speaking on chornobyl, the word chornobyl, lit. "black-weed", is one of ukrainian folk names for wormwood. there is a legend about wormwood, described in vasyl tovstyi's book "legends and myths of ukraine". in this legend, a girl got lost in the forest and fell into a cave with vipers, who didn't eat anything, but when they got hungry they licked a stone. so when the girl got hungry herself, she licked the serpent's stone too, and from now on she understood the language of herbs and beasts. and so she lived in the cave until spring, and when the spring came, it was time for the serpents to leave the underearth and into the human world, and so the cave opened and stairs appeared, and the girl could leave. but the serpent tsarytsia told her: "you now know the language of beasts and herbs, but never say the word "wormwood" (chornobyl), or you will forget all this in an instant". the girl was excited to return home and ran to her village, but then, a voice came from behind her, and asked: "what is this herb, with the leaves all black?" and the girl, lost in her longing for home, answered: "chornobyl". and so all her knowledge was lost. this is why, the legend says, chornobyl is also called "zabudka" or "zabudiok" (forget-weed).