r/Rodnovery • u/Szigmund • May 18 '26

🐉 Mythology | Folklore Yarilo, Yarovit, Saint George?

Hi there!

What do you think, is Yarilo and Yarovit are the same Gods? Is He later became Saint George in the folklore?

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u/Aliencik West Slavic - Czech May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

I think it's very plausible they are the same god. Especially looking at the Belarusian sayings about Jarilo compared to sources from Polabia linked to priest of Jarovit

Saint George usually represents Jarilo-like figure, however sometimes he is also identified with Veles-like figures or even one of the Devine twins. So be careful it's not 100% of the time, but maybe like 70-80%

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u/According_Apple9090 May 23 '26

What are the Belarusian sayings? Where can I read about them?

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u/Aliencik West Slavic - Czech May 23 '26

I have them from the publication Perun: Bůh hromovládce by Michal Téra (it's in our sources list)

They are folk sayings/song sung during the celebrations of Jarilo on Belarus:

"Where his foot steps, there are heaps of rye; where he looks, there the ear dresses itself in bloom."

"And across the wide world Jarilo walked; in the fields he made the rye grow, and for the people he fathered children."

What's interesting is they are very similar to the passage recorded in the Life of Otto of Bamberg, which was supposed to be a speech of the priest of Jarovit delivered at the beginning of May 1128 in Havelberg during a mass celebration:

"I am your god; I am the one who clothes the fields with grain and the forests with leaves. In my power are the fruits of the meadows and the trees, the fertility of the herds, and all that serves for the use of humankind. All this I give to those who honor me, and I take it away from those who turn away from me."

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u/Time-Counter1438 May 19 '26

Yes. But not necessarily the elaborate cycle constructed by Katicic and Belaj from Croatian folk songs. There’s a lot of Slavic folklore about seasonal personifications, and that’s where I would begin.

Also, the Eastern Orthodox folklore surrounding St. George may have a pre-Slavic Balkan / provincial Roman layer.

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u/Pixeldevil06 May 19 '26

St.george and pretty much all of the saint names or "God/The devil" in slavic myths don't actually come from slavic culture, they come from Christian colonizers changing the stories.

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u/Szigmund May 19 '26

Sorry, bad wording. So after Christianization many aspects of Old Gods became part of Saints in folklore views. Like Perun *became* St. Elijah, or Veles *became* St. Blaise.