Perun

The tale of Perun the Thunderer

Long before churches stood in the Slavic lands, the highest god was the one you heard before you saw him. Perun, the Thunderer, ruled the sky, the storm and the oak. He lived on the top of the world: on a mountain peak, or in the crown of the great world oak, where his eagle sat beside him and watched everything below.

Down at the roots of the same oak, in the wet, dark places by the water, lived his enemy. Veles was the god of cattle, of wealth, of the dead and of the underworld, and in the old stories he was a serpent or a dragon. Again and again Veles crept up the tree and stole what belonged to Perun: his cattle, his wife, sometimes his son.

The battle in the storm

So Perun went hunting. Every thunderstorm was that chase. Perun hurled his lightning, an axe or a stone or a fiery arrow, and Veles fled before it. He hid behind trees, under rocks, inside animals and even in people. Wherever he hid, the lightning struck. At last Perun found him, struck him down and drove him back into the water. Then the rain fell, the fields drank, and the world was fed again.

Scholars who rebuilt this myth from fragments see it as the oldest story of all: order against chaos, sky against underworld, and between them the rain that keeps people alive. Veles was never destroyed, only driven back. Next year the serpent would climb again, and the Thunderer would hunt him again.

The god of Kyiv

Perun was the chief god of the old Rus. In 980 Prince Vladimir of Kyiv raised his statue on a hill above the city: a wooden body with a head of silver and a moustache of gold. Eight years later Vladimir accepted Christianity and had the same statue dragged down the hill and thrown into the Dnieper. In folk belief Perun's thunder passed to the prophet Elijah, who still rides a fiery chariot across the summer sky.

Perun in Battle of Myths

Perun is the god of the Slavic pantheon, a cost 5 hero with two aspects. As the Thunderer (warrior and mage) he throws Thunder Axe at the farthest enemy: it bounces from foe to foe, dealing magic damage and stunning everything it hits. As Warden of the Oak (guardian and mystic) he raises the Sacred Oak, shielding himself and giving nearby allies armor and resist.

With the Slavic heroes he shares the Cycle of Morana: the first time he falls, he rises again as a spectral spirit.

Did you know?

• Perun has close relatives in other myths: Perkūnas of the Lithuanians and Latvians, and Thor of the Norse.
• The six-petalled "thunder mark" carved on old Slavic houses was meant to keep lightning away.
• Many places still carry his name, such as Perun's hills and springs across Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Russia.