E-mail: dampilova_luda@rambler.ru
Tel.: +7 (983) 435-30-28
6, Sakhyanovoy st, Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, 670047, Russian Federation
Grand PhD (Philology), associate professor, chief researcher, coordinator of Literature and Folklore
Department, Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch, Russian
Academy of Sciences
It seems urgent for contemporary Russian folklore studies to undertake comparative analysis of mythological images of chthonic creatures in Mongolian folklore and to compare them with sufficiently studied materials on snakes in the world mythology. There in the folklore of the Mongolian nations, snakes, “Luz / Lusad “‘owners, water spirits’ and Luu ‘heavenly dragons’ are interconnected and often have similar functions. This paper is the first to discuss the locus of their appearance and their functions in the ritual folklore in comparison with well-known facts of the epics and fairy tales. As a result, the study has revealed that in ritual folklore snakes are distributed among all the three worlds, Luz are terrestrial and subterranean beings, and Luu are manifested by heavenly figures. It is also revealed that snakes, Luz and Luu have common serpentine visual features, they are closely linked and are closely associated with the water element. Snakes, Luz and Luu, symbolizing the sacred power in the folklore of the Mongolian nations, are encoded as divine characters. There in ritual folklore their identical functions are defined as divine creatures, which help and protect. Snakes function as an assistant, a mediator and a messenger from the other world send to communicate with the real world. Luu and Luz in all genres of folklore remain an incarnation of lord and god, only their external shape is transformed. Whereas in ritual folklore and fairy tales snakes symbolize positive functions, there in the epics a snake appears in the male form of the mighty serpent as a negative incarnation. In the epics and fairy tales positive and divine function of Luu and Luz is presumed, though they are passive characters.
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