Influence of the Slavic Mythology on the Occidental Pop Culture

Its an undeniable fact that our world is linked with profound and unbreakable ties. But
sometimes, we do not know how much we have influenced each others in the course of
time. Elements that are nowadays commonly used by Hollywood for making summer
blockbuster horror movies are inspired, or sometimes just copied and pasted, from
European and Asian folklorical creatures. So, in the following speech, Im going to
show you some well-known examples of movies and books elements that were taken
and adapted from Slavic culture without a single mention of it.
Im going to start with some classics. Im sure everybody has heard about the little
Snow white, the princess who had to run away from her evil step mothers hunter that
was sent to kill her and so on. Well, Grimm brothers inspired in the legend of Renfri,
also known as Crvid. According to the legend, she was a princess who deserted of her
charge and ran away to the woods of Creyden, near to nowadays Moscow, the Russian
Capital. She joined to a band of seven bandits and started striking Royals Taxes
Collectors Caravans. Its said that she died in the same woods, after an encounter with
Stefan Tvrtko I, King of Bosnia.
Many popular creations such as witches or vampires are also greatly inspired in the
Slavic culture. For example, the figure of a witch as an old lady, flying around on her
broom is a clearly adaptation of the myth of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is described as an
old, raw-boned and wizened lady with iron teeth; with one normal leg and other boned
and rotten. She moves around eating people, flying from side to side inside a cooking
pot, paddling in the air with a broom. She represents the last age of every lady, because
in the classic Slavic culture, all ladies past trough three stages or ages: The Virgin, The
Mother and The Witch. So, they all end becoming witches, its just a matter of time.
In the field of fantastic literature, there is not a book that does not have a representation
or version of elves. The elves were first introducted by Heinrich Heine in his well-
known and important book called The Germany, book in which posteriori was based
the opera called Le Villi, by Giacomo Puccini, this two works were based in the Slavic
Mythological creature called Willi or Villi, a female inmortal humanoid which were
known for living at the woods.
In conclusion, our world has always been connected, and we have been influencing each
other since the first ship was built. As we saw, many of the elements that we consider
European or American werent invented there. There is an important idea to consider
and to think about, because, maybe, anything we think that comes from ourselves and
our culture exclusively could have been inspired by any other culture around the world.
Nebedaye