Be careful, because you never know where the old Slavic deities are lurking – a review of the book “Nawia. Shamans, whispers, demons “

I don’t know much about Slavic mythology, but I really like anthologies with stories written for a specific topic. I also have mainly good experiences with Polish fantasy writers, so I accepted Nawia’s announcement with great enthusiasm and great curiosity.

Eight faces of Nawia

The book contains eight texts by our native authors, and each of them in some way refers to Nawia – that is, depending on the interpretation, either the land of the dead ruled by Weles, or to the souls themselves. Although the whole collection is in my opinion very good and reflects the Slavic atmosphere in a fantastic way, I am able to choose three stories that somehow drew me more and stayed in my head after reading the book. They were Jagna Rolska ‘s Sz petucha , Martyna Raduchowska’s Death of Water and Marcin Podlewski’s Consultant .

My rewards go to …

Rolska embedded the mythological thread in contemporary realities in an interesting way. Whispers and beliefs associated with them are usually shown in old houses, in villages and with the entire envelope of passing on knowledge from generation to generation and in an extremely traditional environment. He’s a petuchtalks about the organization of a witch rally under the pretext of opening a new open-air museum in Kierzbudy, a tiny village in the buffer zone of the Biała Forest. What captivated me in this text is the wonderfully modern furnishings of the whisper’s house and the woven humorous accents, whether in dialogues or in descriptions of the situation. The story itself is quite ordinary: there is land, something needs to be done with it, and the old lady is so listened to that once twice she persuades the village administrator and the parish priest to build an open-air museum on it. However, he does not reveal that he has his own plans for this building. It is, in my opinion, the lightest text in this collection.

At Raduchowska’s, we meet with Ida – a shaman who has a case to be solved in Raduchów. The girl and her partner quickly discover that it is all to be blamed on the land development plans and what will happen to the water flowing on the site as a result. The story takes place nowadays – which is a big plus for me. The author not only located the events in an interesting way, but also carefully described the problem and its consequences, and also fantastically led us on the way to solving a difficult situation. I appreciate the idea and the inclusion of a fragment of the myth about Perun and Weles, which extended my knowledge of Slavic mythology.

The most surprising text, however , was the Consultant , who took us with a random girl directly to Niaea and told us to advise the gods who were fighting each other. Podlewski created an interesting story with an ending that was a surprise for me. While reading, I did not get bored, I got to know some new mythological characters, and additionally I got a new perspective on the Slavic language. A story that is also less dark than others in this book, and at the same time has a very fantastic and magical atmosphere.

Pleasant breath from other mythologies

Nawia is a good collection. Each of the texts contains an interesting plot and a perceptible atmosphere. I suspect that fans of myths from our region will be pleased, while novices like me may feel intrigued thanks to this publication. A separate plus for the publication, i.e. hardcover with nice graphics, reflecting the topic and biographies of each of the creators directly in front of their works.