Russian historic mythology
Feb. 21st, 2005 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaReported by Olearius between 1630-1654, as a urban story from Novgorod:
"The Novgorodians, when they were still pagans, had an idol called Perun, the god of fire (the Russians call a flame perun). At the place where the idol once stood, they built a monastery, which preserves the god's name, for it is called Perun Monastery. The idol was in the form of a man holding in his hands a flint that looked like a thunderbolt or an arrow. In honor of this god they burned oak wood day and night; if the attendant negligently allowed the flame to go out, he paid with his life. When the Novgorodians were baptized as Christians, they flung the idol into the Volkhov. It is said that the idol floated against the current; when it came to the bridge a voice said, "Novgorodians, here is something to remember me by," and immediately a cudgel was thrown up onto the bridge. The voice of Perun was heard afterward on certain days of the year, and then the inhabitants fled in panic and beat each other with sticks so cruelly that the voevoda was hard put to pacify them. According to a reliable witness, Baron von Heberstein, similar things occurred in his time, too. Nothing of the sort is heard of any more." (p. 93)
"The Novgorodians, when they were still pagans, had an idol called Perun, the god of fire (the Russians call a flame perun). At the place where the idol once stood, they built a monastery, which preserves the god's name, for it is called Perun Monastery. The idol was in the form of a man holding in his hands a flint that looked like a thunderbolt or an arrow. In honor of this god they burned oak wood day and night; if the attendant negligently allowed the flame to go out, he paid with his life. When the Novgorodians were baptized as Christians, they flung the idol into the Volkhov. It is said that the idol floated against the current; when it came to the bridge a voice said, "Novgorodians, here is something to remember me by," and immediately a cudgel was thrown up onto the bridge. The voice of Perun was heard afterward on certain days of the year, and then the inhabitants fled in panic and beat each other with sticks so cruelly that the voevoda was hard put to pacify them. According to a reliable witness, Baron von Heberstein, similar things occurred in his time, too. Nothing of the sort is heard of any more." (p. 93)
