If you think about it, the fairy tale is a riddle within a riddle. First: the mansion itself. What is it, where did it come from? It stands in a field, in full view of everyone, and is empty. There are options that remove this absurdity, only then it is no longer a tower at all, but a mitten or, say, a jug. With them, everything is simple: a man was driving, he dropped it from the cart and didn’t notice. True, we can say that these options are quite late. Initially, there were no people in the fairy tale, and fairy tales about animals are the most ancient fairy tales, carrying archaic views of the world. And if later consciousness needed a rational explanation for the appearance of the tower, the archaic one was built on completely different principles. It operated not with definitions, but with symbols. Here is the tower – such a symbol. I don’t dare to guess what our ancestor saw in the mansion while writing this tale. It is more interesting to see if it can be read in a Christian way.

So, there is a tower in the field - an obvious miracle, and different animals approach it, or rather, it all starts with insects: a fly, a jumping flea, a squeaking mosquito. Well, these, of course, will fit into any mansion. Then a little mouse appears. And the mansion suits her. Next is the frog. But in the little house she had a whole breakfast packed: a fly, a flea, a mosquito. And this breakfast calls: “come live with us.” The enemy is forgiven and respected. The frog climbs into the mansion, leaving all slippery thoughts behind the threshold. Another life begins.

The original dimensions of the tower are small - it is no coincidence that the later version makes a mitten out of it. And then the stray bunny galloped up. Its dimensions clearly do not fit the tower. Well, the inhabitants of the mansion still invite him to their place, and the mansion accommodates a bunny, revealing its wonderful properties. Next come the predators - the fox and the wolf.

The wolf has a terrible name - “grab from behind the bushes”, but the inhabitants of the mansion named after him are not afraid. The tower shelters everyone, the fox lives peacefully next to the mouse, and the wolf lives next to the hare. No casualties, no persecution; The mansion represents a different space, a different way of organizing the world.

But at the same time, the door to this other existence opens from our everyday life. The tower is accessible to anyone who knocks, and therefore vulnerable. Sooner or later the bear comes.

The bear is the most formidable animal on Russian soil. There is no escape from an angry bear - it will catch up with the one running away, swim across a river, or climb a tree. In a close one-on-one fight, the bear has an advantage - he has teeth and claws that leave deep wounds, terrible strength and impressive weight. And today, a hunter going out to hunt a bear with a gun risks his life to some extent, what can we say about the hunter of the pre-gun era.

Modern culture has given us a cute bear - how many children fall asleep with their arms comfortably wrapped around a teddy bear. There is a whole industry behind Winnie the Pooh, almost like Mickey Mouse. Cartoon bears are good-natured and cute. The real beast is ferocious. And our ancestors, who met a bear in the neighboring forest, were well aware of this. They called him Master and treated him with respect and fear. That, however, did not stop them from organizing bear hunts; but at the same time they never named him directly, but spoke allegorically - so that he would not find out and harbor a grudge - as the Master of the Forest, the bear was credited with supernatural abilities. The very word “bear” is the result of a similar allegory - the one who eats honey. The real, ancient name of the animal was forgotten.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the bear in folk tales is so strikingly different from the bear in literary fairy tales. In "Teremka" the bear is the embodiment of evil. This is a dark, ancient force that has come to destroy an unprecedented world order. The bear does not ask to come into the mansion; he does not even allow himself to be invited to a new life. Without being provoked by anything, he immediately destroys, as if implementing the program inherent in his “title” - “you are crushing all of you.” (But the wolf abandoned his negative program!)

Destruction is easy for a bear; no one dares to resist him. The tale ends on a sad note. However, the animals die only in one of the options; in the rest they manage to escape. But the tower ceases to exist.

With some reservations, you can see the symbol of the Church in the tower. It appears in violation of the natural, natural pattern - a mansion in a field is out of place. Likewise, the Church is established not by the development of human society, but by the direct intervention of God. The Church represents a different organization of existence, different principles, alien to everyday reasoning. The tower also changes the usual habits of animals. The Church accepts everyone who has left old life, through repentance. And in the mansion there is a place for everyone. The church brings joy and peace to people. And peace reigns in the tower; in some versions, the inhabitants sing contentedly. The church suffers persecution and the tower is destroyed. However, the “gates of hell” will not prevail against the Church, and the tower has fallen. True, this can be seen as an illustration of the fact that until the transfiguration of all creation, the Kingdom of God cannot be built on earth. In any case, the fairy tale teaches that love and mutual understanding are possible, and also that they deserve to be treated with care. You don’t have to be a bear - and the tower will stand. A Christian fairy tale.

Sample analysis of folk tales

"The Fox, the Hare and the Rooster"

(Russian folk tale for children 3 - 4 years old)

In a simple and fascinating form, the fairy tale conveys to the child the idea of ​​the triumph of justice.

The bunny, feeling sorry for the fox, let her into the hut to warm up. She warmed up and drove the bunny out of his own house. He walks through the forest and cries bitterly. The sympathies of the children are on the side of the offended bunny. The animals he meets along the way sympathize with him and strive to help - they make an attempt to drive out the fox.

The invader-fox intimidates the animals, they do not have the courage to resist her threats: the dogs and the bear run away. Only the cockerel does not give in to deceptive intimidation. He himself threatens to blow off the fox's head. The fox got scared and ran away, and the bunny began to live in his hut again.

In order for the idea of ​​a fairy tale to become understandable to children, the narrator must create a correct sound picture of all events and the actions of each character. The responsive bunny let the fox warm up. When the fox drove him out, “the bunny goes and cries bitterly.” The fairy tale depicts a weak, defenseless animal. The narrator, using appropriate intonations, must show both the character of the bunny and his grief. The bunny’s complaint to the animals he meets sounds bitterly: “How can I not cry?..”

When the bunny sees that neither the dogs nor the bear drove the fox out, he says to the cockerel: “No, you won’t drive him out. They chased the dogs but didn’t drive them out, the bear chased them but didn’t drive them out, and you won’t drive them out!” There is hopelessness in his words.

The image of a fox is negative: it is an invader, an insidious, cruel deceiver. At the very beginning, the fairy tale depicts her behavior. In the words of the narrator: “She warmed herself up, and then kicked him out of the hut” - there should already be a condemnation of her action. Then the fox’s cunning should be conveyed when she intimidates the animals: “As soon as I jump out, as soon as I jump out, scraps will fly through the back streets!” She boldly and boldly scares animals. It is necessary to show this with intonation of voice. Her words at the end of the fairy tale sound completely different: “I’m getting dressed!.. I’m putting on a fur coat!” Here she herself is frightened by the rooster and, after the third insistent demand, quickly jumps out of the hut.

Dogs, a bear, a cockerel sympathize with the bunny. Each of them sympathetically asks: “What are you crying about, bunny?” The animals are different in appearance and character. To accurately convey their images, the narrator uses different timbres and tempos of voice: the abrupt, fast, ringing voice of a dog, the slow, low-pitched speech of a bear, the ringing, melodious voice of a cockerel. For greater persuasiveness, it is good to use onomatopoeia: dogs should bark, a cockerel should crow.

The general tone of the entire tale, despite the bunny’s grief, is cheerful and cheerful. A good beginning prevails in her, a desire to help a friend. Against this cheerful backdrop, the narrator paints the unfolding events.

The composition of the fairy tale is based on a favorite fairy-tale device - repetition of the action: three meetings of a bunny with animals. Each of them is a complete episode and must be separated from the others by a significant pause.

You should also pause at the end of the fairy tale to give the children the opportunity to feel its happy ending.

"Snow Maiden"

(Russian folk tale for children 5 - 6 years old)

The fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” is magical: in it there is a miraculous transformation of a snow girl into a living one. As in any fairy tale, its wonderful element is intertwined with an everyday realistic basis: the fairy tale depicts the life of childless old people, pictures of native nature at different times of the year, and the fun of children.

This tale is somewhat different from other Russian folk tales in the nature of its content. While most of our fairy tales are cheerful and cheerful, this fairy tale is lyrical, with a tinge of sadness caused by the death of the Snow Maiden.

Reading the tale carefully during the preparation process, the narrator notes that in composition it differs from others. It does not have the dynamism characteristic of fairy tales, nor does it have the usual technique of repeating the action three times. All attention is focused on the image of the Snow Maiden, her behavior, and experiences.

The image of the Snow Maiden was created with great love. Hardworking, smart, friendly. The Snow Maiden is also beautiful in appearance: “every day, it becomes more and more beautiful. She herself is as white as snow, her braid is brown to the waist, but there is no blush at all.”

An image created with such love also requires appropriate lyrical intonations from the narrator, which evokes sympathy in the listeners for the Snow Maiden. The narrator's voice should sound warm, loving, but without cooing, without excessive sentimentality.

The fairy tale wonderfully shows the contrast between the joyful spring awakening of nature and the growing sadness and melancholy of the Snow Maiden. “Winter has passed. The spring sun has begun to warm up. The grass in the thawed patches turned green, the larks began to sing.” The narrator’s voice contains cheerful, cheerful intonations, and then, after a short pause, he continues with a tinge of sadness: “And the Snow Maiden suddenly became sad.”

The end of the fairy tale is expressive - the death of the Snow Maiden. A miracle happens - the Snow Maiden melted and “turned into a white cloud.” The narrator must depict both the surprise and the alarm of her friends when they call her: “Ay, ay, Snow Maiden!”

Russian folk tale "Kolobok" is a tale about animals.

A fairy tale about how a woman, at her grandfather’s request, baked a bun and “put it on the window to chill.” And the bun jumped from the window and rolled along the path. While he was rolling, he met various animals (bear, hare, wolf). All the animals wanted to eat the bun, but he sang a song to them and the animals let him go. When he met the fox, the bun sang a song to her, but she pretended to be deaf and asked the bun to sit on her sock and sing it one more time. The bun sat on the fox's nose, and she ate it.

The main characters of the fairy tale are the bun and the fox. Kolobok is kind, simple, brave. The fox is cunning and affectionate.

Moral of the story: “Say less, think more”, “Guess is as good as reason”, “Carefully planned, but foolishly done”, “Easy to boast, easy to fall.”

The fairy tale contains repetitions of phrases such as “Kolobok, Kolobok, I’ll eat you,” “Don’t eat me, I’ll sing you a song.” The kolobok song is also repeated.

Children should be explained words such as susek, barn, cold.

The fairy tale meets the requirements for the content of works for children, that is, it is accessible to children’s understanding, interesting for children, small in volume, the language is simple, the plot develops quickly, a small number of incomprehensible words.

This fairy tale is intended for reading to children of primary and secondary preschool age.

Bibliography

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Ershov Petr Pavlovich - famous writer(1815 - 1869), native of Siberia; received his education at St. Petersburg University; was the director of the Tobolsk gymnasium. He published poems in Senkovsky's Library for Reading and Pletnev's Sovremennik. Ershov gained fame from the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” which he wrote while still a student and was first published as an excerpt in 3 volumes of “Libraries for Reading” in 1834 with a commendable review from Senkovsky; The first four verses of the tale were sketched by Pushkin, who read it in manuscript. “Now I can leave this type of writing to me,” Pushkin said then. The great poet liked the lightness of the verse, with which, he said, Ershov “treats like his serf.” It was then published as a separate book and went through 7 editions during Ershov’s lifetime; starting from the 4th edition, in 1856 it was published with the restoration of those places that were replaced by dots in the first editions. “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is a folk work, almost word for word, according to the author himself, taken from the lips of the storytellers from whom he heard it; Ershov only brought it into a more slender appearance and added in places.

Simple, sonorous and strong verse, purely folk humor, an abundance of successful and artistic paintings (a horse market, a zemstvo fish court, a mayor) made this tale widespread; it gave rise to several imitations (for example, the Little Humpbacked Horse with golden bristles).

The first edition of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was not published in its entirety; part of the work was cut out by censorship, but after the release of the second edition the work was released without censorship.

After the release of the fourth edition, Ershov wrote: “My horse again galloped throughout the Russian kingdom, happy journey to him.” “The Little Humpbacked Horse” was published not only at home, but also abroad.

Analysis of the literary fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pavel Petrovich Ershov.

1) History of the creation of the work:

Since the time of Pushkin, Russian literature has acquired a folk character. Pushkin's initiative was immediately taken up. The fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” became one of the responses to the call of the great poet to turn Russian literature towards the people.

Throughout his life, Ershov was haunted by the idea of ​​describing Siberia. He dreamed of creating a novel about his homeland like the novels of Fenimore Cooper.

Thoughts about the people became the reason for the birth of the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” Closeness to the people, knowledge of their life, habits, customs, tastes, views ensured the fairy tale unprecedented success, which it enjoyed even in the manuscript.

The fairy tale was first published in the “Library for Reading” in 1834, and later published in separate editions. Tsarist censorship made its own adjustments - the fairy tale came out with banknotes. Pushkin introduced Ershov into poetic circles. There is evidence that he himself edited the tale and wrote the introduction to it.

Ershov's fairy tale took a place next to Pushkin's fairy tales. This is how it was viewed by contemporaries. Official criticism treated it with the same disdain as Pushkin’s fairy tales: this is a light fable for idle people, but not without some entertainment.

2) Genre features:

A unique genre of fairy tales. Let's consider two points of view: V.P. Anikin examines the work of P.P. Ershova as realistic and believes that the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is the poet’s response to the process of formation in literature realistic fairy tale. An unconventional view of the genre in studies about P.P. Ershov Professor V.N. Evseeva: “The Little Humpbacked Horse” is a work of a romantic poet, “a parody - folk tale”, in which “the romantic irony of the author sets the tone”; the aspiring poet expressed the ideas of “freedom as the great value of romantic consciousness.” In the fairy tale one can also find the features of a romantic poem (poetic form, three-part structure, epigraphs to parts, lyric-epic nature of the narrative, plot tension, originality of events and main characters, expressiveness of style.

In “The Little Humpbacked Horse” there are also signs of a novel: a significant length of the life story of Ivanushka Petrovich, the evolution of his character, a change in the functions of the characters, extensive portraits, landscapes, descriptiveness, dialogues, the interweaving of “fairytale rituals” with an abundance of realistic scenes and details, as if snatched from life, breadth of social background.

In the first half of the 19th century, plots similar to “The Little Humpbacked Horse” were not found among folk tales. Only after the fairy tale was published, folklorists began to find plots that arose under the influence of this fairy tale.

However, in a number of folk tales there are motifs, images and plot moves, present in “The Little Humpbacked Horse”: tales about the Firebird, the magic horse Sivka-Burka, about a mysterious raid on the Garden of Eden, about how a young bride was delivered to the old fool - the king, etc.

Ershov talentedly combined the plots of these fairy tales, creating a magnificent, vibrant work with exciting events, wonderful adventures of the main character, his resourcefulness and love of life.

3) Topic, problem, idea. Features of their expression.

The meaning of the fairy tale is in irony, in a joke, in direct satire: those who want to get rich do not get wealth. And Ivan the Fool achieved everything because he lived honestly, was generous and always remained true to his duty and word.

4) Plot and composition:

The very beginning of “The Little Humpbacked Horse” testifies to Ershov’s deep interest in genuine people's life. Instead of the idyllic “villages” that exist in literature, Ershov shows people who live by their labor interests. The fairy tale plot unfolds against the everyday, prosaic background of real peasant life. Ershov shows the everyday prosaic underside of the repeatedly idealized “rural life.”

A fairy tale as a literary work has a classic three-part form, a logical sequence in the development of events, the individual parts are organically woven into a single whole. All actions performed by the heroes are justified by the classical laws of a fairy tale.

Compositionally, P.P. Ershov’s fairy tale consists of three parts, each of which is preceded by an epigraph:

1. The fairy tale begins to tell.

2.Soon the fairy tale will tell. But it won’t be done soon.

3. Until now, Makar has been digging vegetable gardens. And now Makar has become a governor.

In these epigraphs one can already guess the pace and density of the narrative, and the changing role of the main character, determined by the aptness of the folk proverb.

Each part has its own dominant conflict:

1.Ivan and Little Humpbacked Horse - and savvy brothers. (The space of the family is the state.)

2. Ivan and the Little Humpbacked Horse - and the Tsar with his servants. (The space of the kingdom, so strikingly reminiscent of Russian borders in its breadth.)

3.Ivan and the Little Humpbacked Horse - and the Tsar Maiden. (Space of the Universe.)

The plot of each of the three parts represents a complete whole, consisting of rapidly occurring events. Time in them is compressed to the limit, and space is limitless; in each part there is a central event that most fully reveals the characters of the characters and predetermines further events.

In the first part it is the capture of a mare. She gives Ivan foals, and with them Ivan ends up serving in the royal stables. The first part ends with a brief account of further events up to the final episode, as main character became a king, thereby preparing the reader for further events, intriguing him.

In the second part, two events are central: Ivan, with the help of the Little Humpbacked Horse, catches the Firebird and delivers the Tsar Maiden to the palace.

As in many folk tales, Ivan performs the third, most difficult, almost impossible task - he gets the Tsar Maiden's ring and meets with a whale; At the same time, he visited heaven, where he talked with Mesyats Mesyatsovich, the mother of the Tsar Maiden, freed the whale from torment, for which he helped Ivan get the ring. The third part is thus the most eventful. It uses motifs known in folk tales: the hero. helps the person he meets, who, in turn, through a chain of characters, helps the hero himself, helping to complete the most difficult task.

The third part is the most eventful. It also uses motifs well-known in folk tales: the hero helps someone he meets, who, in turn, through a chain of characters, helps the hero himself, helping him complete the most difficult task.

All three parts of the tale are tightly interconnected by the image of Ivan and his true friend Little humpbacked horse.

The fairy tale ends with an ending characteristic of folklore: the victory of the main character and a feast for the whole world, at which the narrator was also present.

The engine of the plot is mainly the character of the main character, who is always at the center of events. His courage, bravery, independence, resourcefulness, honesty, ability to value friendship, self-esteem help to overcome all obstacles and win.

One of the traditional artistic techniques used by the storyteller is doubling, which takes on an all-encompassing character: plot motifs and fragments are doubled, characters have their own doubles and “twins,” and many parallel syntactic constructions with lexical repetitions appear in the narrative structure. There is a doubling of the genre - a fairy tale within a fairy tale, the “spheres of the universe” are doubled (earthly and underwater, earthly and heavenly kingdoms). The function of doubling is the creation and destruction of fairy-tale reality; the “double-brothers” of “Danilo da Gavrilo” are satirically described.

SPACE IN A TALE:

The everyday and the fantastic are intertwined in a fairy tale. The fairy-tale universe consists of three separate kingdoms - earthly, heavenly and underwater. The main thing is earthly, having many characteristics and signs, the most detailed:

Behind the mountains, behind the forests, behind the wide fields...,

The brothers sowed wheat and transported it to the capital city: You know, that capital was not far from the village.

In addition to “topography,” the earthly kingdom has its own weather, signs of royal and peasant life. This kingdom is also the most densely populated: there are peasants, archers, animals and birds, the king and his servants, merchants and the mysterious “Tsar Saltan”. “I came from the land of Zemlyanskaya, from a Christian country.”

The heavenly kingdom is similar to the earthly one, only “the earth is blue”, the same mansion with Russian Orthodox crosses, a fence with a gate, a garden.

The underwater kingdom is contradictory: it is huge, but smaller than the earthly one; its inhabitants are unusual, but subordinate to one another according to the laws of the earthly kingdom.

All three kingdoms, despite their seemingly dissimilarity, are one in essence, subject to the same social laws - the laws of tsarist bureaucratic Russia, and in relation to geography, the world order - according to the laws of perception of the world by a Russian - a steppe dweller, for whom there is and cannot be anything larger and more vast than the earth with its fields, forests and mountains.

The readers are surprised by the characters inhabiting the underwater and celestial kingdoms.

The image of the “Miracle-Yuda of the Whale Fish” is an echo of the myths about the origin of the Earth (firmament on three whales):

All its sides are pitted, palisades are driven into its ribs, there is cheese on its tail - the pine forest is noisy, on its back there is a village...

Village, peasant peasant Rus'. Keith is “bonded”, “suffering”, like Ivan, the last on the social ladder, according to the plot of the fairy tale, he experiences a transformation into an autocratic tyrant.

Ershov, talking about the unusual heavenly family- The Tsar - to the maiden, her mother Mesyatsa Mesyatsovich and “brother” the Sun, is guided by the mythological ideas of Siberian peoples, similar to the Chinese mythological tradition, where the Sun is interpreted as “yang” - the masculine principle, and the Moon - “yin” - the feminine.

5) System of images-characters:

On the one side, character system consists of traditional images of folk tales. This is Ivan the Fool, Ivan's brothers, the old Tsar, the Tsar Maiden, a wonderful horse - a magical assistant, the Firebird.

On the other hand, Ershov’s fairy-tale world is multi-character. It presents a multi-level gradation of the main and minor characters, supplemented by “doubles” - in the “mirror” reflection of the earthly kingdom underwater (Tsar - the whale, Ivan - the ruff).

A positive hero the folk-fairytale type of Ivan the Fool was chosen. The prototype of Ivanushka Petrovich is the “ironic fool”. Like an ironic fool, he is extremely active in speech: the author depicted in this image the critical, ironic look the detached attitude of the people's mind and heart to any power, to any human temptations (Ivanushka's only temptation is the feather of the Firebird that delighted him).

Already at the first test, Ivan turned out to be the most honest and courageous. If his brother Danilo immediately chickened out and “buried himself under the hay,” and the second, Gavrilo, instead of guarding the wheat, “walked watch all night under the neighbor’s fence,” then Ivan conscientiously and without fear stood guard and caught the thief. He treats his surroundings soberly, perceives any miracle as a natural phenomenon, and if necessary, enters into a fight with it. Ivan correctly assesses the behavior of others and directly tells them about it, regardless of their faces, be it his brothers or the Tsar himself.

At the same time, he is easy-going and able to forgive the misdeeds of others. So, he forgave his brothers who stole his horses when they convinced him that they did it out of poverty.

In all cases, Ivan shows independence, does not hesitate to express his opinion, and does not lose his self-esteem. Seeing the Tsar Maiden, he directly says that she is “not beautiful at all.”

If the “brothers” embody inertia, greed and other unattractive traits for Ershov, then Ivan is in his eyes the true personification of the best moral qualities of the people.

A natural, reasonable idea of ​​the need for humane relations between man and man lies at the heart of the image of Ivan. Hence the uniqueness of his relationship with the king; a “fool” will never learn the need to maintain a respectful tone; he speaks to the king as to an equal, he is insolent to him - and not at all demonstratively, but simply because he sincerely does not understand the “indecency” of his tone.

The image of Ivan’s assistant, the horse, is unusual - a “toy” height of three inches, arshin ears that are convenient to “clap with joy,” and two humps.

Why is the horse double-humped? Maybe this image came from childhood - Ershov lived in Petropavlovsk and Omsk - cities that are the gates to the midday lands - India, Persia, Bukhara; There, at the bazaars, he met animals unprecedented for Siberia - two-humped camels and long-eared donkeys. But perhaps this is too simplistic an analogy. Ershov based the image of Ivanushka on the farce of Parsley, the favorite of the Russian people. Petrushka was unprepossessing: he had a nose and a hunchback. Have the humps “moved” from Parsley’s back to the skate?

There is another hypothesis: the horse is a distant “relative” of the ancient mythological winged horse, capable of flying towards the Sun. The wings of the miniature Ershovsky horse “fell off”, but the “humps” were preserved, and with them a powerful force capable of delivering Ivanushka to heaven. Man has always wanted to fly, so the image of a skate is attractive to the reader.

IVAN AND KONEK:

A pair of heroes as one main character is presented in this fairy tale in a completely original way (in comparison with the folk fairy tale tradition).

These heroes are both opposed and compared: the hero and his “horse”. The curious, reckless, even arrogant hero - and his reasonable, wise, compassionate comrade are essentially two sides of the same "broad Russian nature."

With all this, they are surprisingly similar to each other: Ivan is a fool, the youngest, a “hero with a defect” from the generally accepted point of view; The Little Humpbacked Horse is a “freak” in his world, he is also the third, the youngest, so they turn out to be dialectically complementary and mutually exclusive heroes.

The anti-humanistic principle, hostile to the people, is embodied in Ershov’s fairy tale by the tsar, represented by a ferocious and stupid tyrant - an image no less revealing than Pushkin’s Tsar Dadon. He is far from a good-natured and sincere king. “I’ll screw you up,” “I’ll impale you,” “out there, slave.” The vocabulary itself, typical of everyday serfdom, indicates that in the person of the Tsar Ershov gave a collective image of feudal Russia.

I will give you over to torture, I will order you to be tormented, I will tear you into small pieces...

Continuing Pushkin's traditions, Ershov directs all the arrows of sarcasm at the figure of the tsar - a pathetic, stupid tyrant lazily scratching himself out of boredom.

All appearances of the king are accompanied by remarks like: “The king told him, yawning,” “The king, shaking his beard, shouted after him.”

The attitude towards the Tsar and his courtiers is very well demonstrated when P.P. Ershov describes the orders and relationships in the sea kingdom, which is a mirror image of the earthly world. They even need a lot of “fish” to carry out the decree. P.P. Ershov’s Ivan does not respect the Tsar, since the Tsar is capricious, cowardly and extravagant, he resembles a spoiled child, and not a wise adult.

The Tsar is depicted as funny and unpleasant, not only Ivan laughs at him, but also Mesyats Mesyatsovich, this is how the Month responded when he learned that the Tsar wanted to marry the Tsar Maiden:

Look what the old horseradish is up to: He wants to reap where he didn’t sow!...

By the end of the tale, the contemptuous attitude towards the king is quite clear. His death in the cauldron (“Thumped into the cauldron - / And there he boiled”) completes the image of an insignificant ruler.

COURTIERS:

But the king is only the main oppressor of the people. The trouble is that all his servants are in charge with him. Ershov paints a vivid picture of the gathering of people. Not only peasants are oppressed, but also courtyard people. No matter how hard the people work, they still remain poor.

The appearance of a “city detachment” led by a mayor indicates a police regime. The people are treated like cattle: the watchman screams and beats people with a whip. The people remain silent without protesting.

The mayor, overseers, horse detachments, “stirring up the people” - these are the pictures of feudal Rus' that appear through Ershov’s playful verse. The merriment that broke out in the crowd incredibly surprised the authorities; they were unfamiliar with people expressing emotions.

6) Features of the speech organization of the work:

A) the narrator's speech:

But now we will leave them, Once again we will amuse the Orthodox Christians with a fairy tale, What our Ivan has done...

“Eh, listen, honest people! Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife...”

And also the story about any events begins with the particle “well”:

Well, sir, so here it is! Once Danilo (On ​​a holiday, I remember it was)...

Well, so our Ivan is going to the ocean for the ring...

And like a folk storyteller, he interrupts the presentation, explaining something incomprehensible to the listener:

Here, having put it in the casket, He screamed (with impatience)...

B) syntax and vocabulary:

Each verse represents an independent semantic unit, sentences are short and simple.

The language of a fairy tale, according to L.A. Ostrovsky, has 700 verbs, which makes up 28 percent of the text. The verbs theatricalize the fairy-tale action, create dynamism, the movements of the characters are emphatically stage-like, comic: “Well done, he jumped from the cart...”, “with a flying leap...”, “shaking his beard,” “with a quick swing of his fist.” Sometimes there is a whole cascade of verbs.

The characters' speech should be "farcical", colloquial, rudely familiar. The verse form approaches folk, partly raesh (spoken) verse - with its paired rhyme, with a small number of syllables in this rhythmic unit of folk verse speech. Lexical “discordance” and “spoiled” syntax are not only appropriate, but necessary as signs of the free element of the theater square, which plays with the word. The theatrical nature of The Little Humpbacked Horse explains why many theaters throughout the century willingly staged performances based on this work.

C) means of expression (language of a fairy tale):

The tale is permeated with light humor and slyness, which has long been characteristic of the Russian people and reflected in their oral artistic creativity.

Like Pushkin, Ershov does not overuse metaphors and epithets that decorate words. Exceptions are ritual fairy-tale expressions: “the eyes were burning like a yacht,” “the tail was flowing golden,” “the horses are violent,” “the horses are brown and gray.” But he knows how to give a large semantic load to a convex, purely folk image. Just as the hero Ivan is presented in two planes, so every word and phrase of his is ambiguous. His descriptions often contain irony and mockery.

What’s funny in a fairy tale is also created by proverbs, sayings, sayings, and jokes:

Ta-ra-ra-li, ta-ra-ra! The horses came out of the yard; So the peasants caught them and tied them tighter...

A raven sits on an oak tree, He plays the trumpet...

The fly sings a song: “What will you give me for the news? Mother-in-law beats her daughter-in-law..."

Comparisons: that mare was all like winter snow white; she twisted her head like a snake and launched herself like an arrow; the face looks like a cat’s, and the eyes are like those bowls; the greenery here is like an emerald stone; like a rampart on the ocean, a mountain rises; The little humpback flies like the wind.

Epithets: stormy night, golden mane, diamond hooves, wonderful light, summer rays, sweet speech.

Metonymy: you will walk in gold.

Rhetorical questions, appeals, exclamations: What a miracle?

Outdated words: sennik (mattress with hay), malakhai (slob), matting (fabric), rage (strong, healthy), prozumenty (braid, ribbon), shabalka (means for crushing something), forelock (strand of hair, cowlick) , busurman (infidel, non-Christian), balusters (funny stories).

Phraseologisms: he didn’t hit the dirt with his face, he doesn’t even touch the light, he doesn’t even lead with his mustache, even if he breaks his forehead, it’s like rolling cheese in butter, he’s neither alive nor dead, damn you!

7) Rhythmic-intonation structure:

In general, the tale is written in a sonorous trochaic tetrameter and is distinguished by the musicality of the verse. Sometimes a rhythm disturbance occurs.

There are verbal stretches: “the heat is like birds”, “I ran a mile to a friend”, “the hunter said when he died with laughter”, “distinguish himself like a canal”, etc. All this is a consequence of an uncritical attitude towards folk art, inattention to the strict selection of linguistic units, to finishing the verse.

The text contains a lot of verbal rhymes, almost always voiced. Rhyming words carry the greatest semantic load. This helps you remember the content more firmly.

The fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and its ideological and artistic merits

The main advantage of the fairy tale is its clearly expressed nationality. It’s as if not one person, but the whole people collectively composed it and passed it on orally from generation to generation: it is inseparable from folk art. Meanwhile, this is a completely original work of a talented poet who emerged from the depths of the people, who not only learned the secrets of their oral poetic creativity, but also managed to convey their spirit.

Among the countless folk tales, there were no such stories as “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” and if, from the second half of the 19th century, folklorists recorded similar stories, they arose under the influence of Ershov’s tale. At the same time, in a number of Russian folk tales there are similar motifs, images and plot devices depicted in “The Little Humpbacked Horse”: there are tales about the Firebird, the extraordinary horse Sivka-Burka, about mysterious raids on the garden, about how they procured a young wife for the decrepit king, etc.

Ershov did not just connect the pieces from individual tales, but created a completely new, integral and complete work. It attracts readers with bright events, wonderful adventures of the main character, his optimism and resourcefulness. Everything here is bright, lively and entertaining. The tale is distinguished by its amazing severity, logical sequence in the development of events, cohesion individual parts into one whole. Everything that the heroes do is fully justified by the laws of the fairy tale.

Related information.

LITERATURE OF THE COSSACK CLUB SKARB

FAIRY TALES, EPICS, EPICS

BRIEF ANALYSIS OF FAIRY TALES

(analysis examples)

Chicken Ryaba

In the fairy tale, Grandfather and Baba cannot break the golden egg; when a mouse breaks it, they begin to cry. In world symbolism, an egg means peace, and a golden egg means the golden age of humanity or Paradise. People often called their ancestors, in particular Adam and Eve, Grandfather and Baba. Adam and Eve, being in Paradise, could not use the main gift of God - free will, directly related to the soul. It is known that in order for the process to proceed, a potential difference, an inclination on the plane, an anode and cathode for electric current, acid and alkali in chemistry, etc. are needed. IN in this case in the biblical legend, such a difference in potential is created by a snake associated with the lower world, and in a fairy tale, a mouse, in some cases a witch. The exodus from Paradise is associated with the crying of Adam and Eve, and Grandfather and Baba also cry. How does Ryaba Hen console them? She offers to lay a simple egg, but a person is like the world, he is a microcosm according to ancient and medieval ideas. In other words, to create a “personal paradise”, the appropriate behavior necessary for the salvation of the soul that will go to Paradise is proposed. This refers to the basic idea of ​​Christianity and almost all religions. The chicken itself is defined as “ryaba”, i.e. containing white and black feathers, in other words, it is a container of good and evil at the same time. For a better understanding of this allegory, we point out that in medieval scholasticism in the philosophical and religious dispute about “the primacy of the chicken or the egg,” the chicken was understood as God, and the world as the egg. We can say that this Russian fairy tale conveys in twenty seconds the main basic truths of the philosophy of the New and Old Testaments.

By magic

The hero is a typical trickster who denies social norms, doesn’t really work (he says “reluctantly”), drives out the general, talks sharply to the king. Such characters appear in world folklore during periods of social tension and transition from one type of government to another. From the fairy tale it is clear that when attacked by a foreign army, the army was defeated. Emelya copes with the enemy. His strength is based on the help of a pike, which he caught and released back into the water. According to Russian symbolism Pike, one of the symbols of the most ancient ancestor, the image of a pike or its jaws was worn as a talisman. In other words, Emelya is helped by the power of her ancestors, the power of folk tradition, which seeks, through a person who denies current social norms, to establish new ones that are necessary in the current situation.

Teremok

In the fairy tale, completely different animals ask to live in a mansion. According to a folk tale, a teremok is a horse's head. Animals: mouse Noryshka – an underground dweller; frog Kvakushka – resident underwater world; the hare is a “dodge on the mountain”, associated with the hole, the lower world, but also with the mountains; fox – “jumping everywhere” – a symbol of cunning; wolf - “grabbing from behind the bushes.” However, the bear - “I’m crushing everyone!” the iconic ancestor of the Slavs and the fairy tale itself indicates that not everything is compatible in one house.

It is important that the horse and its head are associated with solar symbolism, and sometimes with the symbolism of a happy, “sunny” world. The head is occupied by representatives of the lower underground and underwater world - a frog and a mouse. In addition to them, three animal characters, by their self-names, resemble representatives of hostile peoples. In this case, it is clear why the bear, the symbol of the first ancestor, crushes them. This indicates that excessive tolerance and tolerance for everything foreign can destroy our home - Terem - Teremok.

Kolobok

The bun can be considered as a symbol of the created world, where the woman and grandfather are the Creator gods. He leaves the hare - a symbol of speed, the wolf - a symbol of courage and pressure, the bear - a symbol of strength, but he is deceived and destroyed by a fox - a symbol of cunning, deceit and deceit. The point is that the qualities of a fox are the most dangerous and can destroy not only a person, but the whole world.

Morozko

The fairy tale is characterized by an episode of Alyonushka Morozka’s triple test. In folklore, three frosts are known: Red nose frost - invigoration, redness of the skin, frost Blue nose - the beginning of frostbite, bluish skin, frost White or Bone nose - frostbite and death. Accordingly, they correspond to the upper heavenly, earthly middle and lower dead worlds. Alyonushka passes all three tests and does not complain; to the question “Are you warm, girl?”, she answers: “Morozushka is warm.” Having undergone ritual death, she receives a reward: a dowry and a handsome groom. Her sister, who could not pass the test of fortitude and patience, is punished. The meaning of the fairy tale is the need to endure all types of trials, even mortal danger, and a reward will follow.

turnip

In a fairy tale, the turnip itself can be understood either as the world or as a complex and important task for life. If the grandfather and woman are perceived as ancestors, then together with the granddaughter this is a change of generations, their connection, human society. society itself can be perceived as a kind of horizontal. The animals involved in the process of pulling out turnips: the dog Bug, the Cat, the Mouse were often correlated with the three-member division of the world. The upper world is a dog or a wolf, as companions of the heavenly gods. Note that among peasants, the wolf was not used until the 19th century. was considered as the dog of St. George, which he sends on sinners as punishment. The cat is connected with the earthly world and even the house, and the mouse, like a burrowing animal, is connected with the underground. The idea of ​​a fairy tale is that in the unity of generations and turning to all the forces of the world, heavenly, earthly and underground, it is possible to accomplish any task, even an impossible one. There is strength in unity. In this case, such unity is perhaps personified by the cross, which was a sacred symbol among many peoples, long before the adoption of Christianity.

The Little Humpbacked Horse

In the fairy tale, an evil, greedy, lustful king rules, and Ivan carries out his instructions. The appearance of the old king corresponds to his inner essence. Ivan is unpretentious on the outside, but kind and honest on the inside. As a result, after bathing in a cauldron of boiling water, the Tsar dies, and Ivan is revived as a Tsarevich, acquires a correspondence between his internal and external appearance, and marries the Tsar Maiden. The fact is that the cauldron has symbolized rebirth and rebirth since ancient times; it was even placed in graves. In Greek myth, Medea turns an old ram into a young lamb in a cauldron. We are talking about the inevitability of karmic retribution, which will bring into harmony the inner essence of a person, his appearance and destiny.

Sword Kladenets.

Our ancestors knew that like is destroyed by like. All sympathetic and love magic is based on this principle. The influence on an image, photograph, influence on parts of the body is considered in magic as an influence on oneself. We present the most famous examples such a worldview in the folk tradition: A wolfclaw or werewolf is destroyed with a silver bullet, since silver is considered the metal of the Moon, and wolfclaws have always been associated with the Moon, especially with the full moon. The skeletal Koshchei the Immortal of Russian fairy tales can only be killed by breaking a needle or bone, which is some kind of him. In Indo-European, and in any other fairy tales, the hero first looks for a treasure sword or some other magical weapon, and then defeats a snake, dragon, giant, usually a chthonic creature. This weapon is most often hidden in a cave or dungeon and belongs to a chthonic creature. The symbolism is that any issues must be resolved in the language and methods of the person you are dealing with.

Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf.

Ivan Tsarevich in the fairy tale does not show any special positive qualities. On the contrary, he is characterized by stupidity and greed, since he disobeys the wolf and grabs first the golden cage, and then the bridle, which is why he almost dies. In addition, the wolf warns him that he cannot boast of success in front of his brothers, he boasts, and as a result they kill him, appropriating the Firebird, the Horse, and the Princess. The wolf's motivation to help the prince is completely absent, although in some versions of the tale the wolf seems to feel sorry for the prince, since he ate his horse. However, no one forced the prince to go to the wolf, since he read on the stone “if you go to the right, you will lose your horse.” The stupid behavior of the prince, who not only violates the instructions of the wolf, but also the fact that he constantly “cries”, since he is sorry to leave , then with a horse, he can piss off anyone. The question arises: “Why does the wolf help the stupid and greedy prince, and not his older brothers?”

The symbolism of the wolf is associated with hereditary royal power. Let us remember the Persian king Cyrus, Romulus and Remus - the founders of Rome, the grandfather of Genghis Khan and many other legendary and historical kings, who, according to legend, were suckled by a she-wolf. Even the Russian epic Prince Volga turns into a wolf, which other heroes never do. Wolf as protector royal power cannot help the “future fratricides” - the brothers of Ivan Tsarevich. He chooses “the lesser of two evils.”

Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka.

(content analysis)

Let's consider the fairy tale about sister Alyonushka and her brother Ivanushka based on a comparative analysis with the myths and legends of various Indo-European peoples. The fairy tale begins: “Once upon a time there lived a king and a queen; they had a son and a daughter. The son’s name was Ivanushka, and the daughter’s name was Alyonushka. So the king and queen died; the children were left alone and went to wander around the world.” Why did the parents die overnight? This is not said. War, pestilence, disease are not mentioned. The children themselves are alive and well. It is completely incomprehensible who allowed children to walk around the world alone, especially since these are royal children. Even stray and abandoned children were not abandoned like that, they were raised and cared for. Somehow all this is mentioned in passing, the Tsar’s children are empty-handed, wandering somewhere alone. If they ran away from their enemies, why aren’t they caught? The legitimate heirs of the king are a tasty prey for any invader. It’s not clear what they should do alone in this world? Did the Tsar’s family really not have a single friend or ally?

And that was apparently the case. Kings were chosen from different tribes and peoples to rule. The king identified the luck of the people and the fertility of the land. It was believed that if he had no children, lean years became more frequent, or enemy raids prevailed, the king and queen, as bearers of failure, could be sacrificed to those gods whom they angered, in the opinion of the priests and people. In the Novgorod epic "Sadko", Sadko himself, as the leader of the merchants, was the first to be thrown as a sacrifice to the King of the Sea during a storm. It is he who is acceptable, as the most expensive and valuable thing that a clan, tribe, kingdom, caravan of merchants can give to the gods, in the name of general well-being.

Since ancient times, there has been a custom in Rus' to kill, and at a later time, to expel princes, “kings” in Russian fairy tales, who are not pleasing to the gods. Let us at least remember that even Alexander Nevsky was expelled from Novgorod several times by the Novgorod people's assembly - the Veche, despite his previous merits. So, the only intelligible explanation for the wanderings of the tsar’s children - Alyonushka and Ivanushka, throughout the “wide world”, will be that their parents - the tsar and queen, for sins or for an unsuccessful reign that was unhappy for the people, were sacrificed to the gods, and children, as blood carriers of failure, were simply expelled. They felt sorry for them. By the way, not everyone agreed with such pity.

Let's list the possible sins of parents:

1) Disrespect for ancestors, for their covenants. Violation funeral rite, giving the possibility of rebirth or rebirth of ancestors. The witch's desire to kill Ivanushka the goat in the text of the fairy tale indirectly points to the custom of sacrificing a goat to ease the path of ancestors to the afterlife. The goat was also used as an atonement sacrifice, including for the sins of ancestors. The goat replaced, in this case, the most ancient human sacrifice. As an example, the biblical “goat of scapegoat” (Leviticus 16, 9 - 10).

2) Insulting the underground, underwater, chthonic gods. The goat was dedicated to them too.

3) Intervention in the battle of the thunder god and chthonic forces. Disrespect for Thunderman or these forces.

Let us assume that the plot of the fairy tale was created during the period of matriarchy, then most likely the second option took place, as well as the first, in terms of disrespect for the covenants of the ancestors. This follows from the fact that matriarchy relied primarily on chthonic gods and goddesses associated with the “Mother Raw Earth.” Veles was such a god among the Slavs. During the transition to patriarchy, the heavenly gods, including Perun, come first. These are warrior male gods. The change in the social system could not but affect the mythological preferences of the Slavs. The transfer of power in the community to its male part could not take place peacefully everywhere. The transformation of Ivanushka into a little goat is, to some extent, a mockery of Perun, since the king’s son, the heir to the throne, is turned into a sacrificial animal of the underground gods, Perun’s opponents. Kings or princes and their children, by their very position and origin, are dedicated to Perun. In some special cases, a goat can be a sacrificial animal and a thunderbird, but the witch priestess insists on the rite of slaughter of Ivanushka the Little Goat, therefore, the sacrifice cannot be intended for Perun. The priests of Perun were exclusively men. We know that the king is resisting this sacrifice in every possible way and is stalling for time. Although he, as a king, whom Perun especially patronizes, sacrifice to Perun should be useful. This means that this sacrifice did not relate to the king’s circle of interests, rather the opposite. At that time, people were not distinguished by sentimentality, and, if necessary, they sacrificed anyone and anything to the gods. Let us remember the classic biblical example of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac, simply because “God commanded it.” It seems that the ancient Slavs had no fewer such “commands of God” than the ancient Jews.

In the fairy tale we read that Ivanushka was constantly thirsty because of the heat. This indicates that the summer is too hot, destroying crops, and first of all, pastures for livestock. In the tale, crops and grains are not mentioned, but various livestock are listed in detail. Ivanushka wants to get drunk from places where different traditions livestock grazes. It is listed in the following sequence: 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) pigs 5) goats (1 option). 1) cows 2) horses 3) sheep (2 varieties). 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) goats (3 varieties). The most stable sequence: 1) horses 2) cows 3) sheep 4) goats. We can see the same sequence of animals on the golden pectoral of the Scythian nomads (IV century BC), found in the Tolstaya Mogila mound near the city of Ordzhonikidze, Dnepropetrovsk region. On it, two men are stretching a sheep's skin, and behind them in both directions are depicted: a horse, a cow, a sheep, a goat. In the Indian Upanishads, the sequence of sacrificial animals is given in the same order: horse, cow, sheep, goat. Let's look briefly at this sequence.

Among these animals, it was the goat that was the atoning sacrifice underground gods and at the same time a guide to the underworld. The horse could be a conductor, but just like the bull, it correlates with solar symbolism. Sheep and rams are a frequent sacrifice to the spirits of ancestors, but not to the chthonic gods.

Let us note that in most texts Ivanushka wanted to drink water from a hoof. “We were still walking, walking, there was a cow’s hoof. “Sister, sister, I’m thirsty!” - “No, don’t drink, you’ll be a bull,” or “Walking, walking, there was a sheep’s hoof...”, etc. Another option: “We walked and walked - the sun is high, the well is far away, the heat is oppressive, sweat appears! A cow's hoof is full of water." The question arises, why is it said about a hoof? In ancient magical beliefs, including Slavic ones, it is known that the trace of an animal helps transform a werewolf into this animal. Among all peoples, the influence on a trace or shadow was used in magical rituals for exposure to humans or animals. For example, to pierce a sorcerer's footprint with a nail meant to pierce his legs. Throwing a stone at the reflection or image of a person means harming the person. Signs associated with the mirror - the carrier of reflection - have ancient magical roots. A broken mirror means grief or death. According to ancient beliefs: the soul of the person looking at it, partly, is in the reflection of the mirror, and therefore suffers damage when this mirror is broken. They still curtain mirrors when a dead person lies in the house, so that his reflection and he himself, through this reflection, do not harm living relatives and take their souls with them to the afterlife. In the most ancient Neolithic caves, images of animals with traces of ritual influence were found. Damaging or striking an image is a blow to its prototype. Our ancestors believed that a footprint is an important part of a person or animal. This is his manifestation in the world, the most obvious interaction with him. A living being interacting with something, especially with the mother of everything - the Earth, opens up, and therefore, it is easiest to influence it through a trace, shadow, reflection in water. Modern conspiracies in photographs are of the same order. Many peoples still believe that when photographing, the photographer takes their soul. In the animal world, for example, in a herd of zebras, antelopes, etc. , if a male wants to show his superiority and challenge the leader of the herd to a duel, he urinates on the mark of the leader’s hoof. Even our domestic cats, when they are not happy with their owner and want to show their dominance in the house, shit on the bed or favorite resting place of the one they want to “put in their place.”

It follows from this that the very fact of drinking or Ivanushka’s influence on the trail - the “hoof” of a goat, filled with water, indicates that he takes on the role of a goat, moreover, not just a goat, but a kind of “goat king”. Drinking from someone else's footprint establishes his superiority over other goats. Alyonushka didn’t notice him and “Rock” happened, i.e. he became exactly the sacrificial animal he should have become, getting rid of the evil lot of his parents. The fact of drinking from a trace is also an introduction to the bearer of the trace, a sharing of fate with it. It is important to point out that if Ivanushka became the goat, and not Alyonushka, then we are talking about the period of patriarchy or the transitional period from matriarchy to patriarchy. Inheritance, in our case the evil share of the parents, is passed down the male line from father to son. Consequently, it was the king who committed the offense, not the queen. This offense is not an ordinary streak of misfortune; one king would have been punished for this. Something terrible was done, for which the queen was punished as an accomplice.

At the end of the fairy tale, usually the enchanted hero takes on his former appearance. In our case, this is not the case. Alyonushka comes to life and becomes a queen, and Ivanushka in only one version, out of the five considered, turns into a person. Apparently, they believed in the magic of the “hoof” and in responsibility for the sins of the father. Redemption goes through the male line, this indicates patriarchy, but the temporary death of Alyonushka, her initiation into the queen through this death, speaks, rather, of a transitional period from matriarchy to patriarchy.

Let's consider what happens in the plot of the fairy tale after Ivanushka turns into a little goat. Quite unexpectedly, Alyonushka and Ivanushka are met by “the same king.” In a number of variants, the little goat himself leads Alyonushka to the king’s garden. This is a very interesting point. Before Ivanushka turned into a goat, he didn’t know where they were going and why, but then he immediately brought his sister to the palace. It seems that it was no coincidence that he came there, and his qualities as a guide somehow immediately appeared. Let us remember the qualities of the goat as a guide, including to the kingdom of death. He led both himself and his sister to death. The tragedy of the situation is emphasized by the presence of the sea near the palace, which in popular belief has always been associated with the world of death and the chthonic gods.

In a fairy tale about this new feature Ivanushki, it is simply said: “The little goat ran and ran and once ran into the garden of a certain king.” Some versions speak of a gentleman passing by, but these are obviously later versions. For example, in the Lithuanian fairy tale, an analogue of the Russian “Orphan Elinite and Jonukas the Lamb,” it also says: “In the evening we came to royal palace. They were afraid to go into the yard, the dogs were barking angry there, so she climbed onto a haystack, dragged the lamb with her and fell asleep.”

Let's return to the gift of a guide that appeared in Ivanushka the goat. Goats are used as leaders of the sheep flock. Sheep are blind, but a goat will find its way both to pasture and home. So Ivanushka the goat found the way to the king’s palace. In ancient Indian tradition, the sacrifice of a goat was intended for the fire god Agni. Agni is a divine priest, he carries out the sacrifices of people for their intended purpose. The goat, as a sacrifice, escorted the souls of people to their place of refuge. We can conclude that the option with the appearance of fairy tale heroes in the king’s palace is the most archaic. Moreover, it has semantic analogues in the ancient Indian Upanishads, which consider the goat as a sacrificial animal, serving as a conductor of victims and the souls of ancestors and dedicated to the afterlife.

Let's consider the Lithuanian version of this tale. The Lithuanian version is older than the version with the master, but it is also secondary. In it, the narrator constantly tries to explain many of the dark places found in Russian fairy tales. For example, it is not the outdated concept “hoof” that is used, but the phrase: hoof mark. If in the Russian version one can only guess about the motive of the witch drowning Alyonushka, then the Lithuanian fairy tale directly says: “And a witch lived nearby. She really wanted the king to marry her. She envied Elenita and decided to destroy her.” The difficult to understand moment in the Russian fairy tale, when the dead Alyonushka talks to her brother, and her body is eaten by fish and snakes, in the Lithuanian version it sounds simplified: “But Elenite did not drown, but turned into a goldfish.” Here you can feel the influence of the Karelian-Finnish epic. One of the songs of "Kalevalla" talks about the beautiful Aina, who does not want to marry an old man, she drowns herself, but does not die, but turns into goldfish. The idea of ​​the transformation of drowned women into fish was common among the Finns, Karelians and Lithuanians; the Slavs believed that drowned women turned into a type of mermaid. The Lithuanian listener understood Alyonushka’s shapeshifting into a fish and back more clearly than the speech of the drowned woman:

1) “Ivanushka - brother! The fierce snake sucked out my heart!”

2) “Oh, my brother Ivanushka! The heavy stone rubbed his neck, the silken grass curled up on his arms, the yellow sand lay on his chest.”

3) “Heavy is the stone that pulls to the bottom, the white fish has eaten out the eyes, the fierceness of the snake

"Sucked out the heart, the silken grass tangled the legs."

The listener can perceive Alyonushka’s transformations with the help of magic and higher powers, but without explanation it is not clear to him how an almost decomposed drowned woman can speak, and after the king took her out of the water, suddenly comes to life and becomes the same Alyonushka. In such cases, usually, fairy tales provide for the use of living and dead water. In the case of transformation into a goldfish, the situation is clearer and more familiar. If Jovanas has already turned into a lamb, why not Elenita turn into a fish? In the Lithuanian retelling, one can clearly feel the sound mind of the reteller, who is not familiar with the ancient rituals of the Slavs.

Let's move on to the question of Alyonushka's further fate after her appearance in the Tsar's palace. In all versions of the tale, except for the “meaningful” Lithuanian one, the king’s sudden love for Alyonushka is indicated. In the fairy tale tradition, this is a common occurrence, but in our case, falling in love appears after asking who she is and finding out that she is the king’s daughter. Our assumption that the fairy tale was composed during the period of transition from matriarchy or female priestly management to patriarchy - male hereditary management, finds indirect confirmation. According to the content of the fairy tale, Alyonushka and Ivanushka walked around the “white world” for one day or a little more than that. They could not walk more than thirty kilometers. Most likely, they wandered around the kingdom of their late parents. The young king, who accepted Alyonushka as his wife, despite the decision to expel her, is the new head of the tribe. In Rus' there was a tradition of inviting the prince from outside (“inviting the Varangians”), which is precisely why this king could not know Alyonushka by sight, and he needed to establish hereditary succession of power. He marries the daughter of the previous king. This practice existed both during the times of Kievan Rus and right up to the Muscovite kingdom. After such a hasty marriage, a witch suddenly appears in the fairy tale, sending damage and illness to Alyonushka, then drowning her in the sea and taking her place as the king’s wife. Everything about this situation is strange. In the Lithuanian retelling, the motivation for the witch’s action is given: she wanted to marry the king. In the Russian version this is not specified. The replacement itself is very strange.

The events described occur in the following order: Alyonushka falls ill, and her “loving” husband, as if nothing had happened, goes hunting every day. Psychologically, this is the same as if someone today, with a very, perhaps fatally, sick young wife, without even trying to find a means to cure her, went out to a restaurant every day. It is difficult to call such a husband loving. It is not known where the passion disappeared overnight, which, according to the fairy tale, forced the king to marry Alyonushka so hastily. Further in the text, the sick queen, without any escort, alone, on the advice of the witch, goes to the sea for treatment. Neither the king nor his associates interfere with her. One feels that the Tsar Alyonushka, as a person, is indifferent. Now let's briefly look at Alyonushka's appearance. The fairy tale doesn't say a word about this. This is the strangest thing. In all Russian fairy tales that talk about female characters, especially in cases where the conversation is about marriage, the unusual beauty or ugliness of the bride is indicated. If in our fairy tale they are silent about this, then the king’s love has nothing to do with it; what is important is not Alyonushka herself, but his political calculation, the political situation itself. Further in the story, the drowned woman Alyonushka is replaced by a witch. She either simply changes into her dress, or turns into her. The king does not notice anything. It is difficult to imagine a situation where a young husband in love cannot distinguish between a substitute wife. One can, of course, assume that the witch has the power of hypnosis. It may very well be, but when Alyonushka comes to life, the witch’s supposed hypnosis does not even help her escape from the palace.

Events apparently unfolded as follows. The new young leader - the king of the tribe, decided, following the example of his unlucky predecessor, who sacrificed the father of Alyonushka and Ivanushka, to throw off the female priestly guardianship. Having a clear example of the fate of his predecessor, he wanted to strengthen his position. He married the daughter of the late king, thereby introducing succession by kinship. The priestesses of the tribe could not arrange such an option for losing their power. They insist that Alyonushka is the bearer of an evil fate and the curse of her parents. She, Alyonushka, could be regarded as an evil witch who bewitched the king. According to a common European tradition recorded in the Middle Ages, a woman was tied up and thrown into water to determine whether she was a witch or not. If a woman drowned, then she was not a witch; if she swam up, then the witch and she could have been burned alive. This is indicated by the Novgorod 1st Chronicle, p. 65. In Pskov, such autodaffes were produced until the 15th century. In 1411, “The Pskovites burned 12 prophetic women.” Pskov Chronicles (M., 1955, vol. 2, p. 36). Or a mention in the chronicle: “In the summer of 6735 (1227). That same summer, there were four sorcerers who created their works (witchcraft). And God knows! And they were brought together in the Yaroslavl courtyard.” In the event that the king did not share his plans with by his entourage, and he most likely did not do this, such a precocious bride could well be considered a witch. Replacing the king's wife is a renewal of the old traditions of matriarchy. The wife must be or be considered a priestess. A similar custom was recorded among many Indo-European peoples in ancient times; it lasted the longest, apparently, among the Etruscans. Ivanushka suffered from the fact that his parents, who died so unexpectedly, according to the text of the fairy tale, wanted to disrupt the procedure for electing the king and declared him, Ivanushka, the hereditary ruler. He became a slaughter goat to appease the angry spirits of his ancestors and gods.

The custom of inheritance through a wife is ancient roots. As a possible plot parallel, consider the ancient Het myth about the snake - the dragon Illuyanka. His summary that's how it is. Illuyanka defeated the thunder god in a duel and stole his heart and eyes. To take revenge, the defeated thunder god marries the man's daughter. From her he has a son. His son marries the daughter of the serpent Illuyanka and, entering his father-in-law’s house, asks for himself (on his father’s advice) the heart and eyes of the thunder god. He has the right to them as the closest, through his wife, heir to the serpent. After the return of his eyes and heart, the god of thunder restores his appearance and enters into a new battle with Illuyanka. In this battle, he kills the serpent and his son, who is standing next to the serpent. The son tells his father not to spare him. The episode with the death of my son is easily explained. Among the Indo-Aryan peoples, including the Hittites, a wife or husband who entered the house of their spouse became blood relatives there. The son of the thunder god, having betrayed his blood relative, the snake Illuyanka, thereby committed the greatest sin. There is no forgiveness for him. The fact that he did it for his father does not matter. His father himself punishes him for his forced betrayal. If the plot of our fairy tale arose in equally archaic times, then the attitude towards Alyonushka, as having passed into the family, the clan of her husband - the king, should have been similar. By her very appearance she violated the priestly matriarchal structure of power. The king became not just an invited mercenary, but the family heir of the previous king, i.e. power “de facto” became hereditary. Let us recall historical examples from the history of Rus', when kinship through a wife gave the rights of a blood relative. This is the brother of the mother of Prince Vladimir, who baptized Rus', Dobrynya. Vladimir's mother, Malusha, was a commoner and worked as a housekeeper for Vladimir's father, Svyatoslav. Her brother was also a simple warrior. The important thing is that Vladimir made Dobrynya his “right hand”, even the governor in Novgorod. This was done to the detriment of the well-born paternal relatives. At a later time, Catherine the Great ruled Russia on the grounds that she was the widow of Tsar Peter the Third. Boris Godunov became the Russian autocrat on the grounds that his daughter was married to Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich. Dozens of examples can be given about the role of kinship between spouses in government in Rus'. What is important for us is that Alyonushka, having become the wife of the Tsar, acquired, in addition to the hereditary right to power through her parents, also the right to power through her husband. This position made her a dangerous competitor to any persons wishing to influence the king and his decisions. In addition, she seemed to take responsibility for both her parents and her husband, the king.

But to whom and why did the witch throw Alyonushka into the sea? Why didn’t she die there and was even able to talk to her brother?

Let's return to the Hittite myth about Illuyanka. The serpent Illuyanka is the personification of chthonic forces. He steals the thunder god's heart and eyes. In one of the versions of our fairy tale, Alyonushka, in response to Ivanushka’s request to come out of the sea to him, says that “a white fish ate his eyes, a fierce snake sucked out his heart.” White fish or "whitefish", in various options epics about Sadko, called the wife of the Sea King. Academician Rybakov B.A. in “Paganism of Ancient Rus'” proves the identity of the Sea King and the god of the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen - the Lizard. Rybakov shows that Sadko’s meeting with the Sea Tsar takes place not far from Volosovaya (Velesovaya) Street in Novgorod. This already indicates the possible identity of the Lizard and Veles. According to ancient legends, the Lizard has another name - Volkh.

“The eldest son of this prince Sloven, Volkhov, a disgraceful and sorcerer, then savages people with demonic tricks and dreams, creating and transforming himself into the image of a fierce beast, the corkodel, and lying in that Volkhov river, the waterway. And devouring those who do not worship him, devouring them, drowning them. " - we read in the chronicle.

We are interested in the name Volkhov. God Veles was also called Volos, the epithets hairy and hairy are synonyms. The word "hairy" is older. This means we can conclude that the Sea King - Lizard appears in the epic about Sadko under his real name Volkh or Volokh, the transition of the sound “X” to the sound “C” in the words “hairy” - “hairy”, provides the basis for the same transition in words "hair" - "volokh".

It is important for us that Volkh, whose father is a fierce snake (Veles or Lizard), has the ability of a werewolf. Werewolves have always been classified as chthonic forces; Veles himself had the ability to become a werewolf. This follows, at least from his many incarnations, including in the form of a person. The name Volkh Vseslavovich also connects the hero of the epic with a werewolf - the son of Prince Sloven, Corcodile-Volkh, whom Rybakov associates with the Lizard of the Volkhov River.

It is interesting that at the birth of Volkh Vseslavyevich from the epic of the same name, natural disasters occur. This is how it should be at the birth of the son of the god Veles or his incarnation. It is interesting that the impact of the birth of Volkh occurs on the moon - the antithesis of the sun, on the blue sea and on the sway of the earth, i.e. on those natural objects to which the chthonic serpent - Volos is directly related. The animals and birds that Volkh can transform into are clearly of a solar nature. The tour was attributed to Veles after the adoption of Christianity in Rus'. The falcon (remember the fairy tale “Finist the clear falcon”), the wolf, the tour into which Volkh Vseslavich turned - point to the sunny, kind side of Veles. He is on this earth to fertilize it. It is no coincidence that the epic ends with the fact that, having conquered the Indian kingdom, Volkh leaves alive only three thousand girls for his squad, and then distributes the gold. The kindness of Volkh-Veles is somewhat bloody and peculiar, but at the same time cruel time this was the norm.

We have established that the serpent of the Het myth, the Sea King in the epic "Sadko", the Lizard and the god Veles are one and the same serpentine mythological character. Illuyanka takes away the heart and eyes of the thunder god. In a Russian fairy tale, these same organs are taken away from Alyonushka by a snake and his white fish wife. The heart in mythology was perceived as the center of life force, soul, physical strength character. The eyes, in addition to the function of orientation in the world, had the following function: losing an eye means illness or death of children. This means that Alyonushka, in addition to her personal power, was deprived of the opportunity to have offspring. Illuyanka is the main opponent of the Thunderer. If Alyonushka was subjected to the same punishment as the Hittite thunderer, then she is equated with the main enemies of the chthonic god Veles. Veles's opponent is Perun. Alyonushka, as a royal daughter and queen, and as we said, a woman of great importance in the structure of the kingdom, undoubtedly belonged to the authority of Perun, as the patron of the royal-princely tribal power. The ancient Hittite myth, or rather the laws for the creation of this myth, was comprehended by the Slavs in a similar, but specific Slavic situation. To determine the mythological character for whom the sacrifice of Alyonushka and the goat Ivanushka is intended, we must pay attention to the ancient chthonic gods of the times of matriarchy. The witch-priestess herself sacrifices one of the victims, Alyonushka, and insists on the other, a goat, Ivanushka. Of the women known to us Slavic gods, it could be Makos. She is the goddess of fate and earthly fertility, but they did not sacrifice a goat to her. A sacrificial woman, in our case Alyonushka, is not pleasing to her and would be an insult to her. Most likely this is Veles. Veles is a bestial god, associated with the fertility of the earth, he is the enemy of Perun, the patron saint of warriors and men. The sacrifice of Alyonushka and Ivanushka to Veles is both the punishment of the ambitious king and the final deliverance from the sins of Alyonushka’s parents, and the restoration of the foundations of matriarchy.

According to ancient ideas, Veles could be represented in the form of a snake. The Novgorod chthonic, snake-like Yasha the Lizard could be a hypostasis of the same Veles. The lizard was sacrificed, “given as wives” - girls, as B. A. Rybakov points out in “Paganism of Ancient Rus'”. But Alyonushka was not thrown into the water as a wife to the chthonic god. Alyonushka, while married, lost her virginity and therefore was not fit to be God’s wife. They drowned her to remove the curse from the tribe for violating tribal laws and for political reasons. Alyonushka’s repeated phrase: “The fierce snake sucked out the heart” indicates her sacrifice, specifically to the snake-like Veles, or another similar character. It is the heart, as the bearer of a person’s soul, his strength, that pleases God. Let us remember the bloody rituals of the Mayan Indians with the tearing out of the victim’s heart.

The following reasoning also speaks for Veles’ candidacy. Also Propp V.Ya. in the book "Russian Agrarian Holidays" (pp. 47 - 48). found that Ivanushka’s complaint:

“Alyonushka, my sister! Swim to the shore: The fires are burning, the cauldrons are boiling, the damask knives are sharpening, they want to kill me!”

"Beyond the fast river. The forests are dense, The fires are great, There are benches around the lights, The benches are oak, On those benches are good fellows, Good fellows, beautiful maidens. The carolers sing songs (carols) In the middle of them an old man sits, He sharpens his Damask knife. The cauldron is boiling with fuel, There is a goat standing near the cauldron - They want to slaughter the goat..."

Academician Rybakov B.A. in “Paganism of Ancient Rus'” writes: “... the Slavic Lizard, who married a drowned girl, corresponds to Hades, the god of the underworld, the husband of Persephone. And the sacrifice was made not by these seasonal forces themselves, but by a constantly existing ruler all underground - underwater forces that promote fertility, i.e. Lizard, Hades, Poseidon." Rybakov B.A. further suggests that Alyonushka is Kupala. “Alyonushka is Kupala herself, a victim doomed to become “drowned in water.” We cannot agree with this statement. Firstly, it is precisely established that the sacrifice of a goat was made on Kolyada. Secondly, on Kupala, the doll of Morena is the personification of moisture, burned. Drowning was extremely rare. What could be ritual murder, what if, as during the “Shemyakinov trial,” you throw a pike into the water? Drown the "unclean" married woman, was also a sin before God, especially if she was intended for him, God, as a wife. The error apparently occurred for the following reason. According to pan-European custom, evil witches were thrown into the water. If the all-purifying water (remember the rite of baptism) received a woman, then she, the drowned woman, was pure before God and people. The Night of Kupala, from ancient times, was considered a night of rampant evil spirits and various sorcerers and witches. They were afraid. Apparently, therefore, in order to protect themselves, women who were suspected of black witchcraft were drowned that night. Over time, when such arbitrariness began to be persecuted and punished by the state, this custom was gradually mixed with the ritual burning of Morena. We talked about the holiday of Kolyada. On this winter holiday, a goat mask was required, special cookies were baked - kozulki - and distributed to caroling youth. In addition to the previously mentioned song they sang:

“Seto, seto for the new summer! Where the horse’s tail is, There’s the bush’s life. Where the goat’s horn is, There’s a haystack”... or: “The goat jumped along the block, along the block. Tausen, tausen”... etc. .

The ritual of burning Badnyak was associated with Kalyada. This happened most often among the southern Slavs. In “Myths of the Peoples of the World” we read: “Badnyak is associated (according to etymological research) with the image of a serpent at the roots of a tree. The burning of Badnyak at the end of the old year is equivalent, therefore, to the defeat by fire of the serpent, the embodiment of the lower world, a harmful principle and a sign of the beginning of a new seasonal cycle, guarantees fertility, etc." We see that at the Kolyada holiday there is both the chthonic world and the snake, as well as a connection with goat symbolism and the sacrifice of a goat. In the case of our fairy tale, there is also a chthonic world in the form of the sea in which Alyonushka is drowned. Alyonushka’s phrase: “A fierce snake sucked out my heart,” indicates the presence of a snake, the sacrifice of Ivanushka the goat, again corresponds to the holiday of Kalyada.

Veles is associated with the Kalyada holiday as the master of the underground and underwater world. Veles has many faces. He is the incarnation of the ancient serpent, associated with the bear - the owner of the forest, and one of his incarnations is a goat. A typical custom is to hit the burning image of Badnyak with a stick and see how many sparks rise into the air. The more sparks there are with such a strike, the greater the offspring of livestock expected. Veles is the “cattle god”; the attitude towards the offspring of cattle, both Badnyak and Veles, once again indicates their connection and even identity.

The symbolism and songs of Kalyada are associated with the goat, the holiday of the winter solstice - Kalyada, is dedicated to Veles, which means the simplest conclusion: the goat is a hypostasis of Veles. Veles has Indo-European relatives: the Asia Minor Dionysus, associated with fertility and embodied in a goat, as well as the Greek and Roman Selenes, satyrs, the god Pan, who are associated with fertility and have goat legs. His distant relative is the Egyptian Osiris. These characters are chthonic in nature, their festivals are similar in rituals and are associated with riots and noisy games. The southern Slavs preferred the serpentine image of Veles under the name Badnyak, the eastern Slavs celebrated the same holiday, but preferred to honor Veles in the form of a goat. For the image of Satan as a goat, the source is this holiday and its attributes. We have determined the connection of the goat with the world of the dead. Veles, among other duties, was a shepherd world of the dead. He served as the Greek Hades.

Frazer in The Golden Bough points out that the sacrifice of the god of fertility in order to rejuvenate him and increase his power was widespread. “The Golden Bough” p. 541. : “Participants in Roman and Slavic rites treated the representative of God not only as a deity of vegetation, but also as a redeemer of other people’s sins. This is evidenced at least by his expulsion - after all, there is no need to expel him outside city ​​or village of the god of vegetation as such. It’s another matter if this god is also a “scapegoat,” further p. 543. “If the harvest, for example, failed to meet the expectations of the farmer, the failure could be attributed to the decline in the productive ability of the god, responsible for his growth. One could get the impression that he had fallen under the influence of witchcraft or had grown old and decrepit. Therefore, God, in the person of his representative, was put to death with all due pomp, so that, being reborn again, he could infuse the energy of his youth into the sluggish course of natural processes "

Kalyada coped with the winter solstice. It was during this calendar period, when the day should go to profit, that the earth had to be given new strength. The funeral of Dionysus and Osiris and their revival is akin to burning the old Badnjak and replacing him with Bozhich. The sacrifice of a goat on Kalyada, in this case acquires a new sacred meaning. Ivanushka not only became the “goat of atonement” for the sins of his father and tribe, but could personify the god Veles himself. With his blood he had to give a new birth to the immortal god. Let us add that the winter solstice, and therefore the holiday of Kalyada, falls on the astrological time of Capricorn, which is also associated with the goat and the chthonic world.

Serpentine appearance of Badnyak on Kolyada among the southern Slavs and a similar ritual associated with a goat among Eastern Slavs, speaks of the correspondence of Veles’s various hypostases. In addition, it indicates the time of creation of the fairy tale. This time corresponds to the unity of the Slavic peoples, when both hypostases of God were considered as equal. Veles in the form of a snake or Lizard sucks the blood from the heart of the drowned Alyonushka, Veles in the form of a goat - Ivanushka is sacrificed to give him new strength and rejuvenation. In the South Slavic version, the serpentine Badnyak is burned for the same purpose. Veles is associated with fertility. Let us show that the Serpent, the Lizard, and the Badnyak are associated with the same fertility. A Belarusian song has been preserved:

“The Lizard sits under the feasting tree, On a walnut bush, Where is the nut lusna... (I want to get married) - Take the girl that you want...”

Girls were sacrificed to the lizard Veles. But in our case, not the bride. The main thing here is the mention of nuts. Walnut - in the perception of the ancient Slavs, was akin to an egg. An egg is a symbol of life and the Universe, a nut is a vegetable version of an egg. An egg, like a nut, has a hard shell, which for the time being hides its fertile, life-giving essence. The lizard gnaws nuts, i.e. releases this essence into the wild. This is a kind of “trampling death upon death,” as it is sung in the Easter song. Christian prayer. The kernel of a nut is the germ of life, the embryo flora . The lizard releases this hidden plant power, like the earth itself, he demands the death of the bride in song, but through death a new life is born. This is how grain dies and is reborn again, this is how the gods Osiris, Dionysus, Badnyak - Veles die and are born in order to be reborn again. There is a Russian saying: if there is a harvest for nuts, it means there will be a large harvest of bread next year. It is worth mentioning the Russian fairy tale "Where is the goat with nuts." Nuts have nothing to do with goats, but in this tale the goat stubbornly fights for the goat to bring nuts. It is also important that the hazel was considered a sacred tree, inaccessible to the lightning of Perun. Where else could Veles hide from these lightning bolts if not under a hazel tree? We see that Veles is associated with the hazel tree, but under the hazel tree or on it, as the song says, sits the Lizard, the goat of the Russian fairy tale also strives to possess nuts. The nut was considered a talisman against chthonic creatures, primarily snakes. Many nuts were collected and stored in the ground, so they have a clear connection to the earth. In Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Eastern Serbia, the nut was considered the habitat of the souls of ancestors. Veles is also the king and shepherd of these souls. Now it becomes clear what the Lizard is doing under the hazel tree, this is a symbol of his underground kingdom, and the “bride” is a sacrifice to him. Veles, the Lizard, the goat are united by their connection with the nut, as a symbol of the kingdom of the souls of ancestors, the afterlife, the underground kingdom. Let us add that according to Slavic beliefs, a goat is associated with the winds. Maybe he'll let them in. In the already mentioned fairy tale “Where is the goat with nuts,” it is the wind that obeys the goat and helps bring the goat with nuts. According to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the winds are Stribozh’s grandchildren. They blow from the sea - a chthonic place. During the period of dual faith in Rus', there was a legend that Saint Kosyan, who was associated with Chernobog and chthonic forces, holds twelve winds underground on a chain and commands them. In Europe, mainly in Germany, when the wind moves across a field, they say: “The goat is coming.” It is also interesting that Stribog, who is correlated with Saturn, commands the winds. It is clearly chthonic in nature. In addition, it is correlated with the constellation Sagittarius. A. Znoiko proves his astral character. In Thrace, on the new moon falling in the constellation Sagittarius, a festival was held, during which the Thracians led a goat through the streets. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the Roman historian Titus Livy wrote about this. On the Dnieper, on a new moon, they also took a goat. From this it is clear that Stribog could be associated with Veles or his kingdom. Let's consider another aspect of the image of Veles and its connection with the sacrifice of a goat - Ivanushka. In Fraser's "Golden Bough" it is said that in Lower Bavaria they say about a man reaping the last sheaf: "He has a goat of grain." Horns are stuck into the last sheaf and it is called a horned goat. In East Prussia, a woman knitting the last sheaf is shouted: “And there is a goat sitting in the sheaf.” In Swabia and Bavaria the last sheaf is called a goat. There, a figurine of a goat is cut out and placed in the fields during harvesting. Similar rituals and customs are found throughout Europe. The last sheaf, the reaper knitting the last sheaf, the last strip of bread is a goat. And in Rus' the last strip of bread is “For Veles on his beard.” The last stack is "Veles's beard." The goat has a beard, rare in the animal world. Throughout Europe, the allegorical name is a goat; in Russia, the true name of God is used - Veles.

We can draw the following conclusions. The fairy tale we are considering is no younger than the most ancient Greek myths. It reflects the period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, from female priestly tribal rule to male autochthonous rule. This is the period when leaders could still be sacrificed, for sins before the gods and the tribe, for failure, as an analogue of God - for the speedy revival of God. The fairy tale is not built on magic, as in later times. She operates with true magical techniques and rituals. You can point out such fundamental magical techniques as trace magic, similarity magic, magic of substitute sacrifice, magic of rebirth through sacrificial death.

We believe that it was Veles who was supposed to dedicate the sacrifice of the goat - Ivanushka. The drowning and revival of Alyonushka resembles, but in a more cruel, archaic form, the myth of Proserpina and Hades. Here Veles the Serpent is the master of the underground kingdom, Alyonushka is a victim to him. The salvation of Alyonushka and the goat Ivanushka is the victory of Perun over Veles. This is the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy, of the royal-princely method of rule over the female - priestly one. Goat - Ivanushka, in most versions of the fairy tale, remains a goat. He, as it were, already serves Perun as a guide to the kingdom of Veles. In the kingdom of underground forces, with the help of his chthonic weapons, Perun can defeat and overthrow Veles. The murder or expulsion of the witch-priestess is the apotheosis, the triumph of the fairy tale.

In the fairy tale, the witch personifies old life, she replaces the young queen Alyonushka. The kid is associated with the ancient ancestral Slavic god Veles, who is directly related to the cult of ancestors. In the fairy tale, there is a partial abandonment of this cult, and in return a new system of kingship appears, where the witches, the guardians of the ancients, are replaced by tribal traditions the young queen arrives. The partial break from ancestral covenants is also due to the fact that at the beginning of the fairy tale it is said that the parents of Ivanushka and Alyonushka died, therefore, they have to build a life themselves.

In this article we wanted to show the archaic and mythological nature hidden in an ordinary, well-known fairy tale. We still have to study all the richness of our folklore and the symbolism hidden behind it.

WEAPONS OF THE THUNDERERS AND THEIR GUIDES

Let us list the types of weapons of the Indo-European thundermen. These are: the hammer of the German Thor, the Perun of Zeus, the Perun of the Slavic Perun and the Lithuanian Perkunas, the Vajra of the Indian Indra.

The origin of this weapon, i.e. what makes these gods thunder and kings is chthonic. This means that they either directly or indirectly received their power from Mother Earth, or the chthonic forces corresponding to her.

This is related to the main question - ancient role thunder gods in mythology. The gods of thunder and thunder, in their most ancient form, were opponents of chthonic, evil creatures opposed to the sky, creatures of the earth. We can observe this confrontation in almost all Indo-European mythologies. In ancient Greek it is Zeus and the Titans, in Slavic it is Perun and Veles, in ancient Indian it is Indra and the monster Vritra, in Scandinavian it is the confrontation between Thor and the frost giants, in Hittite and Luwian mythologies it is Teshub and the serpent Illuyanka, etc.

This confrontation is the content of the main Indo-European myth, during the period of transition from pre-mythological ideas to mythological ones.

Let us consider one of the most important pre-mythological magical ideas that still exists today: like is destroyed by like. All sympathetic and love magic to this day is based on this principle. This can be an impact on an image or photograph, or any other image of a person, an impact on a part of the body: hair, nails, sweat, blood, sperm, an impact on a person’s belongings: his things, his trace.

If stones were thought of as part of the earth, i.e. its bones and sinews, and the chthonic gods always opposed Heaven, then weapons of chthonic origin were used against them. The action takes place according to the proverb: “A wedge is knocked out with a wedge.” There are still beliefs that the unclean, chthonic force can be destroyed with special weapons.

1) Wolfdog or werewolf - a silver bullet. Silver is the metal of the Moon, and wolfhounds - wolf people, and werewolves in general, have always been associated with the Moon, especially the full moon.

2) Ghouls and ghouls, according to legend, can be killed with an aspen stake. Ghouls and ghouls cursed during their lifetime (hosted) souls. Aspen, also a cursed tree. The Lithuanian folk legend “Spruce the Queen of Snakes” says that Eli’s daughter, Aspen, betrayed her mother and father and caused their deaths. After death, the girl Aspen turned into an aspen tree. In the Christian tradition, it is believed that Judas hanged himself on an aspen tree after the betrayal of Jesus Christ. In the encyclopedic dictionary "Slavic mythology" ed. “Ellis Luck” M. 1995 says: “Etymological myths connect the “shaking” of the aspen with God’s curse placed on the aspen for the fact that the cross on which Christ was crucified was made from it, the nails with which he was nailed to the cross, and also the “spokes” that Christ’s tormentors drove under his nails.” In some places among the Eastern Slavs, aspen was also considered a “devil’s tree”, cf. The characteristic Hutsul name for the trait is “Osinovets”. In places where aspen grows, according to legend, devils “hover.” We see the relationship - a cursed tree kills ghouls and ghouls who are cursed during their lifetime.

3) Koshchei the Immortal can only be killed by breaking a needle or bone. The destruction of a needle or bone - Koshchei's likeness - leads to his death.

4) In Indo-European, and in any other fairy tales, the hero first looks for a treasure sword, or some other magical weapon, and then defeats a snake, dragon, giant, usually a chthonic creature. This weapon is most often hidden in the dungeon and belongs to a chthonic creature. Even King Arthur’s sword, in the cycle of Celtic legends about the Round Table, was given by a hand from the lake or from the “other world.” After Arthur's death, the sword was returned to the bottom of the lake. A special weapon directed against a specific character in a myth or legend returns to the chthonic world after fulfilling its purpose. This emphasizes that it does not belong to our earthly world.

5) All folk conspiracies are based on the phrase: “As that toto does, so let there be toto.”

We can note that it is precisely the ancient specificity of the thunder god, as a serpent fighter, that connects him with the chthonic world through special weapons, primarily a stone.

The folk etymology of the word "Perun" is interesting. Similar words: stare (a close, piercing gaze), stare - pierce, poper - onslaught, all-overcoming, feather - something sharp (a feather is like a knife among criminals), flying, piercing the air. Words: before, forward - of the same root.

German Thor - at the root of the name the meaning is: to trod - to break through, tour - bull, turn - to throw away sharply, tortoise (man) - brave, skillful, fast, resourceful.

Perun is a penetrator, breaking through the earth's firmament, in search of a chthonic enemy. The name of the Scandinavian god Thor, according to the same etymology - to push, to break through, to break through. That is why the weapon of the Greek Zeus is perun (piercing).

It was necessary for us to separate the late Perun (10th - 15th centuries) from the ancient Indo-Aryan snake fighter. Just as a first-grader girl is not exactly the same person as she was at the age of forty, so the ancient Perun does not in every way correspond to Prince Vladimir’s Perun.

It is known that Perun, at least in Novgorod, was depicted with a stone in his hand. This stone, by analogy with stone and flint among people, was the source of heavenly lightning and thunder. Sacred stones dedicated to both Perun and his Lithuanian counterpart, Perkunas, speak of their connection with stone and, therefore, with the earth. In the Russian fairy tale tradition, the sacred stone Alatyr is apparently also associated with Perun. Let us also pay attention to the fact that the arrows of Perun are still called bolemnite stone. Stones, according to the Indo-European and a number of other peoples, are the bones of Mother Earth. They, the stones, are clearly of chthonic, terrestrial origin. The neighbors of both the Slavs and the Lithuanians are the Karellas and Finns, a group of Finno-Ugric peoples, who have a thunder god named Ukko. It is important for us that in a number of traditions Ukko carves lightning by striking stones (sometimes the knee serves as an anvil and the fist as a hammer), the fist and knee seem to turn to stone. It is no coincidence that the earthly incarnation of Ukko, the elder Väinämöinen, thus, using his petrified knee and fist, strikes fire in the belly of the giant. Sacred stones throughout the area of ​​Finno-Karelian settlement, dedicated to Ukko, indicate that the Finno-Karelian thunderer, like his Indo-European brothers Perun and Perkunas, has a stone as a tool for producing lightning and thunder. Similarly to them, based on the main function, he is Ukko, associated with stone and stone can be represented. The names of the Slavic Perun and the Lithuanian Perkunas are associated with the concept of thunderstorm: thunder, thunder. If we return to the concept of striking a spark-lightning when striking stones, then both to stones and to the underworld. Compare Estonian porgu, “underworld” and Russian: blizzard, as a manifestation of chthonic forces. Ancient Icelandic Fjorgyn, the name of the mother of the thunderer Thor - mountain, stone mountain, cf. Gothic fairguni, “mountain”, Hittite peruna - “rock”, ancient Indian parvata “mountain”, the very name of the Slavic Perun and his connection with stone, perun, as a weapon of the Greek Zeus.

The sky itself, according to the ancient peoples, was made of stone, or on it are the stones of Perun, Ukko, Perkunas. This corresponds to the Indo-European mythology of the stone sky. Sometimes the Lithuanian Perkunas himself is the creator of his weapon Akmeninis kalvis, “stone smith”. This name clearly indicates the connection of Perkunas’ weapon with the stone, as with Perun and Ukko. Finns and Karelians, both ethnically and culturally, mythologically and other traditions, as well as historical references, are most likely a branch of Indo-European peoples, and not Finno-Ugric. The adoption of a foreign language, in this case, apparently, the Sami language, is a frequent occurrence in the history of peoples. Nowadays, entire peoples in South and Central America speak Spanish, but remain Indians; American blacks speak English while remaining blacks. It is impossible to confuse the Finns and the Mongoloid Ob Ugrians, but due to their linguistic similarity they belong to the same group of peoples.

Consider the image of Perun. If we take it in the meaning that was assigned to it in the 10th century. n. e., as the god of the prince and the princely squad in the city, as a god associated with the agricultural cycle in the village, there is nothing chthonic in his appearance that can connect him with a goat. But the fact is that the meaning and functions of gods can develop and be reinterpreted over time in the mythology of any people. To understand the ancient function of the Indo-European thunderers in more detail, let’s look at their weapons and against whom they are directed. In this case, we will be able to combine historical, mythological, archaeological and other materials and draw correct conclusions about the Thunderers themselves.

1) Perkunas (Lithuania), Perkons (Latvia), Perkunas (Prussia). Weapons: ax or hammer, stones. Later, a sword that shoots lightning, a bow and arrows, a club, whips.

Perkunas is called a “stone smith”, his weapon is made of stone and bones of the earth, therefore the power of Perkunas from the earth is chthonic.

2) Perun’s main weapon is stones. According to the recollections of Europeans, in Novgorod the idol of Perun stood with a stone in his hand. Later weapons: axe, bow and arrows ("thunder arrows"). The bolemnit stone is popularly considered to be Perun's arrow. The Polish historian Stryikovsky (16th century) wrote that the idol - the idol of Perun (Perkun) held a stone in his hand, and a sacred fire was constantly burning in front of it. In the chronicle it is written as follows: “Perkonos, who is Perun, is their oldest god, created in the likeness of a man, and in his hands there is a stone, valuable like fire, and for him the unquenchable fire from the oak tree is constantly fired.” If the fire went out, then a new flame was carved by the priests from the stone in the hand of the idol. One should compare the description of the valuable stone burning like fire in Perun’s hand with the description below of the Vajra of the ancient Indian god Indra.

3) Scandinavian Thor, Old Icelandic Borr, German Donar. The weapon is an ax or hammer, often made of stone. According to legend, the weapons were forged or obtained by underground dwarfs - miniatures. These miniatures were originally worms in the body of the first-born giant Ymir. And from the body of Ymir the Earth was created. Miniatures live in the earth and stones, like worms. They are afraid of the light. When light hits them, they die and turn into stone. These miniatures are very reminiscent of the magma of the earth. Magma, like water, could be thought of as living. Magma is fluid, passes through the “veins of the earth”, after reaching the surface, the magma hardens - “turns into stone”. Myths often talk about the treasures of miniatures. Magma brings various minerals to the surface. These minerals and precious ores could be thought of as treasures. Miniatures are clearly chthonic creatures. The weapons of the god Thor are therefore of chthonic origin. It is worth noting that the name of Thor's hammer is Mjollnir, Mjollnir has the same root as the Russian word for "lightning" - Perun's weapon, his arrow.

4) Scandinavian Sami, neighbors of the Scandinavians. "Old Thunderman" is the god of thunder. Miniature stone hammers were sacrificed to him.

5) Karelian and Finnish Ukko, Estonian Uku - in Balto-Finnish mythology the supreme god of thunder. Attributes: lightning, axe, sword - of a secondary nature. Initially, Ukko rolls heavenly stones (thunder) and strikes evil spirits with thunder and lightning. The sanctuaries of Ukko are groves and stones. The connection between Ukko’s weapon and the stone is clearly visible.

6) The ancient Indian thunderer Indra had the weapon Vajra (vajra). She was thought of as a club, a club. According to Vedic tradition, the Vajra was forged for Indra by Tvashtar. Tvashtar is the creator. The word create has the same root. Tvashtar is a creator, but is married to a demoness from the Assur family. This shows his chthonic nature. He, as an indirect chthonic principle, which is akin to Mother Earth among the Slavs and the goddess Gaia-Earth among the ancient Greeks, gave birth to the enemy of Heaven and Indra - the three-headed monster Vishvarupa. Later he again appears as the chthonic king progenitor. He gives birth to the monster Vritra from fire and soma. Vritra is the main opponent of Indra. The victory over Vritra is the main merit of Indra, as the king of the heavenly gods. From here one can see the chthonic, even chaotic nature of Tvashtar and his creation of the Vajra, the main weapon of Indra. Tvashtar carries the principle: everything is in it, all forms and essences. This completely coincides with the ancient Greek definition of Chaos.

According to the text of the Rig Veda (1, 121 12, V 342) - Vajra was in the ocean, in the waters, in the prime matter. We can assume that this is the same magma that, petrified in the light, became Vajra. This is confirmed by her epithets: she is anything, copper, gold, iron, and, what is important, as if she is made of stone or rock. In this case, the chthonic, stone, and possibly magmatic origin of the Vajra as the main weapon of the thunderer is beyond doubt.

7) Teshub, the Thunderer of Khet and Khurian mythology. In the myth, the thunderer Teshub defeats the blind and deaf chthonic monster that threatens to destroy the world - Ulikumme. He cuts it off from the rock that supports the sky with the stone cutter with which the Earth was separated from the Heavens. The chthonic origin of the weapon is obvious. It was still during the Chaos, the confusion of Earth and Sky. Perhaps it was associated with the same frozen magma, as a symbol of chaos and confusion.

8) Greek thunderer Zeus. In Crete, the weapon of Zeus was considered a double ax that gives and takes away life. At Delphi, Zeus was revered as a fetish otphalus ("navel of the earth") - a stone swallowed by Cronus, or a stone like the navel of the baby Zeus. The weapon of Zeus is chthonic. This weapon was forged by the children of the Earth - Gaia, the hundred-armed Cyclopes. They forged it in an underground, or in other words, volcanic forge. The origin of Zeus' weapons is clearly magmatic, associated with volcanic activity. origin. These weapons - thunder, lightning and Perun - made Zeus the king of the gods.

It is important to note the fact that during a volcanic eruption, when igneous rock with its “treasures” and “semi-finished products” for weapons is poured out, severe thunderstorms and earthquakes occur. A mythological reflection of this could be a battle between a thunderer and a terrible chthonic monster shaking the earth. The universality of the myth of the flood and the associated earthquakes and volcanic eruptions confirms this hypothesis (see Fraser “The Golden Bough”).

Solid igneous rocks that come to the surface after an eruption are the most accessible and unique material for making weapons back in the Neolithic era. Only heroes could dare to go for such a dangerous weapon located on the slopes of volcanoes. These heroes are ancient times, through acquired weapons and personal courage, could seize power in the tribes and become the first kings - princes. Episodes of such a seizure of power back in Neolithic times could have given rise to the creation of some myths about the Thunderer - a king and a hero. The weapon, made from a piece of solidified lava, was of a mystical-magical nature in its origin; in addition, it could “sparkle” with inclusions of minerals and ores. The very type and origin of the weapon of the Neolithic hero could cause horror among his enemies and deprive them of their strength. This weapon, over time, became surrounded by legends, and eventually passed on to the heavenly thunderer, and the hero-ancestor himself could merge with it. For example, in Germanic mythology, the thunder god Thor is at the same time both a god and the ancestor of the Germans. The description of weapons, such as a club, a stone hammer or a club, indicates the Neolithic time of the appearance of these myths about the weapons of the Thunderers. A club, a club, a stone ax or a hammer were the most formidable weapons of ancient man.

Let us note a few more reasons why the thunderer's main weapon is stone or made of stone.

1) In the Neolithic era, the main tool of people was stone.

2) Fire could be created by striking stones, such as flints.

3) The sky was thought of as stone, just like the earth.

4) The fall of the metiarites - “heavenly stones”, pointed to the stone as an instrument of the heavenly gods. These stones were revered, such as the sacred Muslim stone of the Kaaba.

5) Stones are “veins of the earth”, they are chthonic. There is an old Lithuanian fairy tale “Well done and the devil” (Lithuanian folk tales “The Swan Queen”. Vilnius. 1965), corresponding in content to Russian folk tales about the Sea King. In it, the devil living in the underground or underwater chthonic kingdom is called “Gray Mountain Bone.” By analogy with the Russian Koshchei (Kostey), he personifies stone, like the bone of the earth. In German mythology, stones and mountains of earth were made from the bones of the giant Ymir. In the Great Russian Christian apocryphal tales “The Book of the Dove” it is said:

"Bones are strong from stone,

Our bodies are from the damp earth,

Blood ore from the black sea."

The chthonic nature of the stone is even determined by its modern name - “ore vein”. This name hints that the stone is part of the living organism of the earth.

The chthonic deities of the earth are responsible for the stones: the Cyclopes, Koschey of Russian fairy tales, the Slavic god Veles, gnomes, dwarfs, tsvirgs, and later, collectively, devils.

The connection between the ancient Perun and the chthonic world occurs not only through weapons. The most ancient thunderers had a goat as a means of transport. The goat played the role of their guide to another, underground, chthonic world.

The goat is a chthonic animal, not directly related to the celestial and thunder forces. This is true, but still this connection exists, the goat is related to the Thunderers, the chthonic element is associated with the Thunderers. But there is one thing... This connection is indirect, through the weapons of the Thunderers, through one of their functions. The encyclopedia "Myths of the Peoples of the World" points out the connection between the goat and the thunderbirds. Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Let's make a slight digression and consider the ancient Indian god Agni. Agni literally means fire in Sanskrit. In Rus' they addressed fire: Father, you are the King of Fire. He is Agni in Vedic mythology, the god of fire, god hearth and home(connection with ancestors), sacrificial fire. In the Rig Veda, Agni is the main of the earthly gods; about 200 hymns are dedicated to him. He central character main ancient Indian ritual. Its main function is mediation between gods and people. Agni is a divine priest. The hypostasis of Agni is the fire of the sun and lightning, but he is also the fire in the waters, the fire of the sacrificial fire. Agni was born in three places: in the sky, among people and in the waters. He has three heads, three tongues, three dwellings, three lights, three lives, three powers.

This is important for us because in the Vedic tradition, a goat was almost always sacrificed to Agni. This was done for the purpose of connecting with the world of spirits and ancestors. Ancient Indian, Vedic Indra is associated with a goat as a sacrificial animal. Sometimes a goat was sacrificed to Indra, there is an indication of this in the Upanishads, but a sacrificial goat was dedicated to the god Agni six to seven times more often. Moreover, the sacrifice of a goat to Indra implied a connection with the ancestors. Indra, as the king of the gods, at the moment of sacrificing a goat to him, took on the function of Agni. There was also a formal basis for this. Agni was the twin brother of Indra. In a number of traditions, twin brothers were considered as one person. First of all, this relates to the ancient Indian tradition: Ashvins, Maruts. In the Greek tradition, these are the Dioscuri - Castor and Polydeuces. Indra, and any king of the gods, personifies his entire kingdom, including the chthonic, underground forces. We'll talk about the relationship between these forces and the Thunderers in this section.

Later the horse took over the function of the goat. Hence the contradictions in the interpretation of the image of the horse. The horse, being mainly a symbol of the sun, carries within itself some chthonicity left over from the image of the goat. Being a symbol of the sun or an attribute solar god, the horse gradually became an attribute of royal power. With the development of religious teaching, the idea of ​​posthumous retribution, including rewards, appears. The development of these ideas made the horse a guide to the kingdom of the dead. The horse, as it were, contributes to the accession of the deceased in the afterlife. The sun circles through the day and night sides of the world, so the horse must carry its rider through death to a new rebirth, to a new life.

The Scandinavian Thor rode goats and took them for food. Perkūnas led a goat behind him on a rope and sometimes rode it. Zeus was nursed by the goat Amalthea in Crete. Aegis or aegis (“goatskin”) is an attribute of Zeus. The goat connects the thunderer with the underworld, like a bird or a solar horse with the sky. Without the goat, the Thunderer, who, as a rule, is the king of the gods, could not rule the underworld. Most often, this rule comes down to the possibility of punishing and persecuting dark forces. The goat, in this case, is not only the guide of the Thunderer, but he is also a kind of military attribute in the fight against dark forces. In this regard, it is similar to the chthonic weapon of the thunderer. We have already indicated that according to the most ancient views, like should be influenced by like. For example, according to Slavic beliefs, a vodyanoi (an aquatic chthonic creature) can be appeased with the hair of a black goat; an evil brownie torments all animals on the farm except the dog and the goat. The Devil has a goat's hoof and one of his favorite victims is a goat. The goat, as it were, disguises the thunderer. He finds a way to the chthonic kingdom and makes his companion somewhat invulnerable to the forces of this kingdom, he is a kind of amulet. It is known that many ancient Slavic amulets were made according to the principle: by contradiction. The image of a predator's jaw was protection from predators, the key was protection from thieves, small hatchets or knives were protection from enemy weapons, cookies - a kozulka (image of a goat) for the winter holiday Kolyada - protection from dark forces.

Let's consider another aspect of the connection between the Thunderer and the goat. In the reconstructed Indo-European myth, the Thunderer was associated with a mountain, or rather a rock. The battle of the Thunderer with a serpentine enemy of chthonic origin (in the Russian tradition, Veles (Volos)) took place either at a rock, or under a rock, or through a rock. The weapons served, as shown above, were stones or certain objects of chthonic origin. What is important for us is that the goat, by its nature, is associated with mountains and rocks, and therefore, in this aspect, it can be associated with the battle of the thunderer and his chthonic opponent. Moreover, he is a goat and can also provide the thunderer with the help of spirits - the ancestors of people, as a connecting link with them.

So we have established that the weapons and attributes of the Indo-Aryan thunderers are associated with the chthonic forces against which these thunderers fight, and this, in turn, is a reflection of the ancient pre-mythological magic of influencing an object or phenomenon through its likeness.

YARILA, DIONYSUS, FAUN, MANIA, GOAT

The South Slavic Badnyak and Yarila are often compared. Yarila is the god of vitality, sexual power - Yari. Yarila is incorrectly compared, under the influence of Ostrovsky's fairy tale "The Snow Maiden", with the sun. Yarila bears a sign of strength and fertilization, but this fertilization is earthly, it is chthonic. It is no coincidence that one of Yarila’s attributes is a death’s head, an indisputable attribute of death. Yarilo is apparently a later Slavic modification of Lizard, Veles, Badnyak. He is completely akin to the Asia Minor Dionysus. Dionysus is decorated with grape leaves from which wine is made. Yarilo is decorated with hop leaves, from which beer is made. Dionysus and Yarilo are revered noisily and cheerfully. Often holidays dedicated to them turn into orgies. On holidays, Yarila kidnaps girls. The same thing happened on the holidays of Dionysus. Dionysus is chthonic and in many ways corresponds to Veles. it is associated with fertility. Yarila is also associated with fertility; he carries a death’s head with him, which means he is associated with the world of death. Effeminacy and gender confusion are present in the figure of Dionysus. Yarila was portrayed by a girl dressed as a boy, which may also indicate the character’s bisexuality. The chthonic nature of Yarila is emphasized by the fact that on his holidays it often came to the point of murder and unbridled sexual orgies. The holidays of Dionysus did not differ from the holidays of Yarila in this regard. The seasonal funeral of Yarila took place, which corresponds to the veneration of both Dionysus and Badnyak - Veles. The phallus served as a symbol of both Yarila and Dionysus. Dionysus came to Greek Olympus from Thrace, and according to a number of recent theories, Proto-Slavic tribes lived in Thrace. As an example, let us cite the wearing of oseledets (forelock) among the ancient Russians, in the Zaporozhye Sich and in Thrace. Dionysus, like Yarila, is apparently a later hypostasis of the ancient Indo-European god Veles - Volos - Lizard - Badnyak. Most likely, the development of the image of Veles in his fertilizing, earthly function led to the isolation of his given hypostasis into the images of Yarila and Dionysus. Yarila's clothes are white. White color among the Slavs - the color of death, the color of the shroud. White dress the bride's name indicated her death in the parental family. From this idea comes the custom of mourning the bride as if she were dead. In the Apocalypse of St. John, the horse of death is called "the pale horse."

Let's turn to the character of Roman mythology - Faun. Faun - corresponds to the Greek god Pan, who is part of the retinue of Dionysus. This fact alone should attract our attention. Faun (Faunus, from favere, "to help", also Fatuus, Fatulcus, from fatuor, "to be possessed", fando, "to prophesy", Serv. Verg. Aen. VII 47), considered in Roman mythology the god of forests, pastures, fields , animals. The functions of Faun largely coincide with the functions of Veles. Faun had a female counterpart - Faun. The faun gave predictions in verse. Boyan, in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” is called Veles’ grandson. Boyan also spoke in poetry and gave prophecies, at least his epithet is “prophetic”, he speaks about this. It follows that Veles was directly related to prophecies and poetry. The faun, when he was caught by Numa by cunning, was forced to tell him how to turn away the lightning of Jupiter. Interestingly, the god Veles also knows how to hide from Perun’s lightning. The faun is chthonic, he can steal children, send nightmares and illnesses. The same can be said about Veles. The faun had intercourse with all animals and seduced women. This is the quality of the chthonic god of fertility, associated with the most ancient ritual and mystical orgies aimed at fertilizing all living things. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a custom in Rus': during the first spring plowing, a peasant went out alone into the field, made a hole in the ground and performed an act of sacred intercourse with Mother Raw Earth. With his seed, the peasant mystically fertilized all of nature, uniting his masculine principle with the feminine one.

During the Lupercalia festival, a goat was sacrificed to the Faun. After making the sacrifice, the Luperc priests, with only a goat skin on their hips, ran around and lashed the women they met with belts cut from the skin of the sacrificial goat. This quilting was supposed to make women fertile. Among other things, Faun, like Veles, was the patron of cattle breeding. Faun, like Dionysus, could also be a development of the image of the most ancient Indo-European god - Veles. He is clearly more archaic than Dionysus and Yarila, he has not yet lost his anthropomorphic features, but he has lost his magical werewolf and the image of a serpent. The closer connection of Faun with the goat, in comparison with Dionysus, suggests that he appeared during the times of matriarchy, during the heyday of female organic mysteries. Such mysteries were already sharply condemned in ancient Greece and were preserved longest, perhaps, among the Etruscans and among the plebeians of Rome. The Feast of the Faun was a ritual associated with the time of matriarchy. On the Feast of Faun, the creepy chthonic goddess Mania was appeased. Mania is the goddess of darkness and madness, her cult is associated with the cult of dead ancestors. She, like Veles, was responsible for the posthumous existence of her ancestors. Initially, boys were sacrificed to her (a clear feature of matriarchy). In later times, as in Rus' on the holiday of Kupala, they made a sacrificial doll and carried it around the city. The boy was placed on a raised platform so that he could be better seen by the goddess. The boy's head was touched with a knife dipped in the blood of a sacrificial goat. The boy laughed, trying to show madness, and thereby arouse the favor of the goddess Mania. In this holiday, the human sacrifice is replaced by a sacrifice, namely, a goat. The chthonic character of Faun, and even more so of Mania, is beyond doubt. We showed the relationship between Faun and Veles. The Roman holiday is similar to the Slavic one and is also interesting because the goddess Mania is clearly a goddess from the times of matriarchy, as is the entire ritual dedicated to her. The similarity of the main sacred actions - the sacrifice of a boy to the chthonic gods associated with the cult of ancestors and its later replacement with a goat - allows us to attribute the Slavic ritual of such a sacrifice to the time of matriarchy.

Let us consider this image of the Slavic gods, making the assumption that these images are genuine in their main features. If this is so, then a certain logic should be traced in the composition of the characters and their symbolism. The first we see is the image of Perun in his bestial form. It is known that the most ancient gods in the Indo-European and other traditions at the beginning had an animal appearance, and only with the development of worldview concepts they acquired anthropomorphism - human species. IN this image there are three character traits. Archaic - bestiality of the image. A protruding tongue is a symbol of death (see V. Shcherbakov’s instructions on the meaning of a protruding tongue in Roman, Greek, Etruscan visual systems and similar images of the dead Humbaba in the Assyro-Babylonian tradition). Poured female breast - a symbol of fertility and feeding. Let us remember that Perun, being the thunderer, was also associated with rain, and therefore with the sowing/feeding of the earth. A protruding tongue may indicate the cyclical annual nature of natural phenomena - the dying and rebirth of nature. Consequently, Perun is depicted as the king of life and death. The next image of Mokosh has the same protruding tongue, as an indication of death and seasonality. Images of Mokosh and Khors have goat legs - defining his chthonicity and connection with fertility. This connects him with the “goat” hypostasis of the Greek Dianis and his goat-footed retinue. Mokosh's body resembles a twisted thread on a spindle, which is associated with her patronage of spinning, including spinning the thread of fate, like Greco-Roman parkas. On the heads of Khors and Mokosh there are certain shoots that resemble either horns - a sign of chthonicity, or young shoots. Makos is associated with the birthing power of the earth - therefore, an indication of its chthonicity - goat-footedness, sprouts on the head, as a symbol of plant life, and an indication of the cyclical nature - the dying of nature (sticking out tongue) are fully consistent with its image. Horse is depicted as a ruler. He has a scopeter - a symbol of power, his left hand is spread out over the ground in a patronizing, imperious gesture, and there are “sprouts” on his head. Khorsa is usually associated with the Sun by the etymology of the name “horo” - “kolo” - circle, movement in a circle, rotation, wheel of the sun. It is worth noting that, according to the ideas of the ancients, the sun also made a night journey through the underworld; in addition, the rotation of the Sun was associated with seasonal changes. In this case, there could be an indication of the hypostasis of Khors as the ruler of the underworld, seasonal changes and fertility. Stribog, according to the etymology of the name, is associated with the Etruscan god of underground fire Satre and the Greco-Roman Saturn - the masters of the underworld. The large ears of the image of Stribog and Khors indicate the predominant importance of hearing among these gods and means a certain blindness characteristic of chthonic characters. The fire of Stribog is an underground volcanic fire associated with both the Satre of the Etruscans and the Saturn of the Greeks (see I. Belkin’s article about Chernobog for more details). The image of one head is an indication of the chthonic nature of the character (M. Evzlin “Myth and Ritual” 1992). Underground fire and winds (Stribozh's grandchildren - SoPI), associated with this character, affect weather conditions and fertility. We can conclude that all images of Slavic gods or their hypostases are associated with seasonal cycles and the regenerating fruit-bearing power of the earth. If they were in the same temple, then it was a temple of fertility. We do not find any serious contradictions between these images and the functions of the characters.