Peryn (Russian: Перынь, IPA: [pʲɪˈrɨnʲ]) is a peninsula near Veliky Novgorod (Russia), noted for its medieval pagan shrine complex,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and for its later well-preserved monastery.

The Peryn peninsula is at the confluence of Lake Ilmen and the River Volkhov, 6 km (3.7 mi) south of the city of Veliky Novgorod.

Accordingly, the Peryn island appears to have played a role similar to that of the Vatican Hill in the sense of its functions in the medieval Novgorod and its later history.

Early Slavs used to set up anthropomorphic statues of wood, picturing their gods to serve the cult, and in 980 in Peryn it was carried out this way: "In the year 6488 [980] <...> Vladimir appointed his uncle Dobrynya to rule in Novgorod.

Божество это имело вид человека с кремнем в руке, похожим на громовую стрелу (молнию) или луч.

И если служитель при этом огне по нерадению допускал огню потухнуть, то наказывался смертью" (Modern Russian translation) As paganism implies many deities, Perun was not the only god in the heathen pantheon of Novgorod.

[25][nb 3] The first Christians erected the Church of the Transfiguration in Novgorod,[26] but the government in Kiev was indifferent towards their religion, until Vladimir the Great was baptized in 988.

[2][34] Subsequently, the Peryn shrine, being the main spiritual complex in the second most important city in the Russian state,[35] was ravaged and destroyed.

A settler of the valley of Pitba [a river] went to the river in the early morning, preparing to go to the city to sell pottery; [the idol of] Perun hit the shore, and [the man] pushed away the idol with a stick, saying: “You say, Perun, you had enough to eat and drink, so get away now”, and the vicious one floated away" ____________________ "В лѣта шесть тысящь четырѣста деветьдесятъ седмаго.

And everyone was ordered not to accept him [i.e. not to pull the idol ashore]" ____________________ "Вшелъ бѣаше бѣсъ въ Перуна и нача кричати: «О горѣ!

И заповѣда нiкомуже нигдѣже не переяти его" (Old East Slavic language, Old Novgorod dialect, adopted writing) The legend about the mace of Perun, thrown down on the Great Bridge, was seminal and linked with the Novgorodian tradition of arranging wrestling matches between the citizens of different districts of the medieval city.

[43][44] The significant attribute of the wrestling battles were maces (a symbol of Perun): a sidenote in the Book of Royal Degrees tells us that the maces with tin pips for use in the wrestling matches were kept inside the Church of Boris and Gleb, and Nikon the Metropolitan burned them down in 1652, stopping “that devilish trizna [after the deity]”.

Two centuries later, in 1859, the Russian writer Pavel Yakushkin, when he was near Novgorod, wrote down an oral legend about Perun the serpent and Peryn, told to him by a Novgorodian fisherman.

[48] "...The elder son of Sloven called Volhv[nb 4] was a devil worshipper and a wizard, and was ferocious towards people.

He [used to] achieve many dreams by means of devilish tricks and turn himself into a ferocious beast, a crocodile, lying down deeply in the river Volhov on a waterway, devouring some who did not worship him, and lacerating and drowning others.

He, the damned wizard, erected a small burg for the sake of midnight dreamings and devilish assemblies in a certain place called Peryn [in the original variant - Perynia], where an idol of Perun stood [before].

And on the third day of the trizna the ground slumped in, absorbing the crocodile’s odious body, and the grave fell down into the depths of hell, and still the hole has reportedly not been filled."

Сего же ради людие, тогда невегласи, сущим богом окаяннаго того нарицая и Грома его, или Перуна, рекоша, руским бо языком гром перун именуется.

И баснословят о сем волхве невегласи, глаголюще: "В боги сел, окаяннаго претворяюще".

И по трех убо днех окаяннаго того тризнища проседеся земля и пожре мерзкое тело коркодилово, и могила его просыпася с ним купно во дно адово, иже и доныне, яко ж поведают, знак ямы тоя не наполнися" (Early Modern Russian) As frequently occurs after a Christianization, people reconcile the mental conflict in their minds after changing their religion, substituting heathen gods with Christian saints, making it easier for them to virtually adhere to the old cult, traditions, symbolism and values without betraying the Christian religion.

[51] The results of Sedov are consistent with those of Artemi Artsihovsky, who was looking for the remains of the shrine in the chapel's basement two years earlier (in 1948), and had not found them.

[52][56] Sedov in his survey ties that fact with what is known about the cult of Perun, and suggests that the bulges in the ditch were for ritual bonfires.

[1] Based on the results of the excavations he claims: while one group of people was engaged in chopping the wooden idol down, another was covering the bonfires with soil and destroying the altar.

[1] In 1952 Sedov continued the excavations and discovered two circle-shaped constructions of a smaller size to the sides of the main shrine.

Russian historians Vladimir Konetsky and Lev Klein argue that Sedov had found a burial mound, not a shrine.

[4] The chronicle tells us that the monastery was one of 24 cloisters burned down by the Novgorodians so that they would not be left to the followers of Dmitry Donskoy,[65] the Grand Prince of Moscovy who acted against Novgorod in 1386.

Photios the Archimandrite, when he was a hieromonk in Saint Petersburg, dismissed the popular idea of the times emphasizing direct communication between a man and the God outside the influence of the church.

[72] He undertook extensive repairs of the Yuriev Monastery and on Peryn Islet, relying on financial support from Duchess Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya,[8] his rich god daughter.

[68] The monastery was extended in the 1830s and in the beginning of the 1940s: the red-bricked cells for the monks were erected along with two small buildings for an abbot and an archimandrite in the same architectural style.

The monks had many prescriptions, one of them being that women were only allowed to visit the monastery once a year on September 8, the day of the Nativity of Our Lady.