Myths - Slavic - Living Fire
http://deti01.ru/tale_rus/zh-fire/
see also this version here: http://wordsland.ru/slavmif/ogon_svarog.php
The first people on earth did not know fire. In summer, they had enough sunlight, and when winter came with frosts and snowstorms, people suffered from the cold, were ill and could not get warm even in their dark dwellings. Then Svarog took pity on them, threw lightning on the ground. She fell into a tall oak tree, and that oak burst into flames.
People saw it, rejoiced, picked up burning branches and carried them to their homes. In each house appeared a hearth, built of stones, in which dancing fire. People called this fire Svarojic, the son of Svarog, began to read it, to save it, to feed it with dry firewood. And Svarozhich paid them well: in the cold season he warmed up people's dwellings, lit them, helped to dry bread in bunks, worked in the smithy, warming up the iron so that it became soft and supple. Women cooked food on the hearth, and if someone in the family fell ill, they brought him up to the fire, pronounced magic spells, cooked medicinal drugs.
To God Svarozhich, a sanctuary was built, in which an unquenchable fire always burned, and an old priest looked after him. Yes, that's the trouble, the fire in the hearth had to be constantly monitored so that it did not go out: put firewood on, cover the hot coals for the night with ash, saving the heat.
Once it happened that for several days in succession there were heavy rains, and water was flooded with fire in all the outbreaks. Even in the sanctuary of Svarozhich, the fire extinguished, and the soaked coals in it lay like dead stones.
People were depressed, they began to think how to get fire, because not every day the almighty Svarog will light a tree with a lightning bolt.
Then an old priest came to them and said that when he was sitting at the extinguished holy hearth, he had a vision. A beautiful young man appeared before the priest, the hair on his head shone like gold, and the red shirt gleamed with the tongues of flame. And he said:
- Do not be sad people. This is my father Svarog sent you such a test to teach you to get a living fire. Take a piece of wood, make in it a groove and fill in the dry grass, and next place the bark. Insert a wooden peg into this hole and twist it as if you want to drill a tree. So you will get a living fire.
The young man smiled and disappeared.
The priests' people listened, they did everything as he said. The strongest men began to rotate the wooden peg, pouring dry grass under its edge. And a miracle happened! First, a smoke appeared under the peg, then the first timid tongues of flame appeared, and when a birch bark was placed in them, a real fire flashed. This fire was called "alive", because it was extracted from a living tree.
Since then, in all sacred rites, only living fire was used. It was lit, marking the coming of the new year. Through the fire they carried the sick; were driven by livestock (to protect it from disease). In the sanctuary of Svarozhich there was a living fire, the earthly gift of God.
Source: Smirnov Yu.I. Slavic myths. - SPb .: Parity, 2005.-224 s., Ooze
see also this version here: http://wordsland.ru/slavmif/ogon_svarog.php
The first people on earth did not know fire. In summer, they had enough sunlight, and when winter came with frosts and snowstorms, people suffered from the cold, were ill and could not get warm even in their dark dwellings. Then Svarog took pity on them, threw lightning on the ground. She fell into a tall oak tree, and that oak burst into flames.
People saw it, rejoiced, picked up burning branches and carried them to their homes. In each house appeared a hearth, built of stones, in which dancing fire. People called this fire Svarojic, the son of Svarog, began to read it, to save it, to feed it with dry firewood. And Svarozhich paid them well: in the cold season he warmed up people's dwellings, lit them, helped to dry bread in bunks, worked in the smithy, warming up the iron so that it became soft and supple. Women cooked food on the hearth, and if someone in the family fell ill, they brought him up to the fire, pronounced magic spells, cooked medicinal drugs.
To God Svarozhich, a sanctuary was built, in which an unquenchable fire always burned, and an old priest looked after him. Yes, that's the trouble, the fire in the hearth had to be constantly monitored so that it did not go out: put firewood on, cover the hot coals for the night with ash, saving the heat.
Once it happened that for several days in succession there were heavy rains, and water was flooded with fire in all the outbreaks. Even in the sanctuary of Svarozhich, the fire extinguished, and the soaked coals in it lay like dead stones.
People were depressed, they began to think how to get fire, because not every day the almighty Svarog will light a tree with a lightning bolt.
Then an old priest came to them and said that when he was sitting at the extinguished holy hearth, he had a vision. A beautiful young man appeared before the priest, the hair on his head shone like gold, and the red shirt gleamed with the tongues of flame. And he said:
- Do not be sad people. This is my father Svarog sent you such a test to teach you to get a living fire. Take a piece of wood, make in it a groove and fill in the dry grass, and next place the bark. Insert a wooden peg into this hole and twist it as if you want to drill a tree. So you will get a living fire.
The young man smiled and disappeared.
The priests' people listened, they did everything as he said. The strongest men began to rotate the wooden peg, pouring dry grass under its edge. And a miracle happened! First, a smoke appeared under the peg, then the first timid tongues of flame appeared, and when a birch bark was placed in them, a real fire flashed. This fire was called "alive", because it was extracted from a living tree.
Since then, in all sacred rites, only living fire was used. It was lit, marking the coming of the new year. Through the fire they carried the sick; were driven by livestock (to protect it from disease). In the sanctuary of Svarozhich there was a living fire, the earthly gift of God.
Source: Smirnov Yu.I. Slavic myths. - SPb .: Parity, 2005.-224 s., Ooze