Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 4

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Fragments of the book by Y. Medvedev "Traditions of Ancient Rus"

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 1

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 2

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 3

Garden of Iriy

At the beginning of the world, a raven owned the keys to Iriy. But his loud croaking disturbed the souls of the dead and frightened the magic birdwatchers who live on the branches of the tree of paradise.

Then Svarog ordered the crow to give the keys to the swallow.

The raven did not dare to disobey the Supreme God, but he kept one key from the secret door for himself.

The swallow began to shame him, and then, out of anger, he tore several feathers from her tail.

Since then, the swallow's tail has been bifurcated.

Having learned about that, Svarog became so angry that he condemned the entire crow tribe to peck at the carrion until the end of time.

The raven, however, did not give the key to the swallow - he sometimes unlocks a secret door with it, when his fellow ravens arrive in Iriy for living and dead water.

Iriy-sad (Vyri-sad) is the ancient name of paradise among the Eastern Slavs. The little god Vodets accompanies the souls there. The bright heavenly kingdom is on the other side of the clouds, or maybe this is a warm country lying far to the east, by the sea itself - there is eternal summer, and this is the sun's side.

There a world tree grows (our ancestors believed that it was a birch or an oak, and sometimes the tree is called that - Iriy, Vyriy), at the top of which the birdwatchers and souls of the dead lived. Rejuvenating apples ripen on this tree.

In Iria, near the wells, there are places prepared for the future life of good, kind people. These are students with clean spring water - living and dead, in which fragrant flowers grow and birds of paradise sing sweetly.

Such inexpressible bliss awaits the righteous in Iriya that time for them, as it were, will cease to exist. A whole year will fly by as a single elusive moment, and three hundred years will seem like just three happy, sweet minutes … But in fact, this is just an expectation of a new birth, because storks bring babies from Iria endowed with the souls of pre-existing people. So they find a new life in a new guise and with a new destiny.

Iriy-birds (Vyri-birds) - this was the name of the first spring birds, usually larks, which, as it were, carry spring from the Gardens of Eden on their wings. It is the birds that have the keys to the sky - when they fly away for the winter, they lock the heavens and take the keys with them, and when they return in the spring, they open them, and then the heavenly life-giving springs open.

Among the keepers were called a swallow, a cuckoo, and sometimes Perun himself, who, waking up with the arrival of birds, opens the sky with his lightning golden keys and brings down the fruiting rain to the suffering earth.

Swan maiden

The hero Potok Mikhail Ivanovich lived in the city of Kiev. Once he saw a white swan in the quiet backwaters: through the feather, the bird is all golden, and its head is twined with red gold, seated with pitched pearls.

The Stream takes out a tight bow, a hot arrow, wants to shoot a swan. And suddenly she prayed in a human voice:

- Do not shoot me, white swan, I will still be useful to you!

She went out on a steep bank, turned into a beautiful Avdotya Likhovidievna.

The hero grabbed the girl by the white hands, kisses the sugar lips, asks to become his wife. Avdotya agreed, but took a terrible oath from the hero: if one of the spouses dies, the other will follow him alive into the grave.

On the same day, the young were married and took a walk at a glorious feast. But their happiness did not last long: soon Avdotya Likhovidievna got sick and gave God her soul. They brought the deceased in a sleigh to the cathedral church, a burial service, and in the meantime they dug a great and deep grave. They put a coffin with a dead body there, and after that, fulfilling the oath, Mikhail Ivanovich's Stream with his heroic horse sank into the grave. The grave was covered with oak boards, covered with yellow sand, and a wooden cross was erected over the hill. And from the grave a rope was stretched to the cathedral bell, so that the hero could deliver the message before his death.

And the bogatyr stood with his horse in the grave until midnight, and found great fear on him, and he lit candles with an ardent wax, making a prayer over his wife. And when it was midnight time, the serpentine reptiles gathered in the grave, and then the big Serpent crawled up - burns and scorches the Stream with a fiery flame. But the hero was not afraid of the monster: he took out a sharp saber, killed the fierce Serpent, cut off his head. Snake blood dripped on Avdotya's body - and a great miracle happened: the deceased suddenly came to life.

She awoke from the dead, then the Stream struck the cathedral bell, screamed from the grave in a loud voice.

The Orthodox people gathered here, dug the grave hastily, lowered the long stairs - they took out Potok with a good horse and his young wife, Avdotya Likhovidievna, White Lebed.

In folk tales, swan maidens are creatures of special beauty, seduction and things of power. According to their original meaning, they are the personification of spring, rain clouds; together with the relegation of legends about heavenly sources to earth, the swan maidens become daughters of the Ocean-Sea and the inhabitants of earthly waters (seas, rivers, lakes and krinits). Thus, they are related to mermaids.

Swan maidens are given a prophetic character and wisdom; they perform difficult, supernatural tasks and force nature itself into submission.

Nestor mentions three brothers Kie, Shchek and Khoriv and their sister Lybid; the first gave the name to Kiev, the other two brothers - the mountains Schekovice and Horivitsa; Lybid is the old name of the river flowing into the Dnieper near Kiev.

The swan princess is the most beautiful image of Russian fairy tales.

Lightwing Rook

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved the sun. Every morning she ran out of the house, climbed onto the roof and stretched out her arms towards the rising star.

- Hello, my beautiful beloved! - she shouted, and when the first rays touched her face, she laughed happily, like a bride who felt the kiss of the groom.

All day she gazed at the sun, smiling at him, and when the light went into the sunset, the girl felt so unhappy that the night seemed to her endless.

And then one day it happened that the sky was covered with clouds for a long time and damp damp reigned throughout the earth. Not seeing the bright face of her beloved, the girl choked with longing and grief and wasted away, as if from a serious illness. Finally, she could not stand it and went to those lands where the Sun rises, because she could no longer live without him.

How long or short she walked, but then she came to the end of the earth, to the coast of the Sea-Ocean, just where the Sun lives.

As if hearing her prayers, the wind scattered heavy clouds and light clouds, and the blue sky was waiting for the appearance of the star. And then a golden glow appeared, which with each passing moment became brighter and brighter.

The girl realized that her lover would appear now, and pressed her hands to her heart. Finally she saw a light-winged boat drawn by golden swans. And in it stood an unprecedented handsome man, and his face sparkled so that the last remnants of the fog around them disappeared, like snow in spring. Seeing her beloved face, the girl cried out joyfully - and immediately her heart broke, unable to withstand happiness. She fell to the ground, and the Sun held its shining gaze on her for a moment. It recognized the very girl who always welcomed his arrival and shouted words of ardent love.

“Will I never see her again? - thought the Sun sadly. - No, I want to always see her face turned to me!"

And at that very moment the girl turned into a flower that always turns with love after the sun. It is called that - sunflower, sun flower.

Perunitsa

Perunitsa is one of the incarnations of the goddess Lada, the wife of the Thunderer Perun. She is sometimes called the Thunder Maiden, as if emphasizing that she shares power over thunderstorms with her husband. Here her warlike essence is emphasized, which is why the mention of the warrior maiden in the conspiracies of the soldiers is so often mentioned:

“I am going up a high mountain, on the clouds, on the waters (ie, the heavenly vault), and on the high mountain there is a boyar tower, and in a boyar tower there is a sweetheart red maiden (that is, the goddess Lada-Perunitsa). Take out you, girl, fatherly sword-kladenets; get you, girl, your grandfather's shell, open you, girl, the hero's helmet; otopry you, girl, a raven horse. Cover me, girl, with your veil from the power of the enemy …"

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 1

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 2

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 3