Wendish Mythology

Wendish mythology
The Boginki (Polish for "Little Goddesses"; singular: boginka) are spirits in Polish
mythology. Traditionally, covens of old women would perform sacrifices and rituals for
the nymphs of the riverbanks. Boginki were said to steal babies from their human
parents that were replaced with Odmience the Changed Ones. These spirits are said to
be the original deities of life and predate the sky gods. They also appear to be
forerunners of the Rusalki.
Boalosc, also transliterated as Boaloshtsh or Bozaloshtsh is a messenger of death in
Wendish mythology (Wends[1], Lusatian Sorbs[2]).
The name was translated in German ethnographic sources as "Gottesklage"[3] i.e.,
"God's Lament").
A 1886 article Das Spreewaldhaus by W. v. Schulenburg associates it with the Elder
Bush and describes it as a woman dressed in white with long braided hair and red eyes:
[3]
Sambucus nigra; weil einst die Boalosc kam, die Gottesklage (die im Fliederstrauch
sitzt), ein Weibchen, weiss gekleidet, mit langem verwilderten Haar und rothen Augen,
als man H. brannte. Nach Hartknoch glaubten die Litthauer, unter Hollunderbumen
htten Gtter ihren Sitz,...
Biren Bonnerjea describes it as a little woman with long hair, who cries under the
window of someone who is about to die.[1]
A parallel creature is Boe sedleko, described as a crying child in white clothes. The
name is of unclear etymology (the apparent association with the word translated as
"seat" is unclear).[2]
Ipabog was a demigod in Wendish mythology. He was a famous hunter and a hero.
Ipabog (Slavic: Wendish) Probably god of the hunt. Depicted as a small figure with a
huge head, with a long, straight beard, prominent cheekbones. He wears a round helmet
with two horns and a formless gown which reaches down to the knees and is hung with
hunting implements.
According to a wendish legend Plusso or Blusso (a renowned wendish pagan) killed and
sacrificed Johannes Scotus, Bishop of Mecklenburg, to Radegast. Plusso delivered the
bishop's head on a stake in the Radegast temple at Rethra and danced with his wife
Guidda (sister to Gottschalk), celebrating the sacrifice. This act of bloodshed was done
November 10, 1066 during a pagan rebellion against Christianity.
Pscipolnitsa is a character of myth and tradition, common to much of Eastern Europe.
Referred to as Poludnica in Polish, ????????? (Poludnica) in Serbian, Polednice in
Czech, Poludnica in Slovak, ????????? (Poludnitsa) in Bulgarian, and ?????????
(Poludnitsa) in Russian, she is a noon demon in Slavic mythology. She can be referred
to in English as "Lady Midday". She was usually pictured as a young woman dressed in
white that roamed field bounds. She assailed folk working at noon causing heatstrokes
and aches in the neck. Sometimes she even caused madness.
Pscipolnitsa, who makes herself more evident in the middle of hot summer days, takes
the form of whirling dust clouds and carries a scythe or shears, but it's likely that the
shears would be of an older style, and not akin to modern scissors. She will stop people
in the field to ask them difficult questions or engage them in conversation. If anyone
fails to answer a question or tries to change the subject, she will cut off their head or
strike them with illness. She may appear as an old hag or beautiful woman, or a 12-yearold girl; and she was useful in scaring children away from valuable crops. She is only
seen on the hottest part of the day and is a personification of a sun-stroke.[1]
In Wendish mythology, Prezpoldnica (in Lower Sorbian, Pripoldnica in Upper Sorbian)
is known as Mittagsfrau ("Lady Midday") among German speakers of Eastern
Germanys Lusatia (Sorbian Luica, German Lausitz) and in the now only Germanspeaking parts of what used to be the larger region of Old Lusatia, whose capital used to
be Zhorjelc (German Grlitz, Polish Zgorzelec). Farther north and west in formerly
predominantly Slavic-speaking areas of Germany, especially in the state of Brandenburg
(Low Saxon Branneborg, Serbian Braniborska), a related mythological spirit appears to
be the Roggenmuhme (lady of the rye) that makes children disappear when they
search for flowers in among the tall grain plants on hot summer days. In the Altmark, it
is the Regenmhme with her heat that will abduct ill-behaved children, and in the
formerly Polabian-speaking heath region around Lunenburg (German Lneburg) in
Lower Saxony), the Low Saxon (Low German) name of this bugbear is Kornwief
(formerly spelled Kornwyf, meaning woman of the corn or lady of the grain plants).
[edit] References
^ Manfred Lurker (2004), The Routledge
Sadko (Russian: ?????) is a character of a Russian medieval epic (bylina), an
adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod.

Wendish Mythology

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