E-mail: pproe@yandex.ru
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1, Petrovsky str., Yakutsk, 677027, Russian Federation
PhD in Pedagogy, Leading Researcher, Department of Northern Philology, Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The article was carried out within the framework of State Assignment No. 075-00619-26-00 for 2026, research project No. 124030600003-9. T
he study was carried out using the scientific equipment of the Shared Use Center of the Federal Research Center “Yakut Scientific Center, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences”.
This article is devoted to the little-studied fairy tale folklore of the Forest Yukaghirs and investigates the semantics of the image of an old woman clinging to the base of the hearth and the motif of sticking to the edge of a hearth. Identifying the meanings of this fragment of Yukaghir oral tradition leads us to examine a range of folklore material relating to various northern peoples; this in turn confirms and complements the conclusions drawn concerning this fragment. The image of a supernatural old woman in the folklore of northern peoples combines the hypostases of a mother-ancestor and a guardian of the entrance to the underworld and is often associated with the story of one of two brothers searching for a supernatural wife. The image of an old woman-ancestress feeding a person from part of her body is found in the folklore of the Yukaghirs, Evens, and Koryaks; being treated to such food can be interpreted as gaining access to the power of the ancestor, a condition for safe travel in the other world. In the Yukaghir oral tradition, the image of an old woman stuck to the edge of a hearth/ bed, in the context of an ancestor, simultaneously depicts old age and the archaic nature of the character. In the folklore of the northern peoples, the motif of clinging to something is associated with immobility, weakness and death. It has been suggested that the image of an old woman-ancestor feeding someone part of her body may be part of pre-Yukaghir folklore, but in the tale of the Forest Yukaghirs this image probably indicates borrowin
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