Chernobog and Belobog

Kronborg,Crnobog, Czernobog or Zernebog (each name means Black God) is a mysterious Slavic deity of whom much has been speculated but little can be said. It is indicated he was a dark and cursed god, but it is questionable how important he really was to ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic tribes of the 12th century, henceforth it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity.

Sources

The only historic source on Slavic paganism mentioning this god is the 12th-century Chronica Slavorum, a work written by German priest Helmold which describes customs and beliefs of several Wendish and Polabian tribes who were at that time still resisting the growing pressure of Christianization. Helmold wrote that:

The Slavs, they say, have one peculiar custom: during feasts, they pass a goblet amongst them in circle, for purpose not to praise, but rather to curse in the names of gods, good and evil, for every good thing praising a good god, and for every bad thing cursing an evil god. This god of woe in their language is called Diabolous or Zherneboh, meaning black god.

It should be noted that this excerpt is more likely Helmold's own interpretation than an accurate description of Slavic customs and beliefs. Helmold, being a German and Christian priest, did not know the language of the Slavs, did not have first-hand information from Slavs themselves, and was probably not too interested in studying foreign pagan beliefs. Likewise, it is difficult to determine whether Crnobog was a separate god or just another epithet of some other deity. Veselin Čajkanović, for instance, theorised that Crnobog was another name for a dark, chthonic aspect of Dazhbog.

Folklore

A veneration of this deity perhaps survived in folklore of several Slavic nations. In some South Slavic vernaculars, there exists an interesting phrase do zla boga ("to [the] evil god," or "to [the] evil of God," which may denote ownership rather than some dark attribute), used as an attribute to express something which is exceedingly negative. No-one is really aware of the literal meaning of these words anymore; exclamations such as Ovo je do zla boga dosadno!, To je do zla boga glupo! can be safely translated as "This is incredibly boring!", "That is immensely stupid!" without any actual loss in meaning. The word Bog ("God"), however, in all Slavic languages today is used as personal name of the Christian God, who, of course, cannot be evil; thus, the expression zli bog, "evil god", must be a relic from pagan antiquity. If we assume that Crnobog indeed was an evil and dark god of the ancient Slavs (or perhaps merely an evil aspect of some other deity), we may conjecture this expression was an ancient curse invoking him.

In popular culture

For some reason, the idea of a sinister Black God seems to be very popular among general populace, and as such, Chernobog made appearance in various media:

Novels

• The "Russian series" of fantasy novels by C. J. Cherryh (as "Chernevog")
• He appears as a main character in American Gods by Neil Gaiman, (as "Czernobog")
• The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer (as "Chernobog")
• The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling (as "Tchernobog")

Film

As "Chernabog", he features in the "Night On Bald Mountain" sequence in Disney's Fantasia (1940).

Computer and video games

• "Tchernobog" is the final boss of Blood.
• "Czernobog" is the level 3 dark Fusion monster that Yuri Hyuga can fuse into and become in Shadow Hearts.
• The Fantasia depiction of Chernabog is one of the final bosses in Square Enix's videogame Kingdom Hearts.
• Chernobog is a boss in Digital Devil Saga 2, and a playable demon/random encounter in the loosely related "Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers". In both games, Chernobog brandishes a sword, and is a man shaped like an Enoki Mushroom (Enokitake), whose head is a skull that grows the mushroom cap on top. He is of course surrounded by dozens of smaller enoki mushrooms.