The underworld is the home of magic. This charm, to be said by a soldier
going to the wars, may be of interest.
“Beneath the sea, the sea of Khvalýnsk [the Caspian], there stands a
house of bronze, and in that house of bronze the fiery serpent is
enchained, and under the fiery serpent lies the seven _pud_ key from the
castle of the Prince, the Prince Vladímir, and in the princely castle,
the castle of Vladímir, are laid the knightly trappings of the knights
of Nóvgorod, of the youthful war-men.
“On the broad Volga, on the steep-set banks, the princely swan swims
from the Prince’s courtyard. I will capture that swan, I will seize it,
I will grasp it. (I will say) ‘Thou, oh swan, fly to the sea of
Khvalýnsk, peck the fiery snake to death, gain the seven _pud_ key, the
key from the earth of Prince Vladímir.’ In my power it is not to fly to
the sea of Khvalýnsk; in my power it is not to peck to death the fiery
snake; nor with my legs may I reach the seven _pud_ key. There is on the
sea, on the ocean, on the island of Buyán, the eldest brother of all the
crows, and he will fly to the sea of Khvalýnsk, he will peck to death
the fiery snake, he will gain the seven _pud_ key; but the crow is held
back by the evil witch of Kíev. In the standing wood, in the grey-clad
forest, stands a little hut, not thatched, not wattled; and, in the
little hut, lies the evil witch of Kíev. I will go to the standing
forest, the dreamy wood, I will enter in at the hut of the evil witch of
Kíev.
“Thou, oh evil witch of Kíev, bid thy crow fly over the sea of
Khvalýnsk, to the house of bronze; bid him peck the fiery snake, bid him
gain the seven _pud_ key. She was grim, and she clove to her crow, the
evil witch of Kíev. In my old age I cannot roam to the sea, to the
ocean, to the isle of Buyán, to the Black Crow. Do thou bid, by my
enchanting words, the crow gain me the seven _pud_ key.
“The crow has smitten the house of bronze, has pecked the fiery snake to
death, has gained the seven _pud_ key.
“With that key I will unlock the princely castle, the castle of
Vladímir, I will gain the knightly gear, the trappings of the knights of
Nóvgorod, of the youthful war-men; and in that gear the arquebus cannot
fell me, the shots cannot hit me, the warriors and champions, the hosts
of Tatary and Kazán cannot hurt me.
“I invoke the servant, a man, a fighter, in the host, who goeth to war
with these my potent words.
“My words die down,
My deeds they crown.”
[Kazán was the last stronghold of the Tatars. It was stormed in 1549.]
_Buyán_ is a kind of fairy hill like the _Tír n’an óg_ of the Irish
folk-tales, the land of youth, and cannot probably be assigned to any
physical geography. Most probably the mythical Isle of Buyán is the
reminiscence of the Isle of Rügen. The whole of the Pomeranian coast
from Lübeck to the Memel was, prior to its conquest by the Saxons and
the Brandenburgers, a Slavonic district, and the Isle of Rügen, in
especial, the promontory of Arcona, a seat of the most highly developed
Slavonic pagan ritual: Saxo Grammaticus has conserved us full details.
Considering the intimate association of the mysterious stone _Alátyr_
(probably meaning amber) with Buyán: and the fact that _Buyán_ is a Slav
translation of the Old Slav name Ruyán, the wind-swept isle [cf. English
_rough_, German _rauh_, etc.]; also taken the specific references in the
magic charms in connection with the facts recorded by the Scandinavian
chroniclers, there seems to be little doubt that the Isle of Buyán is a
folk-tale shadow of the old place of Pagan pilgrimage, contaminated, of
course, with other fantastic elements.
_Katomá._ This is one of the marvellous servants whom fortunate princes
possess in folk-lore. In Russian folk-tales they have magical
attributes, and are often described by their caps, e.g. oaken-cap,
blue-cap, etc.
_Koshchéy the Deathless._ The meaning of this name is very hard to
determine. There are at least three disparate ideas involved. First of
all the most ancient is that which occurs in the Word of Igor’s
Armament, in which the word Koshchéy is used for a warrior of the
hostile Pólovtsy; and, when Igor is said to be put on a Koshchéy saddle,
it means he is taken into captivity. Hence the word _koshchéy_ came to
be used in Russian as meaning a slave, or a groom, originally a captive
slave from the Pólovtsy who fought the Russians for over two hundred
years. Consequently the word has a meaning in Russian folk-lore which
has a widespread Aryan notion, that of a fearful Enchanter who lives in
a mountain fastness far removed; runs away with the beautiful princess,
and can only be slain by the valiant lover, going through unfordable
streams, impenetrable forests and unpassable mountains, so as to catch
hold of his soul which is contained in a casket, or in some other manner
is always terribly enclosed. He takes this soul, which is as a rule
lastly contained in an egg, up to the Monster’s palace, scrunches it in
his hand, and the monster dies. Thirdly, the word became confused with
_kost’_, bone, and so came to mean a skeleton or miser, and a wandering
Jew. The epithet ‘deathless’ does not mean indestructible, but that he
can only be slain in an extraordinary manner and will not die in a
natural way.
_Kutúzovo._ The Kutúzovy are one of the most ancient of Russian
families; this particular village from which they derive their name must
be somewhere on the trade route of the Dniepr.
_Kvas._ A liquid made from various kinds of flour and fermented with
sour milk to which is added malt or yeast.
_Name-day._ The day of the patron Saint. In Russia Saints’ days are kept
in place of birthdays.
_Na-úm._ In this Russian name the two vowels are to be sounded
separately, _Na-úm_.
_Nightingale Robber._ His patronymics are Rakhmánovich, Odikhmantovich,
Rakhmánya, all of them very difficult of definition or explanation.
_Nightingale Robber._ Ilyá Múromet’s conquest of the Nightingale Robber
is his most notable feat. He is a very difficult figure to explain. He
is a gigantic bird who has been explained on the one hand as a highway
robber who was a great bard, for the Russian _solovéy_ (nightingale) is
applied to a minstrel. But it is more probable that there is a confusion
of two other words in this one, and that the word _solovéy_, which has
come to mean nightingale, is either derived from _sláva_, meaning fame,
or from the same root as the hostile power whom Ilyá Múromets, in some
of the ballads, fights, namely Solóvnik the Grey One. Be this as it may,
the version which has come down is that the Nightingale Robber was an
enormous bird, whose nest spread over seven oaks, who had needed no
other weapon than his dreadful beast-like, lion-like, or dragon-like
whistle on which every wall and every beast and every man fell down in
sheer terror. The rest of this story may be gathered from the one which
has been selected for this book.
_The Pike._ The pike plays a peculiar part in Russian folk-lore.
_Potán’ka._ The name of Potán’ka [in which the ‘n’ and ‘k’ are to be
sounded separately as in pin-case], is also found in the Nóvgorod
ballads where Potán’ka the Lame is one of the boon companions of Vasíli
Busláyevich.
_Prískazka._ Many of the tales begin with a conventional introduction
which has no relation to the story. Such an instance may be found in
‘The Wolf and the Tailor.’ Also in ‘A Cure for Story-telling.’ And the
tale of ‘The Dun Cow,’ ‘Princess to be Kissed at a Charge,’ etc.
_The Realm of Stone._ For the episodes in this story of the kingdom
turned to stone there seems strong evidence of adaptation or loan from
the Arabian Nights. Cf. The Tale of the Young King of the Black Islands,
and the Tale of the City of Brass, but the development is very
different.
_Sebezh._ A city in the Vitebsk Province bordering on Poland.
_Shemyák._ The judge. Shemyákin Sud, the court of Shemyák, is a
proverbial expression for arbitrary judgments. He was a prince of
Galicia of the time of Vasíli II, 1425–62. He was also a leader of the
unruly nobles of that time. This may be partly the reason that the name
of the family has been given this unfortunate significance.
_The Shovel._ Shovels are used to insert loaves and pots deep into the
Russian stove, for which use see the long note on the ‘Dream.’
_The Sister of the Sun._ The Russian commentator in the compilation,
from which these stories are drawn, states that this is the expression
for the dawn.
_Sorrow._ This picture of Sorrow as an ancient hag who pursues mankind
throughout life is peculiarly Russian and is the theme of very many
beautiful ballads. She is described as a lovely beggar woman, with a
pale face, low stature, and hare’s blood in her veins, and her cheeks of
poppy red, and she entices men to drink their sorrow away in the
public-houses, and is frequently turned into a moral lesson against
over-indulgence. But this particular application of the myth, the
picture of her as a wandering devil who attaches herself to unfortunate
heroes but can be cheated into non-existence, much like the ordinary
devil of folk-lore, is a feature, as has been said, probably peculiar to
Russia.
_St. Nicholas._ In Russia St. Nicholas is the most popular miracle
worker amongst all the saints. In the story of St. Nicholas and St.
Elias his beneficent character is clearly shown.
In the story of St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker, I have taken the story
as I found it, and have not attempted to fill up the obvious gaps.
_The Sun, and how it was made by Divine Will._ This story is of literary
and ancient origin; the language is very antique.
_Svyatogór._ Svyatogór in this story may be eponymous of geography. The
word standing for _svyátyya góry_, the sacred mountains. Múrom is an
ancient Russian settlement in the province of Vladímir, by the river
Oka, and the village of Karacharovo is not far off.
As to Svyatogór’s bride, there is another story which tells how he
acquired her. One day Svyatogór was walking on the earth and laid hold
of a wallet which an old man whom he met wandering by held. He could not
lift it however, for it was rooted in the earth. He went on from there
to a smith, something like Wayland Smith (the whole tale has a curious
Norse tang), who forged his fortune, told him he would have to go to the
Kingdom by the Sea, and there he would find his wife who for thirty
years had been lying in the dung. He proceeds to the Kingdom by the Sea,
finds the miserable hut, enters it, and sees the maiden lying in the
dung. And her body was as dark as a pine. So Svyatogór purchases her
freedom by taking out five hundred roubles, laying it on the table, and
then snatching up his sharp sword out of his sheath smote her on her
white breasts and so left her. Then the maiden woke up, and the skin of
age-long filth had been broken; she went and traded with the five
hundred roubles, came to the Holy Mountains, and presented herself there
in all her maiden beauty. Svyatogór the Knight also came to look on her,
fell in love and wooed her for his wife. He then recognised her by the
scar on her white breasts.
_The Swan Maiden._ This is one of the most baffling figures in Russian
mythology. She corresponds to the Siren of Greece, and the Lorelei of
Germany, but is very distinct in all her characteristics. She is also
called in the Russian Devítsa (maiden), which may be a corruption of
Dívitsa, the feminine of _Div_, one of the ancient pagan deities of
Russia. Like the Lorelei, she is said to sit on the rocks and draw
sailors down into the depths, but her more human characteristics are
stated in this story.
_Thoughtless Word._ The devil in this story is the popular myth of the
water-gods or sprites, elsewhere called the _vodyanóy_ or _vódyánik_.
The point of detail, that after the rescue of the maiden the boy has to
walk backwards until he reaches the high road, is rather similar to the
Celtic notion of Widdershins, the superstition that anyone who walked
round the churchyard contrary to the direction of the sun would be
captured by the fairies.
_Túgarin Zmyéyevich._ Túgarin Zmyéyevich, the strong man, the Serpent’s
Son.
_Vazúza and Vólga._ Similar stories are told of other rivers. The old
Russian ballads give names and patronymics to their rivers such as the
people use for themselves, e.g. Dněpr Slovútich Don Iványch.
The Vazúza is a short stream crossing the borders of the provinces of
Tver and Smolensk, meeting a great bend of the Vólga at Zubtsóv (in the
province of Tver).
The Sea of Khvalýnsk is the Caspian, so called from an ancient people
(the Khvalísi) of the eleventh and tenth centuries, who lived at the
mouth of the Vólga in the Caspian. There is also a town called Khvalýnsk
on the Vólga in the province of Sarátov, above the city of Sarátov.
This particular story is probably a poetization of a geographical fact,
but in all the Russian folk-lore the river-gods play a very great part.
Thus Igor in The Word of Igor’s Armament, on the occasion of his defeat,
has a very beautiful colloquy with the Donéts. At least two of the
heroes of the ballad cycle, Don Ivánovich and Sukhán Odikhmántevich, are
in some aspects direct personifications of the rivers, whilst the
river-gods exercise a direct and vital influence over the fortunes of
several others, such as Vasíli Buslávich and Dobrýnya Nikítich.
Many Russian rivers have been rendered almost into human characters. The
ordinary speech is still of Mother Vólga. In the Nóvgorod ballads there
is a mention of Father Volkhov, much as we speak of Father Thames, and
there were very great possibilities of the development of a river
mythology which did not succeed. It is worth observing that in one
ballad dealing with Vasíli Buslávich, the hero of Nóvgorod, this
semi-comic figure is twitted by the men of Nóvgorod that he will one day
turn the Volkhov into _Kvas_ (q.v.): i.e. he will one day set the Thames
on fire. [Rybnikov, I, 336].
_The Wood Sprite._ _Léshi_ is a peculiar feature in Russian folk-lore.
He is somewhat similar to Pan, but is also represented as having copper
arms, and an iron body, terms which refer to colour rather than to
material. Sometimes he has claws for hands.
_Yagá-Búra._ This is the same as Bába Yagá, but is specific reference to
the Witch who raises the Wind.