Peroun

(Perun)

   The Slavonic thunder god, who gave his name to Thursday (Perendan), in the same manner as Thor gave it to the northern races and Orko to the Basques. He drove across the sky in a fiery chariot launching shafts of lightning. He was also lord of the harvest, and, as such, may be equated with Perkunas. At Novgorod a fire of oak wood was always kept burning in front of his effigy; the penalty for letting it out was death. He may have been brought as Thor by Scandinavian traders to the cities of Novgorod and Kiev. In the tenth century treaties between the Slavs and the Byzantines were sworn in the name of Peroun. He was one of the Kiev group of gods, the others being Da-Bog, Khors, and Stribog. He was also equated with Trojanu.