Mythology of Water and Water Bodies. Folk Tales, Truths, Beliefs, Cosmogonic and Etiological Narratives of the Russian North

This book presents a frontal examination of the water element, represented in the northern Russian folk mythological prose. The deities of this element may include lakes, rivers, and streams themselves, as well as mythological characters that have emerged from the water to varying degrees, the spirit-master of the river/lake, and characters associated with water, but negatively reinterpreted. Perceived by mythological consciousness as a primal living element, water plays a dominant role in cosmogony. It also provides the impetus for the recreation of the world, transformation of the landscape, and society. Water deities predetermine and predict human fate. Their will determines the rhythms of the life cycle inherent to each individual. These deities also participate in the everyday existence of peasant life. The research is accompanied by a corpus of texts - 252 mythological tales, mostly introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The texts are provided with comments, indexes, and a glossary of dialect and archaic words. This is the most comprehensive collection of folk tales, truths, beliefs, cosmogonic and etiological narratives dedicated to aquatic themes. These texts serve as material for the research undertaken in this book and are revealed through these studies.

For folklorists, ethnographers, art historians, historians, religious scholars, psychologists, and also for all lovers of folk culture.