To browse Academia. This three-volume series, Demons, Spirits, Witches is the result of an interdisciplinary conference that was held in Budapest in Its fortythree papers collectively explore "the relationship, coexistence and conflicts of popular belief systems, Judeo-Christian mythology and [learned-SK] demonology in medieval, modern, and contemporary Europe" p. The articles vary considerably in methodology but they also complement each other, turning the series-like the conference upon which it is based-into a meeting point of ethnographers, historians, art and literary scholars, anthropologists, and students of religion.
Like the series, my review will follow a three-part structure and address only a selection of articles from each volume. The article attempts to give a full picture of the characters creatures of Slavic demonological system. Nowadays there are 12 individual mythological traditions and some areal polessian, carpathian, northrussian, kashubian, ruthenian , covering vast territories of Eastern, Central and Southern Europe and part of Asia.
There is a genetic affinity, conceptual and typological unity of these traditions. In general the traditional way of describing mythological characters is used — by the place of habititat the forest, water, air demons etc.
Much attention has been paid to the names of the demons spirits and mythological phraseology, because, as one of the ethnolinguistic postulates goes, the language reflects the inner form of the character and the mode of thinking of the nation, reveals the genesis of the character etc. The article deals with the subject of popular demonology as a space of symbolic contact between Jewish culture and the largely Slavic surrounding culture s in the Eastern Europe.
It brings together two main themes — the presence of Christian beliefs about witchcraft, and demonic representations of diseases e.
