A Pulitzer-nominated author and one of the great public intellectuals of Slavic culture bring
to life the unfamiliar myths and legends of the Slavic world. Slavic cultures are
far-ranging comprising of East Slavs (Russia Ukraine Belarus) West Slavs (Czech Republic
Slovakia Poland) and South Slavs (the countries of former Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria) yet they
are connected by tales of adventure and magic with deep roots in a common lore. In this first
collection of Slavic myths for an international readership Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapak
expertly weave together a retelling of the ancient stories with nuanced analysis that
illuminates their place at the heart of Slavic tradition. Though less familiar to us than
the legends of ancient Egypt Greece and Scandinavia in the world of Slavic mythology we find
much that we can recognize: petulant deities demons and faeries witches the sinister vestica
whose magic may harm or heal a supreme god who can summon storms and hurl thunderbolts. Gods
gather under the World Tree reminiscent of Norse mythology's Yggdrasill or after the coming
of Christianity congregate among the clouds. The vampire - usually the only Serbo-Croatian
word in any foreign-language dictionary - and the werewolf emerge from the shallow graves of
Slavic belief. In their careful analysis and sensitive reconstructions of the origin stories
Charney and Slapsak unearth the Slavic beliefs before their distortion first by Christian
chroniclers and then by 19th-century scholars seeking origin stories for their new-born nation
states. They reveal links not only to the neighbouring pantheons of Greece Rome Egypt and
Scandinavia but also the belief systems of indigenous peoples of Australia the Americas
Africa and Asia. In so doing they draw out the universalities that cut across cultures in the
stories we tell ourselves.
