Another Ivan in "The Tale of Vasilisa the Golden Spit" also saves all the people and his own from a terrible snake that captivated the beauties and his own sister. Ivan Peas is a strong and formidable hero, ready to deal with any evil, protect his native land and defend the honor of his sister. But in the fairy tale "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf" the wolf acts as a more positive character, Ivan Tsarevich was only lucky to meet such a faithful and devoted friend. The same trend can be observed in the fairy tales "The Little Humpbacked Horse", "By the Pike's Command" and many others.
The Russian people for the most part believed that “the humpbacked grave would fix it,” therefore, the transformation of the hero from a negative character into a positive one is not typical for Russian fairy tales.
The most positive female characters in Russian fairy tales are Vasilisa the Beautiful and the Wise. The Russian beauty is primarily distinguished by intelligence and kindness, she helps her chosen one defeat evil with cunning and ingenuity, get a magical item or direct it to the wise. Oddly enough, but in some fairy tales even Baba Yaga can be positive, which supplies the traveler with parting words, ancient knowledge and provides material assistance in the form of magic items: a scarf, a comb, a ball of thread or a mirror.
Positive heroes of foreign fairy tales
The heroes of European fairy tales are fundamentally different from Russian ones, they are physically weak, intelligence and cunning are not sung in them like in folklore. Such qualities as kindness, humility, and diligence come to the fore. Snow White and Cinderella are downtrodden beauties, born for love and luxury, but, by the will of evil people, they are obliged to play the role of servants. They make no effort to change their fate, they are submissive to it and freed from the shackles only by chance. Moreover, the main idea of such fairy tales is the idea that only virtue and diligence are necessary for the triumph of justice, and God or good fairies will generously reward the heroine for all hardships.Pinocchio is a fairy tale by an Italian writer about the transformation of a stupid, naughty and sometimes cruel wooden doll into a kind and caring boy. Pinocchio or Pinocchio are one of the most positive children's characters.
Heroes-warriors in foreign fairy tales are presented quite rarely, one of the few such characters is Cipollino, although this is more the image of a revolutionary fighting dictators against the bourgeoisie and slavery. Another positive hero stands apart - the medieval revolutionary Robin Hood. The collective image of the noble robber-warrior is romanticized and inspired. He fights evil in the face of cruel feudal lords, lawlessness and injustice.
Oriental tales in their ideas are closer to Russian ones, for example, Aladdin is an analogue of Ivan the Fool or Emelya. Oriental characters, like Russians, are often helped by cunning, dexterity and resourcefulness, the most popular hero is the “Baghdad thief”, a criminal who managed to fool more than a dozen moneybags around his finger and was never caught. Practically in every Arabian fairy tale there is also a guiding hand - as in the Russian tradition, this is a woman. The smart and cunning wife of Ali Baba, Sakine, Scheherazade, like Vasilisa in Russian fairy tales, personifies such quick wit and ingenuity that is inherent only in women.
The artist Roman Papsuev created a series of drawings in which he rethought the images of the heroes of the fairy tales of Ancient Russia. In the author's interpretation, such heroes as Ilya Muromets, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Kashchei the Immortal and many others. others may well look like characters from the fantasy world.
Ilya Muromets. Began, of course, with him. By the way, a bottle of dead water hangs on his belt, to treat wounds. And with a shield, he can quite destroy enemies. I drew this picture from my head, just based on the types from childhood, but later, after consulting the sources, I came to the conclusion that I completely got into the image.
The author of the project does not in any way distort the history of the great heritage of the ancestors. He is only trying to make his vision of famous heroes. “I don’t invent characters, they are all in mythology, I just interpret their descriptions in my own way, I try to find common features in these descriptions and at the same time I try to maintain a single style so that it looks like a game world.
What pleases me most of all is that some people who have looked at my pictures begin to re-read fairy tales, learn a lot of new things for themselves and understand why Vasilisa the Beautiful has a doll in her bag, why Vodyanoy is on a catfish, why Ilya Muromets has a sword in his hands, not a mace, etc. This return to the roots through my modest project pleases me as an author most of all. Roman explains.
Dobrynya. What is known about him (in brackets - how I beat it). A relative of the prince (armor must be rich), the second most popular hero after Ilya (smaller in size, but still cool), a snake fighter (a magic shield upholstered in fiery dragon skin that shoots fire), a seven-tailed whip with which he whipped the horse so that he trampled the kites, and all that. Diplomatic abilities, education and erudition in the picture are difficult to portray, but I put a scroll in a tube on his belt, like he reads at his leisure. Right there he has living water, it complements the set of Ilya, who, let me remind you, has dead water on his belt. Well, the motive of the sun, like Ilya's, - they serve one prince.
Popovich. Well, it's obvious that he should be a witch hunter, right?
A sudden turn slightly to the side, towards Finist.
It's the girls' turn. I'll start with Vasilisa the Beautiful (not to be confused with Vasilisa the Wise, aka the Frog Princess). A combat magician, there’s nothing to even think about, one skull, incinerating enemies (mentioned in a fairy tale), which is worth it. And of course, the doll in the bag, everything is as it should be. A small remark: perhaps not so well seen, but her kokoshnik is steel, part of a half-helmet.
Vasilisa the Wise (The Frog Princess). It was not so easy for her. There are already three common versions of the fairy tale (in one of them she is generally called Elena the Beautiful), so I decided to try to collect everything that is known about her into one image. So, witch. He conjures both with the help of his own strength and with the help of mothers-nannies (grandmother-nanny, mother-manka, etc.). I decided that babysitters would be plump flying fairies in my version. The magic of mothers-nannies individually is not that strong, but if they start doing something together, just hold on.
I did not find confirmation in fairy tales that Vasilisa is the daughter of Koshchei the Immortal (although there is such a version, and it is quite logical), so I did not make obvious necromantic paraphernalia. But the Wise One, it seems to me, could also indulge in dark magic, she has such a character ... I completely forgot to mention - an arrowhead hangs on her chest in the form of a pendant. The one.
Princess Nesmeyana. At first I wanted to make my face open, then I decided to immediately show the mask-visor. The kokoshnik is part of the helmet. Observant viewers will pay attention to the waterskin and the horn on her belt. Why? Because because of the eternally bad mood, he is constantly applied to alcohol. By the way, when she laughs (and she laughs very rarely), it means that she has an attack and she becomes a berserker - a very scary ability.
Maria Morevna. Everything is clear here. The only remark is that since the fairy tale indicates that she is a steppe warrior, I slightly added Asian elements.
Barbarian beauty. Mound Raider. Strictly speaking, this is a cinematic character, in the mythology of Varvara-beauty, it seems, there was no. But, firstly, everyone probably knows Rowe's film, and secondly, her name is painfully noble, he could not pass by. I think it's clear who was the reference. A few comments: axes are attached to the sheaths on the hips, amulets-amulets dangle from the belts, the kokoshnik, as always, is metal. When there are many opponents, she attacks by spinning and mows down enemies (haha). The scythe itself may well be made of leather, like a whip, i.e. it is not tucked hair, but part of a helmet.
Baba Yaga. V.1.0.
Koschey. It feeds on the souls of victims. I also drew this one, based on stamps from my head, then I carefully studied the sources and came to the conclusion that I would change Koshchei's head. So there will be Koschey Mark 2 later. :)
Nightingale the robber. Part one. Upper. I'll have to explain something. In fairy tales, the Nightingale sits on nine oaks, sits high, looks far away, whistles like a nightingale, shouts like an animal. I thought for a long time how to beat it all (“sitting on nine oaks” was the biggest problem - a giant, or what? Or small oaks?), Eventually I came to the conclusion that the Nightingale would be a rider monster. He will ride on an oak tree. His whistling scream is a sonic weapon. A whistle is a targeted strike, a scream is a wide-range wave. He will also have a magical staff to control the oak. And notice the acorn necklace around his neck. It is not without reason, it is a solution to the problem with nine oaks. Yes, many have strange associations with his mouth, I advise you to go to the mirror and try to make “chicken tail sponges” - be surprised. :)
Nightingale the robber. Part two. Riding on an oak. In general, he lives on a tree, this is his repository and fortress. Chests (trophies) and shields are hung on the branches, which move if something threatens the Nightingale. Also, the oak has chains with hooks, with which it pulls the victim to itself in order to eat it.
The oak moves both like a spider and like a centipede, that is, it supports the trunk with large branches, and finely sorts through the roots. It moves slowly, but if it gets there - krants to the hero. Now about the problem of nine oaks. Acorns are magical. When the Nightingale drops one acorn on the ground, a minion oak tree rapidly grows from there, a ground support, so to speak. I drew one of them on the left. They are faster and more aggressive than oak-fortress. Run up to the hero and beat. There are eight acorns on the necklace plus an oak-fortress, for a total of nine. The oak trees themselves are pretty creepy trees, but when nine oak trees move towards the hero, plus the Nightingale with his sonic weapon, the hero must be uncomfortable.
Yes, and the scale here is a little arbitrary (otherwise it would not fit), but approximately be guided by the skulls on the branch, these are the skulls of adults. That is, the Nightingale is slightly larger than an ordinary person. Yes, and in the picture he just screams like an animal.
Tugarin Serpent. This is probably the last picture where I use complex frames - it takes too much time for them, characters are more important, so further frames will be very conditional.
Lesovik. Owner of the forest. I will share the forest spirits, this one is the most important. He, in principle, is kind, but severe and fair, if anything, he can severely punish.
Visually, I decided to start from zooanthropomorphic descriptions, with elements of phytoanthropomorphism, for each forest spirit I will choose the main animal and I will dance from this
Goblin. I tried to embody in this handsome man the main thing that is known about goblin in the generally accepted (and most importantly - evil) sense. The character of Leshy, to put it mildly, is not very pleasant. One eye is normal (left), the right is usually larger than the left and "dead", immobile. Beard and gray hair. They often write about a cone-shaped head, in my interpretation - because of the hair gathered in a bun. She wraps her clothes to the left and wears them inside out (it turned out to be not so easy to show in a pencil that this is the inside out). The arms and legs are covered with hair. In some versions of the legends, he is girded, in others he is not necessarily. Trophies and everyday things hang on the belt: the skulls of defeated, lost and impolite travelers, a horn to get drunk, and a bast shoe, because my Leshy just likes bast shoes, he collects them. In the legends, the classic Leshy also has some kind of fixation on bast shoes. But given that he is often described as hoofed, the question is - how did he wear them? The logical answer is that he did not wear them on his feet, he simply carried them with him as souvenirs.
Bolotnik. A vile creature living in the swamps, pretending to be a bump, eats everyone. Throws "swamp lights" from the bracelet to paralyze the victim. Poisonous.
P.S. I also want to add a decoy, like an angler fish. The decoy is long, telescopic, actually a symbiote, that is, a separate creature, lures-hypnotizes travelers, leads them straight into the quagmire to Bolotnik.
Spirits of the forest. Part 1. It was impractical to draw a separate picture for each small spirit of the forest, so I decided to divide them into groups. All these guys are Lesovik's retinue. I tried to make according to the descriptions that I could find, but it could not do without arbitrariness.
Vodyanik, for example, is, as it were, one of the names of the Waterman. But I decided that small ponds, streams and small streams should also have their own spirits, so I singled out the name "Vodyanik" as a separate group of small spirits. All the spirits of the forest are quite neutral, but if they are angry, they can attack.
The most aggressive of this group is Mokhovik, and according to legend, he could eat kids, if anything.
Berryberry, for all its outward harmlessness, can also deal damage (with poisoned berries).
Derevyanik - in one character he combined Derevyanik and Kornevik - stupid, awkward, but quite strong, he can entangle with roots and drink juice from the victim with them.
Spirits of the forest. Part 2. Mushroom picker, Listovik, Herbalist, Kustin. I call this picture "Russula is late for the meeting." Concluding the topic of forest spirits and Lesovik's retinue, let's quickly go over the characters and abilities.
The mushroom picker is not a very kind character (in mythology, mushrooms are generally not very favored, there is a lot about genitals and excrement), not very strong, but very tenacious and touchy (he believes that people slander him). Can infect offenders with rapidly growing fungi. His dream is to conquer the whole world.
The herbalist is a hippie. In case of danger, it can intoxicate the head of the offender and even kill if it gets very angry.
Listovik (combined with Steblevik so as not to produce entities) - the most harmless of all, usually acts as a support group for Derevyanik and Kustin, gives them additional strength and protection.
Kustin (Kuschanik) - Derevianik's younger brother, they are very similar in character and usually work in pairs. Kustin knows how to remotely braid the offender with branches, paralyzing him.
Water on catfish. For this picture, I will simply list the main characteristics with explanations of why this is so, and we will talk about the details of the character of the Vodyanoy in the next picture. I must say right away: I tried to absorb into the image everything that the Internet knows about Vodyanoy, at the same time offering some of my own solutions. I ask you right away, forget the Waterman's song from The Flying Ship. So let's go.
It is known that Vodyanoy is a fat old man with a big belly (done), he is often seen in a red shirt (I have chain mail made of scarlet gold), he has a broad beard and a green mustache (here I cheated and made him a CATFISH mustache, part of a beard - also catfish probes, hence the greenish color). Among the northern peoples of Russia, Vodyanoy is often represented with a club. In general, Vodyanoy is a serious evil spirit, and his character is very bad (quote: "The embodiment of the element of water as a negative and dangerous beginning"). And the main quote for the picture, from which, in fact, the image itself was born. “The catfish is attributed to him as a favorite fish, on which he rides and which delivers drowned people to him. For this, the catfish is popularly called the “damn horse”. That's when the idea to make a mount-boss came to mind. Since the Waterman is sometimes still seen on land, I made the catfish not quite a catfish. In fact, there is a whole mix of animals (all of them live quite well on the territory of Russia, by the way), whoever determines them all will get a pie.
I paid special attention to the harness, harness and saddle, I had to dream up, of course, but fighting pack catfish do not exist in nature, so I apologize if anything. This is not the last picture of Vodyanoy: here it is too small and details are not visible, so I will make it separately, as Nightingale did.
Vodyanoy and Vodyanitsa. Sorry for so many letters, but it's necessary. I present to your attention a family photo, because of which I spent a sleepless night at work, so covered. Let's start with Vodyanitsa, because a new character. There is very little information about Vodyanitsy (it’s not clear where to put the emphasis, I prefer to put on and) it is known that she is NOT a mermaid, she is dressed in a torn sundress, she has big breasts, she is a prankster, but in general she doesn’t offend anyone much, i.e. . quite a positive character. I painted her in a magpie (the headdress of married women) to emphasize family status. And this character has a key feature that really hooked me. "Vodyanitsa is a drowned woman from the baptized, and therefore does not belong to the undead." Do you understand? The baptized drowned woman is the wife of Vodyanoy, who is actually evil spirits (undead). There is a lot of room for imagination here, of course. And here's what I imagined.
As I wrote earlier, Vodyanoy has an extremely bad character. He seems to be neutral, but with a greater bias towards evil. He constantly needs to be appeased, otherwise he will mischief, and drown, and wave his club. However, he can provide a catch and save, if anything, - and in my version, all his good deeds are directly related to Vodyanitsa. Since his wife is essentially kind, but young, mischievous and absurd, she twists the old man as she wants. And often makes the hubby do good deeds, although this is contrary to his impure nature. And vice versa, when they quarrel, Vodyanoy goes on a campaign and rages even more, blowing off steam. Vodyanitsa herself is not particularly shown to people, and in my interpretation she is not even a separate character, but simply an addition to the image of Vodyany. She buffs (increases strength) the Merman when she yells at him.
Sister Alyonushka, brother Ivanushka Another sweet couple. I understand that I am shocking many with this picture, but before judging, I ask you to re-read the fairy tale. However, I will briefly explain everything to you. There are several key points in the fairy tale (in its many iterations) that are the same for all variants. So the facts:
1. Ivanushka became a kid.
2. Alyonushka was drowned.
3. In almost all variants, there is a “fierce snake” that sucked Alyonushka’s heart out (and there is also a “heavy stone” on her neck, “a white fish ate out her eyes”, “yellow sands lay on her chest”, “silk grass on her hands”, ashes, decay, hopelessness, that's all).
4. There is a witch-sorceress who arranged all this mess with drowning.
5. They took Alyonushka out of the river, “dipped her, rinsed her in clean water, wrapped her in a white cloth, and she became even better than she was.”
6. In all versions of the tale, where Ivanushka turned into a goat, he remained one. Well, you understand what I mean, right?
I was not too lazy and nevertheless compiled my own “dictionary of runes”. They, of course, are fictitious, based on the Scandinavian and those scribbles that I dug up in the pre-Christian writing of the Slavs. Moreover, I came up with the meanings of the runes myself, not really looking back at the real ones. My version, my runes, I turn whatever I want. There will be an additional game for the audience - to read what is written on the clothes of the heroes.
A folk tale is a message from our ancestors, handed down from time immemorial. Through magical stories, sacred information about morality reaches us...
By Masterweb
16.04.2018 19:01A folk tale is a message from our ancestors, handed down from time immemorial. Through magical stories, sacred information about morality and spirituality, traditions and culture reaches us. The heroes of Russian folk tales are very colorful. They live in a world full of wonders and dangers. There is a battle of light and dark forces in it, as a result of which goodness and justice always win.
Ivan the Fool
The main character of Russian fairy tales is a seeker. He goes on a difficult journey to get a magical item or a bride, to deal with a monster. In this case, initially the character may occupy a low social position. As a rule, this is a peasant son, the youngest child in the family.
By the way, the word "fool" in ancient times did not have a negative meaning. Since the 14th century, it has served as a name-amulet, which was often given to the youngest son. He did not receive any inheritance from his parents. The elder brothers in fairy tales are successful and practical. Ivan spends time on the stove, as he is not interested in living conditions. He is not looking for money or fame, patiently endures the ridicule of others.
However, it is Ivan the Fool who eventually smiles luck. He is unpredictable, able to solve non-standard riddles, defeats the enemy with cunning. The hero is characterized by mercy and kindness. He helps out those in trouble, releases the pike, for which he is awarded magical help. Having overcome all obstacles, Ivan the Fool marries the king's daughter and becomes rich. Behind the plain clothes hides the image of a wise man who serves good and is wary of falsehood.
Bogatyr
This hero was borrowed from epics. He is handsome, brave, noble. Often grows "by leaps and bounds". Possesses great strength, able to saddle a heroic horse. There are many plots where a character fights a monster, dies, and then resurrects.
The names of the heroes of Russian fairy tales can be different. We meet Ilya Muromets, Bova Korolevich, Alyosha Popovich, Nikita Kozhemyaka and other characters. Ivan Tsarevich can also be attributed to this category. He enters into battle with the Serpent Gorynych or Koshchei, saddles Sivka-Burka, protects the weak, rescues the princess.
It is significant that the hero sometimes makes mistakes (rudely replies to an oncoming grandmother, burns the skin of a frog). Subsequently, he has to repent of this, ask for forgiveness, correct the situation. By the end of the tale, he gains wisdom, finds the princess and receives half the kingdom as a reward for his deeds.
Wonder Bride
A smart and beautiful girl, by the end of the story, becomes the wife of a fairy-tale hero. In Russian folk tales, we meet Vasilisa the Wise, Marya Morevna, Elena the Beautiful. They embody the popular idea of a woman standing guard over her kind.
The characters are resourceful and smart. Thanks to their help, the hero solves ingenious riddles and defeats the enemy. Often, the beautiful princess is subject to the forces of nature, she is able to turn into an animal (swan, frog), work real miracles. The heroine uses powerful forces for the benefit of her lover.
There is also an image of a meek stepdaughter in fairy tales, who achieves success thanks to her hard work and kindness. Common qualities for all positive female images are fidelity, purity of aspirations and readiness to help.
Baba Yaga
Which hero of Russian fairy tales is the most beloved and popular among children and adults? The first place rightfully belongs to Baba Yaga. This is a very ambiguous character with a frightening appearance, a hooked nose and a bone leg. "Baba" in ancient times was called the mother, the eldest woman in the family. "Yaga" may be related to the Old Russian words "yagat" ("to shout loudly, swear") or "yagaya" ("sick, angry").
An old witch lives in the forest, on the border of our and the other world. Her hut on chicken legs is fenced with a fence made of human bones. Grandmother flies on a mortar, makes friends with evil spirits, kidnaps children and keeps many magical items from intruders. According to scientists, it is associated with the realm of the dead. This is indicated by loose hair, which was untwisted to women before burial, a bone leg, and also a house. The Slavs made wooden huts for the dead, which they put in the forest on stumps.
In Russia, ancestors have always been respected and turned to them for advice. Therefore, good fellows come to Baba Yaga, and she tests them. The witch gives a hint to those who pass the test, points the way to Koshchei, bestows a magic ball, as well as a towel, a comb and other curiosities. Baba Yaga does not eat children either, but she puts them in the oven and performs the old rite of "baking". In Russia, it was believed that in this way it was possible to heal a child from an illness.
Koschei
The name of this fairy-tale hero of Russian fairy tales could come from the Turkic "koshchei", which translates as "slave". The character was chained and imprisoned for three hundred years. He himself also likes to kidnap beautiful girls and hide them in a dungeon. According to another version, the name comes from the Slavic "bone" (scold, harm) or "bone". Koschey is often depicted as a skinny old man, more like a skeleton.
He is a very powerful sorcerer, lives far away from other people and owns countless treasures. The death of the hero is in the needle, which is securely hidden in objects and animals nested in each other like a nesting doll. The prototype of Koshchei may be the winter deity Karachun, who was born from a golden egg. It covered the earth with ice and brought death with it, forcing our ancestors to move to a warmer area. In other myths, Koshchei was the son of Chernobog. The latter could control time and commanded the army of the underworld.
Zmey Gorynych
This is one of the most ancient images. The hero of Russian fairy tales differs from foreign dragons in the presence of several heads. Usually their number is a multiple of three. The creature can fly, spew fire and kidnap people. It lives in caves, where it hides captives and treasures. Often appears in front of a goodie, coming out of the water. The nickname "Gorynych" is associated either with the habitat of the character (mountains), or with the verb "to burn".
The image of the terrible Serpent is borrowed from ancient myths about the dragon that guards the entrance to the underworld. To become a man, a teenager had to defeat him, i.e. perform a feat, and then enter the world of the dead and return back as an adult. According to another version, the Serpent Gorynych is a collective image of the steppe nomads who attacked Russia in huge hordes. At the same time, they used fire shells that burned wooden cities.
Forces of nature
In ancient times, people personified the Sun, Wind, Moon, Thunder, Rain and other phenomena on which their lives depended. They often became heroes of Russian fairy tales, married princesses, helped goodies. There are also anthropomorphic rulers of certain elements: Moroz Ivanovich, goblin, water. They can play the role of both positive and negative characters.
Nature is depicted as spiritualized. The well-being of people largely depends on her actions. So, Morozko rewards the meek, hardworking daughter of an old man with gold and a fur coat, whom her stepmother ordered to be thrown into the forest. At the same time, her mercenary half-sister dies under his spell. The Slavs bowed to the forces of nature and at the same time were wary of them, tried to appease them with the help of victims, and made requests.
grateful animals
In fairy tales, we meet a talking wolf, a magical horse and a cow, a goldfish, a wish-fulfilling pike. As well as a bear, a hare, a hedgehog, a crow, an eagle, etc. All of them understand human speech, have unusual abilities. The hero helps them out of trouble, grants them life, and in return they help to defeat the enemy.
Here traces of totemism are clearly visible. The Slavs believed that each genus descended from a specific animal. After death, the human soul moves into the beast and vice versa. For example, in the fairy tale "Burenushka" the soul of a dead mother is reborn in the form of a cow to help her orphaned daughter. Such an animal could not be killed, because it became a relative and protected from trouble. Sometimes the heroes of a fairy tale themselves can turn into an animal or a bird.
Firebird
Many positive heroes of fairy tales try to take possession of it. A wonderful bird blinds its eyes like a golden sun, and lives behind a stone wall in rich lands. Freely floating in the sky, it is a symbol of the heavenly body, which bestows luck, abundance, creative power. This is a representative of another world, which often turns into a kidnapper. The firebird steals rejuvenating apples that give beauty and immortality.
Only one who is pure in soul, believes in a dream and is closely connected with deceased ancestors can catch her. Usually this is the youngest son, who had to take care of old parents and spent a lot of time near the birth center.
Thus, the heroes of Russian fairy tales teach us to respect our ancestors, listen to our hearts, overcome fear, go towards our dreams, despite mistakes, and always help those who ask for help. And then the divine radiance of the magical firebird will fall on a person, transforming him and bestowing happiness.
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All of us were once small, and we all read Russian fairy tales. Reading these tales, we had a figurative idea of all the characters, about Vodyany, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Ivan Tsarevich, Alyonushka, Varvara Kras, and many more. Fairy tales taught us to recognize good and evil. In each hero of the tale, one can distinguish between good and bad traits. And each main character contains a certain meaning. For example:
1. Ivan Tsarevich is one of the main characters of Russian folk tales. Usually in a fairy tale, he is shown as a positive hero. His characteristic qualities are kindness, honesty and nobility. In every fairy tale, Ivan helps people, saves the princess or defeats the enemy. Ivan teaches every person to listen to their heart, and if something bad happens, do not lose heart.
2. A frequently mentioned hero in fairy tales is the Snow Maiden. She is shown to readers as a tender, vulnerable, pure soul. The Snow Maiden embodies all the best qualities that every woman should possess. The Snow Maiden always has an unusual beauty in fairy tales. She teaches us that everything that is not done from the heart will not succeed, and also that we should not stop at any difficulties. If you want something, you need to strive for it, and then everything will work out.
3. But, our children like not only positive characters, but also negative ones. For example, many admire Baba Yaga. This character is involved in almost every fairy tale. Baba Yaga lives in a large dark forest in a small hut on chicken legs. In order for the hut to turn and open its doors, she needs to be told: hut, hut, turn your back to the forest, and front to me. And then the hut will surely turn around and open its doors. Old Yaga is an old friend of Koshchei the Immortal, they sometimes make insidious plans together. But, the main distinguishing feature of Baba Yaga is that she flies in a mortar and on a broomstick. Baba Yaga symbolizes insidious people who do everything out of thin air. Children remember Baba Yaga as a grandmother in a mortar with a large bent nose.
4. Koschey the Immortal - the most sinister hero of Russian folk tales. He lives in splendid isolation in a castle. He is also very rich and greedy. But, the most important feature of Koshchei is that it is not so easy to kill him. His death is hidden in a crystal chest, in an egg. If you take a needle that is hidden in an egg and break it into two parts, then the koschey will die. Koschei the Immortal is an image of evil, treacherous and bad people. Looking at him, we see that everyone who loves money very much, he quickly dies.
5. Water is a male creature that lives in a swamp. He is a good owner and protects his property well. But, if offended, he can take revenge cruelly. The fishermen who fished in the reservoirs, so that Vodyanoy would not interfere with them, they cajoled him. People brought various treats to the water, and in gratitude for this, Vodyanoy did not tear their fishing nets and did not frighten the fish. The water symbolizes people who are ready not to notice anything bad if they give him something for it. This is a negative character, and it is not worth repeating after him.
6. Gnomes - they live underground, working in the mines. They are very hardworking. But they also have a negative feature, the gnomes are too greedy for gold. For him, they are ready to do anything. People who love money more than anything in the world are the prototypes of gnomes.
7. Brownie - a creature that lives in every house. Usually the Brownie is the guardian of cleanliness and comfort in the house. People believed that if the brownie lived in the house, then it would always be clean and comfortable there. Brownie is an image of economic and ambitious people.
8. Serpent Gorynych is a negative hero of Russian folk tales. He has either three, or nine, or twelve heads. As a rule, the Serpent Gorynych spews flames. As it flies, thunder rumbles and the earth shakes. In fairy tales, the Serpent Gorynych stole girls, and burned cities and villages with his fire. The Serpent Gorynych symbolizes bad people who are ready to do anything to achieve their goal.
All the characters in Russian folk tales contain great meaning. There are positives as well as negatives. To understand what kind of hero in a fairy tale, you need to understand and analyze it. Since fairy tales are very useful, they need to be read to children, they will help in shaping their vision of the world.
REFLECTION
Grandma's tales. Fragment. Artist V.M. Maksimov. 1867.
UDC 293.21:821.16
Shtemberg A.S.
Heroes of Russian folk tales: who are they and why do they behave this way and not otherwise?
Shtemberg Andrey Sergeevich, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Department of Experimental Biology and Medicine of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Email: [email protected]
The article is devoted to the mythological and ritual roots of the images of the heroes of traditional Russian fairy tales (Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych).
Key words: Russian folk tales, fairy tale heroes, Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych, magical helper, tribal system, matriarchy, totem, magic, the kingdom of the living and the kingdom of the dead.
Russian folk tales... From early childhood, we all plunged into their amazing, unlike anything and often very mysterious world. From the same early childhood, we learned that a fairy tale is a fiction, that good always wins in it, and evil is certainly punished, and yet we followed the adventures of fairy-tale heroes with excitement. The most attentive of those who, having grown older, did not stop reading and rereading fairy tales, probably noticed that they are all built according to strictly defined rules. For all their seemingly enormous diversity, the plots of fairy tales are repeated all the time, and fairy tale characters constantly wander from one fairy tale to another, however, sometimes under different names.
You may also have noticed some oddities in the behavior of fairy-tale characters, often contrary to logic and common sense. So, for example, parents for some reason send or take their children to a dense forest to be eaten by some fabulous evil spirits, Baba Yaga, this sinister and cannibal, for no reason helps Ivan Tsarevich, whom he sees for the first time in his life, a gray wolf Having devoured Ivan Tsarevich's horse, instead of eating it himself, he suddenly begins to faithfully serve him and meekly clears up all the troubles caused by his disobedience ... This list of fabulous absurdities (from our modern point of view) could go on and on. Many collectors of folk tales have noticed that the narrator himself is often perplexed by the
water of the motives of the actions of his heroes, even sometimes tries to somehow explain them from the point of view of our modern logic, but, as a rule, this cannot be done without violating the basic scheme of a fairy tale narrative. After all, the main feature of a fairy tale and its difference from other, authorial, literary genres is that it reflects not the personal perception of the world by the narrator, but the general thing that unites him with all people. It is this feature that allowed the fairy tale to preserve the echoes of ancient beliefs, customs and rituals. After all, fairy tales, especially fairy tales, are terribly ancient, they are rooted in primitive society, when people lived in a primitive tribal system. And then the ideas of people about the world around them, and the rules of their behavior were completely different. It is with this that the strange, as it seems to us, features of the behavior of fairy-tale characters are connected. And despite the fact that kings and kings, soldiers and generals act in these fairy tales (after all, the storytellers, retelling fairy tales for centuries, of course, outwardly modernized the heroes), they are imbued with the worldview of primitive man, for whom the surrounding nature was incomprehensible, mysterious and complete. unexpected dangers: the tsar’s daughter was walking in the garden, suddenly a three-headed Serpent (a whirlwind of unidentified nature, Koschey the Immortal) flew in and carried the princess to the kingdom of the thirtieth ... And now Ivan Tsarevich sets off in search ... And he knows where to go, what to speak and how to behave in the most incredible fairy tale situations. Where? What is this - the thirtieth kingdom? Who are its permanent inhabitants - Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych? Where did they come from? Why do they behave in all fairy tales in this way and not otherwise? Surely all these questions arose when reading fairy tales. We will try to answer them in our essay. The fact is that all these heroes come from there, from the world of primitive man, and their behavior is determined by his ideas, beliefs and customs. Indeed, after all, fairy-tale heroes are unique, they are not found anywhere else - neither in myths, nor in heroic epic, nor in legends. In fairy tales, characters of Russian myths and legends are not found at all - all these brownies, goblin, water, mermaids, barns, kikimors and others - ideas about them formed much later. They are mentioned in bylichkas - a special variety of Russian folklore that does not look like fairy tales. And fairy-tale heroes are much older - let's try to trace their genealogy, understand their behavior and actions.
Ivan Tsarevich
Ivan Tsarevich is the main positive hero of most fairy tales. Occasionally, however, he appears under other names - Vasily Tsarevich or Dmitry Tsarevich - sometimes he is replaced by characters of a lower origin - Ivan the merchant or peasant son, or even Ivan Bykovich
An illegitimate offspring of a cow, but his essence, his fabulous role and the nature of his actions do not change from this. Therefore, let's, without taking into account social origin, call him the most common name - Ivan Tsarevich, meaning the main fairy-tale hero who overcomes all obstacles and marries the princess at the end of the fairy tale.
So, who is Ivan Tsarevich? Let's start from the very beginning - with the birth of the hero. First of all, he is usually the youngest son in the family. Why? Apparently, the fact is that in a tribal primitive society, it was the youngest son who was the custodian and heir to family property, orders and traditions, because he remained in the family the longest. Older brothers, as a rule, went to the family of the mother's brother. Over time, with the collapse of primitive communal relations and the emergence of paternal (patriarchal) law and a large patriarchal family, the situation changed. They began to look at the separation of older brothers as fragmentation and weakening of the family, the destruction of the common cause and the squandering of family property. Therefore, the right of inheritance was revised in favor of the eldest sons. So the youngest son turned out to be offended and destitute - it’s not for nothing that many fairy tales about three brothers begin with the death of their father and the division of property, in which the youngest gets almost or nothing at all. Naturally, in fairy tales that preserve the most ancient ideas, all sympathy is on his side - he acts as the guardian and protector of the original tribal principles, while his brothers are their destroyers. Therefore, our hero embodies the ideal of ideas about the virtues of a man of primitive communism - he is disinterested, trusting, respectful of his elders, while the brothers are the focus of the qualities that destroyed this society: commitment to gain, greed, treachery. Probably, as the guardian of the family hearth and tribal traditions, he also provides himself with the patronage of mythical forces - the spirits of the maternal family, which help him in further adventures. This is also connected with his close relationship with animals, who also willingly help him. The fact is that the matriarchal tribal system was associated with ideas about animal totems - the ancestors and patrons of the tribe. Let us pay attention to one more feature of the birth of our hero: in some fairy tales this is a magical birth. So, in the fairy tale "Ivan Bykovich" the queen, the cook and the cow give birth to three boys-heroes, having eaten a magic fish - a golden-finned ruff. The fish in the mind of primitive man was associated with getting rid of infertility due to its incredible fertility and life in water, fertilizing the surrounding nature. So already some of the circumstances of the birth of Ivan Tsarevich indicate that he is not a very simple person. Let's notice this and move on.
The next stage of the biography of our hero (childhood and adolescence are skipped, and why dwell on them
After all, it grows by leaps and bounds) - getting a magical assistant. This is the most important step after
Ivan Tsarevich on a gray wolf. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1889.
Ivan Tsarevich at the crossroads. Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
after which he is no longer an ordinary person, then his affairs go like clockwork, and the success of the enterprise is guaranteed.
Here is the most interesting part of the tale and the greatest variety of situations. Let's try to disassemble the most typical. How does it all start? Sometimes the brothers decide to marry and shoot arrows - where the arrow falls, there is the bride ("The Frog Princess"). Quite a strange, in our opinion, way of choosing a wife, isn't it? We can assume two reasons for the emergence of this incomprehensible action: one is fortune-telling, the faith of primitive man in fate; the second is connected with the fact that the arrow (a symbol of lightning) was associated with fertilizing rain and was used by the ancient Slavs in the wedding ceremony as a sign of fertility and an instrument that sanctifies the marriage union. Here, the brothers marry ordinary (and rather clumsy) women, and Ivan Tsarevich receives a magical assistant in the person of the frog princess.
In other cases, the father of the brothers dies and orders his sons to watch over his grave for three nights (also a strange wish from our modern point of view), as, for example, in the tale of Sivka-burka. What is the matter here? With the extinction of the cult of totem ancestors along the female line in the primitive society, they were replaced by male ones. Therefore, to be on duty at the grave of his father meant to perform the prescribed rituals and sacrifices necessary for the dead man to find peace and not return. The brothers here, as usual, slip away, dumping their duties on Ivan, and he honestly fulfills his duty and receives a magical assistant from his father, this time in the form of Sivka-burka. The image of the deceased father-giver comes from primitive ideas about the power of the dead - after all, they are in a different world, where everything is known, where everything begins and where everything ends. The story of the destruction of a reserved field or garden (as in the tales of the Firebird and the Humpbacked Horse) is very close to this plot, when the hero conscientiously guards the territory entrusted to him, discovers or catches a thief, and also receives a magical assistant as a reward. It reflected the rituals associated with the existence among the ancient Slavs of special reserved fields of dead ancestors, which were supposed to distract their attention from the living.
We have analyzed situations when the hero receives magical helpers without embarking on a journey, so to speak, with home delivery. True, even in these cases he cannot avoid traveling: he necessarily either loses these assistants (for example, by burning the skin of the Frog Princess), or various misfortunes fall upon him, and, whatever one may say, he, my heart, has to stomp into the thirtieth kingdom - to help out a stolen wife or bride, to fulfill the tasks of the authorities (the old king), to get rejuvenating apples for the old father or something else. In other situations, Ivan Tsarevich receives magical assistants directly in the thirtieth kingdom - as a gift or steals a magic horse from Koshchei the Immortal or Baba Yaga, meets a gray wolf, fraudulently takes possession of a self-assembled tablecloth, invisible hat, magic club and other wonderful items.
So, running a little ahead, we came to sending our hero on a long journey - to the notorious thirtieth kingdom. Here is the time to talk about how he is going there and what is this most thirtieth kingdom. Remember what the princess says when she goes there? “Look for me beyond the distant lands, in the distant kingdom! First, you will trample three pairs of iron shoes, you will break three iron staffs, you will gnaw three stone marshmallows before you find me! Shoes, a staff, prosvir (bread) - these are the items that the ancients supplied the dead, preparing them for a journey to another world. The fact that there are three of them (the method of tripling is generally characteristic of fairy tales), and the fact that they are made of iron and stone, apparently, should have meant a long journey. Everything that we know about the thirtieth realm (and this is the realm in which everything is wrong, the habitat of magical creatures and the residence of magical objects) suggests that the thirtieth realm is the realm of the other world, the realm of the dead. We will talk about this in more detail when we find ourselves there with our hero, but for now let's see how he gets into the thirtieth kingdom.
First of all, we note that the hero does not always go to this kingdom in search of stolen relatives or on instructions from the leadership. There are situations in fairy tales (the same Ivan Bykovich), when the heroes themselves, for no apparent reason, are called "to go to alien lands, to see people themselves, to show themselves in people." Another common fairy tale collision is the motive of selling a newly born child to some mysterious creature: “give away what you don’t know at home” (this plot, among other things, may have reflected primitive ideas about expiatory sacrifices for violating the ban) or giving a son to training in a sorcerer (as in fairy tales about the king of the sea or cunning science). Let us pay attention to the fact that in both cases the son comes to the disposal of the fairy-tale miracle-yuda upon reaching a certain age.
So how does our hero get into this other realm, and why does he have to visit it? The ways of crossing into the thirtieth kingdom are varied: Ivan Tsarevich can go there on a magical
Three princesses of the underworld. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1881.
Three brothers. Illustration for the fairy tale "The Frog Princess". Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
on a horse, on birds (for example, Nogai the bird carries him to a high mountain), go underground (as in the fairy tale about the three kingdoms - copper, silver and gold) or follow the leader (for example, for a magic ball), but they all reflect ideas of a primitive person about the journey of the deceased to the afterlife.
Now we note one more very significant point: in most fairy tales, the path of the hero certainly lies through a dense forest. Here it is time to compare this circumstance with what we talked about a little earlier - about the sudden departure of matured heroes or sending them to some fabulous undead (that is, again, to the same other world - the thirtieth kingdom). Having done this, we come to the second extremely important performance and the ritual of primitive man associated with it, the memory of which is reflected in the motifs of most fairy tales. This is a rite of passage, or initiation, through which young men who have reached a certain age of all primitive tribes without exception must pass. This rite consists in the fact that the young men are taken away or sent to some special sacred place, almost always located in the forest; uninitiated members of the tribe (especially women) are strictly forbidden to even approach him. There they are subjected to ritual tests, often cruel - it was believed that during these tests the boy should, as it were, die, and after passing them, be reborn as a new person - a man, a hunter, a full-fledged member of the tribe. Often, after the initiation, the boy even received a new name. It is the memory of this rite, which played an exceptionally important role in the life of a primitive man, that underlies such fabulous motifs as the sudden departure of heroes to the thirtieth kingdom, sending them into the service or training for fabulous evil spirits; hence the plots of exile or withdrawal of children by parents into a dense forest - nothing can be done, the time has come.
It is important for us that this rite was accompanied by magical rituals - after all, the memory of primitive magic forms the basis of the magic that we constantly encounter in fairy tales. In the view of primitive man, the art of the hunter consists primarily in putting the beast into his hands, and this, in his opinion, can be achieved only with the help of magic. Therefore, teaching magical techniques, introducing the boy to magical ideas, rituals and rites of the tribe constituted an important part of the initiation rite (hence sending him to study with a fairy sorcerer). In close connection with this, the hero receiving a magical gift (invisibility cap, walking boots and other accessories of a fairy-tale hero) or a magical assistant - the rite of passage involved the acquisition of a guardian spirit associated with the totem of the tribe.
What is this magical assistant, solely with the help of which Ivan Tsarevich successfully solves the tasks assigned to him?
These can be magic items: a flying carpet, an invisibility hat, a self-assembled tablecloth, walking boots, magic batons, knapsacks, balls, caskets, and so on. There are different opinions about the origin of these magical objects, but all of them are somehow connected with the thirtieth otherworldly kingdom and reflect certain properties of its inhabitants. So, in the view of ancient people, the inhabitants of the kingdom of the dead could fly (flying carpet), become invisible to the living (invisibility cap), instantly move in space (boots). In addition, the other world, in their opinion, was distinguished by incredible abundance - it is not without reason that milk rivers with jelly banks flow in the thirtieth kingdom; so the self-assembly tablecloth obviously seemed to be a piece of this abundance, which, in a portable design, could be taken with you.
It can be magical animals: a horse, a gray wolf, an eagle, a raven or a falcon. In this company, the main role undoubtedly belongs to the horse, so we will dwell on it in a little more detail.
First of all, how does a hero acquire a horse? He is completely dissatisfied with an ordinary earthly horse from the nearby royal stable: “whatever horse he comes up to, puts his hand on, he falls down.” The hero either finds a horse in the third kingdom in some dungeon, or receives it as a gift, earns or steals from one of the inhabitants of this kingdom (Baba Yaga, Koshchei, some local king), or personally feeds him from a mangy foal on protected (magic) meadows.
We will talk about receiving a horse as a gift a little later (in the chapter on Baba Yaga), but for now we note that the plot of feeding a horse most likely originates from the ritual of feeding sacrificial animals, which gave them magical (magic) power.
As for other (wild) animals, their willingness to serve the hero is most likely determined by their belonging to the totem of his tribe, that is, they are the patron spirits of the mother's family. Not without reason in some fairy tales (as in the fairy tale of the three kingdoms) the eagle, falcon and raven are the sons-in-law of the hero, that is, relatives in the female line. Therefore, the gray wolf, having devoured, in general, an unnecessary ordinary horse of Ivan Tsarevich, departed at his full disposal. The main role of magical animal helpers, among other magical services, is that they are mediators between two kingdoms, and transfer the hero from one to another.
Finally, the third kind of magical helpers are craftsman helpers. Ivan Tsarevich picks them up on the way to their destination, going to woo some cunning and malicious princess. These are all kinds of ate, sawdust, freezers, magic runners, arrows, and so on. These are also patron spirits, but they are either personified (humanized) incarnations of any one, but unlimited ability, or
Carpet plane. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1880.
master spirits of the elements (frost, wind, and others). True, there are also such universal magical helpers that combine the properties of all three varieties - for example, Shmat-mind (“Go there, I don’t know where, bring it, I don’t know what”) or a magic ring.
So, obtaining (in one way or another - this is also important, but we will talk about this later) a magical assistant is a decisive stage in the fabulous career of our hero. Now he is magically armed, dedicated and elected, he is not just some kind of unimportant prince or hero, but a powerful magician, the only one capable of measuring his strength with the inhabitants of the otherworldly kingdom. After receiving a magical assistant, the hero is already firmly moving towards the intended goal and knows exactly how he will achieve it. Probably, many even got the impression that the hero plays a passive role further: the assistant does everything for him, and he, at best, comes ready, and at worst, he only gets in the way and interferes, making life difficult for the assistant. This, in general, is not true: the magical assistant is not an independent character, he is simply a personified magical ability of the hero. Functionally (that is, according to the role played in the fairy tale), the hero and the assistant are one person. Confidence in the hero's behavior is determined by his magical equipment, and, in fact, his heroism itself lies in his magical knowledge and strength. But as for the disagreements that sometimes arise between the assistant and the hero, it personally seems to me that this is a manifestation of the contradictions between the magical and human essences of the hero.
So, now magically armed and ready for all the upcoming troubles, Ivan Tsarevich arrived in the thirtieth kingdom. Let's stop with him for a minute and look around. What do we know about this kingdom? In different fairy tales, it can simply be somewhere very far away, on a high mountain or even inside a mountain, underground or under water, but, as a rule, there are no specific underground or underwater features in it. Often the hero, having got there, is even surprised: "And there the light is the same as ours." It was common for ancient (yes, probably, and not only ancient) people to transfer the features of the world in which they live to the other world. Interestingly, as the external forms of life of the storytellers changed, modernizing the surroundings of fairy tales (kings and generals settled in them, palaces and bins appeared), all these paraphernalia were automatically transferred to another kingdom.
The main distinguishing feature of this kingdom, its seal is the golden color of everything that belongs to it. There are golden palaces in it, golden animals are found - a deer - golden horns, a golden goat, a pig - a golden bristle and others, all objects are also made exclusively of gold - golden rings, eggs, caskets and so on. Yes, and this kingdom itself is often golden - most likely, copper, silver and gold kingdoms - just the usual fabulous tripling. The golden color is, apparently, an expression of sunshine - after all, almost all the beliefs of the ancient Slavs were very closely connected with the Sun. Perhaps, the ideas about the inexhaustible abundance that reigns in the thirtieth kingdom are also associated with it. We have already mentioned milk rivers with jelly shores and self-assembly tablecloths (the idea that if you bring food from there, then it will never end on earth either). Now we can also recall the quite fabulous wealth of the inhabitants of the thirtieth kingdom and the inexhaustible abundance of their reserves.
About what and why the hero does in the thirtieth kingdom - communicates with Baba Yaga, defeats Koshchei the Immortal or the Serpent, solves tricky tasks and brilliantly withstands the tests of the king or princess there,
finally, after long ups and downs, he marries a princess and becomes a king himself - we will talk in the following sections (about Baba Yaga, Koshchei, the Snake, the king and princesses), where we will consider in detail his relationship with these characters. And here, finally, we will dwell on one more feature of the behavior of Ivan Tsarevich - the plot of his flight from the thirtieth kingdom, which is very often found in fairy tales.
Sometimes this flight is caused by the kidnapping of the bride, but sometimes, it would seem, it is not motivated at all (as, for example, in the tale of the sea king and Vasilisa the Wise): everything ended well, the hero passed all the tests, married the princess - it seems it’s time to calm down . But no - he wanted, you see, to go home. Well, I wanted to - go, it seems, why should the sea king interfere with him? But for some reason this is impossible, and when they run away, the sea king for some reason falls into a terrible rage and sets off in pursuit. This pursuit is magical: it is repeated in many fairy tales (only the pursuers change - Baba Yaga, Koschey or someone else) and is accompanied by the transformation of heroes or the throwing of various magical objects: a brush turns into a dense forest, a mirror into a lake, a comb or flint, into impregnable mountains, etc.
Most likely, flight with transformations is a later plot construction, although it can be seen that the ability to turn into animals is a property that is often attributed to the inhabitants of the other world in ancient Slavic beliefs. But the throwing of household items is in its purest form the so-called imitative (based on external similarity) magic: an impenetrable forest appears from a thick brush, a lake or a river appears from a mirror that looks like the surface of water, and so on. Here
Vasilisa the Beautiful flees from Baba Yaga's hut. Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
Red Rider (Noon or Sun). Illustration for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
Baba Yaga. Screensaver for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1900.
there are echoes of another type of magic - partial, based on the idea that a part causes the appearance of the whole: flint (part of the mountain) - impregnable rocks, flint - a fiery river. During the chase, the pursuer overcomes two obstacles, and the third one stops him. It is curious that the third obstacle is most often the river (sometimes fiery). Apparently, this is the border of the otherworldly kingdom, and the pursuer cannot cross it, because his power does not extend to the kingdom of the living (in the ideas of many ancient peoples, the river serves as the border of the kingdom of the dead).
But what caused such fury of the inhabitants of this kingdom? Most likely, the flight is a consequence of the theft of magical items. This is a very interesting moment, because it reflects the very ancient ideas of primitive man, when he did not produce anything yet, but only took by force, stole from nature. No wonder the first things leading to culture seemed to the ancient people not made, but stolen (the fire stolen by Prometheus, the first arrows and seeds from the South American Indians). After all, the later rite of passage, which we spoke about, assumed a completely peaceful and voluntary transfer of a magical object (which is also often found in fairy tales). So we see that in some cases our positive hero breaks into the realm of the dead as if alive - a troublemaker, a destroyer and a kidnapper, thus causing quite natural discontent of the country's owners. This is one of the motives that determine his relationship with the inhabitants of the other world, but, as we will see later, they do not always develop in this way.
Who, perhaps, you say, does not know who Baba Yaga is? A malicious, unsympathetic old woman, lives in a hut in the woods on chicken legs, flies in a mortar with a broom, eats children (or rather, tries to eat, because children constantly deceive her) ... In general, a frivolous character. However, sometimes she helps Ivan Tsarevich with advice or gives him something - a horse, a magic ball ... Let's start with this.
If you look more closely, it turns out that there are three varieties of Baba Yaga in fairy tales: Yaga the adviser and giver, Yaga the kidnapper and devourer (the one who strives to eat children) and another, less common type - Yaga the warrior (for example, in the tale of Bely Polyanin, for the last thirty years he fought with Baba Yaga - the golden leg). Let's start with the first variety, especially since it is the main, original and most closely connected with the most ancient ideas, beliefs and rituals. And this makes Baba Yaga one of the most complex and interesting characters in Russian fairy tales.
As promised, let's return to the hero of the previous section - Ivan Tsarevich - at the moment when he (or a character functionally close to him, say, a merchant's daughter from the tale of Finist Yasna-Falcon's feather), making his way through a dense forest, approaches Baba's hut Yagi. How is this hut described in the fairy tale? “There is a hut on chicken legs, without windows, without doors, in front of the forest, back to it.” Well, it would seem that you approached the hut from behind - go around it and enter. But for some reason this can't be done. And Ivan Tsarevich pronounces the well-known formula: "Hut, hut, stand back to the forest, front to me." At the same time, he knows exactly what to say, because the hut turns obediently. What does he see? “Baba Yaga lies on the stove - a bone leg, from corner to corner, her nose has grown into the ceiling.”
It's also strange, isn't it?
After all, Baba Yaga, it seems, in Russian fairy tales never seemed to be a special giantess. So this is not Baba Yaga so big, but a very small hut? What explains all these oddities? And they are explained by the fact that Baba Yaga is a dead man. And she lies in a cramped hut, as in a coffin, and the fact that this hut is raised above the ground on its chicken legs suggests the air burials of the ancient Slavs - they buried their dead in the forest on trees or special platforms. And a bone leg - a skeleton leg - is also a sign of a dead man.
There are some other indirect signs that speak in favor of this assumption. For example, almost nowhere in fairy tales does it say that Baba Yaga walks - she either lies or flies, and these are also signs of the inhabitants of the other world. And the fact that she rarely sees the hero, but mostly smells it, speaks of the same. And her hut, which stands somewhere on the edge of the world, in the most dense forest and which cannot be bypassed in any way, is a “border post”, a guard outpost on the border of two kingdoms - the kingdom of the living and the kingdom of the dead.
Hut of Baba Yaga. Fragment of the cover of the series "Tales". Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
The girl in the forest. Illustration for the fairy tale "Feather Finist Yasna-Falcon". Artist YA. Bilibin. 1900.
Cabin of death. Fragment. ArtistN.K. Roerich. 1905.
Baba Yaga is a very ancient character, rooted in the days of matriarchy. In many ways, she has the features of an ancient totemic female ancestor, the worship of which was associated with the animal progenitors and patrons of the tribe and with the cult of nature. After all, it is not for nothing that animals often obey and serve her in fairy tales (by the way, the chicken legs of her hut remind of her connection with them), and she herself, perhaps, retained the features of her animal ancestors. Of course, this is a controversial issue, but some researchers trace Baba Yaga's genealogy from the ancient Slavic goddess of death, who was closely related to the snake - a symbol of death among some tribes. It is possible that the bone leg also comes from there - it is assumed that Yaga was originally one-legged, and then it was already transformed into a bone-footed one. And even her name is derived from the common Aryan roots of the ancient Slavs - from the ancient Indian Sanskrit Ahi - snakes. Well, it may very well be, because our fabulous Baba Yaga is in very friendly and even family relations with her colleague - the Serpent Gorynych. But the features of the female ancestor - the patron spirit of the tribe are manifested in her in the fact that she is prophetic - she knows everything and guides the hero along the right path, a powerful sorceress, adviser and assistant. As a family patron spirit associated with the cult of the hearth, it has kitchen attributes - an oven, a mortar, a pestle (the ancient Slavs did not grind, but crushed grain) and pomelo.
However, let us return to the friendly communication of our heroes. We have established that Baba Yaga's hut is a "checkpoint" to the realm of death. That is why it cannot be bypassed in any way, but it is necessary to pass through it, and in order to get into this realm, it is necessary to pass certain tests, demonstrating sufficient magical knowledge. Ivan Tsarevich has already pronounced the first part of the password, turning the hut. What happens next? And then Baba Yaga also utters the traditional, well-known: “Fu-fu-fu, something smells like the Russian spirit!”. What kind of Russian spirit is this, so unpleasant for her? Apparently, this is the smell of a living person. Apparently, the ancient people believed that the smell of a living person is just as disgusting for the dead as the smell of a dead person is for the living.
Then the interrogation begins: “Where are you, good fellow, going? Are you trying the case, or are you crying out of the case? The hero reacts quite unexpectedly and aggressively to these seemingly innocent and natural questions - instead of answering, he goes on the offensive: “Oh, you old hag! First, drink and feed the good fellow, and then ask questions! And then the behavior of Baba Yaga suddenly changes dramatically: she begins to fuss, invites Ivan Tsarevich into the house, puts him at the table, and so on. In some fairy tales, she even indulges in self-criticism: “Oh, I'm an old fool! Without feeding the good fellow, let me ask! Interestingly, this feeding motive is an obligatory element of the hero's meeting with Baba Yaga, present in all fairy tales without exception. What is the matter here? Why should he certainly eat at Baba Yaga? What, you couldn't eat anywhere else? Of course, one could assume the simplest - the usual manifestation of hospitality towards a traveler, but the obligatory nature of this procedure and what we already know suggests that this food is of some kind of ritual nature. Indeed, in the mythological ideas of many peoples (including the ancient Slavs), a person, in order to get into the kingdom of the dead, must certainly taste the special food of the dead. After that, he is considered to have already fully joined the other world. Therefore, Ivan Tsarevich, demanding food from Baba Yaga, thereby shows that he is not afraid of this communion, he is ready for it - and Baba Yaga resigns himself, finally accepting him as his own.
Then, as you know, questions begin - Baba Yaga takes a detailed interview with the hero about the purpose of his journey. As a result, it turns out that she is in the know (“I know, I know where your beautiful Vasilisa is”) and gives Ivan Tsarevich precise and detailed instructions on where to go, what to do and how to achieve the intended goal. Sometimes, however, she resorts to the help of animals: she convenes her “network of informants” - roaring animals, flying birds, creeping reptiles, and so on, demonstrating her totemic roots.
In some cases, Baba Yaga's help is limited to instructions, in others they are followed by a magical gift - most often it is a horse, sometimes a magic ball, an invisible hat or something else; but even if the gift is not presented immediately, then as a result of following the instructions received, the hero still receives it. Why does Baba Yaga render such an invaluable service to the new prince in the form of advisory and magical (magic) help? Because he passed the test and demonstrated his magical competence and strength: he knew the spell that turned the hut, and was not afraid of Baba Yaga's food, introducing himself to the inhabitants of the otherworldly kingdom.
As we can see, in this situation, Baba Yaga acts as a purely positive character, helping the main character achieve his noble goals. And this role of hers is explained by what we have already talked about - the origin from the ancient totemic female ancestor, the patron spirit of the family, omniscient and omnipotent. Hence the gift of magical helpers - the magical patronage of the hero and protecting him from evil spirits. So how did she manage to turn into a sort of evil cannibal, which is found in many other fairy tales? To understand this, let's move on to the second variety of Baba Yaga - Yaga the kidnapper and the devourer - and try to trace the connection between these two hypostases of our character.
To do this, we will have to turn again to the ideas of primitive people about the rite of passage, which we described in the previous section. It is easy to see that the gastronomic inclinations of Baba Yaga of this variety are aimed mainly at children and are associated with the entry of these children in one way or another (withdrawal, withdrawal or abduction) into the dense forest into the notorious hut on chicken legs: that is, here we see
"Here, with a cheerful soul, he said goodbye to Yagou." Illustration for "The Tale of the Three Royal Divas and Ivashka, the Priest's Son" by A. S. Roslavlev. Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1911.
all the features of the environment surrounding the rite of passage. The image of Baba Yaga the devourer is most closely associated with this rite - after all, we have already mentioned that the essence of initiation was the symbolic death and subsequent rebirth of the boy passing through it. By the way, here you should pay attention to the fact that it is the boys who invariably get to dinner with Baba Yaga - after all, only they undergo the rite of initiation. So in the tales about this Yaga, the memory of this rite, preserved from primitive times, was very vividly reflected: a dense forest, from where some mysterious and inevitable danger comes, a hut - the abode of a mysterious mythical creature, fear of the upcoming rite ...
Well, you say, but what does eating children have to do with it? The fact is that very often the imaginary death of the initiate was presented as devouring by some mythical monstrous animal, and the subsequent rebirth to life - an eruption from his womb. Baba Yaga also owes her official duties in this category of fairy tales to her origin from an ancient totemic animal ancestor. We will meet with these ideas in the section on the Serpent Gorynych, who in some situations can act as a substitute or backup for Baba Yaga. Memories of the initiation ceremony, apparently, were also reflected in the fact that in fairy tales, getting to Baba Yaga is always followed by a happy ending: the hero avoids the danger that threatens him and gains all sorts of benefits - the initiation by the person who has passed the initiation becomes full-fledged members of the tribe and the provision of privileges to him. did not have before.
The positive role of the patroness and helper lost by Baba Yaga in these tales, oddly enough, may have been reflected in the detail that she prefers to use the children who come to her exclusively in fried form.
The Slavic tribes until a relatively late time retained the custom of the so-called "baking" of children, associated with ideas about the healing power of fire - the child was slightly "baked" in the oven, which allegedly made him stronger and more resistant to disease. So here, too, it seems that Baba Yaga was originally an assistant and healer, and not at all evil.
Thus, the connection of ideas about Yaga the helper, adviser and giver, guardian of the border of the kingdom of the dead, and Yaga the devourer, performer of the rite of passage, begins to clear up. This connection is in the relationship of primitive man's ideas about true death with a subsequent journey to the other world and temporary, imaginary death, to which he was subjected in the rite of initiation. By the way, the acquisition of magical knowledge and magical weapons (obtaining a magical assistant) after crossing the border of the otherworldly kingdom and passing the rite of passage (in both cases - after communicating with Baba Yaga) makes these ideas related.
But we again see that initially in all these situations Baba Yaga played a positive role. What happened anyway? And that's probably what happened. The collapse of the authority of Baba Yaga as the oldest totemic tribal ancestor is reflected in the minds of people, and after that, in myths and fairy tales, the collapse of matriarchy and the emergence of agriculture and agricultural religion. For an ancient man, the forest ceased to be a home and a source of livelihood, native and understandable, and therefore all the characters of the former forest religion turned into solid evil spirits: the great magician and shaman of the tribe - into an evil sorcerer, the patron mother and mistress of animals - into a malicious witch, dragging into their lair of children for the purpose of no longer symbolic devouring.
So, perhaps we managed to partially rehabilitate Baba Yaga in your eyes: the ancient, original historical roots of this fairy-tale character come from the good, positive role that she played in the beliefs of our ancestors. And the idea of her as a cannibal witch, which then completely received an ironic connotation (in later everyday fairy tales, Baba Yaga does not shine with her mind - her children constantly make fools of her, and only a mortar and a pomelo remained from her magical power), developed at a much later date.
And in conclusion, a few words about the third variety of Baba Yaga - about Yaga the Warrior. Most likely, this character, rarely found in fairy tales, has no independent meaning and simply acts as someone's deputy: according to the role that he plays in a fairy tale, anyone could be in his place - the Serpent Gorynych, Koschey the Immortal, some fabulous king or king. Not without reason, in the tale of Bely Polyanin, this variety can be mistaken for a representative of a certain Babi Yaga aristocracy and a full-fledged citizen of the thirtieth kingdom: there she is Baba Yaga - a golden leg.
Koschey (Kashchey) the Immortal
This great fairy-tale villain is another character familiar to all of us from early childhood. And, however, let's try to summarize what we know about him from the fairy tales we read? Although almost nowhere in these tales is there a description of Koshchei's appearance, we are used to imagining him as a tall, bony, incredibly thin old man - it's not for nothing that they say: "Thin as a koschey" - with sunken burning eyes, sometimes with a thin goat beard.
The main occupation of Koshchei the Immortal is the abduction of women. Isn't it true that at the mention of this fairy-tale hero, gloomy castles with dungeons full of captives, and chests with untold riches, with which he unsuccessfully tries to seduce these captives, arise in our imagination? And, of course, the indispensable attributes of his immortality are a standard fairy-tale nesting doll: death hidden in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare and
Baba Yaga. Illustration for the fairy tale "Sonko Filipko". Artist E.D. Polenov. 1905.
Baba Yaga. Illustration for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1900.
Koschey. Fragment. Artist S.V. Malyutin. 1904.
Koschei the Deathless. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1917-1926.
Let's try to understand the origin of our negative character. First of all, where did his very name come from - Koschey? It turns out that in the Old Russian language the word koshchei meant a slave, a captive, a servant. It is in this sense that it is used in the famous "Tale of Igor's Campaign" when Svyatoslav reproaches Prince Vsevolod for his indifference to the fate of the Russian principalities - had Vsevolod acted differently, other, better times would have come: nogata, but koshchei in cut. In other words, the time would come for fantastic cheapness in the slave market (nogata and rezana are small monetary units in ancient Russia, chaga is a slave, polonyanka, and koschey, respectively, is a slave, a slave). And in another place: “Shoot, sir, Konchak, filthy koshchei, for the Russian land, for the wounds of Igor, the bully Svyatoslavich!” Konchak is here called a slave, and the Galician Yaroslav is called a master. And again: “Then Prince Igor stepped out of the saddle of gold into the saddle of Koshcheevo,” that is, he moved from the golden, master’s saddle to the saddle of a slave.
On the other hand, the word koshchei could be derived from the name of Kosh: koshchei - belonging to a certain Kosh (Kosh - master of the slave Koshchei). This Kosh is the ancient, original name of Koshchei. It is still sometimes found in some fairy tales (for example, in the fairy tale about Koshchei from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev, he is called Kosh the Immortal). What is Kosh? It turns out that during the collapse of the primitive communal society, the first masters who seized power and established the institution of slavery were called kosh. This word comes from the common Slavic root bone (Old Slavic koshch, kosht) - the backbone, foundation, root of the clan - the tribal elder, the eldest in the family, who became the master. He is the founder of the family, everything rests on him, all subsequent generations are his “bone”. In the Ukrainian language, this meaning has been preserved until later times: kosh - camp, settlement, kosh - foreman, head of the kosh. Perhaps it is with these etymological roots of the name Koshchei that associations with his incredible thinness (bonyness) and extreme old age are also associated.
This is where the negative role of our character begins to become clear. In the eyes of primitive people, committed to the primitive justice of the tribal maternal society, Koschey was the embodiment of a force that violated the ancient orders of tribal equality and robbed a woman of her social power. From here comes the indestructible tendency of Koshchei the Immortal to kidnap and enslave women, and his power - after all, Koshchei in fairy tales, as a rule, appears to be the lord, the king of his dark kingdom, and the possession of untold riches, and greed, and cruelty are associated with him. Koschey was the personification of social injustice and untruth, the paternal right of violence and money-grubbing, a symbol of the collapse of a tribal just society and its replacement by a class society. Perhaps his immortality embodied the immortality of injustice, violence and profit in human society, and the death of this "immortal" hero - the age-old dream of mankind that someday these orders will still collapse, as the dark kingdom of Koshchei collapses after his death. The fact that the ideas about the immortality of this character are associated with some deep, eternal concepts is also evidenced by the fact that Koshchei's death is hidden in an egg. After all, the egg is the beginning of life, its indispensable link, enabling continuous reproduction, and only by crushing, destroying it, you can put an end to this life.
Probably later, during the period of continuous wars between the Slavs and the nomadic tribes, these ideas about Koshchei were superimposed by the perception of him as an enemy, an adversary, which was already associated with the later meaning of this word - a slave, a prisoner. And indeed, in some tales (for example, in the tale of Marya Morevna), Koschei appears as a prisoner, who, contrary to the ban, is released by our unlucky Ivan Tsarevich.
A peculiar look at Koshchei from the outstanding collector and connoisseur of Russian folk tales Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev. He sees in Koshchei a demon - a wither of rain moisture (hence his dryness, thinness), the personification of winter, dark clouds, bound by cold. And the meaning of his name comes from the same place - after all, it’s not for nothing that they say: “I was ossified from the cold.” And Afanasiev connects the story of Koshchei's death with the ideas of the Slavs about the oak - the tree of the thunder god Perun, and sees in the egg a metaphor for the sun that kills winter, and in its immortality - the continuous rebirth of winter in nature. In confirmation of this point of view, Alexander Nikolayevich turns to the same Marya Morevna. Indeed, there the captive Koschey hangs in iron chains.
Koschei the Immortal. Illustration for the fairy tale "Marya Morevna, overseas princess".
Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1901.
pyah (a cloud bound by frost) and breaks off from them, only after drinking water (after being saturated with rain moisture in the spring). The magic helpers of Ivan Tsarevich in this tale are the eagle, the falcon and the raven, which personify the forces of wind, thunder and rain, and in the end Ivan Tsarevich (the god of thunder) kills Koshchei with a horse's hoof (lightning strike) (destroys the cloud, forcing it pouring spring rain).
According to his fabulous role, Koschey the Immortal is in many ways a close relative and often an understudy of the Serpent of the Mountain-nych (they often replace each other in different fairy tales). This applies to the abduction of princesses and all sorts of intrigues perpetrated by positive fairy-tale heroes. Many features of Koshchei characterize him as a typical representative of the thirtieth otherworldly kingdom: he smells the Russian spirit, flies, is immensely rich and has magical powers. The originality of this character is associated primarily with the idea of his "immortality": the hero does not enter into a direct battle with him, due to the futility of this occupation, but must defeat him by completing one of the difficult tasks - to find and get the death of Koshchei, which he and does with the help of magical assistants, one of which is always the princess who was kidnapped and lives with Koshchei. It is she who, as a rule, seduces Koshchei, asking him where his death is hidden and how to get it. But we will mention this in the section on the princess.
Zmey Gorynych
Probably, there is no other creature that would play such a colossal role in the mythological representations of all the peoples of the Earth without exception, like the Serpent.
Therefore, let us resist the temptation to draw any parallels with mythology and turn exclusively to our own Snake Gorynych of Russian folk tales. First of all, we discover that this character, in fact, is not really described anywhere in fairy tales.
Although there are still some signs of a criminal. It is multi-headed: as a rule, three, six, nine, twelve heads, although occasionally five- and seven-headed specimens come across. Perhaps this is its main distinguishing feature.
The rest are only occasionally mentioned: he is volatile, fire-breathing (scorches with fire) and, apparently, is somehow connected with the mountains, as evidenced by his surname (or patronymic?) - Go-rynych - living in the mountains, the son of a mountain. Here, however, it must be borne in mind that in ancient times the common Slavic word mountain meant not only the actual mountain, but also the top in general, and could also be used in the meaning of the forest. So the nickname Gorynych could mean both “living above” and “forest”. It may very well be that this very Serpent of the Mountain-nych in the minds of the Slavic tribes living in the forests was associated with forest fires caused by a lightning strike. This is evidenced by his constant connection with fire, and the description of his flights - the personification of an evil natural element: a storm rises, thunder rumbles, the earth trembles, the dense forest slopes down - the three-headed Serpent flies. According to A.N. Afanasiev, the flying fiery Serpent was associated with a snake-like wriggling lightning. In general, various associations with fire arise in almost all the appearances of this character in fairy tales. The properties of fire are reminiscent of the indestructible tendency of the Serpent to swallow everything, and its many heads, and the ability to constantly grow new heads to replace those cut off (as more and more new tongues appear in the flame), and the fiery finger, with which the heads are grown (cut down the fiery finger - defeated the Serpent ). Fire crawls like a snake and bites like a snake. In the fairy tale "Ivan Bzhovich", the main character categorically forbids his brothers to sleep before meeting the Serpent.
Perhaps this is a memory of a real danger that lay in wait for the primitive hunter, who fell asleep in the forest by the fire and violated the ban on sleeping in front of the fire?
It is also possible that the peculiar relationship of the Serpent with women is partly connected with fire. On the one hand, he acts as a kidnapper and rapist (duplicating Koshchei in many fairy tales), on the other hand, as a seducer: individual unconscious heroines of fairy tales willingly enter into contact with the Serpent, uniting with him in developing intrigues against the positive hero. The connection of a woman with the Fire Serpent is probably an echo of the role that a woman played as a fire keeper in primitive society. Although, who knows, perhaps this hypostasis of the Serpent also reflected the later, already inspired by Christian mythology, ideas about the Serpent-tempter? After all, he performs his insidious Don Juan functions in fairy tales in the respectable guise of a beautiful good fellow, and not a fire-breathing brute-dragon. But we digress. The idea of fertility was also associated with fire among primitive tribes. The Slavs know a ritual, which consisted in the fact that barren women were given water to drink, into which sparks fell from a brand from the hearth.
The memory of the primitive rituals of sacrifices to the gods of fertility, performed with the aim of influencing the future harvest, was probably reflected in fairy tales about the exactions of the Serpent, when he demands girls as an annual tribute. With the death of this rite, when new forms of agriculture and new family and social relations developed, their sympathies were transferred from the absorbing spirit to the victim. That's when the hero-liberator appeared, killing the Serpent and rescuing the fabulous beauty. Serpent fighting motif, like transformation
Zmievna. Artist N.K Roerich. 1906.
Zmey Gorynych. Opened - Fragment of the cover of the series
ka. Artist I.Ya. Bili - "Russian folk tales".
bit. 1912. Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.
Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with the seven-headed Serpent of Goryny-chem. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1913-1918.
Dobrynya Nikitich frees Zabava Putyaticna from the Serpent Gorynych. Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1941.
ideas about Baba Yaga, apparently, appeared with the collapse of matriarchal relations and the emergence of a patriarchal family. It reflected the denial of tribal relations, in which a woman did not belong to an individual, but to the whole family. There was a desire to take away a woman, to win the right to her. The serpent fighter defeated the ancient lord of fire in order to take a woman from him.
But what is the role of this fairy tale character? He, like Baba Yaga and Koschey the Immortal, is a full-fledged inhabitant of the thirtieth kingdom. Let's try to trace the development of his relationship with the main positive character in the same fairy tale "Ivan Bykovich", in which they are described in most detail.
Here the heroes come to the Smorodina River, the viburnum bridge. For some reason, this bridge cannot be crossed in any way (“human bones lie all over the coast, it will be piled up to the knee”). Therefore, the heroes settle down in the hut that has turned up and begin to go on patrol - to guard the Serpent. It can be assumed that this viburnum bridge, like the hut of Baba Yaga, is a border outpost, and the Smorodina River is a kind of border that can be crossed only by killing the Serpent. So the Serpent, among other things, like Baba Yaga, carries out guard duty, only Baba Yaga guards the periphery, and the Serpent is the very heart of the thirtieth kingdom.
But our heroes finally meet. And then an interesting detail turns out - the Serpent knows in advance both who his opponent is and about the predetermined death from him: “Why are you, dog meat, stumbling, that you, crow's feather, are fluttering, that you, dog hair, are bristling? Ali, do you think that Ivan Bykovich is here? Here Ivan Bykovich appears, and a boastful squabble takes place between the opponents; then the fight itself begins. In it, the tactics of conducting hostilities by our heroes are curious: the hero tries to cut off the head of the Serpent, while the Serpent does not use any weapon, but strives to drive the adversary into the ground. In third,
In the most terrible battle, the hero comes to the aid of his magical assistant - the heroic horse. With his assistance, Bykovich manages to cut off the Snake's fiery finger, after which cutting off the heads left without a regeneration mechanism becomes a matter of technique.
What is the origin of this peculiar ritual, which is repeated in almost all fairy tales? How does the Serpent know the enemy's name? To understand this, we will have to turn again to the primitive rite of initiation, in which the swallowing of the initiate is imitated by some monstrous animal, often, incidentally, resembling a snake. “Swallowed” and “regurgitated back” a person acquires magical power and power over the animal that once swallowed him. In the myths of many primitive peoples, a great hunter and a great shaman emerge from the Serpent. At the same time, as we have already said, in the rite of initiation, the exit from the womb of the Serpent was represented as the second birth of a person. “Born from the Serpent”, the initiate who passed through it becomes to some extent the Serpent himself and acquires a magical connection with him. That is why the Snake knows in advance the future enemy and destroyer - born from him and the only one who can kill him. Perhaps that is why the Serpent knocks the hero into the ground - he is trying to return him to the "dust" from which he came out, which is why the hero's magical assistant plays a decisive role in the victory over the Serpent - the victory is magical in nature. With the disappearance of the rite, its meaning was lost and forgotten, but the memory of the rite itself remained. However, the absorption by the Serpent was already considered not as a blessing, but as a very unpleasant threat - the motive of serpent fighting arose, which we have already spoken about.
In general, the Serpent, like many other mythical and fabulous creatures, is a mechanical combination of several animals, the main of which are a bird and a snake. The bird in the mind of an ancient person was associated with a distant kingdom, and the snake - with the underground. These are the two main animals associated with
Fight of Ivan Tsarevich with the three-headed Serpent. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1918.
Mortal combat with a three-headed serpent. Postcard. Artist B.V. Zworykin. 1916.
conceptions of the human soul. Therefore, the Serpent is associated with the image of death - ideas about death as the abduction of the soul. Therefore, in fairy tales, he constantly plays the role of a kidnapper, hence his function as a symbolic devourer in the rite of passage. Perhaps his many heads - many mouths - is an exaggeration -
ny image of devouring (reception of amplification of quality through a set).
To be continued
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Illustration for the fairy tale "Ivan Tsarevich and the Firebird".
Artist I.Ya. Bilibin. 1899.