In the course of the 19th century, attempts were made to create a Bulgarian mythology out of folk superstitions and customs, ancient remains (Thracian, Proto-Bulgarian, or Common-Slavic) as retrieved by archeologists, and ancient texts.

The constructors of an ancient Bulgarian pantheon, one of whose most representative figures was Georgi Rakovski (1821–1867), sampled heterogeneous elements – Common-Slavic, folkloric, Indian, Christian. Each of these, waywardly interpreted, was integrated into a consistent Bulgarian image. These ideas were explicitly outlined in Rakovski’s “Index or manual on how to select and to search the eldest features of our way of life, language, origins, our old government, glorious future, etc.” (1859) and in his article “Bulgarian national faith” in Bălgarska starina (“Bulgarian Antiquity”, 1860).

The sources of Rakovski’s mythological reconstructions are mainly contemporary: writings by west-European philologists and mythological scholars (Max Müller, Franz Bopp, August Schleicher), Slav-minded intellectuals (Pavol Šafárik, Franc Miklošič, Václav Hanka), and his Bulgarian precursors and contemporaries (Konstantin Fotinov, Jordan Hadžikonstantinov-Džinot). Rakovski’s main source dates from the 9th century: Pope Nicolas I’s reply to the enquiries made by Boris I in the 860s. Fieldwork on popular customs and folk songs, though scarce, was also used. According to his reconstruction (which even today is still not entirely refuted), the Slavic pantheon is headed by Perun, “god of thunder, lightning and rain clouds”; he is followed by Volos, “god of cattle”, Pozvid or Pohvist or Vihrom, “god of the air and bad weather”, Lada and her son Lel, “god of rejoicing and welfare”, Kupalo (Jarilo), “god of the fruits of the soil”, and Koljada, “goddess of winter”.

Among the naive and superficial latter-day attempts to reconstruct ancient cultural relics, the folkloric mystification Veda slovena (“the Vedas of the Slavs”, 1874-81) also stands out.

Interestingly, neither Rakovski nor his many successors felt any tension between antiquarian paganism and Christianity: both are appreciated positively and are syncretistically combined.