From Northern Folklore to the Mediterranean

In my earlier article Mediterranean Chud — From Russians to Arabs, From Chud to “Palestinians”, I used the old word Chud as a metaphor. The term has long appeared in Russian and Scandinavian sources, referring to various Finno-Ugric peoples living to the north and west of early Slavic lands.

But the word did not remain a simple ethnographic label. Over centuries it migrated into folklore, myth, and storytelling, where it acquired a wide range of meanings — sometimes historical, sometimes symbolic, and sometimes completely fantastical.

Understanding these layers helps illuminate how names evolve and how societies reinterpret the past.

In medieval chronicles, including the Primary Chronicle, the name Chud referred broadly to Finno-Ugric populations around the Baltic and the forests of northern Eastern Europe.

Importantly, the term was rarely a self-designation. It was an external label applied by neighboring peoples whose languages and cultures differed.

In other words, “Chud” originally meant something like “those other people over there.”

This vagueness later made the word fertile ground for folklore.

One of the most famous legends is that of the “White-Eyed Chud” (Чудь Белоглазая).

In Russian folklore........

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