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Pagan Beliefs in Ancient Russia. by Luceta Di Cosimo, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Aethelmearc
1 Pagan Beliefs in Ancient Russia. By Luceta di Cosimo, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Aethelmearc. [email protected] ©2006-2017 Slavic mythology is a difficult subject. The historical evidence is fragmented, with many conflicting sources and multiple later literary inventions. This is a brief reconstruction of ancient Russian mythology. The first archaeological findings that can be attributed to Slavs date to approximately 6th c. AD. The origins of Slavs are still debated. The pagan Slavic society was an oral society. Christianity, which introduced writing, was more concerned with eradication rather than preservation of pagan beliefs. No one really tried to preserve and record whatever remained, until late period. Then, there is some evidence recorded from the Germans who visited Russia in 18th c., but a lot of it is based on the written 15thc. sources, rather than eyewitness accounts. The 19th c. Europe saw renewed interest in folklore, and combined with rise of nationalism and need for developed mythos, a lot of what was left was recorded, but a lot was altered to make it more palatable, and questionable things (especially with fertility rituals) were edited out as not to besmirch the emerging national character. During the Soviet time, the study of any religion was problematic, due to mandatory atheism. Eventually, the study of the early Slavic traditions was permitted, and even encouraged, but, everything had to pass stringent censorship rules, and could not contradict Marxist-Leninist philosophy. So, people who had the material (in the USSR) could not publish, and people who actually could publish (in the West) did not have access to the materials. -
RUSSIAN MYTHOLOGY Ayse Dietrich, Ph.D
HUMANITIES INSTITUTE RUSSIAN MYTHOLOGY Ayse Dietrich, Ph.D. Introduction Mythology takes as its subject the significance of the objects that exist in the world, natural events, and the private matters and objects of social life from an emotional point of view. Mythology is the identification of humanity with nature, making the powers of nature one’s own in the imagination. In the face of natural events, the first humans were powerless, both before the events within themselves and those that came from outside. Therefore, it is directed at describing events and objects that were considered taboo, or embodying and personalizing events or objects that the mind could not grasp. Identifying itself with all living and non-living thing from the very beginning, the human mind tried to express them through various objects and symbols. The rustle of leaves, thunder, bird calls, and lightning striking – all these natural events were perceived by humans as a sign of good or evil, life or death. Mythological images are indirect expressions of humans’ internal worlds and emotions. Emotions override reason. Mythological images do not consist only of imaginary depictions. They also have the quality of making living in harmony with human desires and emotions, and acting together easier. In this context, The subject of Russian mythology consists of the belief of the Russian people, who planted fields, worked the land, and spent their lives together with animals such as eagles and wolves, that supernatural powers directed the fates of men, and the symbols and gods that before and after the coming of Christianity were passed down from generation to generation. -
RISE of the SLAVS by Rimgaudas P
RISE OF THE SLAVS by Rimgaudas P. Kiliulis WGAW # 1672596 Vilnius/Istanbul, [email protected] +90 549 3323200 FADE IN: EXT. KURGAN- DAY. (439). V.O. Hermanaric also took arms against the Venethi... These people... have now three names, that is, Venethi, Antes and Sclaveni... yet at that time they were all obedient to Hermanaric's commands. Jordanes. A PRIEST with Sclaveni men prepare wood for cremation fire on the kurgan. They place a dead warrior body on the firewood. The Priest starts the fire. DAURITAS (7) and his mother (23) cry nearby the dead body. The Goths’ king WANDALAR (64) and warriors watch the burial rite from a distance. WANDALAR An excellent scout. He speared us a dozen of warriors. The body burns. The Priest collects the ashes and spreads them to the pit nearby. Dauritas’s mother cries and falls to the pit embracing ashes. She wants to make a suicide by cutting herself throat by a knife. Few women and the Priest halt her. Frightened Dauritas pulls his mother from the ashes. The priest covers the ashes with a upturned wooden vessel. People move to the Saint Oak. EXT. SAINT OAK NEAR THE KURGAN- DAY. The priest makes offering. He decapitates a cock on the altar near the Saint Oak. Priestesses put dry herbs to the saint fire. Smoke rises. PRIEST Slava Perun. Sclaveni echo “Slava Perun”. According the Goth’s POV only “slava Perun” sounds around, other words are indistinguishable. The Goths see a lynx on the Saint Oak. The hungry lynx watches to the cock. -
Myth and Mentality and Myth Studia Fennica Folkloristica
Commission 1935–1970 Commission The Irish Folklore Folklore Irish The Myth and Mentality Studies in Folklore and Popular Thought Edited by Anna-Leena Siikala Studia Fennica Folkloristica The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad. Studia Fennica Editorial board Anna-Leena Siikala Rauno Endén Teppo Korhonen Pentti Leino Auli Viikari Kristiina Näyhö Editorial Office SKS P.O. Box 259 FI-00171 Helsinki www.finlit.fi Myth and Mentality Studies in Folklore and Popular Thought Edited by Anna-Leena Siikala Finnish Literature Society · Helsinki Studia Fennica Folkloristica 8 The publication has undergone a peer review. The open access publication of this volume has received part funding via a Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation grant. © 2002 Anna-Leena Siikala and SKS License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International A digital edition of a printed book first published in 2002 by the Finnish Literature Society. Cover Design: Timo Numminen EPUB: Tero Salmén ISBN 978-951-746-371-3 (Print) ISBN 978-952-222-849-9 (PDF) ISBN 978-952-222-848-2 (EPUB) ISSN 0085-6835 (Studia Fennica) ISSN 1235-1946 (Studia Fennica Folkloristica) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21435/sff.8 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. -
Of the Russian Peop15e;
THE .SONGE! OF THE RUSSIAN PEOP15E; AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF SLAVONIC MYTHOLOGY AND RUSSIAN SOCIAL LIFE. • BY W. R. S. R.ALSTON, M.A. ow ~ •• •• 'ITl••• 11 ••"., 8acOND BDlTIaN. I.onllon : ELLIS & GREE...~, 83, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1872. [..til rio"" ......-1.] j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j j PREFACE. WHEN the present volume was originally planned it was intended to contain- an account of Russian folk-, . lore in general-of the stories, legends. riddles. pro- verbs, and epic as well as lyric poems, which oral tradition has preserved among the Russian peasantry. But I soon found that the subject was one which, if treated at all in detail, would require more time and space than I had expected. So I thought it best to restrict myself for the present to a part of it only. leaving the rest to be described afterwards. In this first instalment of the work, therefore, I have dealt chiefly, though not exclusively, with the lyric poetry of the peasantry; the next will be mainly devoted to their Popular Tales and their Metrical Romances. In order to render intelligible the songs I have quoted, it has been necessary to give some slight account of the religious ideas attributed to the ancien t vi PREFACE. Slavonians and the superstitions current among their descendants, 8S well as of some of the manners and customs of the Russian peasantry, especially with regard to marriages and fWllwals. But my book can make no pretence to any thing like a satisfactory grappling with the difficult problems-mythological, ethnological, philological, historical-suggested by the study of Slavonic antiquities. -
When Russia Came to Stay
© 2007 LEA POVOZHAEV ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WHEN RUSSIA CAME TO STAY A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts Lea Povozhaev May, 2007 WHEN RUSSIA CAME TO STAY Lea Povozhaev Thesis Approved: Accepted: __________________________________ __________________________________ Advisor Dean of the College Mary Biddinger Ronald Levant __________________________________ __________________________________ Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School Neal Chandler George Newkome __________________________________ __________________________________ Faculty Reader Date Joyce Dyer __________________________________ Faculty Reader Jinny Marting __________________________________ Department Chair Diana Reep ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of the instructors in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program who have extended their wisdom and care, sharing the secrets of the writing life. Particular thanks to Dr. Jinny Marting, the first to allow me an opportunity to ink what follows. Thank you for granting raw ideas breath. Thank you, Dr. Phil Brady and Dr. Neal Chandler, as you witnessed the earliest genesis of what follows and offered genuine consideration and challenge. My advisor, Dr. Mary Biddinger, eternal thanks for believing in what I have striven to accomplish—a story of faith, family, and multiculturalism, for which there remain, still, more questions than answers. Thank you, Mary, for the space to continue wondering. Dr. Joyce Dyer, thank you for sharing your knowledge of and love for the evolving genre of creative nonfiction. Thank you for the passion and dedication you show to the craft and to your students. Mom, you are always my first reader. Through you, I believe. -
Revival of Pagan Traditions in Contemporary Russia
Original Paper The revival of pagan traditions and their influence on the content of mental disorders in contemporary Russia Caesar P. Korolenko Abstract. There has been a recent growth in Russia of the popularity of superstitions, mythological beliefs and rituals. These have their roots in pre-Christian pagan Slavic mythologies. Many of these predictions, warnings and instructions concern the fate of newborn babies. They inform parents about the signs which predict the child’s future, and describe the rituals that must be performed for the (magical) protection of the helpless child. Some of theses pagan rituals have been restored in arranged scenarios of pagan feasts and ceremonials. The influence of pagan beliefs was found in the contents of obsessive ideas, hallucinations, and in the belief in a magic spell which can be placed by an ‘evil eye’. The latter concept has been virtually synonymous with evil in Russian tradition through the ages. It was elicited in psychopathological experiences - in the structure of paranoid syndromes, and of sleep paralysis An effective treatment of such mental disturbances presupposes the application of pharmacological approaches combined with psychotherapy, and the knowledge of old traditions and mythologies. Key words: pagan mythology, sleep paralysis, delusions, hallucinations, depression, obsessive ideas, house- spirit. WCPRR Jan 2006: 12-20. © 2006 WACP INTRODUCTION The revival of old Slavic pagan traditions and rituals in contemporary Russia (Siberia) has been described. This phenomenon has been expressed in the growing popularity of various ceremonies that utilize the motifs of ancient pagan feasts. Many beliefs, superstitions and activities are seen in every day events, daily activities and verbal expressions. -
The Mythology of All Races
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra31gray THE MYTHOLOGY OF ALL RACES Volume III CELTIC SLAVIC Volume I. Greek and Roman William Sherwood Fox, Ph.D., University of Western Ontario. Volume II. Eddie Canon John A. MacCulloch, D.D., Bridge of Allan, Scotland. Volume III. Celtic, Slavic Canon John A. MacCulloch, D.D., Bridge of Allan, Scotland. Jan Machal, Ph.D., Bohemian University. Volume IV. Finno-Ugric, Siberian Uno Holmberg, Ph.D., Turku University. Volume V. Semitic Stephen H. Langdon, M.A., B.D., Ph.D., Oxford University. Volume VI. Indian, Iranian A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L., Edinburgh University. Albert J. Carnoy, Ph.D., University of Louvain. Volume VII. Armenian, African Mardiros Ananikian, B.D., Kennedy School of Missions. Alice Werner, L.L.A. (St. Andrews), School of Oriental Studies. Volume VIII. Chinese, Japanese John C. Ferguson, Ph.D., Peking, China. Masaharu Anesaki, Litt.D., University of Tokyo. Volume IX. Oceanic Roland Burrage Dixon, Ph.D., Harvard University. Volume X. North American Hartley Burr Alexander, Ph.D., Scripps College. Volume XI. American (Latin) Hartley Burr Alexander, Ph.D., Scripps College. Volume XII. Egypt, Far East W. Max Muller, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania. Sir (James) George Scott, K.C.I.E., London. Volume XIII. Index Louis Herbert Gray, A.M., Ph.D., Columbia University. PLATE I Brug na Boinne The tumulus at New Grange is the largest of a group of three at Dowth, New Grange, and Knowth, County Meath, on the banks of the Boyne in the plain known to Irish tales as Brug na Boinne, the traditional burial-place of the Tuatha De Danann and of the Kings of Tara. -
Verbal Magic in Daily Life in Medieval and Early Modern Bulgaria By
Doctoral Dissertation Charms, Amulets, and Crisis Rites: Verbal Magic in Daily Life in Medieval and Early Modern Bulgaria By: Svetlana Tsonkova Supervisor(s): Gerhard Jaritz Gábor Klaniczay Submitted to the Medieval Studies Department Central European University, Budapest in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Medieval Studies, CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 1 Lead amulet against the nezhit, tenth-eleventh century, excavated in the medieval fortress of Odŭrtsi, CEU eTD Collection northeastern Bulgaria. (After [Kazimir Popkonstantinov] Kазимир Попконстантинов. “Заклинателни молитви върху оловни амулети от средновековна България и паралелите им в требници от средновековна Сърбия” (Conjuration prayers on lead amulets from medieval Bulgaria and their parallels in euchologia form Medieval Serbia). Зборник радова Византолошког института/Recueil des travaux de l’Institut d’études byzantines 46 (2009): 341-351.) 2 Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 I. Framework ....................................................................................................................... 7 1. 1. Magic in everyday life ............................................................................................ 7 1. 2. Verbal charms ....................................................................................................... 14 1. 3. Amulets ................................................................................................................ -
Gimme That Real Old Time Religion: Re-Embedding White Identities
GIMME THAT REAL OLD TIME RELIGION: RE-EMBEDDING WHITE IDENTITIES THROUGH ETHNIC NEO-PAGAN RECONFIGURATIONS OF EUROPEAN HERITAGE IN TEXAS A Dissertation by BRETT HOWARD FURTH Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Thomas Green Committee Members, Norbert Dannhaeuser D. Bruce Dickson Giovanna Del Negro Head of Department, Cynthia Werner August 2015 Major Subject: Anthropology Copyright 2015 Brett Howard Furth ABSTRACT According to social theorists, Westerners are increasingly inter-connected with other societies through the complex processes of modernity and globalization, thereby creating an increasingly multiethnic and religiously pluralistic world still dominated by the rationalism of modernity. Consequently, their world is disenchanted and their identities disembedded from traditional contexts, thus placing many individuals in a state of identity crisis. For working and middle-class white Americans, this problem is exacerbated by the unmarkedness of white racial identities, and the subsumption of ancestral ethnic European identities within this unmarked racial category. This dilemma has led some to question and challenge the authenticity and legitimacy of their religious identities and traditions, and to develop strategies to re-embed, revalorize, and refashion their racial and class identities. My research offers an investigation of one such strategy, specifically that employed by Neo- Pagans with an ethnic focus. I explore how recent traditions compose a new strategy that is attractive to white Americans seeking to re-root and give new meanings to their racial and religious identities. Furthermore, I suggest that a key reason some are drawn to and mark identification with ethnic Neo-Pagan traditions is a desire to refashion ethnoreligious identities to re-embed themselves in a re-enchanted physical and social world where ethnic ancestry and whiteness matter in new ways. -
311 Research Into the Problem of Classifying Mythological Stories According to Character-Based and Oppositional Principles Olga
Research into the problem of classifying mythological stories according to character-based and oppositional principles Olga Belugina – Svetlana Starodubets – Olga Golovacheva – Svetlana Kurkina DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.01.26 Abstract The relevance of this research is based on the necessity to reconstruct the ancient Slavic culture, which is impossible without taking into consideration local traditions, including those associated with the existence of non-fairy tale prose in some Slavic regions. Mythological stories of the Russian-Belorussian represent linguistic and cultural phenomenon characterized by the presence of maximally bright national and cultural features of archaic character preserved in the conditions of historical and modern intercultural interaction. The leading method of studying the mentioned problem is the method of systematization based on techniques of searching and collecting information (field research interviews, survey, and questionnaire survey). The purpose of this study is to determine the distinguishing features of classifying field research materials (in particular, mythonyms) according to character-based and oppositional principles. The folklore material (mythological stories) collected in Russian-Belorussian borderland was systematized according to both standard character-based principle and oppositional principle. This approach contributes to reconstructing the more integrated system of Slavs’ representations of the world (moral beliefs, representations of space, time, and other concepts). The study proved the efficiency of the suggested classification of mythological stories for both scientific generalizations and areal research of mythonyms. Key words: Russian-Belorussian borderland, mythonyms (characters of mythological prose), non-fairy tale prose, bylichka, byvalshchina, opposition Introduction A folklore study is impossible without making research on a mythological component of oral folk art objects. -
An Introduction to Russian Folk Demonology
© 2018 Luceta di Cosimo, BMDL, Aethelmearc An Introduction to Russian Folk Demonology © Luceta di Cosimo, BMDL, Aethelmearc, lucetadicosimo.com [email protected] For the purposes of this class, folk demonology refers to belief in a host of supernatural powerful beings, not sanctioned by dominant religion (orthodox Christianity in this case), but persisting side by side with the official religion. The three Eastern Slavic languages had split relatively late, in 14-15th centuries, so the demonology and folk believes among eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainian, and Belorussians) are pretty similar.1 Folk demonology reflects remnants of ancient cosmology, pagan god worship, cults of ancestors and the spirit world. The world was divided in three layers – sky/heavens, earth, and underworld, and in two parallel worlds, the world of the living humans, and world of the spirits, which is also the world of the dead. (curiously, the words for the “other world” in Russian are “zagrobnyy mir” or “ the world beyond the coffin”) In Russian, the word for world and light is the same (“svet”), so we have “this world” or “etot svet” where we live, and “that world”, or “tot svet” where are the ancestors, ghosts, spirits, demons, etc. The demons and spirits do not appear just because and are confined to specific places, such as houses, barns, meadows, forests, etc. and times. Generally, the summer and winter solstice were the times of increased spirit activity. “Clean” places, like churches, were less likely and “unclean” places, like locations of suicides were more likely to have demons and spirits. A generic term “unclean force” (nechistaya sila) was used to describe all the demons and spirits and their manifestations.