E-mail: atoporkov@mail.ru
Tel.: +7 (495) 690-50-30
25a, Povarskaya str., Moscow, 121069, Russian Federation
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, DSc in Philology, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences
This article is devoted to a group of hunting incantations and magic formulas which were recorded over the last two centuries in the vast territory of the Russian north and north-west, southern and central Russia, the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia. Based on a collection of 24 texts, information about their history, geographical distribution, structure, poetics and characters is presented. A magic formula was pronounced when two hunters made visual contact, because each of them might fear that the other would cast an evil spell using a verbal charm or incantation. In such a situation, it was important to recite the magical text quickly in order to outpace one’s rival. The small size and poetic form of the magical texts facilitated their memorization, aided their transmission from one performer to another, simplified their pronunciation, and gave them aesthetic appeal. Thus the structure and poetics of the texts were largely determined by the peculiarities of their function.
Gura A. V. (2009) Rybolovstvo [Fishing]. In: Slavyanskie drevnosti: Ehtnolingvisticheskii slovar’ [Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary]. Vol. 4. Moscow: Mezhdunar. otnosheniya. Pp. 507–514. In Russian.
Denisevich K. N. (2001) Okhotnich’ya i rybatskaya magiya Kargopol’ya [Hunting and Fishing Magic of Kargopol]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity]. 2001. No. 3. Pp. 48–50. In Russian.
Dobrovol’skaya V. E. (2009) «Vsyaka ryba khorosha, koli na udu poshla…»: Zaprety i predpisaniya, svyazannye s rybolovstvom [“All Fish is Good, if it Went for a Hoe...”: Prohibitions and Regulations Related to Fishing]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity]. 2009. No. 2. Pp. 29–31. In Russian.
Levkievskaya E. E. (2004) Okhotnik [Hunter]. In: Slavyanskie drevnosti: Ehtnolingvisticheskii slovar’ [Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary]. Vol. 3. Moscow: Mezhdunar. otnosheniya, Pp. 599–604. In Russian.
Lyakhova Yu. V. (2009) Magiya kargopol’skikh i nyandomskikh okhotnikov i rybakov [Magic of Kargopol and Nyandom Hunters and Fishermen]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity]. 2009. No. 2. Pp.19–22. In Russian.
Moroz A. B. (ed.) (2013) Znatki, veduny i chernoknizhniki: Koldovstvo i bytovaya magiya na Russkom Severe [Connoisseurs, Veduns and Warlocks: Witchcraft and Everyday Magic in the Russian North]. Ed. by A. B. Moroz. Moscow: Forum; Neolit. In Russian.
Trofimov A. A. (2001) Ritual’no-magicheskaya praktika rybakov Kargopol’skogo raiona Arkhangel’skoi oblasti [Ritual and Magical Practice of Fishermen of the Kargopol District of the Arkhangelsk Region]. In: Muzhskoi sbornik. Vyp. 1: Muzhchina v traditsionnoi kul’ture [Men’s Collection. Iss. 1: A Man in Traditional Culture]. Moscow: Labirint. In Russian. In Russian.
Toporkov A. L. The Structure, Poetics and Pragmatics of One type of the Hunting Plots. Traditional Culture. 2026. Vol. 27. No. 1. Pp. 95–105. In Russian.