In the prose of a Bulgarian modernist, Nikolai Raynov, the author of a collection of short-stories entitled Bogomilski legendi, there often appear telling characters, the archetypes of which can be traced down to the Holy Scriptures, Apocrypha or to still earlier, some of them historical, sources. Among them we can find Moses leading the chosen nation to the Promised Land, who, according to Raynov, spent a dozen years contemplating in silence so that will and spirit would prevail; Solomon, the king of peace, "strong in wisdom", who owns his power to the knowledge of the secrets of nature; Melchizedek, a priest "pure in spirit" and "strong in spirit", who, like a modernistic artist, "knew profoundly the soul of a man and reached into each innermost recess of the heart"; Abraham and Daniel, perfect and beautiful and enriched with Dionysiacal elements by Raynov. Scarcely do such characters appear in the Bulgarian literature of the 20th century. The question arises about their mutual denominator. All of these characters are lonely, yet strong, powerful and creative. All the heroes are characterised by wisdom an attribute of faith, by rejection of women seen as weak, wretched creatures leading to death. We can notice that weak characters, directed by mercy and compassion, die because these emotions lead towards slavery and death.
Loneliness, wisdom, the power of creation, wealth, suffering and pain, and, the treatment of women as a destruction-bound vanity are all attributes of a priest, who is a mediator between the God and men.
Raynov distinctly supports a strong character, a powerful, ruthless individual still creative and full of affirmation of life and he, evidently declares himself in favour of Nietzsche's philosophy and his concept of an Übermensch. The writer strays away from the Holy Scriptures, to a great extent, but at the same time he refers the reader to the Bible and Apocrypha, to the symbolism of numerals, colours, animals taken from the literatures of the East. Syncretism of cultures so typical of Modernism appears also in the Bulgarian literature. It is, beyond doubt, a feature common to modernistic literary works of other countries.