Chernobog
"The Black God" is the god of evil and darkness in Slavic mythology, and the waning year in opposition to Belobog, the White God of the waxing year.
He is also known as the God of Chaos and Night and as the Black God of the Dead, ruler of Nav, son of Zmey, husband of Morena. He is strongly associated with Koschey as one of his incarnations or just an epithet (Black God Koschey). Calling Koschey by name was bad luck, thus only the epithet was left.
The name is spelled variously according to the specific Slavic language:
- Crnobog: South Slavic Crno "black" and Bog "god", pronounced Tser-nah-bog, can rhyme with There-are-not
- Chernobog: in Latin characters, transliterated from Cyrillic
- Czarnobóg: in Polish, pr. char-NOH-book
- Czernobuh
- Zcernoboch
Crnobog is one of the sources of inspiration for Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", where he is portrayed as the Black God of evil, woe, and grief.
According to some scholars, he might be derived from the Christian Satan, adopted by the Slavs.
Crnobog in Novels
