Russian folk tales on which we grew up and which we tell children today are not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Their uncomplicated plots are imbued with eerie pagan motifs that have survived from time immemorial. After learning about the meaning of some of the symbols that appear in Russian folklore, you will look at fairy tales a little differently.
Most of the plots of famous Russian fairy tales appeared hundreds of years before Russia was baptized. Later they were adapted, diluted with Russian good fellows, tsars and boyars, but many heroes and places remained unchanged. Certain facts, known only to specialists, are able to force us to reconsider the attitude towards some stories and see in them a new meaning.
Something about Baba Yaga
Even the smallest children know such a fabulous hero as Baba Yaga. In the tales of the Slavic peoples, this old woman can be both a negative hero and a useful helper. The image of this not too pretty woman is rooted in the ancient era of matriarchy, when the role of the most powerful heroes and guardians of the elements, most often, were ladies.
Baba Yaga of the Slavs.
Among the ancient Slavs, this old woman, stern but fair, was the protector of forest birds and animals, but besides that she performed another important and terrible function. Baba Yaga guarded the entrance to the afterlife and was the guide of souls to the next world. Everyone knows that she lived at the edge of the forest, that is, on its edge, and the Slavs used to associate the forest with death.
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Hel - mistress of the underworld among the Scandinavians.
One leg of Baba Yaga is bone. This makes it clear that she only half belongs to the world of the living. This is exactly how the ancient Scandinavians represented the goddess of the underworld Hel, half of flesh and half of bones. Also, the old woman helps the heroes of fairy tales to get into the distant kingdom, by which they mean the afterlife. Before sending the good fellow on the road, the grandmother drowns a bathhouse for him, then drinks and feeds. This is a kind of ritual, without which the living cannot cross the border of the underworld.
Bathing in the bath is nothing more than washing the dead, and by demanding the old woman to eat and drink, the hero gives a kind of consent to the dangerous ritual for him of temporary transformation into a dead man. The food of the dead is not suitable for living people, and Baba Yaga can only have such a treat. To fulfill his mission in the afterlife, the hero dies for the real world.
How does a hut on chicken legs "work"?
If Baba Yaga herself is the guardian of the transition to the world of the dead, then her hut is a kind of customs point on the border. At the moment when this building, at the request of the hero, turns to him in front, and to the forest with his back, opens the way to the afterlife.
A hut on chicken legs.
Baba Yaga's hut is cramped and stands on "chicken legs". This is also not casual - in pagan times, many Slavic tribes buried the dead not in the ground, but in small log houses - "domina". In fairy tales, a special emphasis is placed on the cramped hut: "Baba Yaga is lying, a bone leg, from corner to corner, his nose has grown into the ceiling."
This is what the "domina" looked like.
The huts were placed on wooden supports or high stumps resembling chicken legs because of their roots. The "legs" of the domina were needed in order to raise it above ground level, protecting the burial from floods and forest animals. By the way, the entrance to such a burial house was always located from the side of the kingdom of the dead, that is, the door of the hut was turned towards the forest. Hence the usual request of Baba Yaga's guest to the hut - to turn in front of him.
Kalinov bridge on the river Smorodina
The Smorodina River among the Slavs was the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead, an analogue of the ancient Styx. Do not think that the name of the river comes from currant - meaning "currant", that is, stench, corpse spirit. The river in the tale is a serious obstacle on the hero's path - it is very difficult to cross it.
Kalinov bridge across the river Smorodina might look like this.
You can cross the obstacle only along the Kalinov Bridge, which again has nothing to do with berries. Kalinov - from the word "red-hot", because it was believed that the river between the worlds was instead of water filled with a raging flame. Kalinov Bridge was red-hot and to cross it meant to die.
& hellip; but from childhood we represent it like this
On our side of the Smorodina River, the heroes kept order, and the three-headed Serpent Gorynych guarded the side that was located in the world of death. This unusual character, found not only in Russian fairy tales, but also in the folklore of other European Slavs, is worth telling in more detail.
Serpent Gorynych is the most controversial hero
In Russian folk tales, the Serpent Gorynych is an unambiguously negative character. But it was not always so. In the early legends, with which experts in the field of ancient Slavic literature are mostly familiar, such a hero as Gorynya appeared.
Zmey Gorynych.
Before the classic trinity of Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich was formed, Gorynya took the place of one of the heroes in different epics. Since in the early versions the heroes were chthonic entities, each of them was in charge of a certain element. Gorynya, of course, was responsible for combustion, fire. It is with burning, and not with the mountains, that the Serpent Gorynych is connected.
After the arrival of Christianity, Gorynya was literally demoted from heroes, being transferred to negative characters. Enemies of Russia - the Pechenegs and Polovtsians, attacking cities and villages, set them on fire. It is no wonder that Gorynya was reincarnated as a symbol of death and fear, incarnated in a fire-breathing snake.
Bogatyr Gorynya.
It is easy to see that in many tales the Serpent Gorynych has oriental features inherent in the main enemies of the Slavs. Also, its origin is indicated by the place of residence - the Sorochinsky ("Saracen") mountains. The Saracens in those days were called non-Christian pagans living in the east and south, as well as Muslims.
Kashchei the Immortal - not alive and not dead
Kashchey or Koschey is one of the most mysterious and interesting heroes of fairy tales. No one can accurately interpret his name. Perhaps it came from the word "bone" (bony is an important sign of this character) or from the word "blasphemer" (as they called sorcerers in Russia).
This is how the artist Viktor Vasnetsov represented Koschei.
Blasphemy, by the way, is directly related to the word "blasphemy". To blaspheme meant to conjure, to perform a rite. With the advent of Orthodoxy, this word, which was once neutral, acquired a negative meaning, which it retains today. Also, the origins of the name are sought in the Turkic languages. The consonant word "koshchi", for example, means a slave, and Koschey often appears as a prisoner of powerful sorceresses, chained in magic chains or bound by some kind of witchcraft.
Kashchei the Immortal could be attributed to the world of the dead, but he does not quite fit into the canons of the kingdom of Death. This hero is only called immortal, but in fact he can die, although it is not easy to achieve this. The death of Koshchei is in the egg and, as a rule, looks like a needle. This turn is not unique and, besides Russian fairy tales, is found in Greek, Egyptian, Scandinavian and Chinese mythology.
This is how Koschey could look today.
In many cultures, the egg is a symbol of the origin of life. Often it is golden (the symbol of the Sun) and floats on the waves of the World Ocean, keeping in itself the main deity, the progenitor of all things. The beginning of life is associated with the fact that the egg breaks, freeing the divine essence. In the case of Koschei, the broken egg also symbolizes the birth of life, and therefore the victory over death.
Serpent Gorynych and Koschey the Immortal often replace each other. Both have a habit of attacking villages, capturing and killing people, and abducting girls. In addition, two negative characters are clearly of Turkic origin.
Koschey the Immortal illustrated by Ivan Bilibin.
The word "koschey" can be found three times in the "Lay of Igor's Host". The first time, when the prince is described as being held captive by the Polovtsi, where Igor is transported "in a koshcheev saddle", that is, on horseback, in a saddle specially equipped for slaves. The second time a captive nomad is called "koshchey", and the third time, the Polovtsian khan Konchak is called "nasty koshchey".