Dazhbog

The tale of Dazhbog

Dazhbog (also Dajbog or Daždbog) is the Slavic god of the sun, of light, warmth and plenty. His name means "the Giving God": dati is "to give", and bog is "god" but also "wealth" and "share". He gives without counting: the harvest, the light, the long summer evening.

He lives in a golden palace in the east, in a land of eternal summer. Every morning he steps into his chariot, pulled by white horses breathing fire (or in some tellings golden-maned horses, or a team of swans), and drives across the sky to his evening palace in the west. In winter he grows old and weak, and in spring he is young again. The two Zoryas, the dawn star and the evening star, open and close the gates of his palace for him.

Grandchildren of the sun

Dazhbog is one of the few Slavic gods whose name we know from the oldest chronicles. In 980 Prince Vladimir of Kyiv set up his statue on the hill above the city, beside those of Perun, Stribog and the others. And in the 12th-century epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign, the people of Rus are called "Dazhbog's grandchildren", as if the whole nation were the family of the sun.

Some later tales name him as the son of Svarog, the heavenly smith, and make him the father of the great family of gods. In others the moon is his wife or sister, and the stars are their children.

The sun that warms everyone

In the folk songs the sun is a kind and generous ruler. He comes as a guest to every house at midsummer, marries the moon, and in winter has to be helped across the darkest days by the songs and fires of the solstice. As the game's Dazhbog says: he does not choose whom to warm, and that is why they call him kind.

Dazhbog in Battle of Myths

Dazhbog is a cost 2 Slavic hunter and mystic. His ability, Sunbeam, burns his target with divine damage and, in the same beam, heals the most wounded ally. 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?

• In Serbian folklore Dabog is a darker figure, a lord of wolves and of the underworld, very different from the bright sun god of the Russian chronicles. Scholars still argue whether they were once the same god.
• The sun as a radiant wheel, the kolovrat, appears in old Slavic embroidery and carvings.