Finno-Ugric Mythology

Myth has become a fundamental frame of reference for Western thinking. This paper explores the term and category " myth " from the perspective of folklore studies, with concern for the use of myth as a tool in research. The ways in which myth has been used in both academic and popular discourses are discussed. These are viewed in a historical perspective against the backdrop of the origins of the modern term. Attention is given to how historical patterns of use have encoded " myth " with evaluative stance-taking, building an opposition of " us " versus " them " into myth as something " other people " have, in contrast to us, who know better. Discussion then turns to approaching myth as a type of story. The consequences of such a definition are explored in terms of what it does or does not include; the question of whether, as has often been supposed, myth is a text-type genre, is also considered. Discussion advances to aesthetic evaluation at the root of modern discussions of myth and how this background informs the inclination to identify myth as a type of story on the one hand while inhibiting the extension of the concept to, for example, historical events or theories about the world or its origins, on the other. Approaching myth as a type of modeling system is briefly reviewed—an approach that can be coupled to viewing myth as a type of story. Finally, discussion turns to the more recent trend of approaching mythology through mythic discourse, and the consequences as well as the benefits of such an approach for understanding myth in society or religion. There are many different ways to define myth. The present article explores how different approaches are linked to one another and have been shaped over time, how our definition of myth and the way we frame the concept shape our thinking, and can, in remarkably subtle ways, inhibit the reflexive application of the concept as a tool to better understand ourselves.

In this article, I introduce the terms and concepts semantic correlation and semantic disambiguation as tools for examining aspects of mythological thinking that interface with the lexicon. Semantic correlation describes a phenomenon whereby the name of the god and of the phenomenon become the same. In other words, a change in the theonym affects a change in the common noun or vice versa. In a culture where semantic correlation is a basic principle of mythological thinking, theonym and noun co-vary so that the god ‘Thunder’ is always called the same thing as ‘thunder’, the god ‘Sky’ and phenomenon ‘sky’ are called the same thing, and so on. Semantic correlation reflects the iconicity of the god, which becomes built into the lexicon. Semantic disambiguation describes the change from a theonym and corresponding noun being the same to becoming lexically distinct: either the name of the god or the noun for the phenomenon change independent of the other. Semantic disambiguation is an indicator that the god is no longer iconic of a natural phenomenon per se: a god may be identified with the sky as a location or be identified as producing thunder by, for example, driving a chariot, but the agent does not converge with the phenomenon. Recognizing semantic disambiguation can be significant because it is an indicator of change in a fundamental principle of mythological thinking.

Discussion is organized in three case studies. The first is of Uralic sky-gods. This study by language family includes discussion of the development spread of a Finnic theonym Ilma-ri to Udmurt, Sámi and probably Chuvash, and also addresses the problem of Finnic juma-la ['god']. The second case study explores an isogloss of changes in the Mari and Mordvin branches of Uralic and the Baltic and Germanic branches of Indo-European, as well as probably an Indo-Iranian language which was in contact with Finnic as well as potentially other languages subsumed by Finnic language spread. In these languages, the inherited theonym 'Sky' disappears as does the corresponding noun, and in its place appears a common noun 'God' as a theonym. This process is proposed to derive from a spread of religious change that moved across languages, quite possibly already in the Bronze Age. The third case examines names of the thunder-god in the Circum-Baltic area, revealing an isogloss in which the theonym underwent semantic disambiguation in some, but not all, branches of Finnic, Germanic and Sámi languages.

Many readers may only be superficially familiar with the history of some of the languages discussed, and even readers familiar with these languages may not be aware of the transformations in understanding that have developed during the past decade in particular. In order to make the discussion accessible to a wider range of readers, information on the historical spread and change of these languages is introduced as it becomes relevant. Although the individual case studies may each stand on their own merits, the overarching aim here is to illustrate the phenomena of semantic correlation and disambiguation and to illustrate their value as tools for examining historical changes encoded in a lexicon.

Погребальная обрядовая практика «показывания дороги» покойному широко распространена у различных народов Урало-Поволжья и по всей Евразии. Она очень архаична. В соответствии с ней, миры живых и мёртвых близки и взаимопроницаемы, они контактируют меж собой. The funeral rituals "to show the way" for the dead are widespread among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region and across Eurasia. They are very archaic. According to these rituals, the spheres of life and death are in contact with each other.

В статье на материале русских и коми-пермяцких фольклорных рассказах о кладах рассматриваются два редких мотива, связанных с условием получения сокровища (запрячь 12 петухов; позвонить в колокол быстрее, чем закричит петух). Обнаруженные тексты описаны как часть локальных традиций, где они были зафиксированы (в обоих случаях клад с петухами приурочивается к "чудским" городищам - реальным археологическим объектам). В приложении опубликована подборка фольклорных текстов о городище Курэгкар; часть из них записана Л.С. Грибовой в сер. ХХ в., часть - в экспедициях ПГНИУ в 1990-х гг. 
In Russian and Komi-Permyak folklore legends about the treasures, there are rare motives where the rooster appears. The article is devoted to two motives with difficult task for a person who wants to take a hoard (to harness 12 roosters; to hit the bell faster than a rooster will sing).

The goal of the thesis is to provide new approaches for the interpretation of the elaborate Finnish and Karelian bear ceremonial’s songs, which were intensively collected in the 19th Century and in the early 20th Century. The study aims to furnish a better understanding of the meanings of the ceremonial taking in consideration the context of folk beliefs at the time. The chapters will cover all the ritual phases, adapting the classic Hallowell’s typology to the Finno-Karelian case. However, each chapter aims to provide some answers to the main research questions. Why did the bear hunt require such a complex ritualized reciprocity? How were the passages of borders between the village and the forest ritualized? How and why were the forest, its spirits and the bruin personalized? Why do many Bear Songs contain references to wedding songs? How did the Christian faith and the rich cattle holders’ beliefs communicate with the hunter’s rituals, forming a historically stratified tradition? The study reveals that the vernacular definitions of the bear’s personhood changed often in the ritual phases: it was the offspring of the forest spirits or a hunter’s relative; a bride or a groom; a boy or a respected elder. On a general level, the bear had a shifting double identity: it was strictly bounded to the family of the forest spirits, but at the same time the hunter emphasized its human features to make the ritual communication easier and to transform the bruin into the guest of honor of the village feast, in which the bear meat was consumed. The hunter’s self could also change in the ritual: in the songs, he presented himself as a mighty man protected by mythic iron belts and shirts; as a handsome and mimetic seducer of female forest spirits, or as a humble orphan who needed their guidance. During the feast, the roles of the women toward the bear also varied: the mistress warmly welcomed the bruin as a guest or groom, but the women were also guided to protect the cattle. The landscapes acquired mythic features and they could be presented as welcoming or dangerous. These apparently kaleidoscopic changes followed a precise ritual logic: they were elaborate rhetorical devices to make the 'guests' – the bruin and the forest spirits – behave or react in certain ways in different ritual phases and to influence their perception of the hunters’ actions.

This paper concerns the distribution of the motif “Your House is on Fire!”, which has been repeatedly discussed in comparative works on Balto-Slavic and Goidelic oral traditions. In our online database of world folklore and mythology (http://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/berezkin), it is defined as follows: to get rid of a demonic woman or to make a bird or a ladybird fly away, they are told that the place where they live (house, hill, forest, etc.) and/or their children are burning up. The systematic processing of ca. 70,000 texts has allowed us to specify the distribution of this motif in Eurasia and to reveal its parallels in the New World (see map on p. 327). In Europe, “Your House is on Fire!” is spread at least among the Spaniards, Bretons, Irish, Gaels, English, Germans, Lithuanians, Sorbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Rusyns, Romanians, Western Ukrainians, Northern and Southern Russians, and Moksha Mordvins. In Siberia, the motif is shared in Northern Khanty and Mansi traditions. In America, it is attested in the Columbia Plateau among the Wishram, Sahaptin, and Nez Perce. Such a distribution, together with data concerning the peopling of the New World and on hundreds of other Eurasian-American folklore parallels, suggests that the motif in question has its roots in a time much older than the Proto-Indo-European era and was already known in northern Eurasia in the final Pleistocene.

Статья посвящена изучению плечевой одежды духов-покровителей. Источниками послужили материалы, полученные в ходе этнографических экспедиций в районы проживания северной группы хантов, и предметы из музейной коллекции. Цель исследования - выявление в плечевой одежде духов-покровителей властных символов и имитаций мундира. Для этого на основе типологического анализа были выделены признаки, отличающие имитации от традиционной одежды, а затем определены исходные виды форменной одежды. Было установлено, что на святилищах северных хантов фиксируется одежда, отличающаяся покроем и украшениями от традиционной. Она представлена двумя типами. К первому типу отнесена одежда форменного образца, ко второму - одежда, ее имитирующая. Для представленных в статье трех имитаций были установлены характерные признаки, позволяющие соотнести их с мундирами определенного исторического периода. Расположение пуговиц попарно в два (три) ряда признано наиболее характерной приметой изучаемой одежды. Исходя из этих признаков был проведен сравнительно-исторический анализ одежды с существовавшими в прошлом военной и гражданской униформами. В результате установлено, что по основным признакам изучаемая плечевая одежда духов-покровителей северных хантов наиболее близка к сюртукам, широко применявшимся во второй половине XIX-начале XX в. в качестве верхнего и дорожного костюма в среде различного рода чиновников и служащих. Также определено, что отличительными чертами этой одежды являлись металлические полусферические пуговицы, которые нашивались в ряд по каждому борту. Часто на таких пуговицах имелась профессиональная и государственная эмблема, знак. Если этот знак соотносился с традиционной символикой хантов, то такие пуговицы наделялись более высоким статусом; по возможности их выменивали, покупали и использовали для украшения одежды духов-покровителей.  / The article is dedicated to a study of top wears of guardian spirits. It is based on the materials obtained during ethnographic expeditions to the areas of residence of a northern group of the Khanty, and on the items from a
museum collection. The aim of the study is to reveal symbols of power and imitations of uniform in the top wear of the guardian spirits. In order to do this, on the basis of a typological analysis, signs which distinguish imitations from traditional clothing were identified, and then initial forms of the uniform were determined. It was revealed that clothing found at the sanctuaries of the Northern Khanty differs in its cut and decorations from the traditional clothes. It is represented by two types. The first type includes clothing of a uniform type, the second one, clothes which imitate the latter. The article presents three imitations, their  haracteristic features are described, which allow us to correlate them with the uniforms of a certain historical period. The arrangement of clothing buttons in pairs in two (three) rows was considered as the most characteristic feature of the clothes under consideration.
Based on these features, a historical analysis of the clothing garment was carried out comparing it with military and civil uniforms of the past. As a result, it was found out that, according to the main features, the top wears of the guardian spirits of the Northern Khanty under consideration are to the most extent similar to the frock coats widely used in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as top and underway clothing among various officials and employees. It was also determined that a distinctive feature of such a garment was
metal hemispherical buttons sewn in a row on each side. Such buttons often had a professional and a state emblem, a sign. If a sign correlated with the Khanty traditional symbols, such buttons were granted a higher status. If it was possible, they were exchanged, bought and used to decorate the clothing of the guardian spirits.

It must have been in my very prime of collecting, at least 15 years ago, that I saw a fibula on Ebay, said to have been found in the area of Staraya Ladoga and described as being 'Viking/from the Viking Age'. Now, as I have said in the first part of this article, some years ago: 'the Viking Age' is a somewhat strange concept within itself as nobody at the time knew he or she was living "in the Viking Age". It is a modern concept. The other thing is that-of course-not every object found "from the Viking Age" is 'viking' or 'Scandinavian'. Elisabeth Voges-keep an eye on that woman on www.academia.edu and elsewhere on the internet, because she knows what she is doing, pointed out to me that a certain fibula in my collection wasn't 'viking', let alone 'Baltic'.