E-mail: apankomisc@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (8212) 20-17-02
26, Kommunisticheskaya str., Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, 167982, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, Folklore Sector, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Komi Scientific Center, Uralic Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The work was carried out within the framework of the planned research topic (reg. No. 121051400044-2).
This article examines a small selection of demonological stories about the encounters of hunters with female demons. Their characteristic plot is briefly described and two main groups of the tales are defined, either as “open”--aimed at a wide audience, or as “closed”-told within the subculture itself or in the hunter’s family circle. The first group is represented here by demonological stories reproducing a plot well known in the Russian North about an imagined wife who rips apart a hunter’s child right in front of him. The more “closed” narratives consist of biographical stories disseminated among the hunters themselves or in the family circle, acquiring the status of family folklore. These two groups differ in both poetics and in content that relates to personal experiences of unexplained phenomena. The author suggests that these stories be considered in the context of the changed states of consciousness that they depict. The life of fishermen often takes place at the limit of human endurance and can induce altered states of consciousness; these are manifested by various perceptual disorders (illusions, hallucinations) that are reflected in demonological terms.
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