The story of the mythical creature koshchei. Koschey (Kashchey) the Immortal - the favorite villain of Russian fairy tales

Koschey (Kashchey) the Immortal is one of the most odious and mysterious villains of Russian fairy tales. Already only the epithet "Immortal" makes one fear this character. The absence of fear for the Immortal may mean that you have long been registered in his Koshcheev kingdom.

1. Secret of the name

We still do not know the exact origin of the name "Koshchei". The most common version - the name "Koschey" comes from the word "bone" and means skinny person- today is not in vogue among linguists. Modern researchers of Russian folklore are more inclined to see the roots of the villain either in the Lower Lusatian kostlar (caster), or in the Old Russian "kast" (abomination, muck, etc.). Other scholars believe that the word "koshchey" on others Slavic languages translated as skin, neck, bones. So, in Serbian "koschey" - "bone and skin" or "neck", in Slovenian and Polish - "neck" (Sloven. kitami, Polish. chudzielec).

2. Who is Koschei?

Oddly enough, until now, scientists have not come to an unambiguous conclusion. Some see in Koshchei an interpretation Slavic god death from the cold of Karachun, others - the Russian version of the German god Odin, still others - just a somewhat frostbitten sorcerer with large magical powers. Many modern folklorists generally call for rehabilitating Koshchei, stating that he is not a villain at all, but some role model participant in the mystery of the initiation of a young girl, which is performed by the father of the initiate.

3. Crimes of Koshchei

In Russian fairy tales, Koschey appears as a very capable sorcerer. And very sophisticated in their magical solutions. So, in the fairy tale "Elena the Beautiful" he turns Ivan Tsarevich into a nut, he "dresses up" the princess from "The Frog Princess" in the skin of an amphibian, and in the fairy tale "Ivan Sosnovich" he cracks down on the whole kingdom, turning it into stone. Himself, the villain prefers to turn into a raven.

4. Unsuccessful ladies' man

As a rule, all Koshchei's activities are built around young girls. Koschey uses the same failed tactics in winning their love: first he effectively kidnaps the girl, then unsuccessfully tries to achieve intimacy, and, failing to achieve it, turns the fabulous beauties into frogs or snakes.

5. Koschei the Gallant

True, there was a case when Koshchei's lady reciprocated. In the epic “About Ivan Godinovich”, Immortal with an exotic patronymic, Tripetovich, appears as a gallant, courtly gentleman, wooing the Chernigov princess Marya Dmitrievichna. His rival is the treacherous Ivan Godinovich, who kidnaps Koshchei's bride and takes him to an open field. Having caught up with the kidnapper, Koschey Tripetovich again asks Beautiful Marya to become his lawful wife. And she agrees. Happy couple ties the perfidious Ivan to an oak tree, and they themselves leave to indulge in love pleasures in a tent. Then a raven flies in and begins to croak in love that Marya Dmitrievichna should not be Koshcheeva's wife, but the wife of Ivan Godinovich. In a fit of righteous anger, Immortal Romeo shoots a raven, but the arrow changes its trajectory and kills Koshchei himself. The unfortunate Marya the Beautiful decides to put an end to Ivan, but he dexterously snatches her saber from her and quarters the girl. So tragically ended the only one love story Koshcheya.

6. How to kill Koshchei

In one of the tales, Koschey opened up: “My death is far away: there is an island in the sea on the ocean, there is an oak tree on that island, a chest is buried under an oak tree, a hare is in a chest, a duck is in a hare, an egg is in a duck, and death is in an egg. my". Many scientists saw in this "matryoshka" an interpretation of the model of the universe: water (sea-ocean), earth (island), plants (oak), animals (hare), birds (duck), and oak - "world tree". In other words, it is possible to end Koshchei by destroying the world order.

7. Where does Koschey live and does he have any relatives.

The daughter of Koshchei is Vasilisa (from the Greek basilissa - queen) the Wise (she is also the Frog Princess), in another version, the father of Vasilisa the Wise Sea King. Image " sea ​​kings»goes back to the image of sea-king - the German leaders of sea voyages of the era Dark Ages(from the Goths to the Vikings), who came from Scandinavia. It is noteworthy that the kingdom of Koshchei is located in the north. Koschey went to war against Rus' in order to avenge the betrayal. By the way, in many fairy tales, he is mentioned primarily as a king. Koschey the Immortal: king, slave, sorcerer, unable to die, loves to kidnap girls, loves gold. Draw a parallel between him and the Scandinavian Troll, and you will get a 100% match, right down to the name, which translates as "slave", and in both cases there was initially betrayal, and then immortality.

8. Christian interpretation of Koshchei

Some elders of Northern Rus' interpreted Koshchei as a fallen Adam, and Ivan Tsarevich as a "New Testament man." In other interpretations folk Orthodoxy» Koschei symbolized the sinful body, the girl he abducted - human soul, and Ivan Tsarevich is a spirit. The death of Koshchei was interpreted by these ascetics as the cleansing of the soul from sins. True, modern folklorists consider these interpretations unscientific.

Unzhakov Lev 1st class

Research work completed and presented at the scientific-practical conference

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“The image of Koshchei the Immortal is the personification of evil

in fairy tales

Research

1st grade student

MKOU secondary school No. 3 of Kirensk

Unzhakov Lev

Leaders:

Unzhakova O. G., Sosnenko O. V.

2015

Topic: Koschey the Immortal - the personification of evil in fairy tales

object my research design work is a fairy-tale character "Koschei the Immortal"

Target: explore the image of Koshchei the Immortal in fairy tales

Tasks:

• read fairy tales where the character is Koschei the Deathless,
• analyze the image of Koshchei
• draw conclusions

Hypothesis research: if I can prove that Koschey the Immortal negative character in a fairy tale, I’ll tell the guys that you can’t be like such a hero.

Methods research: reading books, questionnaires, analysis of results

1. Introduction

Having determined the goals and objectives of the work, he outlined the questions to which he must find answers.

1. Who is Koschei the Deathless?
2. Where does Koschey the Deathless live?
3. What does he do?

To find answers to questions, I read fairy tales, analyzed the image of Koshchei the Immortal. I was also interested in the opinion of my classmates on this topic. I invited them to answer my questions.

26 students of our class took part in the survey:

1. Main part

1. Origin of the name Koshei

I asked about the origin of the name Koshchei. There are many versions of the origin of the name Koshchei. I want to focus on the most interesting:

• Kashchei the Immortal, Koschei the Immortal (borrowed from Turk. Kosci "prisoner", in eastern Slavic mythology an evil sorcerer whose death is hidden in several magical animals and objects nested in each other: “There is an island on the sea on the ocean, on that island there is an oak, a chest is buried under an oak, a hare is in the chest, a duck is in the hare, an egg is in the duck ”, in the egg - the death of Koshchei the Immortal. The antiquity of this motif is confirmed by its presence in Russian incantations and Hittite ritual texts. In Russian fairy tales, Koschey the Immortal takes the heroine to the ends of the earth in his home. She asks him where Koshcheev's death is hidden, conveys the secret to the hero-deliverer, who obtains the death of Koshchei the Immortal, and he dies.
• There is a version of the origin of the name Koshchei (var.through "O") from the Slavic "kosh" - a bunch of leather laces, in the image of a nodular letter kipu. The history of the family was recorded with such pra-scripts. The keeper of the knots was called KOSHCHEY. The title is immortal, received by him for the connection of times between ancestors and descendants. Received a negative status in connection with the Christianization of Rus'. Compare Purse, Purse, Koshara (wicker shelter in the steppe) and so on.
• There was such a word - to slander, that is, to conjure, and a scribbler is a magician. It also means the word "blasphemer" - skinny, bony. Koshchei, this bony skeleton has been sitting all his life on a black mountain and laboring over his golden treasury. The gold that Koschey hides from people is personified by the golden light of the sun, which destroys the rocks of ice, wakes up nature, awakens it after a long winter sleep (we know from fairy tales that Koschey lives somewhere “cover the light”, “on the glass mountains”, and this is very similar to the northern lands).

1. Portrait of Koshchei the Deathless

The appearance of Koshchei is described in fairy tales in different ways. We see Koshchei in the form of a king and a sorcerer of great power on or without a horse (in the fairy tale "Marya-Morevna" "... flew out the window with a terrible whirlwind"). In the fairy tale “Ivan Bykovich”, Koschey is mentioned as the father of Chud-Yud, the husband of the snake - witch, where he says to his assistants: “Take the iron pitchfork, raise it, my eyebrows and eyelashes are black, I’ll see what kind of bird he is, what killed my sons", that is, the image of Koshchei the Immortal is endowed with another sign - blindness. In the fairy tales "Ivan Sosnovich" and "Medvedko" Koschei appears as an old man himself with a fingernail, a beard with an elbow, who has a scourge with seven fathoms and lives in a hut-on-chicken legs and the owner Underworld. Often Koschey the Immortal is depicted as an old, “gray-haired old man”, “decrepit person”. Often there is an indication that he long beard, is also an indicator of old age. Sometimes in fairy tales, the length of Koshchei's beard is greater than his height, while he himself is very small. And in the fairy tale of Eduard Uspensky “Down the Magic River” “Chumichka tried to lift Koshchei and felt an incredible heaviness: Koshchei was all made of iron.” Unfortunately, in no fairy tale Koschey is depicted as a skeleton, no matter how much we would like it. These are already our guesses and assumptions that some types of fine art have instilled in us.

1. Koshchei's dwelling

The kingdom of Koshchei is very far away: the hero has to go "to the ends of the world." The longest, most difficult and dangerous of all paths leads there: the hero wears out iron boots, an iron frock coat and an iron hat, eats three iron loaves; he has to overcome many difficulties. The dwelling of Koshchei the Immortal is depicted in a fairy tale as a palace, a castle, a big house. Here are untold riches - gold, silver, scat pearls.

1. The strength and magical power of Koshchei

Water gives Koshchei tremendous strength. In the fairy tale "Marya-Morevna", having drunk three buckets of water brought to him by Ivan, Koschey breaks twelve chains and is freed from the dungeon. In the tale of Eduard Uspensky “Down the Magic River”, the vile clerk Chumichka frees Koshchei from constipation and soldered Koshchei with water. In all fairy tales there is a confirmation of Koshchei's strength: from one of his breath, heroes-heroes "fly like mosquitoes." Koschey is able to raise a sword "five hundred pounds", fight with the hero all day and win. In many fairy tales, Koschey the Immortal does not walk, does not ride, but flies like a bird or a whirlwind, which resembles the Serpent Gorynych. The flight of Koshchei calls rapid changes in the state of nature: "Suddenly thunder rumbles, hail is coming, Koschei the Deathless is flying." Moreover, often the movement of Koshchei in the air leads to destructive actions in the natural space: "leaves flew from the trees, the wind is terrible ... Kashchei flies."

Koschei is also a powerful sorcerer: in the fairy tale "Ivan Sosnovich" Koschei turns the whole kingdom into stone; in the fairy tale "Elena the Beautiful" turns Ivan Tsarevich into a nut; in the fairy tale "The Snake Princess" turns the Princess into a snake; and in the fairy tale "The Frog Princess" she dresses the Princess in a frog skin.

Koschey himself often turns into a crow.

1. Death of Koshchei

At the same time, Koshchei's strength is victorious. We see from fairy tales, and his strength, and he himself, under certain circumstances, can be destroyed. The main feature of Koshchei the Immortal, which distinguishes him from other fairy-tale characters, is that his death exists separately from him. She is in the egg, which is hidden in a certain place.

Sometimes in fairy tales it is said that a box or chest with Koshcheev's death is on an oak tree, and an oak tree is on a mountain or in a field, and "that tree of Koshcheev protects it like its own eye." Koshcheev's death is located where "no one walks, no one rides." And Koschey himself carefully keeps the secret of his death, which makes him invincible for enemies. Only a true hero can find and get Koshchei's death.

And as soon as the egg is in the hands of the hero, Koshchei immediately becomes ill, he gets sick, and sometimes he still tries to persuade the winner to save his life, but he does not make concessions and crushes the egg, Koschei immediately dies. And in some fairy tales, there is also a needle in the egg, in which the end must be broken, which also causes the quick death of Koshchei.

In the fairy tale "Marya Morevna", Koschey dies after the horse of Ivan Tsarevich "smashed his head with a hoof, and Ivan Tsarevich finished him off with a club."

1. Koschei the immortal in Russian folk tales

I have read several fairy tales where Koschei the Deathless meets. In all the tales of Koschei the Immortal is necessarily an evil character.

Summing up, I made a table in which I proved that inThe image of Koshchei expresses the world of evil and violence.

It is known from fairy tales that his usual activities are that he flies around Rus', "goes to war", leaves "for prey" or hunting, "staggers around the free world." In the fairy tale, Koschey always kidnaps someone, separates children from their mother or Ivan the Tsarevich from his bride, thereby hurting people. Almost always, Ivan the Tsarevich enters the battle with Koshchei the Immortal. And it is Ivan - Tsarevich who always comes out the winner.There are a lot of tales about Koshchei, and in all of them he is absolute evil, and at the end of the tale he will surely die from someone's hands: they break his needle, shoot him with an arrow with a needle instead of a tip, he dies from a horse and so on.In different tales, Koschei dies in different ways, but this does not change the meaning of his death. Evil is punished. And if we assume that Koschei is the personification of Winter, the constraint of the Earth, then after his death the cold receded, Spring, the bright sun, and wonderful days await everyone.

Thus, my research showed that Koschey only causes pain and suffering to people, and such a character in a fairy tale cannot be a positive hero.

Conclusion

It was the first time I did such serious work, I proved that Koschey

Immortal is a negative character in a fairy tale. I read a lot of fairy tales, and even made up questions for the questionnaire. It was very difficult and interesting for me. I didn’t even imagine that I would learn so much new things about Koschey the Immortal, it was very interesting to read about the origin of his name. I know that you need to read very carefully, thinking about every word, and be sure to draw conclusions about what you read. Then reading will not only be useful, but will also open up a lot of new and interesting things for me!

List of used literature

1. I know the world. Devilry: Children's Encyclopedia. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, - 2001 - 400 p.
2. Leonid Yakhnin. Myths and heroes Ancient Rus'. - Moscow "Dragonfly - press", 2006
3. Russian folk tales. - Moscow: Children's literature, 2002 - 203 p.
4. Tales of the princes. - Moscow "Machine-Press", 2001
5. Russian tales. Epics. - Moscow "ADL", 1993

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Research work of a student of grade 1 b of MKOU secondary school No. 3 of Kirensk Unzhakov Lev Koschey the Immortal - the personification of evil in fairy tales

The purpose of the work: to explore the image of Koshchei the Immortal Tasks: · to read fairy tales · to analyze the image of Koshchei · to draw conclusions Hypothesis: Suppose that Koshchei the Immortal is a negative character in a fairy tale.

Who is Koschei the Deathless? What does it look like? Where does Koschei the Deathless live? What does he do? Who and how could cope with Koshchei the Immortal? Questions to consider:

Who is Koschei the Deathless?

Where does Koschei the Deathless live?

What does Koschei the Deathless do? Who could handle Koshchei the Deathless?

The origin of the name Koschey

Portrait of Koshchei the Immortal In the form of a king and a sorcerer of great strength C old, "gray-haired old man", "senile man". All made of iron

Dwelling of Koshchei the Immortal Palace, castle, big house It is very far away It contains innumerable riches - gold, silver, pearls

The power of Koshchei the Immortal Breaks the chains Doesn't walk, doesn't ride, but flies like a bird From one breath of Koshchei, heroes-heroes "like mosquitoes fly" Turns the whole kingdom into stone; Ivan Tsarevich in walnut; The princess in a snake or dresses her in a frog skin. Himself turns into a crow

Death of Koshchei the Immortal Exists separately from him; Hidden in an egg that is located where "no one walks, no one drives". a box or chest with Koshcheev's death is located on an oak tree, and an oak tree is on a mountain or in a field; Koschey himself carefully keeps the secret of his death, which makes him invincible for enemies. Only a true hero can find and get Koshchei's death.

Tales of KOSHCHEY IMMORTAL Place of residence What does it look like? Does Koshchei have friends? What did you do wrong? What did you do well? Ivan-Bykovich Dungeon Old man, long eyelashes, thick eyebrows, eyes closed No Made Ivan Bykovich bring him the Queen Golden curls Nothing Koschei Immortal Huge house Strong, his sword weighs 500 pounds No Stole Ivan Tsarevich's mother Nothing Marya - Morevna House Broke twelve chains, typing strength from three buckets of water No Stole from Ivan Tsarevich Marya - Morevna Nothing Tsarevna - a frog Chambers of white stone Possesses magical powers No Stole Vasilisa the Wise from Ivan Tsarevich Nothing Summing up

List of references I cognize the world. Unclean Force: Children's Encyclopedia. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, - 2001 - 400 p. Leonid Yakhnin. Myths and Heroes of Ancient Rus'. - Moscow "Dragonfly - press", 2006 Russian folk tales. - Moscow: Children's literature, 2002 - 203 p. Tales of the princes. - Moscow "Machine-Press", 2001 Russian fairy tales. Epics. - Moscow "ADL", 1993

Thank you for attention! Head: Sosnenko O.V.

In the book of Viktor Kalashnikov "Russian Demonology" an attempt is made to systematize the characters and plots of Russian folk tales. This is done not because of the desire to create an encyclopedia of folklore, but in order to see how the ancient Slavic epic, whose heroes were pagan gods and spirits.

Koschei the Immortal (or Kashchei) is perhaps the most enigmatic figure in Russian fairy tales. Afanasiev, for example, believed that the Serpent Gorynych and Koshchei the Immortal, if not the same, then at least an interchangeable character: “As a demonic creature, the serpent in folk Russian legends often appears under the name of Koshchei the immortal. The meaning of both in our fairy tales is completely identical: Koschei plays the same role of a mean keeper of treasures and a dangerous thief of beauties as a snake; both of them are equally hostile to fairy-tale heroes and freely replace each other, so that in one and the same fairy tale, in one version, the serpent is the protagonist, and in the other, Koschei.

But can you confuse living mummy and a dragon? They are so different! And anyway, what strange name- Koshchei? What does it mean? Afanasiev believed that it comes either from “bone”, or from “blasphemy” - witchcraft. Other scholars who tend to see Russian words as borrowings from languages neighboring nations, believed that the name of the living skeleton comes from the Turkic word meaning "slave, servant."

If a slave, then whose? Indeed, in Russian fairy tales, the owner of Koshchei is not mentioned. This living skeleton may be captured by Marya Morevna, but like a prisoner chained to the wall, not a servant at all. How could the Russian Koshchei have a Turkic name? What does his death mean, resting in a casket either under the cherished oak, or at the bottom of the sea? What's with the helper animals?

In a word, there are many questions, but there are no unambiguous answers. Maybe, after all, Afanasiev was right when he raised the name of Koshchei to blasphemers, that is, he called him, thus, a magician. Well, really, who else could extend his life so much that people began to call him Immortal? Of course, the almighty magician. Or a person who turned to demonic forces for help, like, say, Faust. But Koschey in fairy tales is not at all a magician and not a man, he himself, most likely, belongs to the demonic world. So Afanasiev's explanation suffers from approximation and inaccuracy.

Perhaps the most interesting conjecture is the assumption of L. M. Alekseeva, who wrote in “Polar Lights in the Mythology of the Slavs”:

"Undoubtedly, to a single world of the dead and cold applies to Karachun. He is supposedly considered a winter Slavic deity, who retained the features of the personification of death. At the same time, Belarusian beliefs specify that Karachun shortens life and is the cause sudden death In young age. It is important for us that this image is associated with an objective and clear natural factor: Karachun is not only the name of an evil spirit, but also the name of the winter solstice and the holiday associated with it. Tracking the Sun requires a certain scientific qualification, if not all, then at least some members of society (Magi). In addition, the name of the deity introduces us to the circle of detailed plots of the East Slavic fairy tale: Karachun is one of the names of Koshchei the Immortal.

That is, according to Alekseeva, Koschei is the god of death from the cold, and the god, or rather the demon, is very ancient. In order to overcome him, it is necessary, as it were, to spin the wheel of time back, to return to the very beginning of the world, when the Immortal was born. Then it is clear why the fairy tale consistently appears: a brown bear is the lord of the forests, then birds are a hawk and a duck, which can often be seen in the northern tundra. Following them, the inhabitants of the earth and air, there appears an aquatic inhabitant, a fish, in this case, a pike. Maybe once upon a time it was not a pike, but a completely different fish?

Cover of Viktor Kalashnikov's book Russian Demonology.

Let's say a white whale living in the polar regions. If this is so, then in the fairy tale we move not only in space from south to north, from the zone of dense forests through the tundra to the polar seas, but also back in time - in the opposite direction along the path that our distant ancestors once walked, fleeing the onset of the Great Glaciation. Simply put, fabulous animals point us to the north - to where the ancestral home of all Aryan peoples, Arctida.

Perhaps there they paid tribute to the evil god of the fierce cold Karachun, who was born at the very beginning of the creation of the world - from a golden egg laid by the miracle hen Ryaba. Then Karachun went out of obedience - the cold became more and more unbearable, carried away everything more lives, and the time has come, leaving the homeland, which was covered with ice before our eyes, to go after the fish, after the birds to a distant mainland and go further and further, escaping from Karachun-Koshchei moving on the heels. It was necessary to go to the forests, under the protection of trees, and the southern fields, where the frost was not so strong.

It was an exodus from the ancestral home, from the roof of the world, where heaven and earth almost touch each other, where the myth of the Golden Egg was born. Therefore, the march from north to south meant also the movement from the distant past to the present and future.

Our assumptions are not at all as fantastic as it might seem at first glance. According to numerous legends, everything appeared from the golden egg: not only Heaven and Earth, but also underground depths; not only a clear day, but also dark night not only Good, but also Evil. Following the logic of the myth, you need to go back to the very beginning of time in order to strike Evil in its bud, while breaking ... the needle. Why an igloo? In the book already mentioned, Alekseeva suggests that we are talking about the spear - the main weapon of the northern peoples, with which they beat the sea animal and polar bear. And to this day, whales are hunted only with harpoons - large spears, or, if you like, needles.

Although the immortal demon of cold, of course, is not a bear, not a walrus, and not even a whale. You can’t take it with an ordinary harpoon, you need something more powerful here. For example, a magic wand is the same Magic wand, which is mentioned in almost all fairy tales.

And again the question is why this magic wand is not turned against Koshchei in order to take his life by casting spells? Why should the wand be broken? Yes, for the simple reason that this wand, apparently, belonged, if not to Koshchei himself, then to the high priest of his cult. Only by destroying the wand, one can cut off the thread of life of an ancient, but by no means immortal demon. This is what Ivan did in the fairy tale, although Koschey was sure that it was not given to him to reach such wisdom with his mind. Bessmertny was sure that the Russian people had forgotten where they came from to the forests. But no, they didn’t forget: they remembered at the right moment, and then “karachun” came to Koshchei - that is, the end.

There is another assumption about what the treasured Koshcheev needle is. The immortal is not quite alive, but not quite dead either, he is supposedly in the middle of the path between this and that light, that is, he is practically the same as the walking Dead; their bodies were buried, but they rise from the graves and come to their house as ghosts to disturb their relatives.

The only known way to protect yourself from the annoying dead was to dig up their grave at midnight, find an invisible "navi" bone and destroy it by breaking it, or rather burn it. And then the dead man calmed down, died completely. If the needle hidden in the egg is considered the “navi” bone of Koshchei himself, then it is clear why death overtook him.

Perhaps in ancient times there was some kind of ritual that promised a person gaining immortality. In any case, in the grave of the founder of the city of Chernigov (let's not forget that Chernigov was called in Rus' the servants of Chernobog), Prince Cherny, excavated by archaeologists, a scene depicted in a fairy tale was found: a deadly needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare - in the treasure chest.

And here we come to an understanding of what, in fact, immortality is. Is it a punishment or a boon? The ritual of gaining immortality itself has long been forgotten, but its symbol has been preserved - immortelle flowers, about which, recalling his native village of Antonovka, Mirolyubov wrote: , bluish, which could be plucked and put in a glass of water, and they could stand there for months; if they were placed in a vase without water, they also stood for months. Apparently, there was life in them, but, as it were, it was not.

Since I was still a boy at that time, I was interested in why the peasants prefer to sow them in the cemetery. "Old people" answered me that "there are immortals - the flowers of dead relatives, because they are as dead in life." Old Trembochka, a woman in the village, like a healer, explained differently:

“The same flowers bloom in the pit! They are from the pit, and everyone whom the pit takes can communicate with us through those flowers. These flowers are between us and them, like a line (border), and we touch them here, and they touch them there. Death does not take them. Whether they are broken or not, life for them, like death, is one and the same. These flowers are without death. Another woman, who lived near the bridge over the Yellow Waters River, said: “So, if God made light, he took it and began to work the earth, but death did not want to. Then God mounted a horse and began to call death to fight, and she armed herself with all sorts of knives, iron claws, clubs, a gun, and went against God. The fight lasted for an eternity. Now God is fighting, and then she, damned, and while God fought against death, He created in fits and starts, then this, then another. God will do, but death will destroy!

Finally, God lay in wait for death when she gaped, and killed her. But, falling, Death clutched at bushes, grasses, branches, and whatever it grabbed, it would dry up. She grabbed the immortals and began to tear them by the roots. God told them to grow stronger so that she couldn't rip them out, and the flowers grew around the lying death only so much that they covered it halfway, and God could not hit death so that it would stop moving! Then He said: "Well, then be without life and without death!" And the flowers stayed that way forever. And they put them on the graves to announce to the dead that "There is no death! It is killed by God!" But since death has not yet stopped moving and still kills people, the flowers remind the dead of life, and the living of death!

Indeed, I had to observe later - the peasants did not like to keep immortals in the house. These were grave flowers. They were treated almost religiously. Having plucked several of these flowers, I came home from the cemetery where the children gathered in the spring to play, and I wanted to put the flowers in the water, but the servants, noticing them, took them away and threw them into the fire.

Well, this is perhaps the best explanation for the immortality of Koshchei, which is already life not in life, but death is unattainable; he was stuck between these two worlds and remained there until Ivan Tsarevich delivered him from eternal torment and granted him blissful oblivion of death.

If we consider Koshchei a slave, then he was a servant of his damned immortality. Nevertheless, he rather belonged to the other world, because he learns about the appearance of Ivan by the smell of the living: “It smells like a Russian bone!” For the dead, as you know, the smell of the living is unbearable, just as the smell of carrion is disgusting for the living. Ethnographer V. Ya. Propp in " Historical roots fairy tale" wrote about this: "Ivan smells not just like a person, but like a living person. The dead, the incorporeal do not smell, the living smell, the dead recognize the living by their smell... This smell of the living in the highest degree disgusting to the dead... The dead are generally afraid of the living. Not a single living person should cross the cherished threshold.

In Rus', excessive centenarians were suspected of involvement in witchcraft, it was believed that they "heal" (that is, take away) someone else's age. It was considered the most correct to die in due time, surrounded by big family. Immortality did not appeal to anyone. Why is it if people with an immortal soul continue their endless existence in a new, happier world, Blue Svarga, a country in the sky where our ancestors live?

V. Kalashnikov. Russian demonology - M .: Lomonosov, 2014.

Hello dear students!

Today I will not take you for a walk, because the one with whom we are to meet today is no less powerful sorcerer, and maybe even more than Baba Yaga. So, pour tea, take buns freshly baked in our oven with a baked cricket, listen to my story and look, - Zhouli waved her hand towards the stove, and everyone, turning around, saw that pictures were hanging on it.

I think everyone guessed that it would be about Koshchei the Immortal. Most often it is believed that Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless seem to be friends. However, it is Baba Yaga who gives out the secret of how to get to Koshchei the Immortal and how to destroy him. Despite the fact that his name is so telling - Immortal - his death exists. It is at the end of the needle, the needle is in the egg, the egg is in the duck, the duck is in the hare, the hare is in the chest, the chest, tightly chained, hangs on an oak tree (or buried under an oak tree), which stands on an island in the middle of the sea-okiyana.

However, in some stories leading role a magic horse plays in the defeat of Koshchei.

Ivan fattened the foal in the green meadows, and a glorious horse grew out of it. He rode on a horse for Marya and again took her away from Koshchei. Koschei tried to keep up with them, but now Ivan's horse was even better than Koshcheev's horse. How long, how short, Koshchei caught up with the fugitives and wanted to cut Ivan with a saber, but Ivanov's horse hit Koshchei and smashed his head. Ivan lit a fire and burned Koshchei at the stake, and let his ashes fly into the wind

We will talk about magic horses in other lectures.
In another version, Ivan did not burn Koshchei, but finished him off with his club.

It turns out that in different fairy tales we are talking about different Koshchei? This reminds us of the situation with Baba Yaga.

What kind of power does Koschey have?

Can transform into a flying serpent or a black crow. So he quickly moves through the worlds and steals what he likes. And he likes beautiful girls and jewelry. Remember Pushkin? "There Tsar Koshchey languishes over gold." But no matter how much he dragged beauties to him, not one agreed to marry him, and even countless treasures did not appeal to them.

Koschey masterfully owns the magic of transformation. Can turn anyone into anything.

Water gives Koshchei supernatural strength. He drinks three buckets at a time, and then he can’t break the 12 chains on which he is kept in Marya Morevna’s dungeon.

Let us now turn to the very name of this malicious and all-powerful old man.
The Old Slavonic word "kosh" ("kosht") meant "dry, skinny, skinny". This word is close in meaning to the word "bone" and perfectly characterizes Koshchei himself: a short old man, so skinny that only bones are visible. An upright walking skeleton.

Some researchers Slavic myths believe that the image of Koshchei the Immortal and the Serpent Gorynych in Russian fairy tales are interchangeable: both love wealth, steal beauties. But Koschey is also endowed with other powers, which are beyond the control of the Serpent Gorynych. So they are still different creatures.

There is a version that the word "koshchey" goes back to "blasphemer", which means already a sorcerer. Indeed, only an almighty magician could become immortal, or, well, a person who turned to demonic forces for help, like Faust.

Where Koschey lives, trees do not grow, birds do not sing, the earth is not fertile, the sun does not let its blessed rays. In the kingdom of Koshcheev it is always twilight. Everything is scorched, dried, frozen. What does this remind you of? Well, of course, winter, severe frosts that fetter rivers and can kill all living things. It is fair to say that under Koshchei the Deathless, the ancient god of death from the cold could be hidden. And such was. This is Karachun - an evil spirit that shortens life, bringing death from the cold. The same word is called the winter solstice. Karachun is an underground god who commands frost. His assistants: connecting rod bears, turning into snowstorms, and blizzard wolves.

The fact that Koschey is associated with cold is also indicated by the following facts drawn from fairy tales. On the way to the kingdom of Koshcheev, the traveler first comes across a brown bear - the lord of the forests. Following him are birds, in particular migratory ones, for example, duck, which can be seen in the northern tundra during the summer nesting period. Next comes the fish. Pike, but perhaps this is a later replacement, and earlier there was some kind of fish from northern seas, for example, white whale. Thus, the path goes from south to north. And it is in the north, in his terrible and cold halls, that Koschei the Deathless lives.

What is immortality? Is it a blessing or a punishment? Perhaps in ancient times there was a ritual of gaining immortality. In any case, during the excavation of the grave of the founder of the city of Chernigov, Prince Cherny, archaeologists found a scene depicted in fairy tales: a needle is in an egg, an egg is in a duck, a duck is in a hare, a hare is in a coveted chest. The ritual of gaining immortality has been forgotten, but its symbol has been preserved - immortelle flowers. Rough and dry to the touch, yellowish, reddish. They grow in the ground or plucked put in a glass of water - there is not much difference. They can stand without water and do not change their color. Life in them seems to be, and it seems not. They prefer to plant such flowers on the graves. The explanation is this: these flowers are between the living and the dead, like a border. We touch them in this world, and the dead in the next.

Maybe Koshchei's immortality is like that? Life is not life, and death is unattainable. And he is stuck between two worlds and remains so until Ivan Tsarevich saves him from such eternal torment, because Koschey is still a creature larger than that otherworldly world. He immediately smells the smell of a living person with disgust.

And although the image of Koshchei the Immortal is so unpleasant, it is of interest to many researchers of Slavic mythology. One of these is Alexander Fomich Veltman (1800-1870) - a prolific writer, founder of the genre of Russian science fiction, historian, folklorist, director of the Armory, academician. And although he is the son of a Swedish envoy, he became a true connoisseur and lover of Russian antiquity.

Well, how? Didn't you freeze from such a story? If the cold sneaks, then our tea will quickly drive it out! So pour yourself another cup, and then run to rest. Homework will. How without it?

1. How many degrees of protection does Koshcheeva's death have? Tell me why so many.

2. Tell who or what was enchanted with Koshche's transformation and how the enchantment was removed.

3. Now dream up. You have entered the Koshcheevo kingdom. What did they see there? What they were doing?

Koschey the Immortal is one of the brightest fairy-tale characters, making an indelible impression on the listener, especially in the children's audience. Plots in which this image is present always make you empathize with the main character - Ivan Tsarevich, worry about his fate, since his opponent is strong, powerful and, it seems, invulnerable. In addition, from an ordinary point of view, the image of Koshchei in fairy tales is perceived as unambiguously negative. From the standpoint of the bearer of mythological consciousness, this definition should be put in quotation marks. Actually, the image of Koshchei the Immortal is one of the variants of the image of the hero’s opponent, without which the test could not have taken place, transferring the hero into new stage his fabulous life. The image of Koshchei, like Baba Yaga, has a mythological basis dating back to ancient times.

Koschei the Deathless. I. Bilibin (1901).

The name of this character deserves attention. The storytellers called him "Kashcha", "Kashch", "Kashcha". IN Ukrainian fairy tales Koschey's name has such vowels as "Kostye" or "Ko-st1y", and it turns out to be especially consonant with the word "bones", which, probably, along with the obvious connection of this character with the idea of ​​​​death, served as the basis for later images of this character, for example in film adaptations of fairy tales, in the form of a thin, skeleton-like person. It is also indicative that in Russian folk dialects the word "Koshchei" means "a thin, skinny person, a walking skeleton." However, most likely, it has a foreign language origin. In monuments Old Russian writing the word "koshchey" is found with the meaning "lad, boy", "captive, slave", and the researchers elevate it to the Turkic "Kos-th" - "slave".

No less interesting and significant are the epithets that accompany the character's name, and are often perceived as an integral part of it. These are the definitions of "filthy", "soulless", "immortal". All of them, from the point of view of mythopoetic consciousness, make it possible to qualify Koshchei as a creature belonging to a “different” fairy-tale world. The epithet "nasty" indicates Koshchei's opposition to the "holy", Christian world, which reflects elements of the traditional worldview relating to the religious sphere at a certain stage of historical reality. In the epic reality, where archaic ideas about “one's own” and “alien” are reproduced, it is a sign that characterizes the characters of the “foreign” world. The definitions of "soulless" and "immortal" are called features Koshchei, which reflect the mythological nature of his image and - more narrowly - his otherworldly origin.

The perception of Koshchei the Immortal as a representative of the "other" world, the world of death, is indicated by the characteristics of his location. Koshchei's kingdom is very far away: the hero has to go to "cover the world, to the very end" of it. The longest, most difficult and dangerous of all paths leads there: the hero wears out iron boots, an iron frock coat and an iron hat, eats three iron loaves; he has to overcome numerous obstacles, turn to assistants for advice and help, fight against an insidious enemy, and even die and be resurrected. The dwelling of Koshchei the Immortal is depicted in a fairy tale as a palace, a castle, a large house, "a ta-terka - golden windows." Here are untold riches - gold, silver, scat pearls, which the hero, after defeating the enemy, takes from his kingdom. According to researchers, the golden color of objects in the mythopoetic consciousness is perceived as a sign of the other world. The same applies to the image of the glass mountains, where, according to some texts of fairy tales, the palace of Koshchei the Immortal is located.

Koshchei's belonging to the "other" world can be traced in a line that brings him closer to the image of Baba Yaga. Like Baba Yaga, he detects the presence of a person in his house by smell, and storytellers use the same formulas to describe this moment: “Fu-fu-fu, something in the upper room smells of Russian spirit” - or: “Fu -ugh! You can’t hear the Russian scythe, you can’t see it in sight, but the Russian scythe itself came into the yard. As in the case of Baba Yaga, the expression “Russian scythe” characteristic of a Russian fairy tale means a person in general as a representative of an alien epic tribe.

Appearance Koshcheya in fairy tales is rather fuzzy. Texts usually do not complete portrait this character, and there are only individual characteristics, mostly clearly indicating the mythological nature of the image. One of the most frequently mentioned signs is age. Koschei the Immortal is depicted as an old, "gray-haired old man", "decrepit man". Often there is an indication that he has a long beard - in the traditional mind, it is also an indicator of old age. Sometimes in fairy tales, the length of Koshchei's beard exceeds his height, while he himself turns out to be incredibly small: "himself with a cocotte, a beard with an elbow." It should be mentioned that in fairy tales there is an independent character whose appearance is described by the same formula. Usually his role in the plot is to detain and imprison the protagonist's brothers, who cannot cope with the trials he has proposed. This small but possessing magic power the old man, like Koshchei the Immortal, can only be overcome by a real hero. The mythological characteristics of Koshchei include features characteristic of animals: he has “fangs like a boar”. The image of Koshchei the Immortal is endowed with another sign that is significant from the point of view of mythological thinking. This is blindness, which in mythopoetic texts is a sign that a character belongs to the other world. In one of Siberian fairy tales Koschey says to his assistants: “Seven children! Bring me a seven pitchfork, raise my heavy eyebrows. I'll see how far Neugomon-Tsarevich is going. This description undoubtedly resembles the image of Viy from the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. It is known that the writer, when creating his work, used the traditional ideas about the blind and omnipotent demon of darkness.

Let's look at other characteristics of the character, dating back to ancient mythological ideas. In many fairy tales, Koschey the Immortal does not walk, does not ride, but flies like a bird or a whirlwind, which resembles the Serpent Gorynych. Koshchei's flight causes violent changes in the state of nature: "Suddenly thunder rumbles, hail is coming, Koschei the Deathless is flying." Moreover, often the movement of Koshchei in the air leads to destructive actions in the natural space: "leaves flew from the trees, the terrible wind Kashchei flies."

Koschey the Immortal is endowed with great power in fairy tales. From one of his breath, heroes-heroes "fly like mosquitoes." Koschey is able to raise a sword "five hundred pounds", fight with the hero all day and win. In some stories, he, like Baba Yaga, cuts strips of “belts” from the backs of strong heroes. At the same time, Koshchei's strength is not limitless. Moreover, as can be seen from fairy tales, both his strength and himself can be destroyed under certain circumstances. In some tales, Koschei appears in the story as a prisoner. The reason for his capture is the unlucky matchmaking to the heroine - future wife Main character. The heroine-bride turns out to be stronger than Koshchei the Immortal, which confirms her unusual origin. She puts Koshchei in the cellars "for the steps" - courtship or for the fact that he sewed her shoes less than necessary. In prison, he hangs for many years (thirty-six) on twelve chains, stands on a board of fire, burns in a fire or sits in a boiling cauldron and does not receive any food. The mythological nature of Koshchei is evidenced by the fact that he, hanging by a thread, burning in a fire or boiling in a cauldron, does not die: he is immortal. Exhausted from hunger and thirst, Koschei only loses his extraordinary strength. True, she returns to him, as soon as he drinks water.

Koschey. I. Golovin. Costume design for the opera Mlada by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1924).

Unusual gluttony is attributed to Koshchei the Immortal in fairy tales, which probably helps to maintain his strength. For example, he eats a dinner prepared for three heroes-heroes, he can drink a bucket and even a barrel of water or wine at once, eat half a bull. Exorbitant gluttony brings his image closer to mythological ideas about death, the essence of which is characterized by a constant feeling of hunger.

As a fairy-tale character belonging to the “other” world, Koschey the Immortal is the owner of not only untold riches, but also wonderful things. Yes, he has magic sword Sam-samosek, there is an unusual horse. The horse of Koshchei the Immortal is endowed with various fantastic abilities. He is prophetic: he warns his master three times that Ivan Tsarevich has taken away his captive. Another ability of the horse is unimaginable speed; the head start given to the runaway hero by a horse is described in a fairy tale by listing the processes of growing and processing bread, which in reality capture almost all the time annual cycle: “You can sow wheat, wait until it grows, squeeze it, grind it, turn it into flour, cook five ovens of bread, eat that bread, but then go after it - and then we’ll be in time” - or: “You can sow barley, wait until he will grow up, squeeze, grind, brew beer, get drunk, get enough sleep, and then go after him - and then we will be in time!

In addition to "material" values ​​and magic items, Koschey the Immortal has power over the life and death of people, which brings him closer to the image of personified death. So, with the help of magical influence, he can turn all living things into stone. In fairy tales where he appears as a prisoner, main character usually violates the ban on entering the dungeon, and Koschey promises to save him from three deaths for satisfying his thirst and hunger. In one version of the fairy tale, Koschey, turning to the hero for help, says: “If, well done, you let me down from the board, I’ll add two centuries to you!” Freed from captivity, Koschey keeps his promise until the hero tries to free his wife or bride from him for the third time.

The main feature of Koshchei the Immortal, which distinguishes him from other fairy tale characters, is that his death

(soul, power) is materialized in the form of an object and exists separately from it. She is in the egg, which is hidden in a certain place. This place in mythopoetic representations is comprehended as an otherworldly space belonging to "other" worlds - upper or lower: "There is an island on the sea on the ocean, on that island there is an oak tree, a chest is buried under an oak tree, in a chest - a hare, in a hare - a duck, duck has an egg. Sometimes in fairy tales it is said that the box or chest with Koshcheev's death is on the oak, and the oak is on the mountain or in the field, and "Kashchey protects that tree like his own eye." Koshcheev's death is located where "no one walks, no one rides." And Koschey himself carefully keeps the secret of his death, which makes him invulnerable to enemies. Only a true hero can find and get Koshchei's death. And then, as is known from fairy tales, he is usually helped by magical animals, whom he spared in his time. In mythological consciousness, these animals, as a rule, correspond to three zones of vertical division of world space: sky, earth and water, that is, the underworld. Most often it is: an eagle, a hawk, a raven; bear, dog, fox; pike or just fish, cancer, drake.

The removal of the egg with Koshcheev's death from the place where it rests immediately affects his condition: he falls ill, he becomes ill, he falls into bed. It gets even worse when the hero does some kind of manipulation with this egg, which is very vividly depicted in a fairy tale:

Ivan Tsarevich took out an egg from his bosom and showed Koshchei: “What is this?” In Koshchei, the light in his eyes clouded, he immediately calmed down - he submitted. Ivan Tsarevich shifted the egg from hand to hand - Koshchei the Immortal was thrown from corner to corner. It seemed to the tsarevich any pleasure, let's shift from hand to hand more often; shifted and shifted and completely crushed - then Koschei fell down and died. IN different options fairy tales, the hero breaks an egg, hitting it in the chest or forehead of Koshchei, beats it on a stone, sword or on his head, throws the egg into the fire or into Koshchei's "myalo" (mouth).

Researchers correlate the fabulous image Koshcheeva death in an egg with a complex of archaic ideas about the so-called world egg, or cosmic egg. In the mythopoetic traditions of many peoples, the image of the cosmic egg acts as a symbol of the source of creative power and is associated with the idea of ​​creation in a broad sense, including the world space. It is no coincidence that in folklore texts it is often through him that spatial and temporal structures are depicted. An example of the emergence of space from an egg and its inclusion in this object is fairy story about three kingdoms: copper, silver and gold, which are folded by their mistresses-princesses, respectively, into copper, silver and golden egg, and when necessary - unfold. The designation of time and its division with the help of this image is present in the texts of riddles: “There is a beam across all of Rus', there are twelve nests on this beam, four eggs in each nest, and seven chickens in each egg” (the answer is a year, months, weeks , days). The beginning of creation in the mythologies of some peoples is associated with the fact that the world egg splits, explodes. Sometimes various incarnations of evil forces are born from it, for example, death. Above, in one of the sections of the book, the fabulous image of Death, which the soldier locks in a nutlet, and then releases, has already been mentioned. The image of Koshcheev's death in the egg is put by the researchers in one typological series with the given examples. The idea of ​​creation, the initiation of life, in a certain sense, is also correlated with the motive for the destruction of Koshchei's death, which is contained in an egg. Extracting her from the egg and thereby destroying Koshchei turns out to be the destruction of the obstacle to connecting the hero and heroine. Only after the death of Koshchei, the test of the hero is considered passed, and the spell of the heroine-bride is lifted. From that moment on, they both enter a new stage of life - marriage, the purpose of which, according to traditional ideas, is the continuation of the family, that is, life. This idea is consistent with the persistently preserved up to late XIX- early twentieth century wedding ceremonies in Russian and many others cultural traditions Western European peoples. So, for example, in the Yaroslavl province, when newlyweds met after the wedding, they were served an egg cut in half, and this was their first meal together. In Ugric Rus', the first food that the newlyweds ate consisted of eggs and boiled milk. In the Oryol province, when going to the crown, they took a loaf with them, in which they laid a couple of eggs. Among the Bulgarians, before leaving for the church, the mother, in order to ensure the fertility of a young and easy birth, put a raw egg in the bride's bosom, which was broken on the threshold. In some areas of Romania, the bride, leaving home stepped on an egg; it was believed that this would facilitate childbirth and bring health to the child.

Returning to the image of Koshchei the Immortal, it should be noted that there are plots in which his death occurs from a blow with the hoof of a magic horse specially obtained by the hero. The task of getting such a horse, which would not only not be inferior to Koshcheev’s horse, but also surpass it in strength and speed, is available only true hero. Such a horse or foal grazes in a herd of wonderful mares, which is run by Baba Yaga or Koshchei's mother. The mare, from which the magical foal is born, “walks across the sea, and twelve regiments of wolves follow her. And she only happens to be a foal for one hour. And there is an azure tree beyond the sea. She will run under this tree, all the same, like the wind, she will lie down now, in one minute she will foal, she will run away again. Now the wolves: twelve regiments of wolves will come running and this foal will be torn to pieces. Only no one can get it!” To get this foal, the hero needs to graze an unusual herd for three days. As in the case of getting death in an egg, here animals grateful to him help the hero: they collect the scattered herd. The “lousy” foal obtained by the hero is transformed into a strong and powerful horse after three dawns pasture it in a special way: on barley, on wheat and on oats. Koshchei's death comes when the magic horse of Ivan Tsarevich beats him in the forehead with a hoof. Sometimes, during the flight, Koshchei is thrown off high altitude his own horse, which on the move enters into an agreement with his younger brother - the horse of Ivan Tsarevich. Koschey, falling from his horse, hits the ground and dies. In some versions of the tale, Koschey sits down on the winged horse Ivan Tsarevich, specially set up for him, and falls when the owner of the horse says: “Oh, Horse, raise your novice to the heavens and smash him to smithereens.”

What is the role of Koshchei the Immortal in the fairy tale? It is known from the texts that his usual activities are that he flies around Rus', "goes to war", leaves "for prey" or hunting, "staggers around the free world." As part of the development of the plot of the tale, Koschey acts as a formidable opponent of the protagonist. The conflict between them always arises because of the heroine-bride: Koschei is the kidnapper of the hero's bride. Sometimes in a fairy tale there is no motivation for the kidnapping. More often, the heroine's falling under the power of Koshchei is associated with a violation by the protagonist of any prohibition relating to the pre-wedding or post-wedding period. This, for example, is a violation of the requirement of the wife (or bride) to her husband (or groom) to enter one of the premises of the house: the basement or pantry. Failure to comply with this prohibition leads to the fact that Koschey is released from the closed room, forcibly captures the heroine and takes him to his kingdom: "The old man hit the ground, faked Elena the Beautiful from the garden and took him away." Often there is also a ban on burning the skin of an enchanted or cursed frog princess before the expiration of a certain period:

The ball is over, go to the hall. The [frog princess] looks - there is no skin. “What are you, Ivan Tsarevich, why did you burn my skin?” - "I wanted to have such a wife." “Well, my dear, we must part with you. So I can't live here anymore. I will go to Kashchei the Deathless. - "Why?" - “Yes, there are six months left to wear the skin. This skin is doomed by my own mother. She cursed me. And now it remains for me to go to Kashchei the Deathless. The captives of Koshchei are divided mainly into two types. Some humble themselves and become his wives, although they do not love him and seek to free themselves from this connection when a hero appears as a savior. In some stories, Koshchei's daughters are subject to Koshchei, who, at the first opportunity, at the cost of the death of their own father, marry the hero. Representatives of another type of captives hold themselves independently in relation to their captor and boldly reject his harassment. They perceive marriage with Koshchei as death, even worse than death. So one of the captive heroines says to her fiancé Ivan Tsarevich about Koshchei:

“does not give peace, forces me to marry him and be faithful wife. But I do not want to be his faithful wife, but I want to accept certain death. Most often, captives in Koshchei's chambers are engaged in spinning, sewing, and embroidering. All these are activities that traditional culture were assigned to the socio-age statuses of a girl who had reached the age of marriage, and a prostitute, or bride. In the fairy tale, the heroine’s stay in the kingdom of Koshchei is like in a kind of isolated from ordinary world place correlates with such a phenomenon of reality within the wedding cycle as an unspoken ban for a betrothed girl to leave her home before the wedding day. When, in the course of a fairy tale story, a hero-groom appears near the kingdom of Koshcheev, the heroines of any of the noted types use cunning as a weapon against the kidnapper: they try to find out where his death is. Here is how it is portrayed in one of the tales:

Koshshey comes running in the evening. She [dawn-dawn] was merry. “Ah, you are my dear fiance! Today we will live forever with you. Now Ivan the Tsar's son - there are no golden curls, there is no one to kidnap me. You don't explain your secrets." “Will I explain some secrets to you?” - he answers. - “Yes, at least tell me your death, at least admire it,” he says. IN fairy motif inquiring about the place of death of Koshchei, in fact, the contest between the captive and the kidnapper in cunning is realized. Koschey gives false answers: death is in a broom, the horns of a motley cow and similar objects, and the heroine does not show the appearance that she does not believe him, and performs actions, looking at which Koschey is amused: “Oh, you foolish woman! The hair is long, but the mind is short. But the captive's patience and cunning are eventually rewarded: for the third time, Koschei tells the truth about his death.

Based on a comparison of the Russian fairy tale with international ethnographic material, the researchers came to the conclusion that the image of Koshchei the kidnapper, like Baba Yaga, goes back to the figure of the initiator in the system of archaic rites of marriage initiation. fairy tale heroine, the bride or young wife, “receives initiation” in the kingdom of Koshchei, and only after that does she return to the groom or husband who has human nature. In the rites of initiation, the figure of the initiator, the fact that the initiates were turned off from the familiar environment, and the very state of the subject in the process of initiation, in accordance with the mythological consciousness, were associated with a complex of ideas about death, more precisely, temporary death. All these archaic notions are reflected in mythopoetic texts, to which the fairy tale belongs. Hence the image of Koshchei the Immortal is so clearly connected with the idea of ​​death, both real and symbolic: the heroine-bride is isolated in his kingdom, a kingdom of the “other” world type, that is, the world of death. The loss of understanding of the meaning of certain rites led to a change in the assessment of the image of the initiator. In fairy-tale reality, due to the sign of involvement in the other world, which is not exposed within the framework of ethnographic reality evaluation characteristic, he received new coverage and, no doubt, began to be perceived as a dark force hostile to man, as a dangerous demonic creature.

Koschey the Immortal is not the only character who kidnaps brides and women. This category of fairy-tale images also includes the Serpent, birds such as Raven Voronovich, a bear and similar characters.