They come to the river Smorodina, see - human bones lie all over the bank, everything around is burned by fire, the whole Russian land is watered with blood. There is a hut on chicken legs near Kalinov Bridge …
In Russian folk tales, the Kalinov Bridge on the Smorodina River is more than once encountered, where the hero fights the monster: "The Battle on the Kalinov Bridge", "Ivan Bykovich", "Ivan, a peasant son and a peasant himself with a finger, a mustache seven miles away", etc. With the light hand of the talented and scrupulous researcher of fairy tales V. Ya. Propp, it was customary to believe that the Smorodina River represents the border between the worlds. Therefore, the bridge across it is a transition from one world to another. One of the versions of the symbolism and geographical coordinates of this place has already been described in our magazine.
In particular, the point of view was given, according to which the etymology of the Kalinov bridge is associated with the words "hot" (heat up strongly) or "hot" (numb, numb from heat or cold). It was first expressed back in the 19th century. connoisseur of Russian fairy tales A. A. Potebney, who referred to nonrandom epithets to viburnum, close to fire in meaning: red, hot, etc. True, later the author abandoned his own guess, putting forward another version that, they say, Kalinov bridge was metal.
Academician B. A. Rybakov explains the initial essence of the concept of "Kalinov bridge" as follows: "The bridge that the massive mythical monster will walk along is made of viburnum, a small and extremely fragile shrub, absolutely unsuitable for any kind of buildings. You can only cover with viburnum branches, throw something, but not build from them … I don't think it would be a big stretch to recognize in these fabulous signs of a monster the outline of an ancient mammoth (or mammoths), driven by a chain of fire of beaters into a trapping pit, into a dungeon, disguised branches of viburnum bushes ".
But if so, why is it sung about the viburnum bridge in wedding songs, in bride lamentations, in girlish tunes? And in the opera by P. I. Tchaikovsky "Eugene Onegiy" as an image of a folk female song sounds:
To understand this, it is worth turning not to the etymology, but to the symbolism of the viburnum.
Many folk tales tell about Kalina
Ukrainians from century to century pass on the story of how the Tatar-Mongol army took girls as guides, who led them either into an impenetrable thicket, or into a swamp. The enemies of the heroines were stabbed with sabers, and a viburnum with bloody berries grew in the place of their death. In general, there was someone to learn from Ivan Susanin.
Another legend tells how Olenochka committed suicide in the Galician lands, whom her brother wanted to sell to the Turks, who, out of frustration, chopped her body into pieces, and then the viburnum groves shattered with great sadness.
There is a legend that once viburnum berries were sweeter than raspberries. But one day the young beauty fell in love with a proud blacksmith, who did not notice her and often wandered through the forest. Out of despair, she decided to burn that forest, and when the hard-hearted one visited there, everything was already burned. Only under the viburnum bush was a tear-stained girl. The blacksmith looked at her and fell in love, and until his death he saw a beauty in his wife, because the viburnum gave him the ability to respond to love and appreciate it. But since then her berries have become bitter - like tears of unrequited love.
Kalina from the most ancient times personified beauty and virgin love
It was grown near the hut - for luck. She was an indispensable attribute of wedding rituals, starting with decorating the room with branches, wreaths and berries and ritual rolls and ending with the announcement of evidence of the innocence of the newlywed.
The funeral rites of the viburnum meant sacrificing virginity during marriage in the name of procreation. Brockhaus and Efron, proceeding from the research of the same AA Potebnya, argue that "Kalinovye bridges are a common, permanent common place in wedding songs (bridge - connection, connection)." Later, this tree became a symbol of women and love in general.
On the other hand, it was funerary, memorable, and was planted on the graves of soldiers who died in battles for the Motherland, or untimely deceased lovers.
It was believed that viburnum is able to see, hear and think
Our ancestors believed that it helps from the evil eye and evil spirits, soothes and relieves the soul. “If it’s hard for you, bitterly from your fate, embrace the mother-viburnum, run your hand several times along its trunk, tell-open all your bitter secrets, cuddle up to her carefully, without breaking the branches, it will immediately become easier on your soul” (curious that an infusion of viburnum berries is also used as a sedative for neuroses).
This is how the people treated the Kalina.
And it is no coincidence that the bridge was named after her
And in the battle of the hero with the monster on the border of the worlds of Life and Death, and during the transition from girlhood to marriage, the dying of the previous state and the birth of a new one took place. And the feat of arms, and the wedding - initiation, dedication. Kalina at the same time acts as a defender, intercessor, assistant. In any case, the basis for such a version is the symbolic meaning of the tree deeply revered by the ancient Slavs.
Author: Valentina Ponomareva