In many cultures, white is considered the color of death and evil. Having visited the far north, it is easy to understand why. The polar night steals the sun. The icy desert stretches in all directions in the uncertain light of the moon and the aurora. The frost burns, the blizzard howls like a horde of ghosts. And there are no flowers other than white on the frozen ground covered with snow. Snow is white in the dark.

Demons of the Siberian taiga

The north is stunning not with its beauty or splendor, but with its grandeur. The taiga and tundra are like the ocean. Tibet and the Norwegian fjords can be hidden here and no one will find them. But even in populous England, where even in the Middle Ages there were twenty inhabitants per square kilometer, there was room for the people of the hills and bizarre forest creatures. What then can we say about Yakutia, where the population density even today is a hundred times less?

People never truly owned this land. A handful of hunters and herders struggled to survive in a vast world owned by ghosts. In a country where snow lies for seven months of the year, and the temperature in winter drops below minus 60 degrees, the invisible rulers of the taiga did not forgive insults and could dictate terms.

Master of the taiga Baai Bayanai

The bulk of the ghostly population of Yakutia are ichchi, spirits of nature. Like Japanese kami, they can be both personifications of mountains, trees and lakes, and patrons of the area, embodiments of ideas and phenomena. But if in Japan an old pine tree becomes the embodied idea of ​​a tree, then in Yakutia spirits are not identified with objects. Ichchi simply lives in a tree and if his house is cut down, he will not die. But he will be very angry.

Fortunately for lumberjacks, only some trunks are “occupied” with spirits. But the Ichchi control the taiga, meadows, swamps, mountains, river floods and lake expanses so tightly, as if Yakutia for them is one big sacred grove. You can still see trees decorated with ribbons along the roads of the republic. The spirits collect a small tribute from people - it could be a souvenir, a coin or a sip of kumiss. The tribute is taken not for the use of the land, but simply for entering the territory.

Incorporeal, invisible and shapeless, the Ichchi managed to survive even the Christianization of Yakutia without loss. Traditional exorcist remedies do not work on them - the spirits of the taiga have developed complete immunity to holy water, the cross and prayers. But, fortunately, the icchi are not evil. The most powerful of them, the ruler of the forests and joker Baai Bayanai, even patronizes hunters. Even if not to everyone, but only to those worthy, who have passed the necessary tests and observed customs. True, this god has a specific sense of humor, and even the worthy are not always protected from his jokes.

The real evil spirits of the Yakut expanses are the abas ghosts. They are also incorporeal, but unlike icchi, they can appear to people in a variety of, invariably frightening, guises. Classic abas prefer an appearance in the spirit of the Irish Fomorians - one-legged, one-armed and one-eyed giants. In the last couple of centuries, as they say, the shape of a three-meter, impenetrably dark, often headless silhouette has become fashionable among them. If abas appear during the day (and they are not afraid of light), then you can see huge black eyes on a deathly white face. Abasas, as a rule, have no legs - ghosts simply glide above the ground or gallop along the roads on monstrous horses. And in any form, abas emit an unbearable smell of decomposition.

You can escape from abasa. Its main weapon is fear, and if the ghost fails to frighten the victim and put him to flight, then he himself becomes confused.

Abases in illustrations by Elley Sivtsev

Ghosts of this type are able to manipulate gravity - making a weapon or burden incredibly heavy, or even pinning a person to the ground. The most dangerous thing is that abas are able to drink the soul. People who encounter evil spirits in the forest or in an abandoned house die without receiving any external damage. But the consequences for the victim can be even worse than death. Sometimes an evil spirit enters a devastated body, and a zombie appears.

The Siberian dead are so harsh that African zombies can’t hold a candle to them. Deretnik is not just bloodthirsty and incredibly strong - he is also fast as lightning. It is very difficult to stop him: the deretnik has never heard of silver, garlic and holy water, and, as befits a zombie, he is philosophical about bullets and ax blows. To incapacitate a deretnik, he must at least be beheaded. And so that the dead man does not become a deretnik, he must be beheaded and buried with his stomach down, holding the severed head between his legs. Fortunately, the deretnik is short-lived. The presence of abasa accelerates the decomposition of the corpse so much that the zombie literally rots before our eyes.

Rice. Eve Wilderman

Even more dangerous are the Yakut ghouls - the Yuyors. Suicides and criminals buried without the necessary rituals return as a bizarre cross between a vampire and a werewolf. During the day, Yuer lives under water, where there is no way to reach him (Dracula would never have thought of such a thing!). When going out to hunt at night, the ghoul takes on human form and without much difficulty persuades its victims to let it spend the night. Well, at the moment of attack, the Yuyer turns into a monster covered with fur, which is almost impossible to kill. Wounds only force the Yuyer to retreat.

Not all Siberian evil spirits are indifferent to Christian shrines. The Syulyukuns, an analogue of Lovecraft's Deep Ones, living in the cold lakes of Yakutia, converted to Orthodoxy. And now on Christmastide, when all the water becomes holy, they have to evacuate to land. And since, along with religion, the Syulukuns borrowed the water vices and way of life from the Russians, the fish people spend time on the shore playing cards. In underwater mansions they leave bags of gold, which a clever diver can try to steal.

This pandemonium is ruled by Ulu Toyon, the god of death and evil, who lives high in the icy mountains. In the guise of an impenetrable fog, he sometimes descends into the valleys to destroy forests with fierce storms and bring pestilence to the herds. Ulu Toyon devours the hearts of captives and turns the souls of people into his tools, infusing them into the bodies of predators. This is how possessed bears appear, ready to attack a person. Or Bigfoot.

Chuchuna

Legends about the “Bigfoot” usually describe two types of this creature: bigfoot and yeti. But in the mountains of Yakutia and further south to Sikhote-Alin, there are legends about a third, unique species - chuchuna. The Chuchunu is distinguished from other “relict hominids” by its long hair that flutters as it runs. Slender, of average height and athletic build, among other “snow people” he stands out for his civilization. Chuchuna is covered with fur and is afraid of fire, but wears rough clothes made of skins and hunts using weapons - stones, bone knives, and sometimes bows. And if bigfoots and yetis are always silent loners, then chuchuns usually appear in twos or three, communicating with the help of a piercing whistle.

Horrors of Chukotka

In the game "Berserk" for some reason the rekken turned out to be a swamp creature

Norwegian sagas mention utburds - undead creatures into which babies abandoned in the forest during hungry years turn. In Chukotka, such demons are called angyaks. But compared to the Arctic, Norway can be considered a resort. Even an adult exile cannot survive in the icy desert. Therefore, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean there are also rekkens, which have no analogues in warm Scandinavia.

Rekken become people expelled from the camps for greed, anger or cowardice. Upon death, the criminal turns into a gnome with an extra mouth on his stomach. The details of the description depend on the area: black-headed dwarfs are hidden under the hills, gray-headed dwarfs are hidden in the rocks, blue-headed dwarfs are hidden in the sea. Sometimes crab claws are mentioned among the signs of a rekken.

Of course, rekken hate people. And they invent much more sophisticated forms of revenge than those of the Angyaks and Utburds. On tiny sledges drawn by invisible dogs the size of ermine, they carry diseases and other misfortunes to the camps. And there is nothing worse than disease for the warlike Chukchi. After all, only those killed in battle can get to the Arctic Valhalla - the “Cloud Country”. Men who die in bed are sent to the frozen desert of the Nether.

The horse in Yakutia is a sacred animal. Good gods most readily take the form of short and shaggy horses.

Bestiary of Canadian Eskimos

Inupasukuguk as imagined by artist Larry MacDougall

The Inuit Eskimos, whose settlements are scattered from the Chukchi Peninsula to Greenland, are the largest people in the Arctic. They came closest to the Pole, surviving in conditions that the Nenets, Evenki and Chukchi would have found too harsh. But the Tuniites were even braver. This legendary tribe, according to Eskimo legends, in ancient times lived on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and with the advent of “real people” (Inuit) they retreated into completely lifeless icy deserts. This was two thousand years ago. Nevertheless, it happens that even today northern hunters encounter tall, incredibly muscular strangers using crude Paleolithic tools and dressed in unstitched skins. The primitive language of the Tuniites resembles baby talk. Tuniites are easily angered, but are generally peaceful.

Much more dangerous is a meeting with the Inupa-Sukugyuk giantesses. They are so powerful that they kill a bear by throwing a stone, and at the same time they are so simple-minded that they mistake people for living talking dolls and try to play with them. Giantesses value their toys, so the unlucky hunter does not manage to escape from captivity for many days. It is difficult to say how dangerous an encounter with a male Inupasukugyuk is, because so far no one has survived it or talked about their adventures.

But giants also have benefits. Great luck if you manage to tame their dog - then there will be no need for a kayak. A huge dog can swim in the sea with a hunter on its back and carry dead narwhals to the shore, like a spaniel dragging ducks from a lake. True, the happy owner of the mighty beast will have to lead a solitary life; the giant dog will definitely eat his neighbors.

To contrast with the giants, there are tiny ishigaka - gnomes that do not reach a person’s knee. But they are difficult to find, because dwarfs do not leave tracks in the snow. Despite their small stature, ishigaka are great bear hunters. They defeat the beast by cunning: first they turn the clubfoot into a lemming, then they kill it, and after that they turn it back.

Ishigak, Arctic gnomes (illustration by Larry MacDougall)

Eskimo monsters have one thing in common: they are all dangerous, but not evil. The monsters of the ice world do not wage war against people - they leave this concern to harsh nature. They only pursue their own goals, which are not always clear. Thus, kwallupilluk (or aglulik) - skinny, scaly aquatic creatures that live in ice holes - often kidnap children who are playing near the cold sea. But they don’t eat them, as you might think, but, on the contrary, use witchcraft to protect them from the cold and feed them. Therefore, in hungry years, the Eskimos voluntarily give their babies to the inhabitants of the waters, and then occasionally see their children when they come ashore to play. Qwallupilluk are also partial to young animals; they fiercely protect the young from hunters. But the mermen tend to help people who hunt animals in the proper season.

The Takrikasiut, the shadow people living in a parallel world similar to the wondrous land of British fairies, are not evil. But hearing their voices, much less seeing takrikasiut, is not good. This means that the border between worlds has become thinner. One more step - and you can leave your usual reality forever; there will be no turning back.

Qwallupilluks can be trusted with their own children. Seriously!

The Iirat werewolves are not evil either; they know how to take on the guise of a raven, an arctic fox, a bear, a caribou, or a human, but they always give themselves away by the glow of their blood-red eyes. They often harm people, but not of their own free will: the Iirat fulfill the will of the spirits of the Inuit ancestors. Istitok - a giant, all-seeing flying eye - circles over the tundra, looking out for taboo violators. The ancestors send irat to those against whom he complains. First with a warning. Then with evidence that the warning was worth heeding.

Even the mad demon Mahaha is angry in a special, atypical way. White-haired, blue-skinned, wiry and practically naked, armed with impressive claws, he laughingly pursues victims among the ice. And having caught up, he tickles them with cold fingers until the unfortunate ones die with a smile on their face.

Mahaha is the only tickling demon in the world. Even his name hints at something

The only typical monster seems to be the amarok, a giant wolf that devours hunters foolish enough to go hunting alone. But the descriptions of this beast are so detailed that many consider the amaroka not a mythical creature, but a cryptid - an unknown to science, but a real or recently extinct beast. It could be canis dirus - “dread wolf” - or an even more ancient predator, the common ancestor of canids and bears.

Giant dog in the service of the Eskimos

Tuunbak

The demonic bear from the novel The Terror is a fiction by Dan Simmons, but based on real Inuit folklore. The name of the monster, Tuunbak, means “evil spirit”, and its prototypes can be considered the mythical giant bears - Nanurluk and ten-legged kukuweak. And the ordinary polar bear makes an impression on the Inuit - its name is nothing more than “nanuk”, which means “respected”.

Floors of the world

The mythology of the tribes, whose camps are separated by hundreds of kilometers of tundra, is related only by the most common motifs. Shamans meet with each other too rarely to develop a single version of the adventures of their ancestors. As a rule, the tales of different tribes are united by cosmogony - fundamental ideas about the structure of the world, as well as key characters of legends - heroes and deities. They remain recognizable, despite the discrepancies in descriptions of appearance, biographical details and assessment of actions.

The cosmogony of the most ancient peoples usually states that souls undergo a cycle of rebirths without leaving the material world. Later concepts were supplemented by parallel dimensions: the “upper world”, inhabited by the spirits of ancestors, and the “lower” - a dark abyss that gives birth to monsters. The views of the Arctic peoples belong to the second category and stand out in only one way. Here in the afterlife there is no change of seasons.

According to Chukchi belief, the northern lights flare up in the sky when dead children play ball. Rice. Emily Feigenschuh

In the upper world it is always summer, horses and deer are forever galloping through flowering meadows. Only the astral doubles of shamans have the path to a happy land open to them. On the sacred sharp mountain in the Lena delta, where the waters of the great river flow into the icy ocean, stand the guardians of the upper world - giants with bear heads, birds with human faces and copper people. They meet those who are worthy to enter the first of nine layers of the heavenly kingdom, located beyond the ordinary, visible sky. The Chukchi also describe the afterlife in a similar way, placing the worthy dead in the “Cloud Country.”

The Yakut underworld is located underground and, due to the pitch darkness reigning there, has been extremely poorly studied. Much more interesting is the lower world of the Inuit - Adlivun. Winter reigns here, but the darkness of the polar night is softened by the shine of the stars and the undying northern aurora. It is not fiery furnaces, not sulfur smoke, but eternal cold and blizzard that fill the hell of the northern tribes. The frozen desert is a purgatory through which the tupilak - the souls of the dead - must pass before finding peace in the silvery light of the Moon.

The upper, middle and lower worlds of the Yakuts. Illustrations by Elley Sivtsev for the epic “Olonkho”

The nether world is ruled by Sedna, the “Lower Woman,” who is served by werewolf adlets with a human face and body, but wolf legs and ears. From Adlivun she sends demons to earth - tuurngait. Those called pumpkins are the personifications of frost. Others, like the Chukchi rackens, bring illness and failure in hunting until the shamans drive them out.

In the minds of the Arctic peoples, every living creature and every object is endowed with its own soul, which the Eskimos call anirniit. At the highest level, the ideas of creatures, objects and phenomena are united into Silla - the world soul, which gives form and meaning to matter.

Sedna is a cross between the Scandinavian Hel and the sea queen

Pohjola

The Kola Peninsula is not only apatite deposits, but also Pohjola from Finnish mythology, a country ruled by powerful shamans, from where cold and disease come to the world. At the same time, however, Pohjola and the “thirtieth kingdom” are a world where magic is as common as the aurora. Somewhere there, in the midnight mountains, connecting the upper and lower dimensions, the World Tree pierces the Earth. Climbing the branches of the tree, you can get to Saivo, an abundant “land of eternal hunting”, inhabited by the spirits of virtuous ancestors. It can sometimes be seen reflected in the crystal surface of sacred lakes. From below, the stunted ones make their way into the world of the living - short wizards and blacksmiths, similar to the Nenets sikhirtya. There are other guests, much more unpleasant: Ravki, Sami ghouls, spirits of evil shamans. As befits the undead, Ravk is incredibly strong, afraid of light and always tormented by hunger. Unlike European vampires, the Ravk does not limit itself to blood and devours its victim with the bones.

Even the evil Tuurngait are an integral part of Sillu. The world is one, which means it does not require management. The concepts of justice and goodness do not apply to him. Sedna, the strongest of evil spirits, mistress of sea animals, and Tekkeitsertok, patron of caribou, are hostile to people, since deer and walruses have no reason to love hunters. But at the same time they are revered as gods - food givers. Life and death are parts of cosmic harmony. That's how it was intended.

Similar legends were known to the Finno-Ugric peoples of North-Eastern Europe and Trans-Urals, whose distant ancestors were neighbors of the Scythians (and earlier, as noted, of the Aryan tribes already in the Indo-Iranian period).

“Winged” or “Heavenly Kars” is the name given to a fantastic bird in the legends of the Khanty and Mansi. This is how S. Patkanov, who studied it at the end of the 19th century, describes it. folklore of the Trans-Ural Khanty: a gigantic bird with a humanoid head and a large beak; behind the hands, equipped with long and sharp claws, two powerful wings grow; “Winged Kare” can speak humanly; Possessing extraordinary strength, he can carry a person on his back.

In Mansi legends, Kare sometimes appears as a monster, destroying houses and villages or, on the contrary, providing assistance to the hero. It can transport him on itself to distant countries, even to the Northern Ocean: “... sit down between my shoulder blades...” - Took off. Carries. We flew to the Arctic Sea. They sank” (from Mansi legends recorded by V.N. Chernetsov).

The image of a fantastic bird in the mythology of the Ural peoples is quite consistent with the Iranian Simurgh and Indian Garuda. It cannot, of course, be argued that exactly such an image already existed in the mythology of the Indo-Iranian tribes and their neighbors in the pan-Aryan era. The idea of ​​the special appearance of this legendary bird, as it is described in the traditions of India, Iran and the Trans-Urals, could have developed as a result of independent development, appeared in connection with later contacts, and been an element of widespread “wandering stories”.

After all, similar features of a fantastic bird can be found in the legends of various peoples, for example, in Arabic (Roc bird) and Russian (Firebird) fairy tales. And yet, it can be assumed that the images of all these wonderful birds basically go back to a single and very ancient source.

Archaeological and ethnographic materials show that the huge miracle bird was part of the circle of mythological images that have long existed among the Finno-Ugric tribes of North-Eastern Europe and the Urals. Already in the 19th century. scientists drew attention to the large number of metal images of real and especially fantastic animals, birds and bird-like creatures found in these areas. Many of these products date back to the 18th-19th centuries. served as amulets, idols and sacrificial offerings to the gods in places of worship specially designed for this purpose.

Such objects are from the Kama region, the upper reaches of the Pechora and the eastern slopes of the Urals at the end of the 19th century. were studied by Perm local historian F.A. Teploukhov. The scientist identified a number of types in the depiction of these “fabulous creatures” and showed that they are popular images of myths and legends of the Perm and Ugric peoples. The most common ones include images of fantastic creatures with the features of a bird and a beast of prey, as well as another type - bird-like creatures with an image of a human face on their chest; Often on the body of the bird there is a figure of a man standing as tall as he is.

Similar objects were discovered in the Kama region and Trans-Urals and during excavations of monuments of archaeological cultures. This gave scientists material for dating such finds (works by A.V. Zbrueva, A.P. Smirnov, V.N. Chernetsov). Metal figures, including those depicting birds with human faces on their chests and a full-length man on the body of a bird, have been attested in these areas for archaeological cultures dating back to the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e.

Along with the figures of mythical winged monsters, the ancient tribes of the Kama region and Trans-Urals had widespread ritual images of real birds - hawk, raven, falcon, etc. According to the religious views of the Ugric peoples, as ethnographic materials of the 18th - early 20th centuries show, some deities could be reincarnated as birds. Specific shamanic ideas that once existed among these peoples were also associated with birds; Shamanic spirits and souls of shamans were thought of in the image of birds.

The beliefs of northern shamanism were characterized by the idea of ​​various zoomorphic, including bird-like, creatures - spirit deities, “ancestors” of shamans, shamans themselves, “wandering” in the form of a bird. A “bird” capable of carrying a person could also play a similar role. Thus, Evenki legends tell of a bird that carries a person to the land of “eternal day.” In one of the legends recorded by S. Patkanov from the Khanty, “Winged Kars” takes the hero to the “upper world”. Similar ideas, as already noted, existed in the Indian and Iranian traditions.

However, in the religious beliefs of northern shamanism, compared to the religions of the Indo-Iranians, such features fit much more organically into the system of general mythological views and religious rituals. The “repertoire” of animals itself is broader - real and supernatural, directly related to shamanic beliefs: animals of mixed breeds, bird-like creatures, birds.

Among the cult objects from the Kama region, images of a bird-beast attract attention - usually a bird with the head of a wolf or dog. Images of beast-like birds and fantastic winged predators “vultures” in the Urals are archaeologically attested from materials of the Ananino culture (VII-III centuries BC). The population of the Kama region at that time maintained lively contacts with the tribes of the Scythian world, as evidenced by numerous finds of Scythian products themselves, as well as objects of Middle Eastern and Greek origin. The art of the Ananyin tribes is also characterized by features of the “animal style”.

Here, of course, the influence of Scythian art was felt. But apparently the opposite effect also took place. Some items from Scythian burial mounds reflected the idea of ​​the “canine” nature of the fantastic bird-beast. And Aeschylus describes the Trans-Scythian vultures as sacred “dogs”.

The “dog” or “wolf” essence of vultures could be associated with mythological ideas that existed among the tribes of the Urals in a very distant era, probably even before the advent of Scythian art proper and its “animal style”. It is clear that in the ancient mythological views of the tribes of the Urals, the fantastic beast was depicted in the image of a predator from the canine family, well known in those areas.

Apparently, the religious and mythological ideas of the northern tribes also influenced the formation of the images of those characters of the Scythian epic, whom the Greeks compared with the Phorcids and Gorgons, making them “inhabitants” of the distant northern regions beyond Scythia. During excavations in the Urals of monuments from the end of the 1st millennium BC. archaeologists have discovered metal plates depicting winged creatures (sometimes three-headed) with “medusa-like” female faces on their chests.

The image of these fantastic creatures apparently merged local ideas and iconographic features perceived through the Scythians from the Greek tradition. As rightly noted by A.P. Smirnov, residents of forest areas took from foreign art only those elements that corresponded to their own views and aesthetic tastes.

Another mythological plot of the Scythian epic, associated with the legends of the peoples of the North, is the mighty North wind. Among the Ugric peoples of the Trans-Urals there was a widespread belief about the existence of two personified winds - Southern and Northern; the latter, corresponding to the “Scythian Boreas,” was called Louis-Vot Oika - “old man North wind.” The word “here” or “vat” - “wind”, included in this name (as well as in the name of the South Wind), is of Aryan origin: “vata” - wind, Vata - the deity of the wind. The Iranian tradition attests to the idea of ​​different personified winds and the opposition of the North wind to the South.

The examples given show how deep and close the connections were between the ancient Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric tribes, which was reflected in their mythological and religious views. The long process of Aryan-Finno-Ugric cultural contacts also influenced the formation of the northern cycle of Aryan mythology. Thus, one of the main motifs of this cycle - inaccessible northern mountains reaching the sky - finds parallels in the ancient ideas of the Ugric peoples of the Urals.

It is interesting, in particular, the message of the Russian chronicle under 1096: people from Novgorod went to Pechora, and from there they reached the country of Ugra (this name is associated with the ethnonym “Ugrians”); there they were told about the highest mountains reaching to heaven, about the impassable path to those mountains - “the essence of the mountain is beyond the bow of the sea, whose height is as high as heaven... there is a path to those mountains that is impassable with abysses, snow and forest.”

At the beginning of the 18th century. Grigory Novitsky, the author of “A Brief Description of the Ostyak People,” visited the Khanty of the Trans-Urals. His work is one of the first ethnographic works in world literature. Novitsky, in particular, reports that, according to the stories of the Khanty, there is a mountain - “a very tall stone, like a wall, and a fraction of the height, like... reaching the clouds of heaven.” Such legends combine purely mythological motifs with real ideas about the Ural Mountains.

In Rus', the Ural ridge was called differently (the name “Ural” itself began to be used in Russia only in the second half of the 18th century): “Stone”, “Big Stone”, “Pillar”, “Earth Belt”. Even in the geographical atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1807, the Ural Mountains are called the “Earth Stone Belt”. The names mentioned are related; apparently, with the ancient cosmological views of the Ugric tribes: the Ural ridge is the belt of the supreme god, dropped by him from the sky during the creation of the world; Since then, the “belt” extends across the entire earth, constituting its support, and the great mountains (Ural) are the “middle of the earth.”

This again brings us back to the ancient legends of the Indo-Iranian peoples: great sacred mountains arose during the creation of the earth, embrace it with their roots and, as it were, constitute its “center”. Indians, Iranians, and Scythians called these mountains golden and said that golden streams flowed there, and on the tops there were golden lakes. The Ural Mountains were also called golden; in a song about the sacred Urals, recorded by the Mansi at the beginning of the 20th century. Finnish scientist A. Kannisto talks about gold and a lake with golden shores on a mountain top.

Similar legends were apparently associated with the Northern Urals, on both sides of which Ugric tribes lived; It was the Northern Urals that were called the “Earth Belt” (the name “Ural” was initially used only for the Southern Urals). If in Ugric legends about the highest mountains, along with a specific geographical basis, many mythological motifs are found, then in the folklore tradition of the neighboring Ugric tribes, the legendary features appear especially clearly.

Finally, in the legends recorded by ethnographers among the Ugric peoples of the Trans-Urals, one can also find a correspondence with the “blessed” of Indian, Iranian and Scythian legends. Very interesting information is preserved in the “Brief Description...” by G. Novitsky. According to the Khanty, he reports that “in the far north, near the ocean and ice” there is a special wind blowing from the north: whomever it “finds, with its cruelty it embraces, strikes and kills” (this is the “old man North Wind” of Khanty and Mansi legends, obviously corresponding to the North Wind of the Scythian traditions - the Trans-Scythian Boreas of the Greek authors; behind the abode of the North Wind “was located” the “land of the blessed” of the Scythian epic - the “Hyperboreans”).

And further to the north, Novitsky continues, there is, according to stories, a country whose inhabitants are famous for their beauty and intelligence. There is a belief that you can see that “created human beauty,” but you cannot hear those people or have conversations with them. Novitsky himself considered such stories to be completely unreliable and wrote that naturally no people could live in the northern regions overseas. More than 2,000 years before Novitsky, Herodotus also doubted the existence of the “land of the blessed” near the distant North Sea.

Both scientists - the ancient historian and the ethnographer of the era of Peter I - were, of course, right in their assessments of the reality of ideas about the country of the “blessed” on the Northern Ocean. The legendary nature of such stories is beyond doubt, but science now has data that allows us to identify the origin of such mythological ideas. Thanks to the research of scientists, primarily ethnographers and folklorists of the Russian school, the most valuable material has been collected: legends and folk tales have been recorded, beliefs and cosmological ideas that existed among various peoples of the North in the 19th - early 20th centuries have been studied. This makes it possible not only to take a fresh look at the “northern cycle” of the Indo-Iranian tradition that we are studying as a whole, but also to identify the origins of some of its other motifs and subjects.

Many peoples of northern Europe and Siberia had legends that in the far north there were supposedly countries inaccessible to earthly people, a place of gods and spirits, an afterlife abode for the souls of the dead. In the legends of the Khanty and Mansi, this region was located in the lower reaches of the Ob or on an island in the Arctic Ocean. It was believed that life on the island was similar to earthly life: they hunt animals there, live in villages, and only the sun and moon are only half bright (based on materials from V.N. Chernetsov).

The Mansi believed that the souls of those who died on the back of a bird went north to the cold sea. Among the early Evenki ideas about the world, the story about the “upper earth” is interesting. In this heavenly abode there is a mild climate and a happy life, beautiful pastures, lush grass, easy-to-travel rivers rich in fish, the sun shines all year round and it is always warm.

The entrance to the “upper earth” is the Polar Star: only shamans can get to its inhabitants, but only during “special” rituals; if earthly people still manage to penetrate there in some unusual way, then they remain invisible to the inhabitants of the “monastery”, and the shamans offer the “aliens” to return back to earth (based on materials by G. M. Vasilevich).

Some versions of this myth say that people from earth traveled to their happy abode on birds, most often on a huge fantastic bird. Such an “aerial journey” to the land of “eternal day” has been imagined for a long time. One of the Evenki legends tells about the hero’s desire to get to the “upper land.” The mighty bird agreed to take him there, but warned: “This path is a great torment.” When the hero nevertheless flew on a bird to the fertile monastery, he saw there a happy land, without dust and clay, lush grass, but did not find even a trace of an earthly man there. It was believed that the main spirit and teacher of shamans lived in this monastery.

In the ancient legends of the Evenks and some other peoples of Northern Europe and Siberia, the ideas about the heavenly and afterlife are similar in many details. The souls of the dead or shamans enter the afterlife; if any of the living people accidentally penetrates there, then the “inhabitants of the lower earth” do not see him, and the shaman also drives him back. According to the popular belief among the Kets, the afterlife is supposedly located in the Arctic Ocean. The Ob Khanty had a belief about the kingdom of the “lower light” far in the north beyond the mouth of the Ob, in the cold ocean or even beyond it, where it is always dark, but rivers flow and people live.

According to Evenki legends, the “lower world” is located in the far north; the main shamanic river flows there from the “upper world”, everything there was reliably guarded by a whole host of “warrior spirits” in the guise of terrible monsters. Traveling along the sacred river, the shaman could get into both the “upper” and “lower” worlds.

Walking through the lands of the upper monastery and approaching the sun, he languished from the heat, and if he passed through snow clouds, he suffered from the cold; when the shaman headed to the “lower” world, he entered the region of the gloomy polar night, so dark and terrible that he himself no longer moved further, but sent his spirit helpers in the form of birds (based on materials from A.F. Anisimov and G.M. .Vasilevich).

The described legends and tales reflected mythological ideas associated with very ancient religious beliefs that arose at a time when there was no clear opposition between the “upper” and “lower” worlds. And only later, as academician A.P. Okladnikov noted, shamanic religious casuistry reconciled both cycles of ideas about the afterlife.

But all these “worlds” of spirits, blessed and departed in ancient legends and beliefs of the peoples of Siberia and Northern Europe are usually associated with the far north, often directly with the Arctic Ocean, in the traditions of a number of peoples of the Urals and North-Eastern Europe - with real or mythical mountains.

It was there - to the north, where the highest mountains and the abode of happiness, that shamans, sorcerers, and wizards made their “flights”.

Beyond the distant chain of wild mountains,

Dwellings of the winds, rattling storms,

Where do witches look boldly?

He's afraid to sneak in at a late hour,

The wonderful valley lurks,

And in that valley there are two springs...

Everything is quiet all around, the winds are sleeping...

A couple of spirits from the beginning of the world,

Silent in the bosom of the world,

The dense shore guards...

The above lines are taken from A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. It was there, to this wonderful valley, that the “prophetic Finn” moved from his hermitage to get the sacred water and revive the dead Ruslan with it.

Bending down, he immerses

Vessels in virgin waves;

Filled it up, disappeared in the air,

And in two moments I found myself

In the valley where Ruslan lay...

Reading these lines, you involuntarily compare the Finn’s “instant” flight with the “heavenly wanderings” of shamans, Iranian and Indian holy men, ascetics, and rishis. Let us remember, for example, about the wise Narada: “Go, Narada, don’t hesitate... and hastened, mighty...,” he rose high, from the skies descended to the sea - the receptacle of amrita, worshiped the gods and immediately returned to his abode .

Similar ideas existed, of course, among different peoples of the world, which was reflected in their folklore. Pushkin, as is known, already in “Ruslan and Lyudmila” used various folklore motifs, primarily Russian; folk tales and epics. However, it is noteworthy that in the poem Ruslan’s patron wizard and healer is a Finn (“natural Finn”). He learned the teachings of sorcerers, because in his homeland on the “Finnish shores”:

Between the desert fishermen

Wonderful science lurks.

Under the roof of eternal silence,

Among the forests, in the distant wilderness

Gray-haired sorcerers live;

To objects of high wisdom

All their thoughts are directed...

Researchers of Pushkin’s work have repeatedly noted that the choice of a Finn as a wizard was not accidental. At the same time, they referred to the words of N.M. Karamzin that “not only in Scandinavia, but also in Russia, the Finns and Chud were famous for magic.” Karamzin was also based on the evidence of ancient Russian sources about sorcerers, soothsayers, sorcerers from among the Finno-Ugric tribes living in the north of Rus'. Indeed, the first volumes of “History of the Russian State” were already known to Pushkin during the period when “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was written. But the poet may have had other, folklore sources.

The tales and beliefs of the Western Finnish peoples (Finns, Karelians, Estonians) and Laplanders (Sami) of Northern Scandinavia, studied by modern ethnographers and folklorists, reflect many motifs of the cycle we are considering, including “flights” to a fairy-tale abode behind the sacred mountains. Legends also told about the “lower” world; in Finnish legends it is often called Tuonela.

In this “world of the dead” life is similar to earthly life, the sun constantly shines, the earth is rich in generous fields and abundant meadows. But the owner of the “kingdom of the dead”, the gloomy Tuoni (Duodna of the Laplanders), reliably guards the entrances and exits from the “country”. The same peoples had beliefs about “sacred mountains”, where good spirits live and the souls of the dead lead a happy life; joy and fun, harmony and justice reign there.

A shaman helps you “get” into this mountain monastery. The Laplanders believed that when a shaman lies motionless during a ritual, his soul visits the “sacred mountains” (based on materials collected in the 18th - early 20th centuries by Scandinavian scientists K. Viklund, J. Kvigstad, K. Leem, E. Reutersköld and etc.).

According to the early beliefs of the Western Finnish peoples, terrible trials awaited the soul on the way to the “land of the dead”: it could meet with snakes, monsters, evil spirits, it had to overcome stormy streams and gloomy rapids before approaching the “bridge” leading to the desired goal . The ancient magical songs of the Finns told how the entrance to the “lower world” was guarded by its mistress. Behind the “bridge,” according to the ancient beliefs of the Karelians, was an abode of bliss with lush grasses, wide fields and trees with fruits as sweet as honey. Wizards, sorcerers, and shamans “gathered” there.

Finnish legends called the Land of the Dead “Northern House” and placed it “down and in the north.” In the folklore tradition of the peoples of Northern Scandinavia and Karelia, there is also a more precise indication: this “country” was supposedly located in the Arctic Ocean or in the “sea” - “Saraias”. Linguists have established that “sarayas” is one of those words in the Finnish languages ​​that find matches in the Indo-Iranian languages. By origin, “saraiyas” is the same word as the ancient Indian “jrayas” - “current”, “vast space”, “wide open space” and the Iranian “zraya” - “large pool of water”, “sea”.

However, one cannot help but think about the fact that in the territories where contacts between Finno-Ugric and Aryan tribes could take place, there are no seas or significant expanses of water. The famous Finnish scientist J. Toivonen believed that the ancestors of the Western Finnish peoples adopted the word “sarayas” along with the “cosmological myths of the Iranians.” Indeed, in the Iranian tradition, the word “zraya” defined the mythical water space of Vourukasha, located near the great northern mountains (Khara Berezaiti). It is noteworthy that the Finnish “sarayas” does not designate a real sea, but a mythical body of water in the far north.

The noted coincidences, thus, again return us to the “northern cycle” of Aryan mythology and once again confirm its connection with the cosmology and religion of the Finno-Ugric tribes. According to the Avesta, the soul of the deceased makes a “journey” to the Chin-vat bridge. Here a certain divine person awaits her, who transfers some souls across the bridge to the heavenly abode of bliss, and casts others into the dark abyss lying under the crossing. “Beautiful” and “dexterous,” as the Avesta calls her, the mistress of the bridge is obviously a close relative of that “mistress of the lower world” of northern mythology, who “meets” the souls of the dead at the crossing.

A similar “crossing” over the underground river of the underworld is described in the Indian epic. “Everyone comes to her, but the burdened one does not achieve happiness without hindrance... people who have committed evil are burning here, here they are crowding at the crossing.” And whoever is worthy “reaches the end of joy and suffering; here the sun... drinks the sacred drink and, having reached the land of Vasishtha (i.e. the Big Dipper), again releases winter... Here, in the halls of the rishi-singers, in the paradise of Mount Mandara, the Gandharvas sing chants that delight the heart and mind. .. Your path runs through it, Galava” (from the “story” of the bird Garuda, “Mahabharata”).

The Arctic, the North, unknown distances... They have always attracted romantics looking for the unknown, scientific researchers seeking to discover new lands.

This year marks the anniversary of two Arctic expeditions and the 160th anniversary of the birth of the legendary polar explorer Baron Eduard Toll. These expeditions are connected with Yakutia, with its Arctic zone.

Performed 285 years of the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

The Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition - the largest Russian expedition of the 18th century, lasted from 1733 to 1743. She was under the command Vitus Bering. Its goals were a comprehensive study of Siberia, clarification of state borders in the East of Russia, studying the possibilities of navigation on the Arctic Ocean, resolving the issue of the existence of a strait between North Asia and America, searching for routes to Japan and the shores of North-West America. These tasks were solved mainly by the Marine detachments of the expedition under the leadership of V. Valton, V. V. Pronchishchev, A. I. Chirikov, M. P. Shpanberg, brothers Khariton and Dmitriev Laptev and others.

The expedition also included an Academic detachment, which was engaged in a comprehensive natural science and historical-geographical description of Siberia and its peoples. The Academic team included professors - historians G.F. Miller and I.E. Fisher, naturalists I.G. Gmelin and G.V. Steller, astronomer L. Delisle de la Croyer, translators, students, including Stepan Krasheninnikov, later the first Russian professor of natural history and botany of the Academy of Sciences.

The Great Northern Expedition for the first time made an inventory of individual sections of the coast of the Arctic Ocean, confirmed the existence of a strait between Asia and America, discovered and mapped the Southern Kuril Islands, examined the coast of Kamchatka, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and individual sections of the coast of Japan.

Many species of flora and fauna were described and sketched, among them there are now extinct ones, the most famous of which is the “Steller's cow”.

Based on the results of the expedition, the world-famous works of G.F. Miller were published - “History of Siberia”, “Description of the Siberian Kingdom and all the affairs that happened in it from the beginning, and especially from its conquest by the Russian state to this day”, “Description of the Tomsk district of the Tobolsk province in Siberia in its current situation, in October 1734." and other works.

Studies by I.G. Gmelin were published - “Siberian flora”, “Travel through Siberia from 1741 to 1743”, S.P. Krasheninnikov - “Description of the land of Kamchatka”.

75 years since the start of the First Kolyma Geological Exploration Expedition.

On July 4, 1928, the first Kolyma geological exploration expedition landed on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, near the village of Ola. It was headed by a geological engineer Yuri Bilibin. The result of Yu.A. Bilibin's expedition of 1928-1929 was the discovery of industrial gold-bearing areas in the areas of the Utina River, the Kholodny and Yubileiny springs, which became the main gold mining sites in Kolyma until 1933. Gold was also discovered in other valleys, and some patterns of its distribution and the geological structure of the area began to become clear. Bilibin put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a gold-bearing zone here hundreds of kilometers long.

Third anniversary date is associated with the name of Baron Eduard Toll, a famous polar explorer, zoologist and geologist, a man with a mysterious fate. This is the 160th anniversary of the birth of this scientist and traveler. Today we will pay our attention to this researcher.

The mysterious disappearance of Eduard Toll in the Arctic ice still remains a mystery for two centuries... Eduard Toll devoted his entire life to searching for the legendary Sannikov Land.

The first to see this unknown, uncharted land was a merchant and mammoth ivory collector. Yakov Sannikov from Yakutia. This happened in 1810 during the first Russian expedition to the New Siberian Islands. From the northern tip of Kotelny Island, Sannikov clearly saw high stone mountains located at a distance of 70 miles.

And it was not a hallucination or a mirage. Firstly, the fact of the “vision” was officially certified by the head of the expedition, the collegiate registrar Matvey Gedenstrom. Secondly, Sannikov was an experienced person, capable of distinguishing a mirage from a real picture. It was they who discovered three islands of the Novosibirsk archipelago - Stolbovoy, Faddevsky, Bunge Land.

Ten years later, with the specific goal of exploring Sannikov Land, an expedition was equipped under the command of naval lieutenant Pyotr Fedorovich Anzhu. But Anjou did not find any land, although he was armed with excellent optical tubes. Having wandered with dog sled guides in the area where Gedenstrom had marked “Sannikov’s Land” with a dotted line, he returned to St. Petersburg with nothing.

However, they did not stop looking for Sannikov Land, although it was believed that no land existed north of the New Siberian Islands. And suddenly in 1881 an American George De-Long discovered an archipelago of small islands located much north of the dotted line drawn by Gedenstrom.

A new round of searches began for a land that could conceal priceless treasures. These primarily included mammoth tusks.

There was a number of evidence that Sannikov Land could have unique natural and climatic characteristics. For example, in the fall, polar geese from the northern coast flew not to the south, but to the north, approximately in the direction of Sannikov Land. And with the onset of the warm period they returned with offspring. The mythology of indigenous peoples should not be discounted. According to ancient legends, far in the north there was a “mainland of mammoths”, where they grazed freely in green meadows. However, evil underground forces intervened in this happiness, destroying the idyll.

De Long's discovery spurred American industrialists who began to create a joint stock company to develop northern resources. Naturally, Russia could not help but react to this.

In 1885, a research expedition led by a Baltic Fleet medic was sent to distant shores Alexandra Bunge. Zoologist and geologist Baron was appointed his assistant Eduard Vasilievich Toll. Russia was in a hurry to formalize its right to the legendary Land.

On August 13, 1886, Toll, standing on the same shore of the same island as Sannikov, saw the same mountains and literally became ill with the thought of searching for an unknown land. He saw these massifs quite clearly, determined the distance to them (about 160 kilometers), and did not even allow the thought that there, in the distance, were only ice blocks. For many years, Baron Toll built a theoretical proof of his theory.

The next expedition, led by Toll, took place in 1893. And finally, on July 4, 1900, Eduard Vasilyevich set off from Kronstadt on the whaling ship Zarya to put an end to the protracted dispute about the existence of Sannikov Land. He was absolutely sure of its reality.

The expedition was perfectly prepared, which was facilitated by 150 thousand rubles in gold allocated by the Ministry of Finance. Young scientists were recruited - energetic enthusiasts for studying the Far North. The most advanced equipment and equipment were purchased. The food supply allowed autonomous existence for up to three years.

Toll, considered one of the leading experts in the field of practical research of the circumpolar territories, was perfectly suited to the role of leader of the expedition. He looked with great interest for answers to the mysteries of the recent geological past: did a continent exist in the area of ​​the modern New Siberian Islands, when and why did it break up, why did mammoths become extinct?

The voyage of Toll's expedition lasted three years. Toll was sure that the land Sannikov saw really existed. But Eduard Vasilyevich could not fulfill his dream.

Having remained to spend the winter on one of the islands, he planned to resume his search in the spring. Toll's group, without waiting for the schooner "Zarya", decided to independently move south towards the continent, but further traces of these four people have not yet been discovered.

In 1903, a search expedition led by Admiral Alexander Kolchak discovered Toll's site on Bennett Island, his diaries and other materials.

In his diary, Toll announced his departure. Since then, no one has seen him or those people who were with him. Many mystics associate the mysterious disappearance of Eduard Toll and three other scientists with the mysterious Sannikov Land.

Toll's diary, according to his will, was given to his widow. Emmeline Toll published her husband's diary in 1909 in Berlin. In the USSR, it was published in a greatly truncated form, translated from German in 1959.

Another scientist was fascinated by the idea of ​​​​searching for the mysterious land of Sannikov. It was Vladimir Obruchev- a major scientist, holder of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree, Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor, academician, geologist, paleontologist and geographer, researcher of Siberia and Central Asia, author of numerous scientific works and textbooks on geology, which have remained relevant to this day.

The northern Yakuts have a myth about a mysterious warm land, lost somewhere far away in the Arctic Ocean. Birds fly there every year to winter and the Onkilons went there - a semi-legendary people who allegedly lived on the territory of Chukotka, and then were expelled by other tribes to the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Obruchev combined this beautiful fairy tale with reports about Sannikov Land and the truly unresolved question of migratory birds that return after wintering with their offspring.

At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Obruchev worked on a geological and geographical expedition in Yakutia. From local residents, Vladimir Afanasyevich heard a mysterious legend about a flowering land located among the endless expanses of the Arctic Ocean. They said that the presence of a warm oasis in the coldest ocean is indicated by flocks of migratory birds that annually fly north at certain times towards the snow-covered and deserted expanses of the Arctic. It was in that direction, according to local residents, that the Onkilon tribe once went.

Since Obruchev was primarily a scientist, he had to present the legend in such a way as not to contradict scientific data. As a result, his Sannikov Land remained warm and fertile due to the fact that it was formed by volcanic activity, and this volcano had not yet cooled down. Together with the Onkilons, there live Wampus - people from the Paleolithic - and fossil animals led by mammoths. This is how the novel “Sannikov’s Land, or the Last Onkilons” appeared.

In 1924, Obruchev completed work on the novel “The Land of Sannikov, or the Last Onkilons.” But it was just a novel - the fantasy of a talented writer. But the plot was still based on real events. The prototype of the main character may have been the scientist, Arctic explorer, and talented geologist Eduard Vasilyevich Toll.

But what did Sannikov and Toll actually see? Mirage? Pile of ice floes? The most popular theory now is that they actually saw an island of fossil ice that melted before its discovery. This is confirmed by the fate of two other islands of the Novosibirsk archipelago - Vasilyevsky and Semyonovsky. They were discovered at the beginning of the 19th century and completely disappeared by the 30-50s of the 20th century.

The search for Sannikov Land did not stop in the 20th century. There are modern legends about this amazing Earth, exciting the fantasies of researchers and our time. At various times, inexplicable notes began to appear in the press. Whether there is some truth in them or whether they are fiction, we will not judge, we will simply consider these myths of our days.

In the middle of the 20th century, military specialists tried to reach Sannikov Land. For their hikes they use the northern mode of transport - reindeer and dog sleds. There were several of these attempts. All expedition participants claim that they saw this uncharted land from afar. But every time an insurmountable obstacle arose in their path in the form of a huge hole. Until now, this mythical land remains inaccessible to researchers.

There are stories among sailors that confirm the legends about an inhabited island in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. Only this can explain the finds of various objects floating from the direction of the Pole. And this was at a time when there was not a single expedition to this area. Polar travelers unanimously talk about the fact that temperatures increase as they move towards the Pole. Another amazing phenomenon: among the solid ice, huge open spaces of water suddenly appear, completely free of ice cover.

Of course, modern space technology makes it possible to take a very good picture of any territory on the surface of the Earth. There are such photographs and Poles. Strange shadows are visible on them. The Americans assumed that these were Russian military facilities. The surprising thing is that it was not possible to find these “shadows,” but they are visible from space.

Not only Russian researchers were engaged in the search for “Sannikov Land”. So, in the twentieth century, an amazing report was received by the British Admiralty. British sailors landed on one of the Scottish islands. Unusual events happened to them. Suddenly people who didn’t look like the English appeared. Quite strange things began to happen to the consciousness and vision of the sailors. They managed to return safely to the ship, but were completely demoralized.

In addition, according to the testimony of a famous pilot who flew over the Pole in the 30s, he saw a large green oasis among the polar ice. No one believed his story; they assumed that the pilot had seen a mirage.

Participants of the American expedition, having found the ruins of an ancient city on one of the Arctic islands, believed that they had found traces of the mythical Atlantis or the so-called Arctida - an island where an ancient highly developed civilization lived. In their report, the travelers described the structures they found. These include houses, temples, palaces and cultural sites. Although most of the buildings are under a layer of eternal ice and only the tops of the buildings are visible, scientists believe that they were built several thousand years ago. It is very difficult to carry out excavations in Arctic conditions, but, according to experts, the architectural style of the city is reminiscent of ancient Greek. Perhaps this city was built at a time when there was a subtropical climate and was a paradise.

Recently, scientists have found that a so-called fusion strip often appears near the mainland and large islands. According to observations, such a confluence strip often occurs in the Laptev Sea, not far from Tiksi. This optical phenomenon occurs in three places: off the coast of the mainland, near the New Siberian Islands and north of the Archipelago. That is, exactly where the merchant Sannikov first saw the new Earth, later called Sannikov Land. Given this discovery, we can say with a high degree of probability that Sannikov Land does not exist.

There is also a Tibetan legend about the White Island. It says that this island is the only territory that will escape the fate of all continents. It cannot be destroyed by fire or water - this is the Eternal Earth.

It is possible that it was this land that the merchant and Christian writer Cosmas Indikoplovtus spoke about in the sixth century after the Nativity of Christ in his theological and cosmographic treatise “Christian Topography”. He argued that in the North there was a land where human life originated.

Helena Blavatsky believed that the land of Sannikov was that polar country inhabited by creatures living for ten thousand years. There are no diseases here, and the people living on this earth are perfect.

It is surprising that many travelers have seen Sannikov Land, but no one has been able to set foot on its shores. What do the prophets say about this?

Nostradamus wrote that a select few would live beyond the Arctic Circle, the rest near the Equator. There will be no politics in the lives of these people.

Medieval prophet, astrologer Ranyo Nero in his manuscript of predictions “The Eternal Book” he wrote that the time would come when the ice in the North would melt and a flowering land would appear there. Or maybe Sannikov Land is this mysterious land?

This mysterious Earth still excites the imagination of many.

In connection with these significant dates, within the framework of the “Arctic Days in Neryungri”, the department of local history literature of the Neryungri Library held the event “Arctic. Autograph on the map", where readers got acquainted with the history of the development of the northern lands and met with representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic represented by students of the Arctic School of Education, heard the ancient speech of the peoples of the North, fascinating songs and legends of distant times.

Varvara KORYAKINA,

Leading Librarian of the Department of Local Lore Literature of the Neryungri City Library.

Sirte remained in memory only in the form of figurines made of walrus ivory

Every nation has works of oral creativity: fairy tales, songs, legends, legends, myths. They arise at the dawn of a people’s life and live, passing from generation to generation.

In myths, the Nenets people reflected their ideas about the origin of the earth and natural phenomena, about the origin of the spirits with which the people endowed the surrounding nature. But, unfortunately, today very few people are familiar with the myths and mythological stories of the Nenets.

One of the most famous myths is the legend of a small people - Sikhirtya or Sirtya, who lived in the polar tundra before the arrival of the Nenets - “real people”.

The Sikhirtya are described as stocky and strong people of very short stature, with white eyes. According to legends, in time immemorial the sikhirtya came to the polar tundra from across the sea.

Their way of life was significantly different from the Nenets. The Sirtya did not breed deer, but instead hunted wild ones. These small people dressed in beautiful clothes with metal pendants. In some legends, sikhirtya are described as guardians of silver and gold or as blacksmiths, after whom “pieces of iron” remain on the ground and underground; their hill houses were represented as attached to the permafrost by iron ropes.

One day, the Sirtya moved to the hills and became underground inhabitants, emerging to the surface of the tundra at night or in the fog. In their underground world, they own herds of mammoths (“ya-hora” - “earth deer”).

Meetings with Sirtya brought grief to some, happiness to others. There are known cases of Nenets marrying Sirtya women. At the same time, Sirtya could steal children (if they continued playing outside the tent until late), send damage to a person, or scare him.

There are also references to military clashes between the Nenets and Sikhirtya, while the latter were distinguished not so much by their military valor as by their ability to unexpectedly hide and suddenly reappear.

THE LEGEND OF THE SIKHIRTYA TRIBE

They say that a long time ago there lived in our northern regions little people called sikhirtya. They lived, according to legend, underground, in caves, under high hills. Quite scanty information about this small people has survived to this day. Legends say that Sikhirtya had a developed culture. Outwardly, they looked like Russians: blond, light-eyed, only very short. The Sikhirtya fished and hunted, and that’s how they lived. What’s strange is that the people of this tribe slept during the day. Life began to boil for them at night. They also say that the Sikhirtya had supernatural powers. According to legend, ordinary people who saw sikhirtya soon died.

In ancient years, my fellow tribesmen found shards of beautiful pottery, bronze women’s jewelry and other painted household items near cliffs or crumbling mounds.

According to one legend, an argish was riding past a high hill. And it was summer. Driving past the hill, people decided to take a break and give the deer a break. We decided to explore the hill. Suddenly, a short girl was found sleeping near a grass hummock. The girl was very beautiful. She was wearing clothes decorated with painted buttons and silver plaques. Near the girl lay a cloud - a sewing bag. The newcomers had never seen such unprecedented beauty. The bag was decorated with shiny beads that sparkled in the sun. Bronze openwork pendants emitted a subtle melodic ringing. Then the girl woke up, abruptly jumped to her feet and instantly disappeared into the nearby bushes. They only saw her. The search for the wonderful stranger did not yield any results. It's like she fell through the ground. People were spinning here and there. She’s not there and that’s all.

We decided to take the cloud-bag with us. They set off and drove on. At the end of the day we arrived at the place and installed the plague. And closer to night, a woman’s plaintive cry began to be heard: “Where is my cloud?” "Where is my cloud?" They say that the scream was heard until the morning. No one dared to come out of the tent and take the sewing bag somewhere into the tundra, as you already guessed, the girls are sikhirtya. The family who owned this beautiful handbag died soon after. But the relatives still kept this precious find. (They say that this cloud is still in the sacred sledge of one resident of the Nakhodka tundra).

As I already said, sikhirtya had supernatural power. So this bag became a sacred attribute. During a person’s illness, relatives hung this cloud on a chorea until the patient recovered.

We don’t know if such little people really lived in our area. But small legends about the mysterious people – Sikhirtya – are passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps they lived here, since a song called “The Cry of the Sikhirtya Girl” has survived to our times. After all, legends often have a basis in reality.