Technological map by discipline. Technological map of the lesson in the discipline "Electrical Engineering

- No, - answered Zorya Polunochnaya, - the cold does not bother me. It's my time. I am at ease at night, as a fish is at ease in the depths.

“You probably love the night,” Shadow said, and immediately regretted that he had not found anything more intelligent, more thoughtful.

“My sisters have their time. Zorya Morning lives in the dawn. AT old country she woke up to open the gate and let our father out on him - mmm, I forgot what it's called ... A car without wheels?

- A chariot?

- On his chariot. Our father was leaving. And Zorya Vechernyaya opened the gates for him at sunset, when he returned to us.

She paused, her lips full but very pale.

“I never saw our father. I was sleeping.

- Was it a disease?

She didn't answer. The shrug—if she shrugged—was barely audible.

"So you wanted to know what I'm looking at?"

- On a big bucket.

She raised her hand, pointing to the constellation, and the wind pulled the cloth over her body again. Her nipples showed momentarily dark through the white cotton. The shadow cringed.

“They call it the Chariot of Odin. And Ursa Major. Where we came from, they believed that something, not a deity, but like a god, something terrible, was chained among these stars. And if it breaks free, it will be the end of everything. And there are three sisters who have to watch the sky day and night long. And if a creature among the stars escapes, the world the end will come"frrr" and that's it.

And people believed in it.

- Yes. A long time ago.

“So you tried to see the monster among the stars?”

- Yes. Something like that.

He smiled. If it wasn't for the cold, he thought, he'd think he was still asleep. Everything that happened seemed like a dream.

– May I ask how old are you? You seem to be much younger than your sisters.

She nodded.

- I am the youngest. Zorya Utrennyaya was born in the morning, Zorya Vechernyaya was born in the evening, and I was born at midnight. I am a night sister: Zorya Polunochnaya. Are you married?

“My wife is dead. She died in a car accident a week ago. Yesterday was her funeral.

- I'm really sorry.

She came to see me yesterday. - In the darkness, scattered only by the light of the moon, it was not at all difficult to say; it was no longer so unthinkable as it was in daylight.

Did you ask her what she wants?

“Maybe you should do it. Smart people always ask the dead about it. Sometimes they even respond. Zorya Vechernyaya told how you played checkers with Chernobog.

- Yes. He won the right to blow my brains out.

- AT old days people were taken to the top of the mountain. Or a hill. To elevated places. The backs of their heads were smashed with a piece of stone. In the name of Chernobog.

Shadow looked around. No, they were alone on the roof.

“He’s not here, silly,” Zorya Polunochnaya laughed. “Besides, you won the game too. He has no right to strike before everything is over. He himself said so. And you will know in advance. Like the cows he killed. They always knew ahead. Otherwise, what's the point?

“It seems to me,” Shadow told her, “I found myself in a world that lives according to the laws of its own logic. By own rules. As if you are sleeping and you know that there are rules that cannot be broken. Even if you don't know what they mean. I'm trying to fit in with them, you know?

“I know,” she said, holding his hand in her icy palm. “One day you were given protection. You have been given the sun itself. But you already lost it. You gave it away All I can do is give you much weaker protection. Daughter, not father. But she will still help. Yes?

Blond hair fluttered around her face in the cold wind.

- Should I fight you? Or play chess? Shadow asked.

"You don't even have to kiss me," she smiled. “Just take the moon from me.

- Take the moon.

- I don't understand.

“Look,” said Zorya Polunochnaya.

Lifting left hand, she raised it in front of the moon as if she had grabbed the luminary between her thumb and forefinger. Then, in one smooth motion, she tore it off. For a moment it seemed to Shadow as if she had removed the moon from the sky, but then he saw that it was shining in the same place, and Zorya Polunochnaya opened her palm to show a silver dollar with the head of Liberty.

“Great job,” Shadow said. “I didn’t see you put the coin in your palm. I have no idea how you did it.

A swarthy, silent giant named Shadow emerges from prison to find out about the death of his beloved wife and embark on a strange adventure. Mr. Wednesday, an elderly, dapper rogue with a glass eye, calmly drinks whiskey as the plane takes off, without spilling a drop. A lanky red-haired leprechaun starts another fight in a roadside bar. In Los Angeles, in a room with crimson walls, dark-haired Bilquis trades her body, forcing buyers to worship her during intercourse. In Chicago, three sisters - Zorya Vechernyaya, Zorya Morning and Zorya Polunochnaya - predict people's fate with different success, but with an equally strong Eastern European accent. In his dreams, the Shadow walks through halls full of unknown deities, preserved only as dust in the fabric of half-forgotten myths. Such is the world of American Gods, and the TV series based on it, which hit theaters this spring.

Neil Gaiman does not have to complain about poor sales, most of his books immediately become bestsellers. But American Gods (2001) takes special place as one of the most significant works of the writer. The author did not originally see it as a movie - only in the format of a series, he did not want important plot details to be lost. However, things did not go well with the series from the very beginning. The famous channel was the first to film the novel. HBO, negotiations and work on the outline of the pilot series continued for years, but to no avail. Then the baton passed to another channel - starz, known for spectacular, albeit less intellectual series. Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller and Michael Green (Kings, Green Lantern, Blade Runner 2049) came to the project. Neil Gaiman actively collaborated with them as a consultant - after three years of work, American Gods still saw the light of day.

In Chicago, three sisters - Zorya Vechernyaya, Zorya Utrennyaya and Zorya Polunochnaya - predict the fate of people with different success, but with an equally strong Eastern European accent.

Despite the cheap computer graphics, the series turned out to be beautiful. It captures attention with a psychedelic screensaver, a little lurid, but charming in its own way. The video sequence is really pleasing to the eye - what is the awakening of the Shadow on an old sofa in a room full of ocher shadows. The actors are chosen carefully and most often close to the images of the heroes of the novel. Especially successful is Mr. Wednesday, played by Ian McShane - a charming swindler, exuding imperious and ironic self-confidence, able to make anyone dance to his tune.

Of course, it does not do without funny moments: the actors, for example, are not able to cope with Slavic words, turning the name “Zorya Vechernyaya” into “Zoraya Vechernaya”. Shadow (Ricky Whittle) emerges from prison in a flawless and obviously expensive suit. God-trickster Anansi (Orlando Jones), instead of a shriveled perky old man, appears on the screen as a kind of young Ethiopian Pushkin. But all this does not spoil the impression of the series too much. Worse is the writers' attempts to improve Gaiman.

Gaiman, a Briton who settled in the US, wrote his novel about difficult fate half-forgotten gods in the New World 16 years ago. Long before President Trump became main theme everything and everyone in America - from cartoons and performances by stand-up comedians to animated series. And the series is greeted here like this: “American Gods is more appropriate than ever, combined with Donald Trump in the White House and Brexit on the horizon.” This is the title The Independent .

“Neil Gaiman's book... is perfect for the Trump era. Perhaps the great novel about Trump's America has already been written, ” echoes The Guardian .

"American Gods" by our favorite author - now a TV series - now has more attitude to politics than ever. And that scares him," he says. Vulture .

Gaiman himself is cautious about statements about the acute topicality of his novel, either agreeing with them, or assuring that this came as a surprise to him. According to him, the novel was written about America as a country of immigrants, free or involuntary, and the protagonist, Shadow, and himself can be considered a true melting pot in terms of his racial origins. But when the novel was being written, "it didn't seem like anything particularly problematic, difficult, or even commendable."

God-trickster Anansi, instead of a shriveled perky old man, appears on the screen as a kind of young Ethiopian Pushkin.

The scriptwriters also claim that they did not expect such relevance, but they were just clearly trying to emphasize this relevance. However, oddly enough, it is in these moments updated by the screenwriters that American Gods looks most one-dimensional and helpless compared to the book.

This is especially noticeable at the beginning of the second series. Anansi, the spider-trickster of African tales, delivers a fiery speech to jazz roulades about the racial inequality that awaits the descendants of black slaves on the shores of a new continent. And then he takes off their shackles and calls for the destruction of the ship along with the Dutch traffickers: "Burn the sons of bitches!"

There is no such scene in the book. But there is a detailed and really tragic story sold into slavery by their uncles, the twins Agasu and Wututu. The story of the twins says: “Slavery has been part of the culture in those parts for thousands of years. Last great kingdoms East Africa destroyed the Arab slave traders; peoples West Africa took this work upon themselves and began to destroy each other." Not a word of this remained in Anansi's keynote speech.

Fremantle Media North America

The episode with the arrival of the Scandinavian gods in America has also been changed. When the northern sailors disembark, uninvited guests stops the shower of arrows, preventing them from deepening into the forest - apparently, on the coastal cliffs of Vinland, no less than a hundred autochthonous warriors with bows at the ready were on duty day and night. The Vikings, stuck on the sandy shore, waiting for the wind, have fun as much as they can: they cosplay Odin, gouging out their own eyes, burning their comrade alive, fighting wall to wall so that someone's severed hand flies out of the frame, still clutching the sword. Finally, a pleased deity sends them a wind, and those who survived after these amusements quickly sail home. All this is filmed brightly, recklessly, with fountains of thick cherry blood, which is loved by the TV channel starz and Bryan Fuller - and leaves behind the feeling of a cute but goofy booth.

In the novel, the adventures of the Vikings are described slowly, in the spirit of the Icelandic saga. The warriors do not meet anyone on the shore, they praise the All-Father-Odin, they establish a settlement. On the day of the Allfather, they first meet the red-skinned aboriginal scraeling, drink him with strong honey and sacrifice him to Odin. Months later winter night Indians capture a detachment of 30 strangers and kill them within a week of thirty different ways. Sailors disappear, but the northern deities they brought remain on the new shores. The series completely rewrites this story. Indeed, the scriptwriters could not have kept in the modern series a scene where white sailors sacrifice a native American.

Fremantle Media North America

It is impossible, and it is not necessary to shoot serials, following every letter of the source. But for some reason, the British "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" as a fantasy adaptation causes much more sympathy than "American Gods", which either try to accurately reproduce Gaiman's text, or surprise with completely new inserts. The original talks a lot about racism, and the slave trade, and discrimination, but it is done much more subtly and less intrusively. Attempts to add spice to the spicy, timeless pickle of American Gods leave a strange aftertaste, and with new episodes, it can be boring. Political topicality can reduce the play of the imagination to a flat slogan that good fantasy is not good. This puts American Gods on par with dystopian shows like The Man in the High Castle or The Handmaid's Tale.

But if at the beginning the story develops unevenly, jerkily, groping for the ground, then from the third series "American Gods" appear in all its glory. Fortunately, despite the tempting analogies to Trump's America, the series remains a story about things more important and eternal than today's political agenda. "American Gods" talks about mixing hundreds different cultures within one country, still looking for its identity. About the collision of disappearing traditions with ruthless globalization. And about how belief in the impossible helps to create miracles in spite of science and common sense- for example, make a snow storm just by looking at a small snowdrift of marshmallows in a paper cup.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is not only a novel that won the Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards, but also a kind of collection of world mythology. Neil Gaiman populated America with gods who came from different countries and different times, diluting the narrative with mythological inserts about other equally interesting folklore characters.

In addition to the division of gods into old and new proposed by the author, there are several more approaches to their study. Firstly, the gods known from mythology (Odin, Chernobog, Bast and others), and the gods created by the author himself (Nunyunnini - the ancient god-totem of nomads Far North, Zorya Polunochnaya, as well as the gods modern technologies, the Internet, television, the army, and so on). Secondly, the typology of gods according to belonging to the pantheons of different nationalities - Scandinavian, Slavic, ancient Egyptian, and so on. And the most interesting thing is the classification of deities according to their degree of development (according to the time of their occurrence and the level of development of the mythological and religious perception of a person). Precisely based on latest classification let's consider who exactly inhabits Neil Gaiman's America.

Chthonic gods

The very first in our classification are chthonic creatures that personify the primitive power of the earth, the underworld, death. As a rule, chthonic creatures are bestial or can change shape, they also include reptiles, ravens and wolves. However, in American Gods, the chthonic monster looks like a buffalo man, the embodiment of power and fertility. When asked by the Shadow if he is a god, the buffalo man replies that he is the earth. The buffalo man communicates with the Shadow in a dream, being in another world. In this world, the Shadow receives answers to his questions, and also acquires secret knowledge. It is noteworthy that there are creatures that can live in both worlds, these are Thunderbirds, similar to huge eagles, in whose feathers lightning flashes (a character of the beliefs of the Indians, the native inhabitants of America).

As Shadow learns, the feather of such a bird can bring a person back to life. In many mythologies, it is believed that birds spend the winter in the underworld, and this explains their magical abilities. It is the Thunderbird that brings the goddess of spring, dawn to the deceased hero in order to bring him back to life - this emphasizes symbolic meaning birds as messengers of the awakening of nature.

The representative has a chthonic origin Slavic mythology Chernobog. Chernobog, or the Black Serpent - the lord of the dark kingdom (the kingdom of Navi, trouble), cold, death, incarnation destructive power. brought to Chernobog blood sacrifice before the beginning important battles, which is why in modern world Chernobog worked at the slaughterhouse, where he could feed his strength. The myth of Chernobog demonstrates the dualism of the Slavic world, the division into good and bad, and if Chernobog was a symbol of bad, then Belobog, Belun, was his opposite. Over time, two opposite deities merged into one character, the embodiment of Fate, good and bad fate. In the novel, the transformation takes place on a different level - Chernobog himself turns into Belobog, literally waking up already different.

Gods are also associated with the underworld ancient egypt He and Anubis. In mythology, Anubis is engaged in embalming, monitors the resting places, and also accompanies the dead to the afterlife and weighs their hearts at the court of Osiris to determine their fate. In the modern world, Anubis hides under the name Shekel, works as a pathologist and periodically walks in the form of a black long-eared dog (it was in the image of such a dog, a jackal, or a man with a jackal's head that he was portrayed). The god of wisdom Thoth is also associated with the afterlife, it was believed that he guards the dead when they go to the kingdom of the dead, where he is present at the trial, recording the sentence of Osiris. He does not turn into his symbolic animal, but only looks like a heron, his name, of course, is Mr. Ibis. Thoth-Ibis, being also the god of writing, writes stories, stories about people who arrived from distant lands once in America.

Bloody sacrifices were made to Chernobog before the start of important battles, which is why in the modern world Chernobog worked in a slaughterhouse, where he could feed his strength.

A little predictably, the Egyptian gods live in a city called Thebes and own the "Funeral Home of Ibis and Shekel", after the death of the Shadow, they appear in their true role.

Heavenly gods with chthonic roots

An intermediate place between the chthonic underground and the heavenly gods that replaced them is occupied by the central character of Scandinavian mythology - the supreme god Odin. One or Wotan is the god of war and military skill, witchcraft and wisdom, wealth and fertility. In the time section, one can trace the genesis of Odin from the chthonic demon to the inhabitant of the heavenly abode, Asgard.

As the supreme god, Odin retained his chthonic companions, the ravens Hugin and Munin (“thinking” and “remembering”), the wolves Geri and Freki (“greedy and gluttonous”), as well as the eight horse Sleipnir (“gliding”). In Gaiman's America, Odin is represented by the nickname Wednesday (Wednesday), since this is the only name of a god that has come down to modern times. Odin has many names, as he himself says (Grim, Gangleri, Warrior, Third, Allfather), but all of them are now forgotten, except for one that is preserved in the name of the day of the week, Wednesday. In German culture, this day is dedicated to Odin, just like Thursday to Thor, and Friday - women's day - to Freya. The Germans replaced the Roman names of the days of the week with the names of their deities, and so the day of Odin, Wotan, Woden appeared - Wuotanestac (Old German), Woensdag (Dutch) and, respectively, Wednesday (English).

He has a recognizable appearance - a red beard and a glass eye, as well as a pin in the form of a branching tree. AT Everyday life Wednesday trades in scams and seduces girls.

Odin has an assistant, the god of cunning and reincarnation, Loki, in the modern world - Dexterous Cosmo Day (Loki Koznodey). Loki comes from the Jotun family, northern giants, symbolizing wildlife. Jotuns were considered the first inhabitants of the world, ancient giants. Aces took him to themselves for a dodgy mind, not characteristic of giants. Thanks to his ability to reincarnate, Loki became the father of chthonic monsters - the serpent Jörmungand (World Serpent encircling the Earth), the wolf Fenrir (the god of Horror) and the goddess of death Hel, as well as the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In American Gods, Loki reincarnates as the trusted supporter of the new gods, Mr. World, who is trying to unleash Ragnarok, a war between the old and new gods, in order to get their power and energy that he and Odin need. The reason for the war is supposedly the murder of Odin by the new gods, which provokes a desire for revenge in the old gods. As is known from mythology, Odin has already sacrificed himself to himself in order to resurrect more powerful, renewed.

sky gods

As the mythological and religious consciousness develops, chthonic deities are replaced by heavenly, solar gods, in many cultures there are myths about their battles, which serves as a transition to new era. The inhabitants of heaven are identified with celestial phenomena and luminaries, as well as with the forces of nature. The plot, when a heavenly deity (most often a goddess), is in the underground chthonic kingdom for some time, and then returns, symbolizes spring, the rebirth of nature.

There is also a goddess with such semantics in the novel, this is Easter, White. Before us is the ancient Germanic Ostara, the goddess of spring and dawn, the renewal of nature and fertility, whose name was later associated with Easter. The etymology of the name "Ostara" leads us to common Indo-European roots and similar deities - goddesses of the dawn in Greek, Roman, Indian and Baltic mythology - Eos, Aurora, Ushas, ​​Austra.

One has already sacrificed himself to himself in order to resurrect more powerful, renewed.

Esther (Easter) appears in the form of a beautiful, voluptuous blond woman who offers refreshments, a kind of sacrifice - eggs and rabbit meat. The trouble with Easter lies in the fact that people, happily performing the necessary rituals in honor of Easter, do not know, do not think about what it really means. It is Easter, White, that brings the Shadow back to life at the request of Horus. The shadow thus completes its transformation from a sacrifice to the gods into a symbol of renewal and life.

It is also worth noting that the protagonist of the novel, Shadow Moon, has divine nature as the son of Odin and, accordingly, his mythological prototype. His real name becomes known to the reader only in the second book of the trilogy, King of the Mountain Valley.

His name is Balder, like the god of spring and the awakening of life, the beloved son of Odin and Frigga. The myth of Baldr is built around his death, which acts as a harbinger of Ragnarok - the so-called necessary sacrifice. So the Shadow-Balder sacrifices himself to start a war, and in the same way returns to life.

An intermediate place between the chthonic and heavenly gods is occupied by the character of the West African and, as a result, the mythology of the Antilles, Anansi. Anansi in translation means "spider", it is both a demiurge and a trickster, a cunning and trickster, acts both in zoomorphic and anthropomorphic forms. The final book of the trilogy, "Sons of Anansi", is dedicated to his story, in the first part of Anansi, only the role of a companion is assigned without its own storyline, but, as the proverb says, "There is no fairy tale without Anansi."

The heavenly gods include the ancient Egyptian Bast and Horus mentioned in the novel, who prefer to be in the images of their totem animals. Bast, the goddess of joy, love, fertility and the hearth, walks in the form of a small brown cat during the day, but at night she transforms into beautiful woman. It is important to note the time of transformation here, because Bast is also associated with the moon, in one of the myths it becomes the "eye" of the moon. The god of the sun and sky, Horus, almost forgot how to turn into a man and speak, remaining in the guise of a hawk.

Neil Gaiman’s list of celestial deities is completed by the three sisters of Dawn - Dawn Morning, Evening and Midnight - this is the author’s greatest mythological retreat, since in Slavic mythology only Dawn Morning is known, opening the gates to the Sun-Dazhdbog, and Dawn Evening, closing the gates after his return (in different options Dawns give and take away the horses of the Sun, the chariot or its keys). Neil Gaiman introduces a third sister, Midnight, who is closely associated with the Moon, not the Sun - there is no character with a similar role in Slavic mythology. In the novel, it is Zorya Polunochnaya who is active, she gives Shadow a magical silver coin, and later visits him in the other world, and the roles of her sisters, Morning and Evening Dawn, are simplified, reduced to fortune-telling and housekeeping.

Fictional "new gods"

The final place in our classification is occupied by the "new gods", who replace the heavenly gods. It is to them that humanity is now sacrificing the most important thing - its time.

The so-called new gods in the novel do not have names, only a description - this is a "fat young man" who embodies the Internet, as well as all technologies, a television girl, as well as multiple gods of everything that people believed in and what interests they are now - huge gray gods of airplanes, mighty gods of cars with serious faces and unknown phosphorescent spots that can symbolize anything. It is noteworthy that the “fat young man” does not feel well outside the network access zone, and the television girl is at the same time similar to all TV presenters and can take on any appearance.

However, the new gods are also afraid that someone will come to replace them, something that people will believe in more. This idea is illustrated by the mention of the god of the locomotive, now an elderly forgotten man.

Neil Gaiman inhabits America with many gods of various origins, with their own unique character and behavior - people bring them as a memory of their homeland on a new continent, or create them with their faith and worship. However, sooner or later, faith stops, humanity finds a new object, and very soon we will find out what will replace the god of the Internet. ■

Olga Pogorelova

On April 30, the Starz channel releases the main premiere of the season - a series based on the novel by Neil Gaiman "American Gods". Cinemafia tells who is who in this novel (and series).

16 years ago, celebrated novelist Neil Gaiman took the idea of ​​a "melting pot" as the basis of the book, added a touch of fantasy and a handful of mythology. It turned out to be an excellent and exciting brew-book, which is extremely inconvenient to carry with you on the subway due to big size. In 2013, HBO became interested in the novel, which planned to expand the narrative and bring it to 6 seasons, of which only the first two would be adaptations of the same name. literary source. But things stalled for unknown reasons, the project went to Starz, where it was happily accepted by writers Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (Logan). The first episode at SXSW went off with a bang, with fans appreciating both the proper atmosphere and the right cast. And we, mere mortals, humbly wait for the last Sunday of April.

Gods live in the same world as humans. People from different countries, moving to America, took their gods with them, worshiped them on the new earth, called on them to help. But now no one is making sacrifices, and, once honored, now the ancient gods are forced to dodge as best they can. In the meantime, other idols take over time and people's minds - humanity worships technology, and the gods of transport, media and television flourish. The battle is coming.

To understand who is who in this modern confused world, we offer a brief overview-excursion into the history of the American Gods.

Shadow Moon

To understand such a world out of habit is quite difficult not only for an ordinary viewer / reader. So the main character will help us. Shadow Moon served three years for a fight, but in prison he met pleasant personalities, improved his knowledge of history and learned all kinds of tricks with coins. He is released a couple of days before the end of his term due to not very pleasant circumstances - his wife Laura died in a car accident. On his way to the funeral, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who offers Shadow a job. There is nothing special for him to do, so he agrees. Apathetic and not suffering from too much information, the Shadow is difficult to surprise, and he easily accepts new secrets.

Mr Wednesday

He is Odin, he is also a traveler, he is High, he is the Sage, he is the master of everything. God the father and father of gods and people, the god of war and poetry.

Where did you come from? Ancient Scandinavia.

How did you get to America? Hardly on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Most likely, he found himself on the shores of Vinland in the longship of Leif Eriksson or his brother Thorvald, and perhaps their predecessors, who prayed to the supreme god for the appearance of the cherished land on the horizon. One way or another, the one-eyed sage (and he exchanged his eye for the right to take a sip from the source of wisdom) and his pair of mnemonic ravens by the end of the tenth century not only saw the volcanoes of Iceland, inhabited by the Vikings a century earlier, but also overwintered in the then justifying the name of Greenland, discovered Leif Eriksson's father, Erik the Red. One is an adventurer, longs for something new and is not afraid to sacrifice a lot (once he hung for nine days, pinned to a tree with his own spear), and therefore it is possible that it was he who whispered the ideas of risky enterprises to the inhabitants of the North.

Mad Sweeney

Leprechaun. Not good and not evil. Typical Irish. Ryzh, eager to fight and drink. Likes tricks with coins.

Where did you come from? Eirin, Emerald Isle, Ireland.

How did you get to America? Even before the Irish became zealous Catholics, many madmen went to try their luck in search of the Isles of Bliss. Among them are the legendary Mail Duin and Bran, on fragile little boats made of wicker and leather - currachs (and, presumably, with a fair supply of whiskey) - crossing the ocean ten centuries before Columbus (if, of course, you believe all the legends from the manuscripts and tales from pubs).

Anansi

The dark-skinned god of the Ashanti tribe. Creator of all living things and all that is. He loves tricks and skillfully talks about his adventures, which, as a rule, are not very successful and serve as moralizing. In most of the tales, he appears in the form of a spider. In one of the tales, having collected wisdom in a pot, Anansi tried to climb a tree, but dropped it and broke it, and the rain arrived in time washed away the remnants of wisdom, so that very little of it remained on the ground.

Where did you come from? West coast of Africa.

How did you get to America? In the holds of slave ships sailing to the shores of America. transit through the islands of the Caribbean. On the web of the corners of the maps and in the songs of the oppressed then not African Americans, but simply "black goods".

Anubis and Thoth

ancient gods afterlife. Anubis is either a wolf or a jackal, the lord of the souls of the dead, a judge who evaluates human deeds on his scales with a feather. He is the prototype of all bureaucrats, the inventor of writing; a creature with the head of an ibis, stating facts and fixing them in itself.

Where did they come from? From that Egypt where everyone worshiped the sun and the Nile. From the world of pharaohs and portraits in profile.

How did you get to America? According to Thor Heyerdahl, a papyrus boat is capable of crossing the ocean (albeit not on the first try).

Chernobog

A collective image of East Slavic deities and stereotypes about bad Russian guys. He swings a sledgehammer like Perun, drinks like Boris Yeltsin. According to some reports, he gave birth to the Serpent Gorynych and Viy.

Where did you come from? From pagan Russia with brownies, wood goblins and other kikimors.

How did you get to America? With the help of a chur and some mother. Or maybe under the dust jacket of Slavic books from the Philosophical Steamboat.

Loki

In fact, he is not even a god, but he is admitted by Odin to the circle of the elect for incredible cunning and resourcefulness. Loki is a typical trickster, he is the epitome of endless play and walking on the edge. He creates problems and he masterfully fixes them. He steals the apples of eternal youth and saves them from the hands of the giants. Loses an argument in which his head was at stake, but gets out, stating that the neck remains his property.

Where did you come from? From the same lands as Odin.

How did you get to America? Verno set the sails on the Viking ships, and then stole from them the memory of the journey home.

Bilkis

She is the Queen of Sheba, she is Yalmaka. In the book, her role is minimized, a very small but addictive story is devoted to her. AT Old Testament she is a rich and intelligent ruler, who generously endowed King Solomon, who solved all her riddles. But in the Ethiopian legends, which most likely inspired Neil Gaiman, Bilquis gave rise to the Solomonid family, a dynasty of Ethiopian kings who ruled until the 10th century (and, according to the last Ethiopian emperor, until 1936).

Where did you come from? From somewhere in East Africa or from the Sinai Peninsula

How did you get to America? Arrived under the cover of one of the many Thor.

Dawns

Evening, Morning and Midnight Dawns are three ladies, incarnations of norns aka moirs, goddesses who decide the fate of the world, to whom Odin turned for advice. They are found in many religions, but in the interpretation of the novel they came along with Chernobog.

Where did they come from? From Europe.

How did you get to America? In the superstitions of the Old Believers.