Myths of the peoples of the territories of the north of Russia. Mythology of the peoples of the Arctic (7 photos) Epics, myths and legends of the peoples of the Arctic
(The collection includes myths, legends, fairy tales, legends of the peoples of the North and the Far East, collected by folklorists and writers on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in the Kolyma tundra, on Novaya Zemlya, in the lower reaches of the Ob and Yenisei.)
Sami folklore
1. How an old Sami man outsmarted his enemies (read)
4. Tale of a woman and a wild deer (read)
Nenets folklore
1 Why Owls Can't See Sunlight (read)
4. About the adventures of the younger Khanty (read)
Enets folklore
Mansi folklore
Myths "Where the earth began"
10. How the sun and the moon got out, how birds and animals appeared on earth (read)
Recorded and translated Mansi myths V. Chernetsov in 1920-1930s.
This collection is the result of many years of efforts to bring together the best examples of small epic genres of oral art from all twenty-six peoples of the North and the Far East. The compiler sought to select and present in the book works of various forms and genres: everyday and fairy tales, fairy tales about animals, legends, traditions, myths, well-wishes, telling about the harsh living conditions of the peoples of this region, about their ideas and traditions, about the peculiarities of the worldview.
The compiler and the publishing house were faced with the task of publishing a collection that would be interesting not only for specialists involved in collecting and studying the folklore of the peoples of the North and the Far East, but also for the general reader. That is why the collection includes texts that not only accurately convey the specifics of a particular work, but also those that famous writers were involved in the literary processing of at different times.
A number of works included in the collection are published for the first time. Their texts were specially prepared for this publication.
More than two hundred years ago, the famous explorer and explorer of Kamchatka S.P. Krasheninnikov, having familiarized himself with the folklore of the Koryaks and Itelmens, said: “Kamchadals are as good at fairy tales as the ancient Greeks.” We can only add that the Saami, Selkups, Nivkhs, Chukchis, Khanty, Nanai, Udege, Eskimos and other small peoples are “the same masters”.
The composition of the collection is determined by the kinship of certain nationalities according to linguistic, ethnographic characteristics; territorial proximity.
Check out the news about Max Polyakov at this pageIgnatov Vasily Georgievich - graphic artist, theater designer, animator, illustrator. Born in 1922 in the village of Zelenets, Ust-Sysolsky district, Komi Autonomous Region, died in 1998. In search of national identity, the artist turned to stylization, created a series of sheets that tell the story of the legendary characters of Komi legends and legends: Feather-bogatyr, Shipichi, Kiryan-Varyan, Kort-Aiki, hero Yirkap. Created a series "Distant Komi antiquity", dedicated to the legendary history of the Komi people.
Below you can get acquainted with these wonderful, colorful illustrations and at the same time read the ancient myths and legends of the peoples of the north - Komi.
V.G. Ignatov creates an image of the ancient inhabitants of our northern region, who lived in harmony with the natural world. In one of the legends, the pagan ancestors of the Komi-Zyryans are called Chud. These are beautiful, strong, able to stand up for themselves people.
They are engaged in hunting and fishing, raising domestic animals, but they do not yet know agriculture. They believe in their gods - En and Omol, who created the world around them. They believe that there is another world that is inhabited by many spirits - the owners of various elements. The spirits-owners of the forest (“Vorsa”) and water (“Vasa”) and the space inhabited by man: dwellings (house “Olysya”) and outbuildings (barn “Rynysh hayka”, bannik “Pyvsyan hayka” and others) live together with people and can interact with them. They believe that there are forest monsters Yag-Mort and Yoma.
From troubles and misfortunes, these people are protected by the spirits-ancestors of the dead relatives. And if you live in harmony with the world, observing all the norms and rules of behavior, performing the necessary rituals, then the connection of times will not be interrupted.
Komi - a pagan town
V.G. Ignatov presents a fantastically attractive image of the ancient settlement of the Komi-Zyryans. In ancient times, the ancestors of the Komi people settled along the banks of the rivers. They lived in fortified settlements - "cars", which were built on the hills.
The legend has preserved one of the names of the ancient settlement - Kureg-Kar, in which countless treasures were hidden underground. These treasures were guarded Feather-bogatyr with a big black dog. From one car to another, the inhabitants dug underground passages, where they hid their treasures. These were spoken treasures. The inhabitants of the city were engaged in hunting, fishing, were skilled blacksmiths and builders. They lived richly and in harmony with nature.
Around the "cars" as the sea stretched "parma" - taiga. Not far from the "cars" on the hills were arranged shrines dedicated to the gods worshiped by the pagans.
Feather's fight with a bear. From the series "The Legend of Pere-hero".
And here is another story about the same Pere. Among the Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permians, the bear was also considered a living embodiment of the forest spirit. There was a belief that the bear could not be shot again in the event of an unsuccessful shot, since it could come to life, even after a mortal wound. It is the interchangeability of the images of the goblin and the bear that can explain the murder of a bear in one of the Komi-Permyak legends about Per: the bear did not give way to him in the forest, for which Pera strangled him.
Artist V.G. Ignatov interprets this plot in his own way. Pera acts like a brave hunter. The bear, as an object of hunting, enjoyed special respect among the Komi-Zyryans. Bear hunting was accompanied by special ritual actions. The heart of the first killed bear, eaten by the hunter, endowed him, according to Komi beliefs, with courage during subsequent bear hunts.
Komi - pagan stone sanctuaries
V.G. Ignatov addresses the theme of the pagan beliefs of the ancient Komi-Zyryans. One of the important sources on the pre-Christian beliefs of the Komi is the "Life of Stephen of Perm" by Epiphanius the Wise. It emphasizes that the Permians had many gods who were the patrons of hunting and fishing: "They give us fishing and everything, like a hedgehog in the waters, and like a hedgehog in the air, and a little like in blatek and in oak forests, and in pine forests, and in pockets, and in the undergrowth, and in the thickets, and in the birch, and in the pines, and in the spruces, and in the ramen, and in other forests, and everything is on the trees, squirrels or sables, or martens, or lynxes, and so on our fishing. The gods were personified by idols - wooden, stone, metal, which were worshiped and made sacrifices.
"Idols" were located in graveyards, in houses and forests. The skins of fur-bearing animals, as well as "golden, or silver, or copper, or iron, or tin" were sacrificed to them. Depending on their significance, idols were revered either by individual families, villages, or by the population of an entire district. Epiphanius writes: "The essence of them is the old kumiri, to them from afar the parishioners, and from distant places bring a commemoration, and in three days, and in four, and in a week."
Yirkap is building a shrine. From the series "About the bogatyr Yirkap".
Yirkap - the legendary hero-hunter appears in the work of the artist V.G. Ignatova as a cultural hero building a sanctuary. Thus, he carries out one of the most important tasks - the protection of the human community from dark forces.
He is endowed with a heroic, almost magical power, without which his creative activity would be impossible. Among the wooden sculptures of the shrine, the idol of the legendary Zarni An, the supreme deity, a symbol of fertility and prosperity, stands out.
Worship of the Komi pagan goddess Zarni An
Zarni An, the "Golden Woman", is the Golden Baba, a legendary idol, which was allegedly worshiped by the population of the northeastern European part of Rus' and northwestern Siberia. The descriptions of the idol speak of a statue in the form of an old woman, in the womb of which there is a son and another child, a grandson, is visible. So far, not a single even indirect mention of the existence of the once female deity Zarni An has been found in the Komi-Zyryan folklore.
Nevertheless, the term Zarni An is quite often cited even in scientific works as an allegedly ancient Komi-Zyryan name for the supreme deity, a symbol of fertility and prosperity. Often, Zarni An is identified with the personification of dawn known from the folklore of the Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks - Zaran or Shondi nyv “daughter of the sun”.
Scientists believe that there are good reasons for identifying the images of Zarni An and Zaran. It is quite possible that the ancestors of the Ural peoples (Khanty, Mansi, Komi) really worshiped the sunny Golden Woman.
V.G. Ignatov represents Zarni An in the form of a solar deity. The image is built according to the laws of theatrical mise-en-scene. The viewer seems to become a witness to a ritual action: the worship of the statue of Zarni An in the guise of a woman with a child in her arms, majestically seated on the throne.
Ecstasy (Komi pagans)
The ancestors of the Komi people worshiped trees, spiritualizing and revering them, endowing them with a soul and the ability to influence human destiny. Mighty birch trees grew in the main sanctuaries, near which shamans performed various pagan rituals, and the people participating in them offered sacrifices to ancient deities. One of the legends says that "... they kept a birch instead of God, they hung on it, whoever has something, who has a silk shawl, who has a sheepskin, who has a ribbon ...".
Echoes of the cult of trees among the Komi people were recorded by scientists even in the 20th century: near some villages, birch groves, which were considered sacred, were carefully preserved. V.G. Ignatov presents the image of a mighty sacred birch, with a pronounced mythological symbolism, connecting it with the cosmic top and the lower world. In a decorative manner characteristic of the author, he marks the tree with stylized images of the Permian animal style and traditional ornament. The dynamic plasticity of a mighty tree and people convincingly convey the culmination of a ritual action that unites people and nature.
Omol (bad god) Series "From Komi folklore"
Omöl in the Komi-Zyryan mythology is a dark god-demiurge (creator), acts as an antagonist of the light principle, personified by the "good god" En. In everyday speech, the word Omöl means "thin, bad, weak." In some variants of cosmogonic myths, the enemy of Yen is called "goblin" or "leshak", that is, the image of lower Slavic mythology. It was this interpretation of the image of this character that formed the basis of the work of V.G. Ignatov. However, in Komi mythology, Omöl, together with En, who was recognized as his brother or comrade, participated in the creation of the world. According to some myths, Omöl only spoiled at night what Yong did during the day, and he himself created only all sorts of reptiles and harmful insects. But much more often Omöl appears as a creator equal to Yen, although he creates according to his character.
Together with Yen, Omöl takes out the eggs of life generation from the bottom of the deep sea, which their duck mother dropped there, and with the help of one of them creates the moon. Omöl, in the form of a loon, dives at the request of Yen to the seabed and takes out grains of sand, from which the earth is created. Omöl created significantly more animals than Yong. He created predatory animals and birds, all fish, as well as elk, deer and hare, but later Yong modified these three animals and fish, after which they began to be considered his creations, and people were allowed to eat them.
After the end of the struggle for the possession of the cosmic top, in which Omöl was defeated, he retired to live underground, according to one version voluntarily, according to another, he was placed there by Enom. Yong tricked Omöl and his helper spirits into clay pots, closed them and buried them in the ground. At the same time, one pot broke, Omöl's servants who were in it fled in different directions and became the master spirits of places and natural elements. Omöl became the master of the cosmic bottom (lower underworld).
Grandfather (good spirit) Series "From Komi folklore"
Artist V.I. Ignatov presents his interpretation of the image of one of the lower mythological deities - the spirit, the master spirit. There are various options for reading it: the master spirit of the forest; the master spirit of a certain forest area and living creatures living on it; master spirit of the house; the master spirit of outbuildings for keeping livestock.
In the views of the Komi-Zyryans, in parallel with the real earthly world, there was another, unreal world, inhabited by various spirits, which largely determined the life and well-being of people. Since hunting and fishing were of great importance among the Komi-Zyryans, the spirits - the owners of the forest and water dominated the hierarchy of the lower mythological deities.
The common name of the forest spirit-owner was "vörsa" - an analogue of the Russian "goblin". The ideas about the appearance of the goblin and its incarnations were very diverse: it could be invisible, appear in the form of a tornado, in the guise of an ordinary person with some features (giant growth, lack of eyebrows and eyelashes, lack of a shadow, twisted heels of the legs). Vörsa lived in a triangular house, in a dense forest thicket.
The forest spirit-owner appears as a kind of guarantor of observance by hunters in the forest of the norms of fishing morality, punishing those responsible for their violation by depriving them of good luck in fishing. Since there is an inscription “Olys” (grandfather) on the reverse side of the cardboard, it can be assumed that V. Ignatov depicted Olys (“inhabitant, tenant”) - a brownie, spirit - the owner of the house and outbuildings for keeping livestock. Its main function was to ensure the well-being of all the inhabitants of the house and livestock.
To designate the spirit - the owner of the house, the Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks, in addition to the term Olysya, had a large number of other names borrowed from the Russians: susedko, grandfather (grandfather, grandfather), etc. A good olly was considered if it ensured the well-being of the house, its inhabitants and livestock, or at least "did not offend." If Olysya was offended by something, then at night the sleeping residents of the house had nightmares. Unloved horses, he tangled manes and drove them around the stable. The house spirit that began to play pranks was supposed to be propitiated with a treat. It was believed that he loves baked milk and sauerkraut. The treat was placed at the cat's hole in the underground and Olys was invited to taste it.
When moving to a new house, it was necessary to invite the master spirit of the old house with them. The Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks did not have a clear idea about the appearance of the house spirit. Usually he was invisible, but could appear in a humanoid form: grandfather "old man", an "woman"; in the form of pets: a gray cat or dog, or in the form of a furry lump.
Scientists believe that the concept of the master spirit of the house is associated with the cult of ancestors.
Yoma. Costume design for Y. Perepelitsa’s ballet “Yag-Mort”
Yoma is one of the most popular mythological and folklore images of the Komi, similar to the Russian Baba Yaga. The image of Yoma is very meaningful. Yoma is the mistress of cereals, bread, dances in a mortar. Yoma - mistress of the forest: lives in a dense forest, in a forest hut on chicken legs (on an egg, elk legs); her sheep are wolves, cows are bears, animals and birds obey her. Yoma is the patroness of women's crafts, weaving, spinning: the heroines of a number of fairy tales come to her for a spinning wheel, a spinning wheel, a ball, a spindle, a knitting needle, a skein of yarn. Yoma - the keeper of the fire, lies on the stove, in the Komi-Zyryan tales people come to her for fire, often in fairy tales Youmu is burned in the stove, in a haystack or in straw. Yoma is a cannibal, trying to bake children in the oven, putting them on a bread shovel. Yoma - hero, opponent of the hero; adversary-sorceress, mother of a sorceress. Yoma is the mistress of water, strong water or living water. Yoma is the keeper of magical items: a ball, a spindle, a needle, a saucer with a bulk apple.
Most often, Yoma is associated with the lower, other or border world: he lives in the forest, on the edge, under water, across the river, on the river bank, down the river, in the north, less often on the mountain. The world of Yoma is separated from the world of people by a forest, a mountain, a river of tar fire, which, in the motives of the hero's pursuit, appear when various objects are thrown behind his back over his left shoulder.
Yoma's dwelling is most often a hut grown into the ground, a hut on chicken legs, on a chicken egg (copper, silver, gold), without windows, without doors, which, when the hero is caught, turns into a room with three, two, and then with one corner. The image of Yoma is deeply chaotic: long teeth, often made of iron; iron nails; a long nose, resting on the ceiling, on the floor, in a corner, with its help she heats the oven or puts bread in the oven; Yoma has furry eyes, often blind, he smells better with his nose than he sees. Unlike the Russian Baba Yagi, Yoma does not move in a mortar. Yoma is called an old, grumpy, angry, quarrelsome woman.
Yag-Mort. Costume design for Y. Perepelitsa's ballet "Yag-Mort".
The legend of Yag-Mort was first published in 1848, after which it was repeatedly reprinted and revised by various authors. Based on her motives to the music of the composer Ya.S. Perepelitsa in 1961, the first Komi-Zyryan national ballet "Yag-Mort" was created. For more than forty years, graphic artist Vasily Georgievich Ignatov has been working on the theme of Komi legends and legends. One of the first folklore sources he turned to was the story of Yag-Mort. Artist V.G. Ignatov made sketches of costumes and scenery for the ballet in 1961 and in 1977 (the second, revised version).
Yag-Mort drives a herd of cows. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
Yag-Mort, "upland man" - in the legends of the Komi-Zyryan forest monster. The time of the legend dates back to ancient times, when along the banks of the Pechora and Izhma rivers lived scattered "Chud tribes" who did not yet know agriculture, engaged in hunting and fishing, as well as cattle breeding. In one of the Chud villages, Yag-Mort began to appear frequently - a giant, as tall as a pine tree, resembling a wild animal, dressed in undressed bearskin. He stole cattle, women and children, and people were powerless against him. “Besides, Yag-Mort was a great sorcerer: diseases, loss of livestock, lack of rain, calmness, summer fires - he sent everything to the people.”
Yag-Mort sends the winds. From the series "Komi Tales and Legends".
Yag-Mort brought many troubles to people. He could send a hurricane wind in which people died, their homes were destroyed. Artist V.G. Ignatov convincingly shows the magical power of the forest monster. The expressive composition is built on contrast: a huge (from the earth to the sky) figure of a forest monster and figures of people flying like blades of grass caught in a whirlwind. The color scheme of the graphic drawing, built from contour-linear strokes of blue, green, purple and red, completes the image of a terrible disaster.
Yag-Mort burns Komi villages. From the series "Komi Tales and Legends"
Yag-Mort used to “choose a darker night, set fire to the trees, and in the bustle of the fire does what only his bloodthirsty soul wants…”
Raida and Yag-Mort. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
One day, Yag-Mort stole the only beautiful daughter named Raida from the elder of the village.
Tugan's call to fight Yag-Mort From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
Raida's fiancé, the daring fellow Tugan, gathered the people and called them to fight the forest monster. “He gathered his comrades ... and decided to find the dwelling of Yag-Mort at all costs, to seize the accursed sorcerer alive or dead, or to die themselves.” V.G. Ignatov "believes" that this action took place in a temple - a sacred place where wise elders, experienced and young warriors gathered in order to enlist the support of the almighty gods and patron spirits.
Ambush. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
Tugan and his comrades, armed with arrows and spears, ambushed the forest monster ... and tracked down Yag-Mort. The daredevils hid near the path trampled by the monster, settled in a dense forest on the extremity of the Izhma River. The artist depicted the moment when Yag-Mort crosses the Izhma River opposite the place where the brave warriors hid.
Battle with Yag-Mort. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
“As soon as he stepped ashore, spears, steles, stones fell on him ... The robber stopped, looked at his opponents with his menacing bloody gaze, roared and rushed into their very thick, brandishing a club. And a terrible battle began ... ".
Victory. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
In a difficult battle, Tugan and his comrades defeated Yag-Mort. "He put many on the spot and finally, he himself was exhausted and crashed to the ground." According to legend, they cut off his hands. Then, threatening to cut off his head, they forced Yag-Mort to bring him to his dwelling. Yag-Mort lived in the thicket of the forest, in a cave on the banks of the Kucha River. Near the cave, people discovered the lifeless body of Raida, then they killed Yag-Mort, burned the loot in the cave, and covered it up. Since then, everyone passing by this place had to throw a stone or a stick at it, and then spit. Artist V.G. Ignatov "omits" these details and changes the ending of this story.
In Yag-Mort's lair. From the series "The Legend of Yag-Mort".
According to legend, in the cave of Yag-Mort, people found "a lot of good things", and near the cave - the lifeless body of Raida. However, the artist V.G. Ignatov does not want to accept such a dramatic ending and offers his own version of the happy ending of the legendary story. Tugan found his beloved alive and unharmed. Love is stronger than death.
Matchmaking. From the series "About the bogatyr Yirkap".
There is no mention of Yirkap's courtship in folklore sources. However, in some versions of the legend, it is said about the wife of the most successful hunter, who by cunning learned from her husband the secret of his vulnerability and, at the request of her rival Yirkap, gave her husband rinses to drink.
Perhaps the artist V.G. Ignatov "offers" his own version of the happy fate of the legendary hunter, transforming the plot about the hunt for a blue deer according to pagan totemic symbolism, where the deer denotes the bride.
One day, the sorceress told Yirkap that if he caught a blue deer, he would be the most successful hunter in the world. Yirkap on magical skis chased the deer all the way to the Urals, where he overtook him. After that, the deer turned into a very beautiful girl.
V.G. Ignatov presents the matchmaking scene as a kind of solemn ritual action filled with sacred meaning. According to tradition, the fate of the young is decided by the oldest and most respected representatives of two families: the bride and groom. They fix their decision with a ritual: by tasting a specially prepared drink from a vessel provided for this purpose, symbolizing the idea of unification of two genera.
Yirkap and elk. From the series "About the bogatyr Yirkap".
Yirkap is a legendary hunter hero. Not a single animal could get away from the omnipotent Yirkap. Hunting for an elk among the Komi was considered more dangerous than for a bear. The hunters were convinced that the killed elk (like the bear) could come to life if certain ritual actions were not performed. Successful hunters, both elk and bear, were credited with the unconditional favor of the forest master spirits, with whom they were in close contact due to their witchcraft abilities.
In the work of V.G. Ignatov's elk also acts as a symbol of male strength and endurance. The unusual (red) color of the elk is associated with the solar symbolism of the elk (deer) in the mythological representations of the Komi-Zyryans. It is possible that here the artist presents in a transformed form the motif of hunting for a solar deer, which has ancient roots, going back to the mythology of the Ural peoples.
Iron grandfather.
Kort Hayka (iron grandfather, father-in-law) is a legendary character of Komi-Zyryan mythology, a pagan tun (priest). Endowed with monstrous power and witchcraft abilities directed against people. His necessary attribute was iron (kört): he wore clothes and a hat made of iron, he had an iron house, a boat, a bow and arrows. He was invulnerable as he had an iron body.
The main occupation of Kort Hayka was the robbery of ships and boats sailing along the Vychegda, which he stopped with an iron chain stretched across the river, which he forged himself. Kört Hayka was a pioneer blacksmith, because no one knew how to forge iron before him, but he did not share his knowledge with anyone. Possessed unlimited power over the elements. At his word, the sun and moon faded, the day turned into night, and night into day. He could make the river flow back, and in a drought cause heavy rain; could stop a boat floating on the river with a word.
“The people suffered many troubles from him, and there was no trial or reprisal against him. No one dared to measure strength with him. The plot about Kört Hayk was first published by the everyday writer E. Kichin in the middle of the 19th century, and is known in literary processing from the works of M. Lebedev.
Slept for ten years. From the series "Izhma-Kolvinsky epic".
The Izhma-Kolvinsky epic was first recorded by the Komi folklorists A.K. Mikushev and Yu.G. Rochev in the 1970s. in the Kolva River basin on the border of the Usinsk region of the Komi Republic and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug from the Kolva Nenets, assimilated in the 19th - 20th centuries. Komi settlers, referring themselves to the Izvatas (Komi-Izhma).
At the heart of the legend-song "Master of the Kerch River" is the story of the heroic matchmaking. Three brothers and a sister live near the Kerch River, the younger hero-brother has been sleeping heroically for ten years. His large reindeer herd is kept by his sister. The sister prepares his fur pimas for the awakening of his brother.
V.G. Ignatov depicted the moment of awakening the hero. “I myself am the groom. I slept for ten years ... I hear someone talking at the entrance to the tent, the brothers say to each other: "It's time for the younger brother to wake up." So I woke up, I sat down ... "
For deer. From the series "Izhma-Kolvinsky epic".
The youngest son of the Owner of the Kerch River, after a ten-year heroic sleep, goes to the land of the Owner of the Sea Cape to marry his beautiful daughter. Before a long journey it is necessary to drive deer. And in this case, the hero is helped by his faithful dog. “I follow the deer, I look under my feet ... The wooden sitting idols are left on the side ...”
Owner of the Sea Cape. From the series "Izhma-Kolvinsky epic".
No one has yet returned alive from the land of the Master of the Sea Cape ... V.G. Ignatov presents us with an impressively colorful image of the Master of the Sea Cape, reclining by the hearth in his tent. The owner of the Sea Cape lives in a big plague. The bride and her parents hospitably meet the hero, "start cooking." To the proposal of the groom, the bride replied: “I have been waiting for you for ten years!” Only the youngest son of the Master of the Sea Cape is hostile to the groom and offers him trials. The younger son of the Master of the Kerch River successfully passes all the tests, kills the Younger Master of the Sea Cape, celebrates the wedding and sets off on his way back.
Sudbey's necklace. Sketch I act.
The plot of the play-fairy tale by A.S. Klein's "Necklace of Syudbey" (1973) is based on the Izhma-Kolvin epic. The tale tells about the history of the appearance of the northern lights in the lands of the polar tundra. Artist V.G. Ignatov created a cycle of 4 sheets - a kind of scenery painting.
The scenery painting for Act 1 presents a scene in which an old reindeer herder tells the story of the appearance of the young man Vede in their family. Old Lando and his daughter Mada are mending nets and hunting equipment before the plague. Mada sings a merry song while waiting for Vede, and on her chest shines a necklace given by her father. Lando tells his daughter that Vede is not her brother. Madam, I am very pleased with this news. She tells her father that she loves the young man. Vede appears. But the father is against their love, he wants to marry his daughter to a rich merchant.
Old Lando did not know that under the guise of a wealthy merchant hides an insidious deceiver - Bone Throat. He planned to take possession of the magic necklace by marrying Mada. Bone Throat quickly figured out what he needed to do. He throws a precious fur into Vede's bag, "convicts" him of theft and lies, and ensures that Vede is forced to leave the camp.
Sketch for Klein's play The Necklace of Sudbey III act.
V. G. Ignatov presents the final scene 3 of the action of the fairy tale play, when the culminating events have already taken place, the denouement comes. On huge sleds, as on a high throne, sits the giant Syudbey. Rich furs cover his legs, falling to the ground. The armrests of the giant's throne are branched deer antlers, and to the right of him sits a great white Owl. In front of Sudbey, a huge vat of water is on fire. Right there are faithful servants, behind them - turned into a wooden idol, the negligent son of Syudbey - Bone Throat.
Once upon a time, he stole a magic necklace from his father, which then came to the young man Vede. Bone throat wanted to shoot a bow at the young man Vede (whom the servants brought to Syudbey), but Syudbey was ahead of him, touching his magic chorus, turned the villain into a wooden idol. The bow fell to the throne of Sudbey. Together with Vede, his beloved Mada, the daughter of a reindeer herder Londo and An. Syudbey gives Veda a necklace so that it shines on his winter roads, illuminates the vast expanses and the path to the riches of the northern land. But Vede decides otherwise. He wants the necklace to shine not only for him, but for everyone living in the tundra. The young man throws it high into the sky, where, in its entirety, the necklace flares up with bright flashes of northern lights running across the sky.
Based on site materials
Sirte remained in memory only in the form of walrus ivory figurines
Works of oral creativity: fairy tales, songs, legends, giving, myths - every nation has. They arise at the dawn of the life of the people and live, passing from generation to generation.
In myths, the Nenets people reflected their ideas about the origin of the earth and the phenomena of the surrounding nature, about the origin of the spirits with which the people endowed the surrounding nature. But, unfortunately, today, very little is known to the Nenets with myths and mythological stories.
One of the most famous myths is a legend about a small people - Sikhirt or Sirtya, who lived in the polar tundra before the arrival of the Nenets - "real people".
Sikhirta are described as stocky and strong people of very short stature, with white eyes. According to legend, in ancient times, the Sikhirta came to the polar tundra from across the sea.
Their way of life was significantly different from the Nenets. The Sirteas did not breed deer, but instead hunted wild ones. This little people dressed in beautiful clothes with metal pendants. In some legends, sihirta are described as the keepers of silver and gold or as blacksmiths, after which "pieces of iron" remain on the ground and under the ground, their hill houses were represented as iron ropes attached to the permafrost.
Once the sirts moved to the hills and became underground inhabitants, leaving the surface of the tundra at night or in the fog. In their underground world, they own herds of mammoths ("I-hora" - "ground deer").
Meetings with Sirtya brought grief to one, happiness to others. There are known cases of Nenets marriage to Sirtian women. At the same time, Sirtya could steal children (if they continued to play outside the plague until late), send damage to a person or scare him.
There are also references to the military clashes between the Nenets and the Sikhir, while the latter were distinguished not so much by military prowess as by the ability to unexpectedly hide and suddenly reappear.
THE LEGEND ABOUT THE SIKHIRTIA TRIBE
They say that a long, long time ago, little Sikhirta people lived in our northern regions. They lived, according to legend, underground, in caves, under high hills. Pretty scarce information about this small nation has survived to this day. Legends say that the Sihirt had a developed culture. Outwardly, they were similar to Russians: blond, light-eyed, only very small in stature. The Sikhirts fished, hunted, and that is how they lived. What is strange, the people of this tribe slept during the day. Life boiled at them at night. They also say that the sihirta possessed supernatural powers. According to legend, ordinary people who saw the sihirt soon died.
In ancient times, my fellow tribesmen found shards of beautiful pottery, bronze women's jewelry and other painted household items near cliffs or crumbling barrows.
According to one legend, an argish rode past a high hill. And it was summer. Passing by the hill, people decided to make a halt, to give the deer a rest. We decided to explore the hill. Suddenly, near a grassy tussock, they found a sleeping girl of small stature. The girl was very beautiful. She was wearing clothes decorated with painted buttons and silver plaques. Near the girl lay a cloud - a bag for sewing. Such unprecedented beauty alien people have never seen. The bag was decorated with shiny beads sparkling in the sun. Bronze openwork pendants emitted a subtle melodic ringing. Then the girl woke up, abruptly jumped to her feet and instantly disappeared into the nearby bushes. They only saw her. The search for a wonderful stranger did not give any results. Like it fell through the ground. People turned back and forth. There is none and that's it.
We decided to take a cloud-bag with us. They started off, rolled on. By the end of the day they arrived at the place, put the plague. And closer to the night, a woman's plaintive cry began to be heard: "Where is my cloud?" "Where is my cloud?" They say that until the morning the cry was heard. No one dared to leave the tent and take a sewing bag somewhere in the tundra, as you guessed it, Sikhirtya girls. The family that had this beautiful handbag died soon after. And relatives still kept this precious find. (They say that this cloud is still in the sacred sled of one inhabitant of the Nakhodka tundra).
As I said, the sihirta had supernatural powers. So this bag has become a sacred attribute. During a person’s illness, relatives hung this cloud on a trochee until the patient recovered.
We do not know whether such small people really lived in our area. But from generation to generation, small legends about the mysterious people, the Sikhirta, are passed on. Perhaps they lived here, since the song called "The Cry of the Sikhirt Girl" has survived to our times. After all, legends often have a real basis.
The Nenets Autonomous Okrug has its own legends and myths. One of the most famous tells about a small people - Sikhirtya or Siirtya. According to legend, he lived in the polar tundra before the Nenets (“real people”) appeared there. Representatives of the Sihirt are described as stocky and strong people. They were allegedly very short in stature, with white eyes. Sikhirta came to the polar tundra from across the sea.
The way of life they led was different from the Nenets way of life. They did not breed deer, preferring to hunting wild animals and fishing. Sometimes the Sihirta are described as the guardians of silver and gold; in some legends they are called blacksmiths, after which "pieces of iron" remain on the ground and underground.
During the development of the North, the Russians called the local population the collective name Chud, while highlighting the white-eyed Chud, which was engaged in the extraction of gold and silver in the mountains. The ancient mines in Siberia, where gold, silver and copper were mined, were popularly called the Chud mines. It is believed that the Sihirty inhabited vast areas from the Kola Peninsula to the Gydan Peninsula. As for short stature (scientifically "nanism"), according to modern ideas of scientists, nanism is an adaptation to various environmental factors, including low temperatures. Sikhirta lived in large peat-turf houses, shaped like a hill. It is assumed that they led a sedentary lifestyle. The entrance to the houses was located at the top. Probably for this reason, the Nenets, who first saw the sihirt, got the impression that they were hiding, going underground.
Legends about dwarfs living in caves or underground existed among all Finnish peoples, of which the Laplanders are the oldest inhabitants of the North. The latter were nomads. Spreading out the dwelling in a convenient place, they sometimes heard obscure voices and the tinkling of iron reaching them from under the ground. Then the yurt was moved to another place, as it blocked the entrance to the underground dwelling of the Uldra.
Legends about underground inhabitants who knew how to process iron and possessed supernatural abilities have been preserved among all the peoples of the North of Russia. According to legend, miracles were magicians and could see the future. The wise and good-natured old man in fairy tales, who helped Ivan Tsarevich with the help of a magic ball to find the way to the beauty kidnapped by Kashchei, serves as an echo of the legends about sihirt among Russians.
The reason for the departure of the sihirt under the ground is the invasion of the Nenets reindeer herders. It is believed that inter-ethnic conflicts broke out between them. At the same time, goods were exchanged between peoples, marriages were concluded. The languages of the Nenets and Sikhirta were related. According to one version, the Sihirta lived among people until the 20th century.
So, in the article "Blonds of Sikhirt: the missing people of the Arctic", published by the resource "Krasnoyarsk time", the memories of one of the inhabitants of the North are described. “Some of my classmates themselves came from a sihirt - but for some reason they all had roots along the female line (the sihirt was a grandmother or great-grandmother, but I never saw any mention of a sihirt-grandfather). As a rule, these guys and girls differed from the rest in their short stature and roundness of facial features, which are especially pleasant in girls - such, you know, a cardioid - i.e. the face is shaped like a heart. I took it all for granted.”
Unlike modern local residents of the tundra, who roam behind reindeer herds and live in tents, ancient people lived in semi-dugouts, the area of which sometimes reached 150 square meters. This suggests that they led a sedentary lifestyle. Sikhirt's companions were a dog. Sikhirta settled in families and had strictly limited land; such a management system did not contribute to communication between residents.
There were many legends about Sihirt. According to one of them, once the Nenets drove past the hill, who decided to make a halt and give the deer a rest. They went into the hill, finding a sleeping girl of small stature there. She was very beautiful and dressed in a dress decorated with painted buttons. Near the girl lay a cloud - a bag for sewing, decorated with shiny beads sparkling in the sun. Bronze openwork pendants emitted a subtle melodic ringing. When the girl woke up and saw strangers, she jumped up and immediately disappeared into the nearby bushes. The search for the stranger was unsuccessful. People decided to take a cloud-bag with them. They continued on their way and after a while put the plagues in a new place. And closer to the night, a female plaintive cry began to be heard: “Where is my cloud?” "Where is my cloud?" They say that the cry was heard until the morning, but no one dared to take the sewing bag to the tundra. The family who took the pouch died soon after. And relatives still kept this precious find. The bag has become a sacred attribute. During a person’s illness, relatives hung this cloud on a trochee until the patient recovered.
It is not known for certain whether the Sihirty lived in our area, but small legends about the mysterious people are passed down from generation to generation.
The Arctic, the North, the unknown distances... They have always attracted romantics looking for the unknown, scientists and researchers seeking to discover new lands.
This year is the anniversary of two Arctic expeditions at once and the 160th anniversary of the birth of the legendary polar explorer Baron Eduard Toll. These expeditions are connected with Yakutia, with its Arctic zone.
The Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition - the largest Russian expedition of the 18th century, lasted from 1733 to 1743. It was held under the command of Vitus Bering. Its goals were a comprehensive study of Siberia, the clarification of state borders in the East of Russia, the study of the possibilities of navigation in the Arctic Ocean, the solution of the question of the existence of a strait between North Asia and America, the search for ways to Japan and to the shores of Northwest America. These tasks were solved mainly by the Marine detachments of the expedition led by V.Valton, V.V. Pronchishchev, A.I. Chirikov, M.P. Shpanberg, brothers Khariton and Dmitriev Laptev and others.
The expedition also included the Academic Detachment, which was engaged in a comprehensive natural-science and historical-geographical description of Siberia and its peoples. The Academic detachment included professors - historians G.F. Miller and I.E. Fisher, natural scientists I.G. Gmelin and G.V. Steller, astronomer L. Delisle de la Croyer, translators, students, including Stepan Krasheninnikov, later the first Russian professor of natural history and botany of the Academy of Sciences.
The Great Northern Expedition for the first time made an inventory of individual sections of the coast of the Arctic Ocean, confirmed the presence of a strait between Asia and America, discovered and mapped the South Kuril Islands, explored the coast of Kamchatka, the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk and certain sections of the coast of Japan.
Many species of representatives of flora and fauna were described and sketched, among them there are now extinct, of which the most famous is the "Steller's cow".
As a result of the expedition, the world-famous works of G.F. Miller were published - “History of Siberia”, “Description of the Siberian kingdom and all the affairs that took place in it from the beginning, and especially from the conquest of it by the Russian state to this day”, “Description of the Tomsk district of the Tobolsk province in Siberia in its current position, in October 1734. and other works.
The studies of I.G. Gmelin - "Siberian flora", "Journey through Siberia from 1741 to 1743", S.P. Krasheninnikov - "Description of the land of Kamchatka" were published.
75 years since the start of the work of the First Kolyma geological exploration expedition.
On July 4, 1928, the first Kolyma exploration expedition landed on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, near the village of Ola. It was headed by engineer-geologist Yuri Bilibin. The result of the expedition of Yu.A. Bilibin in 1928-1929 was the discovery of industrial gold-bearing areas in the areas of the Utina River, Kholodny and Yubileyny springs, which became the main objects of gold mining in Kolyma until 1933. Gold was also discovered in other valleys, and some patterns of its distribution and the geological structure of the area began to become clear. Bilibin put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a gold-bearing zone hundreds of kilometers long here.
The third anniversary date is associated with the name of Baron Eduard Toll, a famous polar explorer, zoologist and geologist, a man with a mysterious fate. It is 160 years since the birth of this scientist and traveler. Today we will devote our attention to this researcher.
The mysterious disappearance of Eduard Toll in the ice of the Arctic still remains a mystery for two centuries... Eduard Toll devoted his whole life to searching for the legendary Sannikov Land.
The first to see this unknown, unmapped land was Yakov Sannikov, a merchant and collector of mammoth ivory from Yakutia. It happened in 1810 during the first Russian expedition to the New Siberian Islands. From the northern tip of the Kotelny island, Sannikov clearly saw high stone mountains located at a distance of 70 versts.
And it was not a hallucination or a mirage. Firstly, the fact of "vision" was officially witnessed by the head of the expedition collegiate registrar Matvey Gedenstrom. Secondly, Sannikov was an experienced person, able to distinguish a mirage from a real picture. It was he who discovered three islands of the Novosibirsk archipelago - Stolbovoy, Faddevsky, Bunge Land.
After 10 years, with the specific purpose of exploring the Sannikov Land, an expedition was equipped under the command of Fleet Lieutenant Pyotr Fedorovich Anzhu. But Anjou did not find any land, although he was armed with excellent optical tubes. Having wandered with guides on dog sleds in the area where Gedenshtrom had marked the “Sannikov Land” with a dotted line, he returned to St. Petersburg empty-handed.
However, the search for Sannikov Land did not cease, although it was believed that no land existed north of the New Siberian Islands. And suddenly, in 1881, the American George De-Long discovered an archipelago of small islands, located much north of the dotted line drawn by Gedenstrom.
A new round of searches for land began, which could hide priceless treasures. These, first of all, included the tusks of mammoths.
There was a number of evidence that Sannikov Land could have unique natural and climatic characteristics. For example, in autumn, polar geese from the northern coast flew not to the south, but to the north, approximately in the direction of Sannikov Land. And with the onset of a warm period, they returned with offspring. Do not discount the mythology of indigenous peoples. According to ancient legends, far to the north there was a “mainland of mammoths”, where they freely grazed in green meadows. However, evil underground forces intervened in this happiness, destroying the idyll.
De Long's discovery spurred American industrialists, who began to create a joint-stock company to develop northern resources. Naturally, Russia could not but react to this.
In 1885, a research expedition was sent to distant shores under the leadership of the physician of the Baltic Fleet Alexander Bunge. Baron Eduard Vasilyevich Toll, a zoologist and geologist, was appointed his assistant. Russia was in a hurry to formalize its right to the legendary Earth.
On August 13, 1886, Toll, standing on the same coast of the same island as Sannikov, saw the same mountains and literally fell ill with the thought of searching for an unknown land. He saw these massifs quite clearly, determined the distance to them (about 160 kilometers), and did not even allow the thought that there, in the distance, were only blocks of ice. For many years, Baron Toll built a theoretical proof of his theory.
The next expedition, led by Toll, took place in 1893. And, finally, on July 4, 1900, Eduard Vasilyevich set off from Kronstadt on the Zarya whaling ship to put an end to the protracted dispute about the existence of Sannikov Land. He was absolutely sure of her reality.
The expedition was well prepared, aided by 150,000 gold rubles allocated by the Ministry of Finance. Young scientists were recruited - energetic enthusiasts for the study of the Far North. The most advanced equipment and equipment were purchased. The supply of provisions allowed an autonomous existence for up to three years.
Toll, who was considered one of the leading experts in the field of practical research of the circumpolar territories, perfectly suited the role of the expedition leader. He was looking with great interest to unravel the secrets of the recent geological past: did the mainland exist in the area of the modern New Siberian Islands, when and why did it break up, why did the mammoths die out?
The voyage of Toll's expedition lasted three years. Toll was sure that the land that Sannikov saw really existed. But Eduard Vasilyevich could not fulfill his dream.
Left to spend the winter on one of the islands, he planned to resume his search in the spring. Toll's group, without waiting for the Zarya schooner, decided to independently move south towards the continent, but no further traces of these four people have been found to this day.
In 1903, a search expedition led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak discovered Toll's campsite on Bennett Island, his diaries and other materials.
In his diary, Toll announced his departure. Since then, no one has seen him or those people who were with him. Many mystics associate the mysterious disappearance of Eduard Toll and three other scientists with the mysterious Sannikov Land.
Toll's diary, according to his will, was given to his widow. Emmeline Toll published her husband's diary in 1909 in Berlin. In the USSR, in a greatly truncated form, it was translated from German in 1959.
Another scientist was fascinated by the idea of searching for the mysterious land of Sannikov. It was Vladimir Obruchev - the largest scientist, holder of the orders of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree, Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor, academician, geologist, paleontologist and geographer, explorer of Siberia and Central Asia, author of numerous scientific papers and textbooks on geology, which have retained their relevance until our days.
The northern Yakuts have a myth about a mysterious warm land lost somewhere far away in the Arctic Ocean. Birds fly there every year to spend the winter, and the Onkilons went there - a semi-legendary people who allegedly lived on the territory of Chukotka, and then expelled by other tribes to the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Obruchev connected this beautiful fairy tale with reports about Sannikov Land and the really unresolved issue of migratory birds that return after wintering with offspring.
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Obruchev worked on a geological and geographical expedition in Yakutia. From local residents, Vladimir Afanasyevich heard a mysterious legend about a flowering land located in the vast expanses of the Arctic Ocean. It was said that the presence of a warm oasis in the coldest ocean is indicated by flocks of migratory birds, annually flying north at certain times towards the snowy and deserted expanses of the Arctic. It was in that direction, according to local residents, that the Onkilon tribe once left.
Since Obruchev was primarily a scientist, he had to state the legend in such a way as not to contradict scientific data. As a result, his Sannikov Land remained warm and fertile due to the fact that it was formed by volcanic activity, and this volcano has not yet cooled down. Together with the Onkilons, the Wampus live there - people from the Paleolithic - and fossil animals, led by mammoths. This is how the novel "Sannikov Land, or the Last Onkilons" appeared.
In 1924, Obruchev completed work on the novel Sannikov Land, or the Last Onkilons. But it was just a novel - a fantasy of a talented writer. But the plot was still based on real events. The prototype of the protagonist, perhaps, was a scientist, an Arctic explorer, a talented geologist Eduard Vasilyevich Toll.
But what did Sannikov and Toll see anyway? Mirage? Heaps of ice floes? Now the most popular theory is that they actually saw an island of fossil ice that melted before it was discovered. In confirmation of this, the fate of two other islands of the Novosibirsk archipelago - Vasilevsky and Semenovsky is given. They were discovered at the beginning of the 19th century and completely disappeared by the 30-50s of the 20th century.
The search for Sannikov Land did not stop even in the 20th century. There are modern legends about this amazing Earth, which excites the imaginations of researchers and our time. At various times, inexplicable notes began to appear in the press. Whether there is some truth in them or is it fiction, we will not judge, we will simply consider these myths of our days.
In the middle of the 20th century, military specialists are trying to get to Sannikov Land. For their trips, they use the northern mode of transport - reindeer and dog teams. There have been several attempts. All members of the expeditions claim that they saw this uncharted land from afar. But each time on their way there was an insurmountable obstacle in the form of a huge polynya. Until now, this mythical land remains inaccessible to researchers.
There are stories among sailors that confirm the legends about an inhabited island in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Only this can explain the findings of various objects floating from the Pole. And this at a time when there was not a single expedition to the area. Polar travelers unanimously repeat the fact that the temperature rises as they move towards the Pole. Another amazing phenomenon: huge open spaces of water suddenly appear among solid ice, completely free of ice cover.
Of course, modern space technology makes it possible to take a very good picture of any territory on the Earth's surface. There are such photos and Poles. They have strange shadows. The Americans assumed that these were Russian military installations. Surprisingly, these "shadows" could not be found, but they are visible from space.
The search for the "Sannikov Land" was carried out not only by Russian researchers. So, in the twentieth century, an amazing report came to the British Admiralty. British sailors landed on one of the Scottish Isles. Unusual things happened to them. Suddenly there were people who did not look like the British. Quite strange things began to happen to the consciousness and vision of sailors. They managed to safely return to the ship, but they were completely demoralized.
In addition, according to the testimony of a well-known pilot who flew over the Pole in the 1930s, he saw a large green oasis among the polar ice. Nobody believed his story, they suggested that the pilot saw a mirage.
The members of the American expedition, having found the ruins of an ancient city on one of the Arctic islands, considered that they had found traces of the mythical Atlantis or the so-called Arctida - the island where an ancient highly developed civilization lived. In their report, the travelers described the found structures. Among them are houses, temples, palaces and cultural objects. Although most of the buildings are under a layer of eternal ice and only the tops of the buildings are visible, scientists believe that they were built several millennia ago. It is very difficult to excavate in the Arctic, but, according to experts, the architectural style of the city resembles ancient Greek. Perhaps this city was built at a time when there was a subtropical climate and was a paradise.
Recently, scientists have found that often near the mainland and large islands there is a so-called confluence strip. According to observations, such a strip of confluence often occurs in the Laptev Sea, not far from Tiksi. Such an optical phenomenon occurs in three places: off the coast of the mainland, near the New Siberian Islands and north of the Archipelago. That is, exactly where the merchant Sannikov first saw the new Earth, later called the Sannikov Land. Given this discovery, we can say with a high degree of probability that Sannikov Land does not exist.
There is also a Tibetan legend about the White Island. It says that this island is the only territory that will escape the fate of all the continents. It cannot be destroyed by fire or water - it is the Eternal Earth.
It is possible that the merchant and Christian writer Cosmas Indikoplovt spoke about this land in the sixth century after the birth of Christ in the theological and cosmographic treatise "Christian Topography". He argued that in the North there is a land where human life originated.
Helena Blavatsky believed that the land of Sannikov is that polar country inhabited by creatures living for ten thousand years. There are no diseases here, and the people living on this earth are perfect.
It is surprising that many travelers have seen the Sannikov Land, but no one has been able to set foot on its shore. What do the prophets say about this?
Nostradamus wrote that the elect would live beyond the Arctic Circle, the rest near the Equator. There will be no politics in the life of these people.
The medieval prophet, astrologer Ragno Nero, in his manuscript of predictions "The Eternal Book" wrote that the time will come and the ice will melt in the North and a flowering land will appear there. Or maybe Sannikov Land is this mysterious land?
This mysterious Earth still excites the imagination of many.
In connection with these significant dates, within the framework of the Days of the Arctic in Neryungri, the department of local history literature of the Neryungri Library held the event “The Arctic. Autograph on the map”, where readers got acquainted with the history of the development of the northern lands and met with representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic represented by students of the ESI “Arktika”, heard the ancient speech of the peoples of the North, bewitching songs and legends of distant times.
Varvara KORYAKINA, Leading Librarian of the Local Lore Literature Department of the Neryungri City Library.
