Bald Mountain, also called Lysa Hora or Łysa Góra, (,
Ukrainian: Лиса гора, ''Lysa hora'';
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
: Лысая гора, ''Lysaya gora'') is a location in Slavic
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk horror
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Fo ...
mythology
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
related to witchcraft. According to legends, witches periodically gather on the "bald mountains" for the Witches' Sabbath.
The exact origins and factual evidences of the concept are unclear. Notable "bald mountains" include the Łysa Góra in Poland, Lysa Hora (Kyiv), Lysa Hora and Zamkova Hora (Kyiv), Zamkova Hora hills in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Cultural references
*''Night on Bald Mountain'' (musical composition by Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov inspired by the legend)
*A ''Bald Mountain'' can be found in Mikhail Bulgakov's ''The Master and Margarita'' as the mountain where the ''Iyeshua'' (Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth) was crucified and it is the location of a sabbath in which Margarita (Master and Margarita), 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.
* In ''Monday Begins on Saturday'', a 1965 science fantasy novel by Soviet writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, the witch Naina Kyivna, the landlady of the protagonist regularly flies to Lysaya Gora for what is called "Annual Republican Convention".
[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
* Łysa Góra (Elder Speech: Ard Cerbin) is a location in the role-playing game ''The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt''. The mountain is the setting of a yearly ritual where the Sisters of the Bog, three ancient, powerful, demon-like witches, grant their favour to local peasants who worship them. During the game's story, main characters Geralt of Rivia and Ciri assault the ritual to assassinate the sisters and their guest of honor, Imlerith, a captain of the Wild Hunt.
See also
*Lysa Hora (disambiguation)
*Walpurgis Night
*Hill of Witches, Lithuania
;Other locations for witches' sabbath in folklore:
* Blockula (Blåkulla), Sweden
*Brocken, Germany
*Kyöpelinvuori, Finland
*Šatrija, Lithuania
References
::
European witchcraft
Slavic mythology
Ukrainian folklore
Polish folklore
Places in Slavic mythology
Mythological mountains
Witches' Sabbath
{{europe-myth-stub