As long as we’re toying with dark forces, koalaura just added some fantastic information to the Chernabog debate that we were talking about early yesterday morning: And yet, here I was, thinking he was a fairly important God due to his being a part of the dichotomy of light/dark; Chernabog/Chernobog (Black God) serving as one half while Byelbog (White God) serves as the other; Creation with destruction and life with death. I could, honestly, drone on and on about this all night, but, as a roleplayer that has (and still, when she remembers to, does,) roleplay(ed) Cherabog, I’ve actually typed up a wee page of information on him, based upon my own finds and the like, from my studies on world mythology and religion. The page is here. It needs to be improved upon, since it’s now been a year since it was written, but it does still get the point across, as to Bog’s true nature, I think. Although, I do desperately need to explain, on that page, what Walpurgis Nacht truly is. One day, soon, I’m sure. All things in good time.
View Separately

As long as we’re toying with dark forces, koalaura just added some fantastic information to the Chernabog debate that we were talking about early yesterday morning:

And yet, here I was, thinking he was a fairly important God due to his being a part of the dichotomy of light/dark; Chernabog/Chernobog (Black God) serving as one half while Byelbog (White God) serves as the other; Creation with destruction and life with death.

I could, honestly, drone on and on about this all night, but, as a roleplayer that has (and still, when she remembers to, does,) roleplay(ed) Cherabog, I’ve actually typed up a wee page of information on him, based upon my own finds and the like, from my studies on world mythology and religion. The page is here. It needs to be improved upon, since it’s now been a year since it was written, but it does still get the point across, as to Bog’s true nature, I think. Although, I do desperately need to explain, on that page, what Walpurgis Nacht truly is. One day, soon, I’m sure. All things in good time.

Source: disneygoesevil

More on Chernabog

I can’t believe I’ve never read up on Chernabog before…I guess I always thought it was just a made-up name.

The ”Fantasia Characters“ entry on Wikipedia is much more reverent to Chernabog as an evil entity than the Chernabog page I pointed out earlier (the Fantasia page is largely source-free, though, so take it with the appropriate grains of salt).

I loved PureImagineering’s take on what I’d pointed out earlier about Chernabog being, perhaps, not all that scary to the Slavics. It made me want to know more.

When Night On Bald Mountain was shown on The Wonderful World of Disney, Walt referred to Chernabog as “Satan Himself.” At the same time, check out this video, starting at the 2:59 mark (link takes you to that point in the video).

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Chernabog may or may not be evil, but he doesn’t hold a candle to the evil that is Michael Eisner, apparently.

I think both arguments have merit.

On one hand, as Pure Imagineering pointed out, Chernabog doesn’t really put his wings to use.

He stays in one spot, playing with his minions. He’s being mischievous — and when the light comes with the church bell, he retreats. Daylight comes. The spirits return to their graves. The minions climb back down to the last part of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Hell. Chernabog folds his wings and becomes part of the mountain…perhaps his mountain prison. The people come and sing Ave Maria, and everything is groovy again.

But Chernabog is also hurling minions into the fire. He’s using dead people and demons as his playthings. That’s pretty evil stuff. He’s certainly not someone I’d want to meet in a dark alley. Then the church bell rings and the people (are they carrying lights, or are those halos around their heads?) come and sing Ave Maria and banish him back to where he came from…sort of a musical rendition of “get the behind me Satan.”

One last bit of info…in early pencil tests, Chernabog was referred to as Yen Sid, a name that ultimately went to the powerful sorcerer to whom Mickey Mouse was apprentice. Perhaps the name was just a cool-sounding name picked to fill in as a replacement, as “Satan himself” doesn’t work too well for family audiences in 1940, and the Chernabog lore could be completely beside the point.

Either way, this was always (and remains) one of my favorite parts of Fantasia, and it’s interesting to watch it with the question of just how powerful Chernabog is or isn’t in my head.

Of course, I’ve been up all night and I could just be rambling. I should sleep (and brace myself for interesting Chernabog dreams). On the plus side, I’ve finally added Chernabog to my computer’s dictionary so that red squiggly line under it would stop showing up.

pureimagineering: thedisneyfiles: From Wikipedia (emphasis mine): Chernobog (Proto-Slavic *čĭrnŭ ”black” and *bogŭ ”god”) is a Slavic deity, meaning black god, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively. The only historical sources, which are Christian ones, interpret him as a dark, accursed god, but it is questionable how important (or evil) he was really considered to be by ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity. Poor Chernabog. He could probably really use a hug. C’mere, buddy! (No, YOU just spent a half hour badly superimposing Chernabog’s head over Mulan’s!) Whoa. This information could give “Night on Bald Mountain” a very different reading. What if Chernabog’s trapped? After all, he basically stays in bed throughout the short, despite that gargantuan set of wings at his disposal. Maybe he’s trapped, and rousing spirits is his only form of amusement. A small god’s equivalent of throwing a tennis ball against the wall of his prison cell. Who could imprison something like Chernabog? And why? Could we have sympathy for this devil? Reblogging again because you just blew my mind.
View Separately

pureimagineering:

thedisneyfiles:

From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

Chernobog (Proto-Slavic *čĭrnŭ ”black” and *bogŭ ”god”) is a Slavic deity, meaning black god, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively. The only historical sources, which are Christian ones, interpret him as a dark, accursed god, but it is questionable how important (or evil) he was really considered to be by ancient Slavs. The name is attested only among West Slavic tribes of the 12th century, hence it is speculated that he was not a very important or very old deity.

Poor Chernabog. He could probably really use a hug.

C’mere, buddy!

(No, YOU just spent a half hour badly superimposing Chernabog’s head over Mulan’s!)

Whoa. This information could give “Night on Bald Mountain” a very different reading.

What if Chernabog’s trapped? After all, he basically stays in bed throughout the short, despite that gargantuan set of wings at his disposal.

Maybe he’s trapped, and rousing spirits is his only form of amusement. A small god’s equivalent of throwing a tennis ball against the wall of his prison cell.

Who could imprison something like Chernabog? And why?

Could we have sympathy for this devil?

Reblogging again because you just blew my mind.

Source: disneygoesevil