Folk Belief Today, Tartu 1995.

ISBN 9985-851-11-0

THE MYTH OF THE NORTHERN SUB-URALS

Natalya Chesnokova. Syktyvkar, Komi

All peoples have passed the mythological stage in their history, but there
are almost no data for the reconstruction of mythic-ritual cycles of the Komis.
There is no further development of the well-known myth about the origin of the
World in other texts. Only few mythological fragments of folklore texts do not
have any semantic or associative unity. The irrealistic art of the Early Middle
Ages – the Perm Animal Style – is usually connected with the ancient mythol-
ogy and rituals, namely with the ancient Komi mythology1. But the semantic
identity of legendary personages on the bronze plaques is to be proved. The
attempts to identify the bronze sulde with the Komi legendary hero Pera, or the
bronze man-elk with the Lappish hero Mandash, are based on superficial coin-
cidences.
If we admit that the Komi have no mythological cycle, a very serious histori-
cal conclusion should be drawn: the Komi people was formed late enough. It
included heterogeneous components, and Christianity made the unconsolidated
people forget their unwritten myths completely. Such conclusion is in opposi-
tion with the historical and archaeological facts.

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 Folk Belief Today, Tartu 1995. ISBN 9985-851-11-0

So let us try to reconstruct the mythological cycle through the inner con-
nections between fragments of different folklore genres: legends, epics, songs
and iconography2. First we should establish combinations of images in the
scenes and topics within one and the same genre, then we should determine
the ‘trajectories’ of the plot and after that we should try to determine simultane-
ously the general semiotic logic of the combinations of personages and their
movements in several different genres. It is possible to see certain scenes and
personages on bronze plaques, because there is considerable amount of com-
positions (more than 600), while the common personages in them are not nu-
merous (not more than 10).
Let us examine the plaques, using folklore texts. Two large disks (fig. 2)
resemble the Eggs of the Origin of Life, four slits between them marking the
points where the eggs fell. The typical images of the birds in profile (Yen and
Omol?) consist of a beast-shaped detail, a paw-wing in the form of the beast’s
head with a feather shaped nose (fig. 2-7).
According to the myth, Chozh the Duck swam in the immense primordial
Ocean, bearing six Eggs of the Origin of Life. Four eggs fell into the Ocean and
two eggs were saved. Two ducklings hatched from the eggs: Yen and Omol.
They were two brothers, two opposites – Life and Death, Good and Evil, Truth

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 Folk Belief Today, Tartu 1995. ISBN 9985-851-11-0

and Falsehood, Day and Night.

We can see the tandem Duck-Beast in the complicated dynamic composi-
tions in round work (fig. 2-8) and cast in open-work (fig. 9-12, etc.), dynamic
expression manifesting itself in low relief. A zoomorphic wing can be of the size
of the Duck (fig. 8) or much bigger than all the other figures (fig. 9-12). The size
and form of zoomorphic wings depend on the pose and direction of the Duck.
The myth does not contain any description of Chozh the Duck as a combina-
tion of a beast and a bird. But generally myths do not describe the appearance
of the initial instance. It is ‘invisible’, ‘immeasurable’. In this myth the term
‘duck’ is purely conventional, because in the Komi language Chozh means
‘uncle, relative, ancestor’. ‘Stationary’ (not flying) figures of birds cast in the
round are duck-shaped. Dynamic figures of birds cased in low relief or in open-
work look as if we see them in flight from different points of view: the heads
seem more round or more stretched forward, their necks seem shorter or longer.
The viewer can associate the figures with certain biological species, but in fact
they do not exactly resemble real birds.
In Komi bronzw plaques the tails of the birds (ducks, siskins, etc.) are
presented as done over again, unfinished or made of leftovers. They are only
fragments of the Bird-ancestor. In Komi songs birds indicate life/death, the
male/female origin. In allegories and jokes we can find some hints at a possible
reversion to Chaos. This is possible, if the Bird unites with the half-man, half-
beast. For example, Kortkeros the man goes across the bridge (the ogre is going
from the World of Chaos to the Land of people) to feed the Swallow with seeds
(to marry her). The song contains a warning, that it would be bad for all the
people. This warning can be interpreted as an indication of a possibility of
disappearance of people, return to the Chaos without human beings, because
of the revival of the primordial Beast-Bird. According to the legend, the primor-
dial Duck Chozh crashed and became the Earth. Yen the Duck obtained human
appearance and started creating the World.
There are oval contours on the breasts of the bronze bird figures (fig. 13).
Human faces are placed there, too. Around human faces we can see heads of
elks and other zoomorphic figures, formerly we saw them on fields of wings (fig.
15-16, etc.).
The front view shows every feather of the wing, formed in zoomorphic
contours (fig. 15, 16, 20). The first feather, nearest to the breast (with human
face) is formed as a bird, the second – as an elk, the third and the fourth feather
have contours of beasts difficult to identify (the same as on wings of birds in
profile – fig. 8-12). Figures on the feathers between wings and tail resemble
reptiles. Pangolins (gigantic reptiles) are depicted on the tails of bronze birds
(lower than human faces). The snake-shaped and horse-shaped figures are

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 Folk Belief Today, Tartu 1995. ISBN 9985-851-11-0

depicted above reptiles (and lower than human faces).

All the compositions in Perm Animal Style represent different combinations
of wings (feathers), breasts and tail contours. These compositions are frag-
ments of the whole Bird, more detailed or more generalised, their frames depend
on what part of the Bird they depict: oval, round or wing-shaped (fig. 18-45,
etc.). All the compositions with human-shaped figures (the so-called sulde) can
be depicted in profile. Zoomorphic wings are background for these scenes (fig.

25-42).
These personages are given in different attitudes, from different points of

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view. If we draw the bronze figures in one and the same scale and superpose
them (graphically on paper, on the screen of a computer or in video), we shall
reveal one basic scene, common for all the compositions – a kind of ‘universal
sphere’, on the surface and inside of which all the personages will be placed. It
is quite enough to turn or focus this ‘sphere’, in order to see any composition
cast in the early Middle Ages in the reach of the Vychegda or the Pechora.
These compositions (fig. 18-44) remind us of the well-known information from
foreign travellers in the 10th-15th centuries: there was a greatly honoured idol
in the Sub-Ural land, called the Golden Woman. It was an old woman with a
child on her knees. The child in its turn had another child – the Golden Wom-
an’s grandson. The grandson was holding her great-grandson, and so on and
so forth. The Golden Woman was said to contain Future in herself.
The same principle is realised in bronze compositions: the closer we exam-
ine the figure (if it is depicted larger), the greater amount of figures we shall see

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‘inside’ it. Constant turnings and ‘approachings’ give us new combinations.

Having reconstructed ‘the sphere’ – the sum of all the images in bronze3, we
can imagine the technological process, which provided the exactness of the
combinations of figures in different attitudes. One composition was recast from
the impressions of several others in an earth-hole: the semi-spherical form of
the earth-bases provided a ‘round dance’ of figures. Figures necessary from
the point of view of inner logic of a new composition were kept on the mould,
while the unnecessary figures were removed either at once or later by means of
cutting them out of the cast image. To avoid mistakes, ancient masters must
have known the sense of the ideal ‘sphere’ with all its personages.

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This sense would become more vivid for us, if we consider that the content
of all bronze images was the flight and turnings of Primordial Bird: the scene
with different personages depends on the turn of her breast (with an anthropo-
morphic figure) and of her zoomorphic feathers and tail (with reptiles). A recon-
structed sphere is a model of the Primordial Bird.
According to the initial myth Chozh became the Earth. According to the
same myth Yen brought down six skies inhabited by creatures – antipodes,
looking like human beings, reptiles, beasts living together. We suppose that
pictures of their life together on Earth are reflected in Perm Animal Style.
In Komi tales, songs, riddles and proverbs we can see combinations of
personages and their ‘trajectories’, which are explainable from the point of view
of combinations of different parts of the Primordial Bird. In the tales the dog,
depicted on the Bird’s feather remote from its breast with sulde, is an image of
the faraway homeland, or an image of a ‘redone man’. God intended to give the
dog a bow and arrows – they are depicted on some plaques on the feather with
a dog’s head. The feather with an elk’s head is one of the nearest to sulde – in
the tales the main character conceals himself in the elk’s fell so as to avoid
sudden danger.

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An elk, like other zoomorphic figures, does not have extremities of its own
on the plaques. Sometimes it is depicted with four ‘extremities’ that are formed
of other zoomorphic figures, e.g. of arthropods, depicted near the Bird’s tail,
and its body and tail of the figure of a horse depicted above the Bird’s tail. –
Here we can imagine the turn of Primordial Bird in its flight forward with its wing
down. From this point of view, anthropomorphic figures are on the figure of an
elk, which in its turn is a combination of many other figures. Other similar
images appear during this flight. It looks as if human figures turn over and
finally convert into something like fish or reptiles that should be on the tail of
the Bird.

Horsemen are not numerous in the Komi folklore. Pera-bogatyr goes to

Moscow to the Tsar riding an elk. Due to the elk, he reaches the destination
three days earlier than the troika of horses. Riding an elk is a miraculous fact. In
the Komi tales we can find one crossing subject: ‘human being is stronger than
a horse’. According to Y. Rochev, a man stronger than a horse is often a were-
wolf.
On the plaque with a ‘horseman’, a bear is also depicted. A bear is some-
times depicted on round castings, under the bird, as if moving in the same
direction. Bear is outside the Bird-Earth. In Komi tales the bear comes to the
main character when the latter leaves his homeland. On this plaque (fig. 43) its
appearance, perhaps, has the same sense: human figure is at the utmost point
of the Primordial Bird’s body. And Pera-bogatyr was rushing to strange lands,
to Moscow. At this utmost point ‘transformations’ of sulde start. In the tales,
characters can be swallowed by the Bear or Glot (pangolin), for if the flight
continues in the same direction, Primordial Bird should turn over.
On the other flank of the figure, the image of the bird symbolises the same
critical situation. In Komi songs birds lead the plot either to the wedding or to
the land of the dead.
The subjects are so numerous that it is impossible to describe them here

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even in short. Numerous digressions draw us to the conclusion that all the
folklore subjects prove the hypothesis: images and subjects have one and the
same cyclical basis – the complicated mythological image of the Primordial Bird
Chozh.
The fact that cyclical connections can be found between materials belong-
ing to different periods, from the Early Middle Ages (and according to the
newest facts, Perm Animal Style is much more ancient, dating back to the begin-
ning of the first millennium BC) to our days, can be explained by a profound,
not yet destroyed, common tradition of the Komi people. No doubt these con-
nections are based on folk-beliefs.

Literature

1
Gribova, L. Permsky zverinyi stil. Moscow, 1975, p. 147.
2
The following field work materials and publications are used: Mikushev, A. and
Chistalyov, P. Komi narodnye pesni. Vol. 1. Vychegda i Sysola. Syktyvkar, 1966; Vol. 3.
Vym i Dora. Syktyvkar, 1971; Plesovsky, F. Kosmogonicheskye mify komi i udmurtov.
In: Etnografia i folklor komi. Trudy IJLI KF TA SSSR, No. 13. Syktyvkar, 1972, pp.
32-45; Sidorov, A. Ideologiya drevnego naseleniya Komi kraya. In: Op. cit., pp. 12-21.
3
Chesnokova, N. Klassifikatsiya i tipologizatsiya v izuchenii arheologicheskikh
istochnikov (na materyalah finno-ugorskogo izobrazitelnogo iskusstva). Syktyvkar,
1988.

THE MUSIC IN THE NGANASAN SHAMAN

RITUAL
Oksana Dobzhanskaya. Russia, Novosibirsk

In the traditional culture of the Nganasans fixed norms of shamanism de-

veloped. The shaman’s functions were connected with the treatment of dis-
eases, hunting, reindeer-breeding, regulation of the relations inside the socium
(predicting the future of the family members). After the Nganasans had chosen
the settled way of living and lost their traditional organisation of life, the sha-
man practice became a relict phenomenon. Nowadays investigators can often
observe imitations of the shaman ritual, but the true shaman tradition was pre-

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