Slavic mythology · God of fire and the forge
Svarog
The heavenly smith, whose story survives only in a gloss on a translated Greek myth.
Stories and legends
Svarog is the god of fire and forging, the smith of heaven. Legend says that iron tongs fell from the sky, and from then on people learned to forge weapons instead of using only clubs and stones. He also set the rules of marriage for people, requiring monogamy, with offenders to be thrown into the furnace as punishment. His son is Dazhbog, god of the sun, and the sun rises every day from the fire of his father's forge, bringing light and warmth to the world.
Origins of the story
What can be verified is the unusual nature of the source. The name Svarog appears only in a marginal note in the Slavic translation of the chronicle of John Malalas, quoted in the 1114 entry of the Primary Chronicle. In that note, the translator rendered the Greek god of fire and smiths, Hephaestus, as Svarog, and the sun god Helios as Dazhbog. In other words, the surviving story of Svarog is a translated passage of a myth set in Egypt, in which the translator replaced Greek divine names with names familiar to Slavic readers. Apart from that, no independent East Slavic text mentions Svarog again. There is therefore not enough evidence to present him as a native chief god with his own cult and temples, and that point remains uncertain here. Whether Svarog and Svarozhich are one god or father and son is also a point on which scholars disagree, so both views are presented side by side here.
Places you can visit
You can see bellows, anvils, and furnace fire in a traditional smithy in a folk village in Eastern Europe, and learn the real-world counterpart of the legend in which iron tongs fell from heaven and people learned to forge. At folk festivals you may occasionally see modern reconstructions of Svarog, though those are modern works of restoration, not ancient originals. When you visit a smithy, please mind the furnace fire and flying sparks and keep a safe distance.
Source leads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/svarog；https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%C5%BEbog
Image source · A traditional smithy in Finland (symbolising Svarog's forge, not an image of the god) · Wasapl · CC BY-SA 3.0