RSSS 315 1nd Edition Exam # 1 Study Guide

Vocabulary

 Folklore: traditional tales, knowledge that is widely circulated  Fairytale: fantastical tale with a happy ending and improbable events  Legend: link to history, person/place inspires but not verifiable  Myth: traditional story that morphs over time, popular belief or tradition  Dvoeverin: simultaneous Christian and Pagan beliefs  Hypertrichosis: "werewolf" syndrome, abnormal hair growth on body  Vampire: generally believed to be an unclean body who rises from its grave in the night to suck blood  Werewolf: generally believed to be s shape-shifter in the form of a wolf who preys on animals and people  Apotropaic: methods of turning evil away  Night wolves: formed in 1989 to defend rock music from the soviets, swore to defend orthodox cathedrals from hooliganism  Dracul: Devil/dragon  Post hoc/ergo propter hoc: the notion that because one event happens, others follow (ex, the rooster crowed, the sun rose, therefore the rooster made the sun rise)

Dark Creatures

Large nose, thin as a skeleton, travels in mortar and pestle Home: Hut deep in the woods, grows chicken legs that can only be stopped with an incantation, bone and skull fence Powers: controls the elements, associated with wind, no power over those pure of heart, protected by love, virtue or a mother's blessing Servants: a pair of menacing hands, white/red/black horseman  Koshchey the Deathless Thin, flies or travels under mist, soul is hidden outside of body, long claws/fingers Powers: shape-shifter, whirlwind/storms, destructive powers of nature Servants: shrieks to summon spirits  Soul of unbaptized woman Wanders the world to bring hell's anguish to the living Thought to come from witch’s lips in the form of a butterfly, settling on a sleeping person's face to suffocate Morphs into horse of strand of hair  Dark, beautiful seductress who kills those who embrace her Soul of stillborn child Irony: Rusalnaia week in Russia to celebrate courtship  Gorynich Dragon with 3 heads and 7 claws of copper Slain by Dobrynya (root word, dobr= good)

Pagan Gods  : god of thunder  : god of giving  : god of kinship (sacrifice wheat)  : god of night, darkness  Belobog: god of day, light  Makosh: goddess of fertility  : god of music/wind/devils  Sviatovid: All Seeing (4 faces)  Simargi: guards the tree of life

The Slavic People  Eastern  Russia   Belorussia  Western  Poland  Czech  Slovakia  Southern  Slovenia  Croatia   Bulgaria  Macedonia

European Vampires Bathory 1516-1614  "Blood Countess/Countess Dracula"  Grew up during war and torture, happy marriage and good mother  Hungarian, preyed on Slovak peasants  Killed over 650 Young servant women  "disciplined for petty mistakes/infractions, turned into torture  Vampire link: eating of flesh, bathing/drinking blood