Article

Name: Characters of Legends about a Demon Harming Potential in Armenian, South Slavian Traditions and in the Author’s Text of A. Remizov

Authors: Heghine A. Sahakyan

Vanadzor State University, Vanadzor, Republic of Armenia

In the section The Plot in Literature and Folklore

Abstract:

In the South Slavic Sisinia legend (SL) and in the author’s adaptation of the legend by A. Remizov, Veshtitsa (Veshitsa) acts as a Demon harming women in labor, in Armenian folklore this function is assigned mainly to the demons Al and Tpkha.

Gog and Magoga, trying to save the last, seventh, surviving child from the Devil, built ‘a tower of marble, bound it with an iron nail and filled it with tin’. They decided to hide the Qeen in the tower until the child grows up. In connection with this episode, of interest is a belief widespread among many peoples, according to which, in order to protect a woman in labor from the Als, she was surrounded by iron objects during childbirth. For example, the ancient Armenians pinned a pin to the clothes or bed of a woman in labor or a child, hung a sword over the cradle, etc.

The texts note the weather conditions – storm, winter, downpour, blizzard, which contribute to letting Sisinia into the house. The connection between bad weather, in particular, storms with demons can be clearly traced in both Armenian and Slavic traditions.

The sea is the abode of the devil both in the Armenian and Aramaic and in the Greek traditions: only in Ethiopian texts, instead of the sea, does the garden appear as the habitat and refuge of Verzilla. In East Slavic prayers, shakers come out of the sea, while it rises. Instead of the traditional for the Slavic versions of catching a demon from the sea with the help of a fish-ing rod / net, A. Remizov presented a meeting of a saint and a demoness in the desert, which is more typical of Armenian legends.

We have established the similarity of the Thing with the demons Als from the Armenian folklore, which are described as anthropozoomorphic creatures with burning or glass eyes.

For a comparative and comparative analysis of the lists of the names of demons, we examined the mythonyms identified in the Slavic (more precisely, in the South Slavic branch of interest to us), Armenian and Remizov’s versions of the texts of the Sisinia legend.

The first group – demon mythonyms, consists of the names of demons, witches and sorcerers. The second group is mythonyms derived from words indicating the wrecking of demons (formed mainly from verbs). A special place is given to mythonyms with the meaning of “harming children”. The third group of names indicates the connection between Veshtitsa and atmospheric phenomena. The fourth group – mythonyms, indicating werewolf and the ability of demons to transform. The fifth group is the names of diseases and their symptoms. The sixth group is evaluative names.

The list of demon names in the text of A. Remizov consists of thirteen mythonyms, which are more reminiscent of the names of shakers or sinners / sins, and all of them are exclusively feminine.

Keywords: Saint Sisinius, Meletina, Magoga, mythonyms of demons, Veshitsa, Mora, Tryazavitsy, al and tpkha, teratomorphic appearance

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