Customer Reviews

Tales from Slavic Myths

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"Cultural worship of Gods was an inextricable part of everyday life for the ancient Slavs. The ancient Slavic mind was open to nature and the material manifestations of weather..." With these introductory remarks from Tales from Slavic Myths, welcome to the world of ancient mythology---Slavic style. Edith Hamilton may not have touched on most of the Slavic gods featured in this book but, nonetheless, these Slavic myths deserve a rightful place in the canon of ancient mythology. These tales, penned by Ivan Hudec, former Minister of Culture, are presented along with 97 original color illustrations by Dr. Karol Ondreicka. This beautiful hardbound book may be a bit pricey (and is thus understandably published in a limited edition) but worth every cent of its price tag. These ancient tales are retold in a larger-print, easy-to-read style; however, it would behoove the reader unfamiliar with mythology to read the latter section of the book first where some introductory info can be found. The book unfortunately lacks a formal introduction, but does have an extensive afterword by Dusan Caplovic (of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) who provides a lot of detail about the cradleland origins and evolution of Christianity in the Slavic lands. There are also maps and legends of ancient Slavic pagan sites; a detailed bibliography and a very helpful and interesting "Slavic pantheon of mythological divinities." Throughout the text, side bars of background information help fill in the gaps, too. Indeed, "...the spiritual world and imagery of the Early Slavs was fabulously rich" and anyone interested in early Slavic history needs to know these tales. Even contemporary readers of Slavic literature will run across an occasional mention to one of these mythological figures (Czech author Jachym Topol mentions "Baba Yaga" in his recent novel, CitySisterSilver). So curl up one chilly evening, turn off the TV and lose yourself in the wild/magical world of Slavic mythology!

When I first received the book, I was a little disappointed. For an expensive book, it's very thin and has large print, which makes it look like a children's book.
However, the artwork is absolutely beautiful! Most of the myths in it are ones that I haven't read anywhere else. It also divides the myths into seperate eras - ex The Stone Age, The Iron Age, etc.

Well, it isn't actually my baby, really, but I thought that sounded really spiffy and was likely to catch the reader's eye. This book is gorgeous; I was positively floored by it. For those detractors who complain about the huge typeface and the scant content, may I point out that [a] the typeface isn't quite that huge--certainly not big enough to warrant the comparison to a children's book--and [b] the copious (not to mention, extremely helpful) marginal notes add the equivalent of, perhaps, another fifty pages. The material is extremely well organized and--insofar as I was thitherto wholly ignorant of Slavic mythic archetypes--utterly absorbing. One wonders why the table of contents succeeds (rather than precedes) the first page of the first chapter, but I divagate. The professors who collaborated on this opus did a slam-bang job of opening a secret world unto the ignorant Western European (or his American kith) and for that I heartily thank them.

This is a gorgeous volume and a delight to read, no doubt about it. The stories and mythological characters are vibrant, interesting and excitingly depicted, and the western Slavic slant on the subject is a really nice addition to the mostly eastern-skewed material available in English. It's not only a wealth of interesting cultural and mythic information, it's also a joy to read on its own, and Ondreicka's illustrations are lovely, atmospheric and perfectly complement the material.

In fact, this book is so great that I wish I could love it more unreservedly, but it suffers from a critical failure to cite its sources. While the bibliography in the back is extensive, many things in the book - the stories themselves, the specific character of the deities, etc. - are as far as I can tell unique to it, being unmentioned in any other work on the subject (of which there aren't too many, sadly). Their author, Hudec, is a professor, native Slovakian and one-time Minister of Culture for the area, so his credentials aren't in question, but some explanation of where the narrative is coming from - untranslated sources not available to English-speakers? oral traditions? - would be extremely welcome for a student of Slavic myth.

There are a few other small wrinkles - in particular, there are a few places where it's obvious that the text has been translated just a little bit clumsily - but all in all it's a wonderful volume. I just wish its authors had provided more background for the academically inclined.