Not just a 'tender of beasts' : Radagast's connection to Slavic Mythology

[THE Ka]

Wonderful connections! I'm really surpriced people would actually add to the thread...


I'm going to see if there is any more information in Slavic mythology about Radagast. I hope I find some more that can help, though there is a dreadfully low amount of information about Slavic myth...


~ Research Ka

I live in the Beskydy mountains and have often wondered if Tolkien knew about Radegast. There is little info on ancient Slavic folklore, even in Czech, around here, sadly.

Encaitare's post makes me think the connection is coincidental...but even with the Old English connection, it seems like Tolkien could've been aware of it, being such a follower of folklore.

Dum, the dwarvish word for Mansion, apparently(Khazad-Dum, Mansion of the Dwarves) is the Czech word for "house" or "home". I doubt if that is coincidental and if not, he must've had some familiarity with Slavic things.

Although it's not strictly "on subject" I would be very interested indeed in any info you dug up on Radegast and Slavic myths.

[Galadriel55]

Ooooo, why did I not see this thread earlier? I love mythologies!

Radegast/Radigost is not as well-known as other Slavonic gods, and it's very difficult to find any good sources on Slavonic mythology in general because much of it was destroyed early on in history. But here is what I can say about Radegast on behalf of Russia:

Firstly, as was mentioned above, his name can be dissected into rad+gost' - "joy"+"guest". This would imply a welcome for travelers and etc.

However, apparently his name once was Rizvoditz, which to me kind of sounds like "splitter", "separater" (from razvod). According to the source, his name represents quarrel, strife. This source also says that his later name, Radegast, is derived from "ratniy gost'" - Warrior guest, and that overall he is both the god of war and the protector of peaceful guests.

Yet other sources say that Radegast stands for "guests of councils", "head of councils". I do not see a resemblance in any of the names that these sources give, but they just might be too Western Slavonic for me to analyze with certainty.

And yet others describe him as the god that judges deceased souls. Go figure.



So how much of this is can be related to Radagast? Not that much. And while I don't think Tolkien drew that much from Slavonic sources, Radegast is a very Western Slavonic god, and his "cult" was geographically close to modern day Germany, so it is very possible that Germanic languages preserve some reference to him.

[jallanite]

I likewise did not find much about the Slavic god Radagast in the essay “Obscure Languages” in my Introduction to Elvish, on page 175. What I wrote was only:

Early chroniclers speak of a Slavic god named Radegást ( Радега́ст ). His temple was at Rethra (earlier Radogoszsz) made of wood, and rested on animal horns. Its outside was covered with figures of the gods. Within were kept special insignia and a stabled horse. Some believe that the reference is to a different god altogether and that the name of the town has been erroneously applied to the god.

I no longer know the source of this information other than that I consulted more than a single book.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radegast_%28god%29 for further information about this god, of which little is known.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

There is indeed very little known about Radegast. I have been doing a lot of research on that, because it's sort of my area of expertise, but there isn't really much to add besides what's been said here already. The connection between the god and the Wizard is a connection every person in my home country makes when they read about Radagast in the Hobbit/LotR, because his statue and former sacred spot on Mt. Radhošť is one of the sort of classic Czech historical/cultural spots (it's anyway the only known "real" Radegast-cult place, as far as I know). Radegast was probably manifested in different ways in different places, his cult is traceable into a few randomly isolated places in today western Russia, Czech Republic, and the Baltic countries.

The Czech version of Radegast, what we know of - mostly only from writings of Christian monks, much later than the cult itself actually bloomed, so the information again may be very much distorted or most of it not remembered anymore - is that he was supposed to have something to do with sun, harvest; possibly he was a solar deity. Or that is one theory.

The etymology G55 mentioned, with the meaning "council-guest" would actually be plausible in the Western Slavonic context, from rada (council) + host (guest), but it is a very, let's say, "fringe" interpretation. Also not certain why would the name of the god come from that in the first place.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

The Czech version of Radegast, what we know of - mostly only from writings of Christian monks, much later than the cult itself actually bloomed, so the information again may be very much distorted or most of it not remembered anymore - is that he was supposed to have something to do with sun, harvest; possibly he was a solar deity. Or that is one theory.

The whole Slavic "cult" is based on the sun. All the "major" gods are directly connected to it, and quite many of the minor gods have something to do with it. But the whole major/minor thing depends on the geographic location. Since Radegast was more prominent in the West, I would not be surprised if there was more emphasis on his connection to the sun.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

The etymology G55 mentioned, with the meaning "council-guest" would actually be plausible in the Western Slavonic context, from rada (council) + host (guest), but it is a very, let's say, "fringe" interpretation. Also not certain why would the name of the god come from that in the first place.

The source said that he was an invisible guest at all councils. His presense somehow affected the outcome, I suppose.

[Inziladun]

My knowledge of Slavic mythology is roughly equal to my ability to estimate the distance between earth and the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto: pretty much nil.

However, Radagast the Brown's Valinorean name was Aiwendil, said to mean "lover of birds", so maybe his Mannish name was a simple counterpart, with no ulterior symbolism by Tolkien. I think it comes down to the question of which came first, the names or the character.