Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 8

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

Fragments of the book Russian legends and traditions. The Illustrated Encyclopedia [Artist V. Korolkov]

Sokol enjoyed great honor in Russian songs and tales. He was called in ancient times, not otherwise as "the falcon is clear," magnifying the same name and beautiful good fellows.

The falcon was considered the embodiment of the heavenly elements. He is fighting, victorious, irrefutable in salvation. This bird is as fast as light or lightning. The wizard-hero Volkh Vseslavich, while hunting, turned into a falcon.

Finist Clear Falcon

The merchant had three daughters. He went once to the fair, asking who to bring something as a gift. The two elders asked for rags for dresses, and the youngest, Maryushka, says:

- Bring me, my dear, the feather of Finist Yasn Sokol.

So he arrived home, the youngest daughter is not herself from joy. The older sisters just started trying on new clothes, she ran to her room, threw a feather on the floor - and that hour a gray-winged falcon flew in through the window, a young, unattractive beloved Finist Yasny Sokol appeared to her. And he flew to her every night, and in the morning he flew out into the open field.

At one point the sisters heard late conversations in Maryushka’s fire-lamp, peeped through the crack - and almost froze with rage. They lured Maryushka into the cellar, and they locked her up, and they nailed her window and stuck more sharp knives. A falcon flew in, fought, fought, wore out its entire chest, and then cried out:

- Goodbye, beautiful girl! If you want to see me again, go to the distant kingdom, you will not find it first, until three years have passed, until you trample three pairs of iron boots, you will not wear out three iron cloaks, and you will not blunt three iron staffs.

And flew away. That same night, without telling anyone, Maryushka left the house. The blacksmith forged her an iron robe, gave her bashmaki, and gave her a staff, and she set off on a journey.

Three years of her suffering have passed, on the right, the iron was all demolished. Maryushka comes to some kind of city, and there the queen is preparing for the wedding, and her fiancé is Finist Yasny Sokol. Mariushka took the dishwasher into the palace and, after waiting for the time, entered Finist's chambers. And he sleeps a deep sleep. She cried in a voice:

- My dear, I went to you for three years, and you are asleep and do not know anything! No matter how much he read, he sleeps, he does not hear, but then a combustible tear fell on his shoulder - Finist the Clear Falcon awoke, opened his eyes and gasped:

- You came, my unattractive! And I really thought I would never see you again. The witch-princess bewitched me, I forgot about you, but now I will never forget.

He picked up Maryushka in his arms and flew out with her through the window - only they were seen. They flew to holy Russia, came to Maryushka's father, threw themselves at his feet - he blessed the young, well, and then they played the wedding. Mariushka and Finist Yasny Sokol lived long and happily, and they say that they still live.

Our ancestors were firmly convinced that the gods first created giants, and only then people. When mothers and seas were just created, there was a lot of place on earth, so everything turned out to be so huge and spacious. And the very first creatures that the gods created were also huge: giants. They especially liked the god Veles, which is why they are named in his honor: "great" - means big, great. And already they, at the order of the gods, poured high mountains, dug riverbeds and depressions of lakes, dispersed forests.

The giant Tempest-hero meets the winds

Gorynya (otherwise they call him Gorynych, Vernigora, Vertigor) is often the hero of Russian tales, along with Dubynya and Usynya. Since ancient times, he was considered a companion of Perun: by the will of the thunder god, Gorynya twists stones, breaks mountains, knocks down trees and loads the river with the bays.

Dubynya (Vernidub, Dubynich, Vertodub, Duginya) is a forest giant. He is able to take the form of a Serpent and guards the Inferno - the ancient Slavic hell. In its boundless forests, Dubynya behaves like a caring owner - Dubier makes up, that is, aligns:

"the one that is tall, the one shoves into the ground, and the one that is low, pulls from the ground."

The adopted son (Usynich, Usynka, Krutius) is somewhat reminiscent of that very snake from Russian legends, which filled the river with its immense body, only here his incredible mustache went into action. Here's how it is described:

"The adopted son stole the river with his mouth, he cooks the fish and eats, he dammed the river with one mustache, and along the mustache, as if on a bridge, pedestrians walk, horses gallop, carts go, from their fingernails, a beard from an elbow, a mustache drags along the ground, wings lie a mile away ".

Our Slavic giants are somewhat similar to the ancient Titans, who were once defeated by the Olympian gods and plunged into the abyss of Hades. In the same way, just as the Titans yielded to Zeus, Gorynya, Usynya and Dubynya are always defeated and conquered by Ivan, a man-hero, and at least sometimes they get out of obedience, they are still forced to serve him.

The giants had dragged wives - giants, heroes. Baba-Alatyrka or Baba-Goryninka, for example, were in no way inferior to their husbands, and being angry, they could even surpass them.

They also called some demihumans living in underground caves with one eye, one hand and one leg, who, in order to move from their seats, were forced to stand in pairs, but then they ran with inconceivable speed, could, on occasion, overtake the Regiment itself.

Where did the giants go? According to popular beliefs, some of them died in the fight against monstrous snakes, others were exterminated by the gods for pride and harm brought to people, and someone died of hunger, unable to feed themselves. The ancient burial mounds, under which the giants, volots and heroes rested, are called in the people dragons.

But they also say that the giants have not gone anywhere. They just became smaller and weaker in strength, until they could compare with people. It is quite possible that in the distant future all people grind to such an extent that they become tiny and seven will raise one straw. And then they will be called fawn. When people completely compare with goose bumps, then the end of the world will come.

After the creation of the world, there lived a giant on earth. He was so huge that he could not find himself either a shelter or a shelter. And so he conceived to ascend to the boundless sky. He walks - the sea is knee-deep, he crosses the mountains and climbed, finally, to the tallest of earthly rocks. Raduga - this bridge that connects heaven to earth - receives it and ascends to the heavenly inhabitants. However, the gods did not want to let him into the sky-high heights - after all, they created giants for life on earth, as well as people - and he remained forever between heaven and earth. Clouds - his bed and clothes, winged winds and birds carry him food, and the rainbow, pouring water, quenches his thirst. But it is hard, boring for him alone: the giant sobs bitterly, and his tears rain down on the fields and fields, and thunders are born from his groans.

Wolf's fawn, on Stozhar-grief

An archer came from distant lands to visit his brother-in-law, and in the village babs are wailing.

- What is the sadness about? - the archer asks.

- Yes, at night again, like last year, Khovala wandered around the village with his servants - robber fellows. They took away everything that was bad. Fishing nets from poles for drying, horse harness that they forgot to put in the stable. The mill-kruporushku manual, which they forgot to take to the barn. The calves-foals-kids were taken away, which were not locked up in the barn. They dragged everything clean!

- And how is he, this Khovala?

- Yes, a gray-bearded old man with a hook. On the head is a crown, around it there are twelve fiery eyes: nothing is hidden from them.

- Why did your village peasants not stand up for their good?

- Go step in, - the brother-in-law answers. - With the rays from his eyes, Khovala will so blind - then you will walk blind for three days, wipe your eyes with goat's milk. There is no control for Khovalu, no. His mansions are behind the Wolf's Pad, on Stozhar Mountain. There is neither to pass nor to pass. During the day, birds with iron beaks bite the unwary traveler to death, at night wolves prowl, looking for their own bloody prey.

- Us, archers, to be afraid is a sin. Okay, the morning is wiser than the evening. And by morning prepare for me, brother-in-law, three dozen resin torches, for a thick bull's hide in a vat of grind, let the blacksmith forge iron plates with a steel helmet.

In the morning, the archer put on his armor, covered the horse with a skin instead of a blanket.

… Now he is driving up to the Wolf's Pad at the end of the day. And in the sky, it is dark, dark from the terrible birds, which the Sagittarius has never seen before. They scream, peck at strangers with iron noses, but they cannot do anything with them: the horse is protected by bull skin, and the beaks break on the armor and helmet of the archer.

The night has come. The wolves went out to hunt, their eyes shine fiercely in the darkness. The archer set the torch on fire with a flint - the animals recoiled: they are afraid of fire, like the devil of a ladan.

In the morning we got to Stozhar Mountain, here, at his chorus, Khovala meets them himself.

- Give me the good, something I have loaded the night before, - says the archer, without getting off the horse. - Give it back in an amicable way. Otherwise I will chop the saber, I will trample the horse.

The old man smiled, played, squinted twelve eyes around his crown - and the white light dimmed in the eyes of the riflemen. And the horse collapsed as if knocked down.

The archer woke up in the upper room. I got up, looked out the window - my fathers-lights, it's already autumn in the yard, the leaves are turning yellow. Here Khovala enters the room and says with a smile:

- Now you understand, uninvited guest, what honor should not be given to the owner?

- Forgive me, older, for ardor. It hurts too little people, I feel sorry for me!

- Whom do you feel sorry for, dashing fellow, risking your life as desperately as possible? The unrepentant, yes, the careless, yes, the imprudent, yes the slow-witted, yes, the unprofitable. A good owner has everything under supervision, everything under lock and key. And the bad lying is my prey. So I'm hiding it, hiding it. It is so outlined by heaven. Well, the sword does not cut off a guilty head, - said Khovala peacefully. - I will return the village belongings to you, the brave archer - the dashing fellow.

The archer returned to the village with a whole train of various good. And the villagers did not even want to see him alive!

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 1

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 2

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 3

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 4

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 5

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 6

Traditions of Ancient Rus. Part 7