After the battle of the gods with the Black Snake, Svarog and Svarozhichi descended to Earth. And they saw that the whole Earth was mixed with blood. And then they cut Mother Earth, and she absorbed the blood.
Svarog and Svarozhichi began to arrange the world. Where the Serpent, harnessed to a plow, laid furrows, the Don, Danube and Dnieper rivers flowed there.
The Riphean Mountains appeared at the site of the battle with the Serpent. In the Riphean Mountains above the White Alatyr Mountain, from which the White River flows, Svarog established Svarga - the heavenly kingdom of the gods. On this mountain a sprout rose, which grew into the sacred Elm, connecting the world. The World Elm extended its branches to the sky itself.
On the eastern branches of the tree Alkonost made a nest, and on the western branches - the Sirin bird, in the roots - the Serpent moves. The heavenly king - Svarog himself - walks near the trunk, and with him - Mother Lada.
“The Book of Kolyada”, 1st century
In the Riphean Mountains near the Alatyr Mountain, other magical trees began to grow. A cypress tree rose on Mount Hwangure - the tree of death. On Mount Berezan there is a birch tree, the tree of poetry, dedicated to the god Karma. And on Mount Alatyrskaya Svar-gom the Iriysky garden was planted. Here a cherry tree rose, dedicated to Vyshny, where Gamayun flies. Nearby a sunny oak appeared - up with roots, down with branches: its roots are from the Sun, and its twelve branches are the essence of the twelve Vedas.
An apple tree with golden apples also rose on Alatyr Mountain. Whoever tries these golden apples will receive eternal youth and power over the Universe.
All approaches to the garden are guarded by griffins, basilisks, snakes and mountain giants. And the apple tree itself with golden apples is guarded by the dragon Ladon. There is no passage here for either foot or horse.
There are descriptions of Iria in many songs. For example, P.V. Kireevsky. “Collection of folk songs” (Tula, 1986. P. 215). There is this description in the legend about Father Agapia, “Monuments of Ancient Rus' of the 12th century.” (M., 1980): “(On the paradise island where Agapius arrived) ... various trees and different flowers blooming, and various fruits that no one has ever seen. Birds in various plumages sat in the trees. Some had feathers like gold, others were crimson, others were red, others were blue and green, and all of them were decorated with various beauties and variegations. And there were also birds as white as snow. And all the birds had different voices, and they chirped while sitting in front of each other, wove different songs, some in a loud voice, others in a quiet voice, and others in a thin voice, others in a gentle voice, for each bird sang in harmony in harmony; their songs and all their splendor are such that no one has heard in this world.”
You can compare this text of the 12th century with the caption to a popular print about a journey to paradise of a certain monk, who lived for three hours in paradise for 300 earthly years (see Rovinsky D.A. “Russian folk pictures”, vol. 3, SP6., 1881): “Some are perfect in virtues; birds and such beauty that it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend... Be it a field of beautiful flowers and an ancient wonderful bird, and the birds fly to the tree, beginning to sing a wonderful and sweet song, as if the monk had come into oblivion, standing there, rejoicing and having fun at the bird and its beauty and the sweet singing and the young flower-like field.”
These texts go back to the ancient Vedic legends about paradise. Compare with the description of Iriy in Trigl. 20:
“... Ra flows - the river there that separates the heavenly Svarga and Reality (...) You reached our Iria, here you saw wonderful flowers, and trees, as well as meadows (...) And here (here) Mother Swa beats her wings on her sides on both sides, as if in fire, all shining with light. And all her feathers are beautiful, blue, light blue, yellow and silver, gold and white. And just as she shines like the King Sun, she flies to Yasuni (Irin).” Other Vedic traditions give the same description of heaven. Compare with Indian legends:
“There is an incomparable Mount Meru, sparkling, rich in brilliance... Terrible animals roam on it, wonderful herbs bloom on it... It is covered with rivers and trees and resounds with flocks of various birds that delight the heart...” (Mahobharata. Adiparva, book 1, The Tale of Astika. Ch. 15-16).
The Chinese “Book of Mountains and Seas” also speaks about heavenly foods:
“Birds live on Mount Dan-xue (Kun-Lun ridge)... In appearance they resemble roosters, multi-colored with patterns. They are called huang-feng (phoenixes). These birds eat and drink when they want, and sing and dance when they want. Their appearance heralds peace and tranquility in the Celestial Empire.” The magical birds Gamayun, Finist-Phoenix, Alkonost and Sirin are the most beloved characters of ancient Russian art. “Kozmography” of 1670 tells about Gamayun and Phoenix (Phoenix), arriving on the Makari (“macro” (“macro” translated from Greek “blessed”) island): “The island of Makari under the very east of the sun near paradise. The birds of paradise Gamayun and Phoenix fly to this island, the fragrance is wonderful, there is no winter there.” The source of the images of Alkonost, Sirin, etc. is usually seen in Greece (the myth of Alcyone, who became a kingfisher; the sirens from the Odyssey, etc.). However, Russian images are much more archaic; one should only talk about the common Vedic source of these images for Rus' and Greece. see Old Russian Azbukovnik (GPB, O. XVI 1).
“Alkonost, there is a bird named Alkonost, which has a nest on a sandbank at the edge of the sea and lays its eggs there; there is a time when her child is born in the winter year, but when she senses the departure of her child, she takes her child in eggs and carries it into the middle of the sea and releases it into the depths, then the sea rushes to the shore with many storms, but when Alkonost lays eggs in one place and sits on them on top of the sea and with her egg, deep, existing, and the sea is unshakable, in seven days, until Alkonostov’s eggs hatch into the waters, in the depths, having emerged, they do not know their parents, these seven days the shipwomen are called Alkonostsky (...). Sirin, there is a bird from head to waist, the composition and image of a man, and from the waist there is a bird; They talk about this, saying very well about the depths of its existence, as if I would listen to its voice, forget all its life and go into the desert along it in the mountains to die astray (...).” There are images of the trees of paradise in the “Dove Book”; they are common to all Vedic descriptions of paradise, including the biblical one. The image of an inverted tree of paradise, as Vedic Knowledge descending from heaven, is found in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian conspiracies. See, for example: A.A. Potebnya. “Explanation of Little Russian and related folk songs” (II. Warsaw, 1887. P. 225): “On the sea, on the okiyan, on an island, on a mound, there is a white birch tree with its branches down, its roots up. On that birch tree is the mother of the Most Holy Theotokos...” The same image is in the Bhagavad-Gita, ch. 15. “There is an immortal banyan tree, whose roots grow upward and whose branches grow downward, and whose leaves are Vedic hymns. He who knows this tree knows the Vedas. In the Upanishads to the Bhagavad Gita, this tree is called the “eternal fig tree.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru