Let's continue our story about the characters of Russian folk tales. In the previous part, we had Baba Yaga. And today we'll talk about her bosom friend, friend, or opponent - both cases are found in fairy tales.
So, the topic of today's post is Koschey the Immortal.
Linguists still do not come to a consensus regarding the etymology of his name. There are three common versions. According to one of them, Koschey is a derivative of the word "bone". That is, a very thin, skinny person.
This is supported by the appearance of Koshchei - he is usually depicted as terribly thin, skeletal. Take Soviet fairy-tale films - there all his bones are clearly drawn. The problem is that this could be the result of a later rethinking of the name.
According to the second version, koschey is a common noun, comes from the Turkic kosči - captive, slave. This is supported by the repeated use of the word "koshchey" in the ancient Russian chronicles, as well as in the "Lay of Igor's Host" in this very meaning - slave.
Here, too, there is a problem - in fairy tales this is a rather powerful character who is not a prisoner of anyone (the exception is a number of fairy tales, where at the beginning Koschey appears as a prisoner in a dungeon). Perhaps the word "koschey" in this case was used simply as an abusive language and expressed a negative assessment by the storyteller of this character.
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And finally, the third version is the least convincing and weakest in terms of linguistic justification. Some researchers deduce the name of Koshchei from the name of the ancient Slavic deity Karachun - the lord of cold and darkness, living in the underworld. Moreover, most scientists are convinced that these are two completely different characters.
Which version do you like?