Literacy arrived in these lands right along with Christianity (Moravia in 863, Bulgaria in 885, Poland in 966, and Russia in 988). Because of this, the best descriptions of Slavic idols and temples come from their Christian destroyers, such as bishop Otto of Bamburg and bishop Thietmar of Meresburg. Temples are often found at the highest point of a hill-fort. Typical offerings included acorns, grains, clay imitations of grains and bread, miniature and normal-sized pots & iron ornaments. As with many other Indo-European offshoots, Slavs believed in an afterlife (burial sites included implements and creature comforts to make their afterlife better).

Christianity would have come to these lands much slower were it not for Constantius (later to become St Cyril) and Methodius (his brother). These two missionaries arrived in Moravia in 863 and had soon organized a national church, with services given in Slavic. They translated the Bible and other ecclesiastical texts into the Slavic spoken in Moravia. Since there was no written Slavic language, it had to be done phonetically using Greek, Samaritan, and oriental letters. This Bible found its way into almost all Slavic lands and its characters became the Glagolithic alphabet or Old Church Slavonic. This alphabet spread across the Slavic lands and is still used today in Greek Orthodox Slavic countries.

I will discuss the many entities in the pantheon in subsequent posts.