Who is Irij?
Iriy, Vyrai (Belarusian: Вырай, Polish: Wyraj), Vyriy (Russian: Вырий, Ирий, Ирей, Ukrainian: Вирій, Ірій, Ирій), or Irij (Croatian, Czech, Slovak: Ráj, Raj, Irij, Serbian: Ириј) is a mythical place in Slavic mythology where "birds fly for the winter and souls go after death" that is sometimes identified with paradise. Spring is believed to have arrived on Earth from Vyrai. According to Andrzej Szyjewski, initially the Early Slavs believed in only one Vyrai, connected to the deity known as Rod—it was apparently located far away beyond the sea, at the end of the Milky Way. According to folkloristic fables, the gates of Vyrai were guarded by Veles, who sometimes took the animal form of a raróg, grasping in its claws the keys to the otherworlds. It was often imagined as a garden beyond an iron gate that barred the living from entering, located in the crown of the cosmic tree. Whereas the branches were said to be nested by the birds, who were usually ...
