Bald Mountain (folklore)

Bald Mountain (Ukrainian: Лиса гора, Lysa hora; Russian: Лысая гора, Lysaya gora, Polish: Łysa Góra) is a location in Slavic folk mythology related to witchcraft. According to legends, witches periodically gather on the "bald mountains" for their "Sabbath". [1]

The exact origins and factual evidences of the concept are unclear. Researchers list dozens of supposed "bald mountains" sites throughout Ukraine and Poland. The notable ones include the Lysa Hora and Zamkova Hora hills in Kiev, Ukraine, and Łysa Góra in Poland.

Cultural references
  • Night on Bald Mountain (music composition by Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov inspired in the legend)
  • A Bald Mountain can be found in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita as the mountain where the Iyeshua Jesus of Nazareth) was crucified and it is the location of a sabbath it which Margarita takes part.
  • In 1970s, in Belarus, an anonymous poem A Tale of the Bald Mountain (Сказ пра Лысую гару) was widely circulated by samizdat. It ridiculed the "sabbath" by the members of the Belarusian Union of Soviet Writers, who quarreled during the allocation of dachas for them. [2][3]
  • In Monday Begins on Saturday, a 1965 science fantasy novel by Soviet writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, the withc Naina Kievna, the landlady of the protagonist regularly flies to Lysaya Gora for what is called "Annual Republican Convention". [4]
  • Łysa Góra (Elder Speech: Ard Cerbin) is a location in the role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

See also
  • Lysa Hora (disambiguation)
Other locations for witches' sabbath in folklore

References
 Russian Wikisource has original text related to this article: О поверьях, суевериях и предрассудках русского народа (Даль)/Ведьма
  1. Vladimir Dahl, О поверьях, суевериях и предрассудках русского народа [On Beliefs, Superstitions and Prejudices of the Russian People], 1845–1846 (see Wikisource)
  2. "Охота на последнего ведьмака" ["The Hunt for the Last Witcher"], Belarus Today, January 1, 2003
  3. "Ніл Гілевіч — Сказ пра Лысую Гару"
  4. Толоконникова С. Ю., "УТОПИЧЕСКИЙ НЕОМИФОЛОГИЗМ БРАТЬЕВ А. И Б. СТРУГАЦКИХ В ПОВЕСТИ «ПОНЕДЕЛЬНИК НАЧИНАЕТСЯ В СУББОТУ»", ВОПРОСЫ РУССКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ, issue 3, 2015, pp. 31-32


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