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There is indeed very little known about Radegast. I have been doing a lot of research on that, because it's sort of my area of expertise, but there isn't really much to add besides what's been said here already. The connection between the god and the Wizard is a connection every person in my home country makes when they read about Radagast in the Hobbit/LotR, because his statue and former sacred spot on Mt. Radhošť is one of the sort of classic Czech historical/cultural spots (it's anyway the only known "real" Radegast-cult place, as far as I know). Radegast was probably manifested in different ways in different places, his cult is traceable into a few randomly isolated places in today western Russia, Czech Republic, and the Baltic countries.
The Czech version of Radegast, what we know of - mostly only from writings of Christian monks, much later than the cult itself actually bloomed, so the information again may be very much distorted or most of it not remembered anymore - is that he was supposed to have something to do with sun, harvest; possibly he was a solar deity. Or that is one theory.
The etymology G55 mentioned, with the meaning "council-guest" would actually be plausible in the Western Slavonic context, from rada (council) + host (guest), but it is a very, let's say, "fringe" interpretation. Also not certain why would the name of the god come from that in the first place.
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories
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11-09-2013, 05:10 AM
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