exact link has yet to established, some theories
suggest the name comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Svarga’ meaning the sky
or heaven. Another theory suggests Svarog’s name came from the
Indo-Aryan word ‘svar’ meaning the sun, although this theory is
discounted by some as the Slavs had possessed a different word for the
sun at the time.
As of this writing, the details of Svarog are few. There is some
Svarog
had fathered Dazhbog as well as several other gods, these being Perun,
Svarozivic, Stribog, Semargl, and Radogost. It is generally believed
that Dazhbog and Svarozivic are the same god, as the book of Kolyada
mentions Dazhbog’s birth during the striking of the Alatyr-stone, but
Svarozivic, who has been attributed to nearly the same aspects as
Dazhbog was not mentioned.
The birth of Svarog’s sons is
described in the Book of Kolyada’s myth of the creation of the mortal
world, one of several myths involving Svarog. The myth states that a
great rock, the Alatyr-stone, was brought from the depths of the ocean
by a great duck. The rock possessed great magical powers and for this
the duck had wanted to hide the stone in it’s beak. Upon finding the
duck, Svarog uttered a phrase which caused the stone to grow in size and
eventually become too large for the bird to carry.
Soon the stone had become a
great mountain and later a center of knowledge of the tales of the gods
(vedas) and a mediator between god and man. But upon seeing this, Svarog
had decided that no man must know of the stone. With this, he struck
the stone with his hammer, but he was only successful in creating
sparks. With these sparks, the ratichi (celestial warriors, that is to
say gods) were born, this included Semargl, the great god of fire.
Because of this, the mighty winds rose, thus creating Stribog, the god
of the wind.
After this, the duck who had
previously carried the stone conceived a great black snake. The snake,
sent to end the stone, crept up to it and struck it to the ground. the
stone fell from the heavens and eventually came to be in the land of the
mortals (The exact spot was said to be Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus
mountains).
The impact of the drop had sent
black sparks across the world, with this the dark forces of the world
were born. Now Semargl had begun to fight with the snake and it’s
troops, but he was outmatched and soon the sun had been blotted out by
the snake and the world had been overrun by it’s minions. Defeated,
Semargl ascended to the heavenly smithy, followed closely by the great
snake. Seeing this, Svarog grabbed the snake’s tongue and tamed it so
that it may plow the fields of the earth, whilst sending it’s minions to
the underworld.
following this great victory, a
half-horse by the name of Kitovras (Known to the Greeks as Chiron)
constructed a temple around the stone with the most sacred area in the
temple, an altar, being the place where Svarog spoke with man. The myth
mentions it was here where Svarog taught man how to make food with milk
and cheese curds, which is why the Slavs considered such a meal was a
gift from the gods. Since then, this stone has been sometimes attributed
to Svarog and in this way he is seen as the creator of the mortal
world.
Meanwhile, Svarog had also
created the blue Svarga, a land in the heavens where it was said the
acnestors of the Slavs would live after death (which is contradictory
considering the fact another myth states the souls of the dead would go
to the land of Nav, an underworld of sorts. It is a possibility that
these two concepts were influenced by separate mythologies, that is to
say the Norse and Greek ones, respectively. It is not unlikely, as this
conflict of mythologies had been seen before in other parts of Slavic
mythology). It was believed the stars of the night sky were the eyes of
the grandfathers, who look down from the Blue Svarga upon the Slavic
people’s earthly affairs.
Svarog, unlike Veles, does not
create the material world with words or magic, but rather his hands. He
cared about the Slavs, giving them fire for the cold and to cook food as
well as the Sun-Ra (sun) which later became the word for joy (Radost).
He also came to the earth to plow the fields and gave the Slavs several
gifts. The first, an axe of which to defend their native lands from
enemies and the second being a bowl to prepare sacred drinks and the
third being tongs of which to create forged weaponry. Finally, his last
and possibly most important contribution was the creation of the two
circles of time, one of the ground and one of space.
Most commonly, Svarog was
thought to be part of the trinity of creator gods, Triglav, among
Dazhbog and Perun. Although besides this, the way in which Svarog was
honored by the Slavs is not known, nor are any other details on his
appearance or personality.
As Christianity began to take
hold in Eastern Europe, the idea of Svarog was replaced by Saint Damian,
Saint Cosmas and Michael the Archangel. Although paganism was being
replaced by Christianity, many were reluctant to give up their old
traditions which is why so many attributes of the pagan gods were given
to Biblical characters or saints.
