"The Black God" is the god of night and darkness in Slavic mythology, and the waning year in opposition to Belobog, the White God of the waxing year.

It should be noted that the ancient Slavic religion, possibly influced by Persian or Zoroastrian sources, made wide use of dualism and therefore Crnobog might not necessarily be associated with evil in the typical sense. He is simply the opposite of Belobog, just as night opposes day, winter opposes summer, fire opposes water, and so on. As with other religions superseded by Christianity, the pagan gods tended to be painted in newer, more negative light, or at the very least had several key deities immediately re affixed to key Christian concepts (In the case of Crnobog, to 'Evil' or the Devil).

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
• Chernevog
• 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

• Rusalka, Chernevog and Yvgenie by C. J. Cherryh (as "Chernevog")
• 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")
• Chernobog, an alternate name for Satan and Kali used by worshippers in The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling

Crnobog in Movies

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

External link

• A sum of the legend of Belobog and Crnobog