Sun-Eater, Moon-Swallower

The Chuvash, the Kazan Tatars and the Bashkirs are Turkic-speaking peoples which have long inhabited the Volga region in Russia. For centuries, Islam and Orthodox Christianity have coexisted and blended here with folk religiosity and “pagan” beliefs. Delving into this rich cultural landscape, Sun-Eater, Moon-Swallower offers an encyclopaedic collection of narratives about mythical beings recorded among these Volga Turkic peoples. The first section of the book contains almost two hundred entries, analysing unpublished ethnographic material and rare publications and further exploring the linguistic background of the names of the various mythical entities. The second section is an anthology of texts which serve to contextualise the entries of the first section. It consists of pagan prayers, healing incantations, and stories about harmful creatures, which appear in English translation for the first time.