MORE ON RECONSTRUCTING THE MYTHICAL PEOPLES’ NAMES IN THE MOUNTAIN MYTHONYMY OF THE URALS

Abstract

The article analyzes the mountain mythonymy of the Urals. Mythonyms are names for supernatural anthropomorphic beings that guard treasures of the earth (minerals and metals) and aid (or interfere with) their discovery, extraction, and carving. This article concerns mythonyms motivated by the names of the peoples who, as legends say, were the most ancient population of the region and used to live in the mountains, pits, barrows, etc. The authors use the material from dialect dictionaries, folklore texts, travellers’ notes, etc.; in addition, part of the material was collected during the 2020–2023 expeditions. The research is based mostly on the data from the Western, Middle and Southern Urals. Special attention is paid to toponyms and appellative landscape terms. The authors analyze the motivations behind the mythonyms, as well as the cultural context connected with the names. The following mythonyms are studied: чудь (chiúd’), дивьи люди (dív’i liúdi), стары люди (stáry liúdi), суксуны (соксуны) (suksuný (soksuný)), шайтаны (shaitány), шуты (shutý). In some cases, «prototype» peoples or generalized groups of such peoples may be indicated for them (for чудь, most likely, extinct Finno-Ugric tribes); in other cases, the nominations (in the source language) reflect signs of “savagery”, primitiveness (дивьи люди), antecedence to current peoples (стары люди), typical actions (суксуны). Linguistic facts and the beliefs and folklore texts behind them form a fairly rigid system in which various kinds of interactions are observed: language attractions; the interaction of folklore motifs, of which the most common is locative — living in mountains, mounds, etc.; further, the motives of storing treasures, self-burial in dugouts. © 2023 Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of RAS. All rights reserved.