(

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

: ', 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks') is the reconstructed name of the

weather god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested � ...

. The deity was connected with fructifying rains, and his name probably invoked in times of drought. In a widespread Indo-European myth, the thunder-deity fights a multi-headed water-serpent during an epic battle, in order to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up. The name of his weapon, ', which denoted both 'lightning' and 'hammer', can be reconstructed from the attested traditions. Perk^wunos was often associated with oaks, probably because such tall trees are frequently struck by lightning, and his realm located in the wooded mountains, '. A term for the sky, ', apparently denoted a 'heavenly vault of stone', but also 'thunderbolt' or 'stone-made weapon', in which case it was sometimes also used to refer to the thunder-god's weapon. Contrary to other deities of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, such as (the sky-god), or (the dawn-goddess), widely accepted

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

s stemming from the theonym are only attested in Western Indo-European traditions. The linguistic evidence for the worship of a thunder god under the name ' as far back as

times (4500–2500 BC) is therefore less secured.

Name

Etymology

The name ' is generally regarded as stemming from the

(PIE) verbal root ' ('to strike'). An alternative etymology is the PIE noun ' ('the oak'), attached to the divine nomenclature ' ('master of'). Various

s can be found in the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

oak-nymphs ''

Querquetulanae In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Querquetulanae or ''Querquetulanae virae'' were nymphs of the oak grove ''(querquetum)'' at a stage of producing green growth. Their sacred grove ''( lucus)'' was within the Porta Querquetulana, a gate in t ...

'' (from 'oak-tree'), the Germanic ('oak'), the

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

('oak') and (a tribal name), the

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

('sacred oak'), and perhaps in the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

spring-nymph . In Albanian, ''Perëndí'' (

definite In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

: ''Perëndía'') is the

name of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word ''god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or spec ...

, the sky and

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

, and is used capitalized to refer to the

Supreme Being In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. The plural indefinite form is ''perëndí'' while the plural definite form is ''perëndítë'', used uncapitalized to refer to the

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

. Some

dialectal The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

alternative forms include: ''Perendí'', ''Perenní'', ''Perundí'', ''Perudí'', ''Perndí'' and ''Parandí''. ''Perëndí'' is generally considered a compound of the roots ''per-en-'' ("to strike') and ''-dí'' ("sky, god"),; ; ; . related to the verb Përkund meaning 'to

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...

, to sway, to rock (cradle)'. The

theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), " god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and ...

' thus either meant 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks'. A theory uniting those two etymologies has been proposed in the mythological association of oaks with thunder, suggested by the frequency with which such tall trees are struck by lightning. The existence of a female consort is suggested by gendered doublet-forms such as found in South Slavic , Old Norse , and Lithuanian . The noun ' also gave birth to a group of cognates for the ordinary word 'thunder', including Old Prussian , Russian (), Latvian ('thunderbolt'), or Lithuanian ('thunder') and ('thunderstorm').

Epithets

Other Indo-European theonyms related to 'thunder', through another root , are found in the Germanic (Thor), the Celtic (from an earlier ), and the Latin epithet (attached to Jupiter). According to scholar Peter Jackson, "they may have arisen as the result of fossilization of an original epithet or epiclesis" of , since the Vedic weather-god Parjanya is also called ('Thunderer'). George E. Dunkel regarded as an original epithet of , the Sky-God. It has also been postulated that was referred to as ('son of Dyēus'), although this is based on the Vedic poetic tradition alone.

Depiction

Weapon

is usually depicted as holding a weapon, named ' in the Baltic and Old Norse traditions, which personifies the lightnings and is generally conceived as a club, mace, or hammer, made of stone or metal. In the Latvian poetic expression ("Pērkōn throws his mace"), the mace (), is

with the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

, the hammer thrown by the thunder god

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, ...

, and also with the word for 'lightning' in the Old Prussian , the

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and othe ...

, or the Welsh .

Fructifying rains

While his thunder and lightning had a destructive connotation, they could also be seen as a regenerative force since they were often accompanied by fructifying rains. Parjanya is depicted as a rain god in the ''

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

'', and Latvian prayers included a call for to bring rain in time of drought. The Balkan Slavs worshipped Perun along with his female counterpart , the name of a ritual prayer calling for fructifying rains and centred on the dance of a naked virgin who had not yet had her first monthly period. The earth is likewise referred to as "menstruating" in a Vedic hymn to Parjanya, a possible cognate of . The alternative name of , , also recalls ' pseudonym , and Zeus' oak oracle located at '' Dodona''. Perëndi is especially invoked by

Albanians The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Ser ...

incantation An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...

s and songs praying for rain.

Rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

were performed in times of summer drought to make it rain, usually in June and July, but sometimes also in the spring months when there was severe drought. In different Albanian regions, for rainmaking purpose, people threw water upwards to make it subsequently fall to the ground in the form of rain. This was an imitative type of magic practice with ritual songs. A mythical multi-headed water-serpent is connected with the thunder-deity in an epic battle. The monstrous foe is a 'blocker of waters', and his heads are eventually smashed by the thunder-deity to release the pent-up torrents of rain. The myth has numerous reflexes in mythical stories of battles between a serpent and a god or mythical hero, who is not necessarily etymologically related to ', but always associated with thunder. For example, the Vedic and (the personification of drought), the Iranian /''Sirius'' and (a demon of drought), the Albanian and (an amphibious serpent who causes streams to dry up), the Armenian and , the Greek Zeus and Typhoeus as well as

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

and Python, or the Norse Thor and .

Striker and god of oaks

The association of with the oak is attested in various formulaic expressions from the

Balto-Slavic languages The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branc ...

: Lithuanian (

Perkūnas Perkūnas ( lt, Perkūnas, lv, Pērkons, Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic pantheon after Di ...

's oak), Latvian ('Pērkōn's oak'), or Old Russian (' Perun's oak'). In the

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Eur ...

, a word to refer to the lightning—considered in folk beliefs as the "fire of the sky"—is ''shkreptimë'', a formation of '' shkrep'' meaning "to flash, tone, to strike (till sparks fly off)". An association between strike, stones and fire, can be related to the observation that one can kindle fire by striking stones against each other. The act of producing fire through a strike—reflected also in the belief that fire is residual within the oak trees after the thunder-god strikes them—indicates the potential of lightning in the myth of creation. The Slavic thunder-god Perūn is said to frequently strike oaks to put fire within them, and the Norse thunder-god

to strike his foes the giants when they hide under an oak. According to the Belarusian folklore, Piarun made the first fire ever by striking a tree in which the Demon was hiding. The striking of devils, demons or evildoers by is another motif in the myths surrounding the Baltic Perkūnas and the Vedic Parjanya. In Lithuanian and Latvian folkloric material, / is invoked to protect against snakes and illness.

Wooded mountains

is often portrayed in connection with stone and (wooded) mountains; mountainous forests were considered to be his realm. A cognate relationship has been noted between the Germanic (' ountainousforest') and the

(' aksforests'). The Old Russian chronicles describe wooden idols of Perūn on hills overlooking

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

and

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ...

, and both the Belarusian Piarun and the Lithuanian Perkūnas were said to dwell on lofty mountaintops. Such places are called in Lithuanian, meaning the "summit of Perkūnas", while the Slavic word designated the hill over Novgorod where the sanctuary of was located. Prince

Vladimir the Great Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...

had an idol of cast down into the Dnepr river during the

Christianization of Kievan Rus' Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

. In

Germanic mythology Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism. Origins As the Germanic lang ...

, ''Fjörgynn'' was used as a poetic synonym for 'the land, the earth', and she could have originally been the mistress of the wooded mountains, the personification of what appears in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

as ('wooded mountain'). Additionally, the Baltic tradition mentions a perpetual sacred fire dedicated to and fuelled by oakwood in the forests or on hilltops. Pagans believed that Perkūnas would freeze if Christians extinguished those fires. Words from a stem ' are also attested in the Hittite ('rock, cliff, boulder'), the

Avestan Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...

('mountains'), as well as in the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

goddess and the epithet ('lord of mountains'), attached to her father . Lubotsky, Alexander.
Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon
. ''Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Project''.

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...

. s.v. ''asman''- and ''párvata''-.

Stony skies

A term for the sky, ', denoted both 'stone' and 'heaven', possibly a 'heavenly vault of stone' akin to the biblical

firmament In biblical cosmology, the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God during his creation of the world to divide the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. The concept was adopted into the subsequent ...

. The motif of the stony skies can be found in the story of the Greek Akmon ('anvil'), the father of Ouranos and the personified Heaven. The term was also used with the meaning 'thunderbolt' in Homeric and Hesiodic diction. Other cognates appear in the Vedic ('stone'), the Iranian deity ('stone, heaven'), the Lithuanian god (mentioned alongside himself), and also in the Germanic (german: Himmel, en, heaven) and (cf. Old Norse: , which could mean 'rock, boulder, cliff' or 'hammer'). is described in a 16th century treatise as a ', 'a sizeable stone', which was still worshipped in Samogitia.

believed in the supreme powers of thunder-stones (''kokrra e rrufesë'' or ''guri i rejës''), which were believed to be formed during lightning strikes and to be fallen from the sky. Thunder-stones were preserved in family life as important cult objects. It was believed that bringing them inside the house could bring

good fortune Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

, prosperity and progress in people, in livestock and in agriculture, or that rifle bullets would not hit the owners of the thunder-stones. A common practice was to hung a thunder-stone pendant on the body of the cattle or on the pregnant woman for good luck and to contrast the

evil eye The Evil Eye ( grc, ὀφθαλμὸς βάσκανος; grc-koi, ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός; el, (κακό) μάτι; he, עַיִן הָרָע, ; Romanian: ''Deochi''; it, malocchio; es, mal de ojo; pt, mau-olhado, olho gordo; ar ...

. The mythological association can be explained by the observation (e.g.,

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object ...

s) or the belief that thunderstones (polished ones for axes in particular) had fallen from the sky. Indeed, the Vedic word is the name of the weapon thrown by

Indra Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...

, Thor's weapon is also called , and the thunder-stone can be named (' Perkuna's stone') in the Lithuanian tradition. Scholars have also noted that and are said to strike rocks instead of oaks in some themes of the Lithuanian and Belarusian folklores, and that the Slavic sends his axe or arrow from a mountain or the sky. The original meaning of ' could thus have been 'stone-made weapon', then 'sky' or 'lightning'.

Evidence

Theonyms

Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis - PERKUNAS (THOR) - 1909

The following deities are

s stemming from ' or related names in Western Indo-European mythologies: *PIE: ''*per-'', 'to strike' (or ''*pérkʷus'', the ' oak'), **PIE: ''*per-k^wun-os'', the

, ***

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

: **** Old Prussian: Perkunis, **** Yotvingian: Parkuns (or ''Parcuns''), **** Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'' ( ltg); **** Lithuanian:

'','' the god of rain and thunder, depicted as an angry-looking man with a tawny beard, **** Latvian: Pērkōns, whose functions are occasionally merged with those of

Dievs Lithuanian Dievas, Latvian Dievs, Latgalian Dīvs, Old Prussian Dìews, Yotvingian Deivas was the primordial supreme god in the Baltic mythology and one of the most important deities together with Perkūnas and he was brother of Potrimpo. He w ...

(the sky-god) in the Latvian ''dainas'' (folk songs), **** Percunatele or Perkunatele, a female deity associated with Perkunas, as mother or wife; ** PIE: ''*per-uh₁n-os'', the 'one with the thunder stone', *** Slavic: *''perunъ'' ****

: Perūn (Перýн), the 'maker of the lightning', **** Old Russian: Perunŭ, Belarusian: Piarun (Пярун), Czech: Peraun, **** Slovak: Parom; **** Bulgarian: Perun ();Jakobson, Roman (1955). "While Reading Vasmer's Dictionary" In: ''WORD'', 11:4: p. 616. OI: 10.1080/00437956.1955.11659581/ref> **** Polish: Piorun ("lightning"); **** Russian:

Peryn Peryn ( rus, Перынь, p=pʲɪˈrɨnʲ) is a peninsula near Veliky Novgorod (Russia), noted for its medieval pagan shrine complex, and for its later well-preserved monastery. Location The Peryn peninsula is at the confluence of Lake Ilmen ...

, a peninsula in Novgorod, Russia, connected to a historical worship of Slavic Perun. **** South Slavic: Perun and Perperuna, a reduplicated feminine derivative from Perun's name which parallels the Old Norse couple Fjörgyn–Fjörgynn and the Lithuanian Perkūnas–Perkūnija'','' **PIE: ''*per-k^wun-iyo'' (feminine ''*per-k^wun-iyā'', the 'realm of Perk^wunos', i.e. the oodedmountains), ***

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

: , ****

: the

Hercynian The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny was a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Nomenclature The name ''Variscan'', come ...

(''Hercynia'') forest or mountains, ancient name of the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

and the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

, which was also known as ''Arkunia'' by the time of Aristotle; '' Hercuniates'' (’Ερκουνιατες; attached to the suffix -''atis'' 'belonging to'), the name of a Celtic tribe from

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now west ...

, as described by Pliny and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

. *** Germanic: ''*fergunja'', meaning 'mountain', perhaps 'mountainous forest' (or the feminine equivalent of ''*ferga'', 'god'),' ****

: Fjörgyn, the mother of the thunder-god

, the goddess of the wooded landscape and a poetic synonym for 'land' or 'the earth', ****

: (𐍆𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌲𐌿𐌽𐌹), '(wooded) mountain', and , 'world',

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

: , 'mountain', 'wooded hill', ****

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...

: ''Firgunnea'', the Ore Mountains, and ''Virgundia Waldus'', ''Virgunnia'', 'oaks forest', *** Slavic: , 'wooded hills' (perhaps an early borrowing from Germanic), ****

: , Old Russian: ''peregynja'', 'wooded hills'; Polish: (toponym),

Thunder-god's weapon

The name of Perk^wunos' weapon ''*meld-n-'' is attested by a group of

cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...

alternatively denoting 'hammer' or 'lightning' in the following traditions: *

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

: , 'to grind', **Northern PIE: ''*mel-d-(n)-'', 'thunder-god's hammer > lightning', *** Germanic: ''*melðunijaz'', ****

: '' mjǫllnir'', the hammer of

; cf. also ''myln'', 'fire', ***

Balto-Slavic The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European br ...

: ''*mild-n-'', **** Slavic: *''mlъldni'', *****

: ''mlъni'' or ''mlъnii'',

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

: ''múnja'' (муња), Slovene ''mółnja'', Bulgarian: ',Rhys, John. ''Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom''. London, Edinburgh tc. Williams and Norgate. 1892. p. 59.

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...

: ''молња'', 'lightning', ***** Russian: ''mólnija'' (молния), 'lightning',

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

''maladnjá'' ( dial.) 'lightning without thunder', Belarusian: ''маланка'', 'lightning', ***** Czech: (

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

.), Polish (dial.), Lusatian: ''milina'' (arch.) 'lightning' (modern 'electricity'), ****

: ''*mildnā'', ***** Old Prussian: , 'lightning bolt', ***** Latvian: ''milna'', the 'hammer of the Thunderer', Pērkōns, ***

: *''meldo''-, ****

: ''Meldos'', an epithet of thunder divinity Loucetios; as well as ''Meldi'' (*''Meldoi''), a tribal name, and ''Meldio'', a personal name. ****

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

: , 'lightning, thunderbolts' ( sing. , 'bolt of lightning'), and ''Mabon am Melld'' or ''Mabon fab Mellt'' ('Mabon son of Mellt'), **** Breton: ''mell'', 'hammer', ****

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...

: ''mell'', 'rounded summit, small hill', possibly via semantic contamination from , '(wooded) mountains'. Another PIE term derived from the verbal root ('to grind'), ('grinding device'), also served as a common word for 'hammer', as in Old Church Slavonic ''mlatъ'', Latin ''malleus'', and Hittite ''malatt'' ('sledgehammer, bludgeon'). 19th-century scholar

Francis Hindes Groome Francis Hindes Groome (30 August 1851 – 24 January 1902), son of Robert Hindes Groome, Archdeacon of Suffolk, was a writer and foremost commentator of his time on the Romani people, their language, life, history, customs, beliefs, and lore. ...

cited the existence of the "Gypsy" (

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

) word ''malúna'' as a loanword from Slavic ''molnija''. The Komi word ''molńi'' or ''molńij'' ('lightning') has also been borrowed from Slavic.

Heavenly vault of stone

* PIE: ''*h₂eḱ-'', 'sharp', **PIE: *''h₂éḱmōn'' ( gen. *''h₂ḱmnós''; loc. *''h₂ḱméni''), 'stone, stone-made weapon' > 'heavenly vault of stone', *** Indo-Aryan: *''Haćman'', ****

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

: ''áśman'', 'stone, sling-stone, thunderbolt', ****

: ''

asman Asman ( ae, 𐬀𐬯𐬨𐬀𐬥‎, translit=asman) is the Avestan and Middle Persian name of the Zoroastrian divinity that is the hypostasis of the sky. Asman is the "highest heaven," and is distinguished from the firmament, (), which lies near ...

'', 'stone, sling-stone, heaven', ***

: '' ákmōn'' (ἄκμων), 'anvil, meteoric stone, thunderbolt, heaven', ***

: *''akmen''-, **** Lithuanian: ''akmuõ'', 'stone', **** Latvian: ''akmens'', 'stone', *** Germanic: ''*hemō'' (gen.''*hemnaz'', dat. *''hemeni''), 'heaven', ****

: ''himins'', 'heaven', ****

: ''heofon'',

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Fries ...

: ''himel'',

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

: ''heƀan'',

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch (Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from aro ...

: ''himil'',

: ''himil'', 'heaven', ****

: ''himinn'', 'heaven',' A metathesized stem *''ḱ(e)h₂-m-(r)-'' can also be reconstructed from Slavic ''*kamy'' ('stone'), Germanic ''*hamaraz'' ('hammer'), and Greek ''kamára'' ('vault')''.''

Other possible cognates

* Indo-Iranian: **

: Parjanya, the god of rain, thunder and lightning (although Sanskrit sound laws rather predict a form; an intermediate form ''*pergénio'' has therefore been postulated, possibly descending from ''*per-k^wun-iyā''). ** Nuristani: Pärun (or ''Pērūneî''), a war god worshipped in Kafiristan (present-day

Nuristan Province Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, wi ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

), ** Persian: Piran (Viseh), a heroic figure present in the

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 5 ...

, the

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with a ...

Greater Iran Greater Iran ( fa, ایران بزرگ, translit=Irān-e Bozorg) refers to a region covering parts of Western Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Xinjiang, and the Caucasus, where both Iranian culture and Iranian languages have had a s ...

; it has been suggested his name might be related to the Slavic deity Perun, **

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

: in the 19th century, Russian folklorist

Alexander Afanasyev Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Afanasief, Afanasiev or Afanas'ev, russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Афанасьев) ( — ) was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer who published nearly 600 Russian fairy and folk ta ...

and French philologist Frédéric-Guillaume Bergmann ( fr) mentioned the existence of a Scythian deity named ''Pirkunas'' or ''Pirchunas'', an epithet attached to the "Scythian Divus" and meaning 'rainy'. *

(' oak'), ** Hispano-Celtic: ''Erguena'' (''ERGVENA''), a personal name thought to mean 'oak-born' (''*pérkʷu-genā'') or to derive from ''*pérkʷu-niya'' 'wooded mountain'. ** Celtiberian: ''berkunetakam'' ('Perkunetaka'), a word attested in the Botorrita Plate I and interpreted as a sacred oak grove, **

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

: the theonym ''Expercennius'', attested in an inscription found in Cathervielle and possibly referring to an oak god. His name might mean 'six oaks'. **

: ''ercos'' ('oak'), ***

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

: references to 'Deus Ercus' (in

Aquitania Gallia Aquitania ( , ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquitaine. It was bordered by the provinces of Gal ...

), 'Nymphae Percernae' (

Narbonensis Gallia Narbonensis ( Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it wa ...

), and a deity named 'Hercura' (or ''Erecura'') which appears throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire. Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel argues that ''Aerecura''/''Hercura'' derives from a Celtic ''*perk^(w)ura''. ** Irish: Erc (mac Cairpri), mentioned at the end of ''

Táin Bó Cúailnge (Modern ; "the driving-off of the cows of Cooley"), commonly known as ''The Táin'' or less commonly as ''The Cattle Raid of Cooley'', is an epic from Irish mythology. It is often called "The Irish Iliad", although like most other early Iri ...

'', and placed on the throne of Tara by Conchobar mac Nessa in ''Cath Ruis na Ríg for Bóinn''; although an alternative etymology from

''*perk-'' ('color') > ''*perk-no'' (' pottedfish') has been proposed by

Hamp Hepcidin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''HAMP'' gene. Hepcidin is a key regulator of the entry of iron into the circulation in mammals. During conditions in which the hepcidin level is abnormally high, such as inflammation, s ...

and Matasović. *

: (κεραυνός), the name of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

’s thunderbolt, which was sometimes also deified (by metathesis of *; although the root *''ḱerh₂-'', 'shatter, smash' has also been proposed), and the ''Herkyna'' spring-nymph, associated with a river of the same name and identified with

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, ...

(the name could be a borrowing as it rather follows Celtic sound laws), * Hittite: the words and are attested in a Hittite text of ''The Song of Ullikummi'', and refer to a female being made of 'Rock' or 'Stone' who gives birth to a rocky creature. * Italic: ** Italian: ''porca'', a word meaning 'fir tree' in the Trentino dialect. Mallory and Adams suppose it is a loanword from Raetic. * Slavic ** Pomeranian: '' Porenut'', latinized as ''Porenutius'' in the work of Saxo Grammaticus. The name is believed to refer to a deity worshipped in the port city of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

in ancient times as a possible son of Perun. * Romano-Germanic: inscriptions to the

Matronae The Matres (Latin for "mothers") and Matronae (Latin for "matrons") were female deities venerated in Northwestern Europe, of whom relics are found dating from the first to the fifth century AD. They are depicted on votive offerings and altars th ...

'Ala-ferhuiae' found in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, Altdorf, or Dormagen. * Paleo-Balkanic: ** Illyrian: Perëndi, a sky and thunder god (from ''per-en-'', an extension of

''*per'', 'to strike', attached to ''-di'', the sky-god

Dyēus ''*Dyḗus'' ( lit. "daylight-sky-god"), also ''*Dyḗus ph₂tḗr'' (lit. "father daylight-sky-god"), is the reconstructed name of the daylight-sky god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. ''*Dyēus'' was conceived as a divine personification of ...

, thus related to ''*per-uhₓn-os'' (see above); although the Albanian ''perëndoj'', 'to set (of the sun)', from Latin ''parentare'', 'a sacrifice (to the dead), to satisfy', has also been proposed as the origin of the deity, **

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

: Perkos/Perkon (Περκος/Περκων), a horseman hero depicted as facing a tree surrounded by a snake. His name is also attested as Ήρω Περκω and Περκώνει "in Odessos and the vicinities". *

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...

: it has been suggested that the characters Пиръон (''Piryon'') and Пиръа (''Pirya'') may attest the presence of the thunder god's name in the Caucasus.

Legacy

Louis Léger Louis Léger (15 January 1843– 30 April 1923) was a French writer and pioneer in Slavic studies. He was honorary member of Bulgarian Literary Society (now Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, also member of Académie des inscriptions et belles- ...

stated that the Polabians adopted Perun as their name for Thursday (''Perendan'' or ''Peräunedån''), which is likely a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of German ''Donnersdag''. Some scholars argue that the functions of the Luwian and Hittite weather gods

Tarḫunz Tarḫunz (stem: ''Tarḫunt-'') was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub. Name The name of the P ...

and Tarḫunna ultimately stem from those of Perk^wunos. Anatolians may have dropped the old name in order to adopt the epithet *''Tṛḫu-ent-'' ('conquering', from PIE ''*terh₂-'', 'to cross over, pass through, overcome'), which sounded closer to the name of the Hattian Storm-god '' Taru''. According to scholarship, the name ''Tarhunt-'' is also cognate to the Vedic present participle ''tū́rvant-'' ('vanquishing, conquering'), an epithet of the weather-god

Toponyms

Scholarship indicates the existence of a holdover of the theonym in European toponymy, specially in Eastern European and Slavic-speaking regions. In the territory that encompasses the modern day city of

Kaštela Kaštela (;) is a town in Split-Dalmatia County. The town is an agglomeration of seven individual settlements which are administered as a single municipality with populations individually ranging from 3,000 to 7,000 residents. The town is loca ...

existed the ancient

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...

n city of

Salona Salona ( grc, Σάλωνα) was an ancient city and the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. Salona is located in the modern town of Solin, next to Split, in Croatia. Salona was founded in the 3rd century BC and was mostly destroyed in ...

. Near Salona, in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

, there was a hill named ''Perun''. Likewise, the ancient oronym ''Borun'' (''monte Borun'') has been interpreted as a deformation of the theonym ''Perun''. Their possible connection is further reinforced by the proximity of a mountain named '' Dobrava'', a widespread word in Slavic-speaking regions that means 'oak grove'. Places in South-Slavic-speaking lands are considered to be reflexes of Slavic god Perun, such as ''Perunac'', ''Perunovac'', ''Perunika'', ''Perunićka Glava'', ''Peruni Vrh'', ''Perunja Ves'', ''Peruna Dubrava'', ''Perunuša'', ''Perušice'', ''Perudina'', and ''Perutovac''. Scholar

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis ...

cited the existence of the place names ''Perunowa gora'' (Poland), ''Perun Gora'' (Serbia), ''Gora Perun'' (Romania), and ''Porun'' hill (Istria).

Patrice Lajoye Patrice Lajoye (born 26 July 1974) is a French religious studies scholar and comparative mythologist who specializes on the study of Celtic and Slavic paganism. The co-founder of the journal ''Nouvelle Mythologie comparée'', he currently works ...

associates place names in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

with the Slavic god Perun: the city of '' Pernik'' and the mountain range '' Pirin'' (in Bulgaria), as well as a location named ''Përrenjas'' in South

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

. He also proposes that the German city of '' Pronstorf'' is also related to Perun, since it is located near Segeberg, whose former name was ''Perone'' in 1199. The name of the Baltic deity Perkunas is also attested in Baltic toponyms and hydronyms: a village called ''Perkūniškės'' in Žemaitija, north-west of Kaunas, and the place name ''Perkunlauken'' ('Perkuns Fields') near modern Gusev.Balode-Anelauskaitė, Laimutė. "Baltic names of deities in the hydronyms of Latvia and Lithuania". In: ''Perspectives of Baltic philology''. 1 / ed. by Jowita Niewulis-Grablunas, Justyna Prusinowska, Ewa Stryczyńska-Hodyl. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Rys, 2008. pp. 21-40. .

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Zaroff, Roman. "Organized pagan cult in Kievan Rus: The invention of foreign elite or evolution of local tradition? rganizirani poganski kult v kijevski drzavi: Iznajdba tuje elite ali razvoj krajevnega izrocila?. In: ''

Studia mythologica Slavica ''Studia mythologica Slavica'' is a Slovene academic journal dedicated to ethnology, history, archaeology, linguistics, religious studies, literary history and philosophy in the context of Slavic mythology. Published since 1998 by the Ins ...

''. 2 (1999): 56-60. 10.3986/sms.v2i0.1844.