“At the Kazan Archaeological Congress of 1877, one scholar, although not an unconditional supporter of the Norman theory, expressed, among other things, two objections in his paper ‘On the nature of the power of our first princes’. The following circumstances allegedly speak against their native origin:
“In Kyiv Rus, there are no preserved folk legends about the divine origin of princes, as is found among other peoples.” (the scholar stated)
Legends about the divine origin of princes have not been preserved everywhere and among other peoples. And most importantly, where will we look for the preservation of such legends in Rus’? They, of course, could only belong to the pagan period.
Most likely, such a legend could have been preserved in poetic works imbued with a pagan worldview. And it really was preserved. The Tale of Igor’s Campaign directly calls the Rus’ princes the descendants (grandchildren) of Dazhdbog. The poet, of course, did not come up with such a genealogy himself, but took it from folk ethnic tales.” (Dmitry Ilovaysky (1832 – 1920), an anti-Normanist conservative Russian historian who penned a number of standard history textbooks.)
Two places in the epic where Daszbog is mentioned:
Then, under Oleg, child of Malglory, sown were and sprouted discords; perished the livelihood of Dazhbog’s grandson among princely feuds…
For now, brothers, a cheerless tide has set in; now the wild has covered the strong; Wrong has risen among the forces of Dazhbog’s grandson; in the guise of a maiden [Wrong] has stepped into Troyan’s land; she clapped her swan wings on the blue sea by the Don…
(Feuds, discords among the Rus’ rulers turned into an invasion by the Polovtsians, whose totem was the swan.)
Per Wikipedia, Dadzbóg, was one of the major gods of Slavic mythology, most likely a solar deity and possibly a cultural hero. He is one of several authentic Slavic gods, mentioned by a number of medieval manuscripts, and one of the few Slavic gods for which evidence of worship can be found in all Slavic tribes.
The Proto-Slavic reconstruction is *dadjьbogъ, and is composed of *dadjь, imperative of the verb *dati “to give”, and the noun *bogъ “god”. The original meaning of Dazhbog would thus, according to Dubenskij, Ognovskij, and Niederle, be “giving god”, “god-giver, “god-donor”.
Two conclusions can be drawn from the information above:
First, first Kyiv Rus rulers were considered divine and their power sacral because of their descent from a God. They were Kings and Queens of the highest grade, not just descendants of some obscure Scandinavian ruler (Rurik), as Muscovy tries to represent them.
Second, the very fact that they were the descendants of a Slavic God, proves one extra time that Kyiv Rus was created by the Slavic elite, and not a Scandinavian one >
The title image is a drawing of a fresco on the walls of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. It is most likely a portrayal of a Christian angel, but other frescos in the same Cathedral such as the Griffin below, leave a chance that some other frescos may represent some combination of pagan and Christian deities. Like a medallion of a Kyiv ruler mentioned in the ‘Gardariki, Ukraine’ ebook.
