Radegast orRadogost is, according to medieval chroniclers, thegod of thePolabian Slavs, whose temple was located inRethra. In modern academic literature, however, the dominant view is thatRadegast is a local nickname or a local alternative name of the solar godSvarozhits, who, according to earlier sources, was the chief god of Rethra. Some researchers also believe that the name of the town, where Svarozhits was the main deity, was mistakenly taken for atheonym. A popular local legend in theCzech Republic is related to Radegast.
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The first source mentioning this theonym is theGesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum byAdam of Bremen:
The elderlyBishop John, captured with other Christians in the city ofMecklenburg, was kept alive to be exhibited in triumph. And consequently, lashed with whips for having confessed toChrist, he was then paraded in each of the cities of the Slavs to be mocked, as he could not be forced to renounce the name of Christ, his hands and feet were cut off and his body was thrown into the street, but not before removing his head, which the pagans stuck on a pike and offered to their god Radegast as proof of victory. These events occurred inRethra, the capital of the Slavs, the fourth day before the ides of November.[1]
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Among them, situated in the middle, are the extremely powerfulRedarii, whose famous capital is Rethra, a seat of idolatry. There is a large temple built there, dedicated to the demons, whose prince is Radogost. His statue is made of gold, his baldachin bedecked with purple.[2]
Following Adam,[3] Radegast is also mentioned byHelmold in hisChronicle of the Slavs, who writes about making annual sacrifices to him and using an oracle associated with his temple,[4] he also calls him "the god of theObodrites".[5] It is also mentioned in theAnnales Augustani of 1135, which tells of the destruction of Rethra byBurchard II,Bishop of Halberstadt, who took the local "horse worshipped as a god" on which he returned toSaxony.[6] The last source mentioning Radegast is thePassion of the Martyrs of Ebstorf.[7]
InLatin sources, this name is noted asRedigost,Redigast,Riedegost,Radegast.[8] Today, the name Radegast is predominantly used in English,[9][10][11] but in several Slavic countries like Poland and Russia, the prevailing notation isRadogost.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
The first part of the name contains the adjectiverad ("glad"), of uncertain further etymology, and the second part contains the noungost ("guest"),[12][19][20] fromProto-Indo-European*gʰostis (cf.Gothicgasts "guest",Latin:hostis "stranger"),[21][22][23] and the name can be translated as "one who is ready to welcome a guest" or "the one who takes good care of guests".[24] The name is ultimately derived from the Proto-Slavic given name*Radogostъ,[25][26][a] cf.Croatian:Radogost,[19]Old PolishRadogost,Radgost,Radogosta,Radosta,[27][28]Old SloveneRadegost,[19] probably attested as early as the 6th century in a Greek source mentioning a Slavic tribal chief namedArdagast (Ancient Greek:Αρδάγαστος; form before probablemetathesis).[19][26] This name, expanded by thepossessive suffix*-jь (*Radogostjь),[29][19] formed manytoponyms throughout Slavdom, cf. Polish villagesRadogoszcz, Czech mountainRadhošť, Serbo-Croatian toponymRadogošta, RussianRadogoshch, and RussianhydronymsRadohoshcha andRadogoshch[29][19] and others,[19][26] as well as the town ofRadogošč,[26] which belonged to theRedarii tribe.[30]
Thietmar, in hisChronicle (written around 1018 r.[31]) states thatSvarozhits (recognized as asolar deity[32]) was the most worshiped god in Polabian Radogošč. The same town, however mentioned under the name ofRethra (Latin:Rethre), is also described about 50 years later byAdam of Bremen, who recognizesRedigast as the chief god of this city.[33][34][12][18] As a result,[12] it is generally believed thatRadegast is another name for the Polabian Svarozhits,[18][b] or thatRadegast is a localsobriquet for Svarozhits.[20][c] He is often mentioned asRad(o)gost-Svarozhits,[41][42][43] orSvarozhits/Radogost.[24][37]
Some scholars, however, recognize that the name of the city was mistakenly assumed to be the chief deity of the city.[44][35][18] Nikolay Zubov first points out that primary sources nowhere equate Svarozhits and Radegast. Moreover, the stem-rad appears in almost 150anthroponyms, which makes this stem one of the most popular elements of names; the stem-gost is also a very popular component, which naturally results in the existence of names likeRadegast orGostirad. He also indicates that the Slavs originally did not give children divine names (as happened inancient Greece), so the recognition ofRadegast as a theonym would require the assumption of an exceptional situation.[18]Aleksander Brückner also claimed that Adam made many mistakes.[45]
There were also attempts to combine the nameRadegast with the name of theGothic chiefRadagaisus, but nameRadagaisus has its ownGothic etymology.[d] 18th-century authors, Karl Gottlob Anton andAnton Tomaž Linhart, regarded Radegast as "the god of joy or the generous happy foreigner,"[24] but the view of Radegast as an independent deity is considered unlikely.[47] It is also unlikely that Radegast was a pseudo-deity.[47] Some scholars have also suggested that the city was named after a deity, rather than the other way around.[23][17] According toGerard Labuda, the LatinRiedegost refers to an area surrounded by forest. He suggests reading the second segment asgozd "forest" and the whole name as "Forest of theRedarians", or also reading the first segment asredny "muddy, marshy" and the whole name as "Marshy, muddy forest".[48]
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In the second half of the 19th century, so-calledPrillwitz idols, which were supposed to depict Slavic deities, became popular. Nowadays, this find is considered an 18th centuryforgery.[49][50][51] One of the statues is said to represent Radegast, and on the statue the name of the god is written usingrunes.[52]
Radegast is also found[53] in theglosses falsified byVáclav Hanka in the 19th century in the Czech-Latin dictionaryMater Verborum.[54]
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In the Czech Republic, there is a local legend associated withSaints Cyril and Methodius, according to which Radegast was worshipped onRadhošť. According to this legend, Cyril and Methodius decided to go on aChristianizing mission to the mountain. They set out to Radhošť fromVelehrad throughZašová, where they baptized people. When they were approaching the mountain, they heard sounds of musical instruments and singing from the distance. When they reached the mountain, they saw pagan rituals led byprince Radoch. When the prince heard about the newcomers who were belittling the pagan gods, he began to rebuke Cyril and wanted to use force against him. At this point a glow appeared around the cross held by Cyril, who began to speak of the "one true god" and the pagan gods as "an invention of hell". Then there was a noise and thunder and all the statues of the gods broke into a thousand pieces. Later, on the spot where the magnificent temple andidol of Radegast had stood, the saints erected across.[55]
This legend is often found in publications about the mountain and, although the tale has been debunked many times, it often appeared, for example, in folklore. The legend first appears in 1710 inSacra Moraviae historia sive Vita S. Cyrilli et Methodii by parish priest Jan Jiří Středovský. In the chapter dedicated to the name of the mountain and its origin, he refers to the testimony of a priest, according to whom a legend circulated among the people about a god of the same name, who stood on the top of the mountain and was overthrown by missionaries. On this basis, Středovský created a colourful story about a crowd of worshippers and pagan rituals on the mountain. There is also noarchaeological orhistoriographical evidence that the heavily forested area on the mountain was inhabited in the past.[56]
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