Khors and Zari-Zarenitsa had a daughter, Radunitsa, and a son, Dennitsa. True, they said about Dennitsa that he was the son of Zarenitsa from the Month. But Zarenitsa denied this.
Having turned into a Falcon, Dennitsa flew over the blue sea or sat on an ash tree branch on a stone that rose in the middle of the sea. Nearby, his sister Radunitsa swam in the waves of the sea, turning into a white Swan:
What are you doing, my brother? Clear Falcon, are you still sitting on a branch thinking? And with your clear eyes do you still look into the distance of Shirak? Or are you bored in your native land? Is it not fun on your home island?
And Dennitsa answered his sister:
- I want to fly higher than the Sun and rise above the stars! After all, my father is the great Horse! I want to become like the Almighty!
And he flew to Father Khors and asked him to fulfill any of his wishes if he was “truly his son.” Then Khors made a promise, and Dennitsa began to ask permission to ride in a solar chariot in order to get to the throne of the Most High along the star road.
Horse became sad and said to Dennitsa:
- If, son, you think in your heart that the road is pleasant among the stars, that you will see cities and palaces there, rich temples - know that first on the solar path you will meet the faces of animals! You will blow away the steep-horned Zemun, and with the claws of the threatening Cancer, the mouth of the ferocious Leo, Scorpio, and Seduni's horns, and the Pike!
Dennitsa did not listen, got into the chariot of the Sun and rode across the heavens. But Khorsa’s horses did not listen to the inept driver. They carried the sun chariot, burning Heaven and Earth. On Earth, forests caught fire and seas boiled. Mother Earth, all in fire and smoke, said to Svarog:
- Why do the Peruns hesitate? The earthly world is perishing in fire, my children and grandchildren are perishing!
And then Svarog launched Dennitsa into the chariot with lightning. And Dennitsa fell like a star near the island of Ruyana.
The storm howls and the thunder rumbles, The Red Sun does not rise... Along the sea, along the quiet ripples, the Falcon only floats... “The Book of Kolyada”, IV century
For a whole day then the Red Sun did not rise in the sky, and the world was illuminated only by fires. Zarya-Zarenitsa and Radunitsa flew around the whole world and found Dennitsa’s body near the island of Ruyana. They buried Dennitsa’s body in the thicket of the forest, and an alder and aspen tree bent over his grave. The tears that Zarenitsa and Radunitsa dropped froze under the rays of the hot Sun and turned into amber.
And then, at the behest of the Almighty, the soul of Dennitsa turned into a star, which shines in the morning and foreshadows the coming of the day.
*The song about Dennitsa from the Book of Kolyada, the son of the Sun, is restored from Slavic and Roman songs, going back to the Proto-Slavic (Etruscan) legends about Phaethon, as well as from the biblical text about Dennitsa, the son of the Dawn (the Bible quotes a Scythian song heard by the prophet Isaiah).
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru