# "Peer" Research for Slavic-Inspired Fantasy



## AElisabet (Sep 1, 2016)

I just wanted to see if anyone knew of any Fantasy novels in English that drew their inspiration from Slavic Mythology / Culture?

In my current WIP, the central characters are from a culture that Slavic inspired.  I wouldn't necessarily call it a full on "fantasy counterpart culture" : if I was going to be more accurate I could say it is a mash up of Slavs / The Riders of Rohan / Valeryians / people of the Caucasus / Biblical Jews / my own imagination into a unique secondary world culture.

But I would say the biggest bulk of the culture and much of the plot of the novel is inspired by Slavic myth and culture: the Firebird, a Baba Yaga like figure, Rusalka like beings, a background that plays on the tale of St. George and the Dragon, icons, angels, Holy Fools, Sophiology, the concept of "Glory".  And patronymics.  (-ev for son, -evya for daughters.)  

I'm of partially Slavic descent myself (Slovak/Ruthenian mostly, but there is some Russian in there, too) so I'm pretty comfortable with the material itself.  I just want to know, what else is out there that is similar, that I should read to see how it has been used before?  I read _Uprooted_, (loved it!) and I am looking for more books like that to do "peer research".

Thanks!


FWIW The other cultures in the world are:
* High Medieval-inspired but more continental / Holy Roman Empire-ish than "Ye Old Englande"
* Scandinavian-inspired that are NOT Vikings.  They are non-warlike, Super-Nice peaceful people, but they defend themselves by passive aggressively keeping alive the belief in the rest of the world that their dark, cold land is absolutely CRAWLING with all sorts of scary supernatural stuff (even scary tomtes!) that will mess any invaders up. It's like "Minnesota Nice in Middle Earth".  Their Queen is a female version of Odin the Wanderer.


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## Gurkhal (Sep 1, 2016)

Not sure, but I think that the rather famous "Witcher" books have some Slavic inspiration given how the author is Polish and actually lives in Poland as well.


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## Laurence (Sep 1, 2016)

Sorry I can't be of any real help but you may want to peruse the google image results of the "slav squat" as a base to go on.


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