E-mail: shevarenkova@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (831) 462-31-06
37, B. Pokrovskaya str., Nizhny Novgorod, 603090, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Russian Literature, Institute of Philology and Journalism, Nizhny Novgorod National Research State University
named after N. I. Lobachevsky
This article is based on materials collected by folklore expeditions from the Lobachevsky State University to the revered natural complex of Startsev Ugol, located on the border of the Nizhny Novgorod region and Mordovia. The legendary basis of the complex is as a lost monastery, the material remnants of which are the triad of hill + springs + stones. The study attempts to determine the spatial and semantic structure of the complex; the status, role and ritual practices connected with its natural components; and to describe the plot fund of local legends. The primary layer of these narratives is a legend about Ivan Grozniy as the founder of the monastery and Emelyan Pugachev as its destroyer. The image of the one-time monastery constitutes the basis for narratives about its failure, burning, or burial. The version about its failure is based on the idea of hiding the monastery underground and its life there; the story includes traditional motifs of “news” from underground and correlates with the idea of the church’s future “exit” from underground. The version about the killing of its monks suggests the image of Startsev Ugol as a grave. Startsev Ugol’s spatial structure is formed by a hill, five springs and a group of stones. People visit Startsev Ugol for medical nature and memorial reasons. The location of the tract on the site of ancestral Mordovian lands suggests the presence here of a lost archaeological site — possibly a Mordovian funeral mound.
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