Книга Воскрешение Перуна. К реконструкции восточнославянского язычества - Лев Клейн

Yet it appered that in the 8th century the Arabian caliph Mervan II with his troups went from Syria to the North Caucasus, further got deeper into the Khazar caganate, specifically into Slavic territory (he approached «Sacalib river»), caught 20 thousand of Slav prisoners, led them away and settled them down in Kakheti, i. e. in the neighbourhood of Chechenia. It is from these prisoners that the myths of Perun could penetrate the Vainakh tradition, where, having collided with Vainakh own mythology, they lost their sacral character and «sank» into folklore. Thus the stories of Perun (such as his commands to women to pour water from barrels, his connection with bread and mill, his control of old men and children, etc.) find close correspondence in East Slavic ethnography (popular beliefs, superstitions, fairy tales). This new material, never before used in the discussion of Perun, can be successfully used for reconstruction of Slavic myths. In addition, it would be necessary for our reconstruction to bring in the Slavic fairy tales which demonstrate close links with this material.

Rybakov's concept denies the very possibility of borrowing the name Perun from Slavs because in his view the supreme god of Slavs was Rod while Perun was only introduced by Prince Vladimir as a god for his military retinue. Yet the presence of Perun's traces in all Slavic territories refutes such a limitation. In fact, it is obvious that early Slavs did not at all have such a deity as Rod — this was an artificial construct produced by some ancient Russian authors, the construct based on a wrong reading of Greek Christian texts, the horoscopes that were called «genealogies» (literally, 'a study of kin or stock') by the Byzantines. The dependence on fate from the beginning of man's life, from birth, was understood by translators as expressed in a worship of a special figure —Rod ('birth' in Russian, also 'kin', or, more precisely, a 'kingroup'). «Rod» is connected to the verb meaning 4o give birth'. Hence its (and his) connection with Rozhenitsas (literally coinciding with 'women in childbirth') — maids of fate, Slavic Parcas, present at the person's birth and important for determining his/her fate.

Perun was not only the main god of Eastern Slavs but perhaps he was for some short time their only god, at least officially. In Russian chronicles there is, as Lowmianski has observed, some evidence that other gods mentioned in Vladimir's pantheon had been merely a late insert by a Christian editor. It appears that Vladimir's first religious reform was an attempt to establish monotheism on a pagan basis. Archaeological monuments previously interpreted as proof of Vladimir's six-gods pantheon don't stand up to close scrutiny of the material. In general, nearly all the main pagan sanctuaries ascribed to Eastern Slavs (two in Kiev, one in Novgorod and one in Pskov) are doubtful as such. In the present work this is addressed in great detail. Most likely, those «sanctuaries» are partly mundane (not sacral) objects, and partly remains of burials.

In support of his system of gods with Rod as a head, Rybakov also adduced the Zbruch idol, a tetrahedral stele with a number of carved anthropomorphic figures. A detailed analysis of this monument shows that these figures cannot be interpreted as Rod and gods of Vladimir's pantheon, nor can the whole monument be viewed as typically East Slavic. Chronologically it is later than the East Slavic Pagantum, and it is West Slavic in disposition, with some impact of the steppe nomads. Such idols occur in the region of the basin of Dnestr more than once. Both the West and South Slav tribes are historically known to exist there. It can be inferred from the historical context that they had undergone a comparatively late conversion to Christianity.

Logically speaking, Perun's attributes in people's imagination were gradually formed on the basis of his functions as a Thunderer. This process must date back to the time of the existence of the Indo-European community, and it continued after its dissolution. Such Perun's attributes as his mighty force and bellicosity obviously go back to the earliest stage in his evolution, and from these attributes come his connection with the oak, the hammer-axe, and the arrows, as well as in his impact on yield and fertility, and his general connection to women. However, establishing Thursday as Perun's day must have occurred already under the influence of Christian calendar.

That was the image elaborated in myths that got into the Vainakh folklore. Let us now consider the data presented by the Vainakh folklore and their correspondence to the East Slavic ethnography and folklore.

In Vainakh folklore there are stories about women sent by Perun to the neaven for pouring water and making rain. These stories express most likely th,e Slavic notions of witches and sorceresses — the rain-makers, or the «Blitzhexes» ('witches of lightning') as they were called by the Germans. It was believed in the 19th century Ukraine that the witches could steal the rain from heaven and hold it in buckets. In Afanasyev's collection of tales one can see witches flying in the heaven and rolling the barrels there (completely like in the Chechen stories of Pir"on's women), while the clang of these barrels created thunderstorms. In Russia, a related custom of breaking the barrels was used in order to call forth a rain.

What was originally contained in the barrels having been broken? In Russian fairy-tales it was the unusual or specially blessed children that are imprisoned-in a barrel. Such children (often the twins) were thought of as conceived by other-world spirits. The barrel with the children was left adrift in the sea. Upon landing, the wonderful children would break out of the barrel and be released to the freedom where the great future awaited them. This motif was frequently used as a legal device by usurpers on a throne in order to create a tie to a traditional royal dynasty (Sargon, Perseus). A similar idea was present in the custom of the trial by drowning (if she was really a witch, she wouldn't drown). The presence of «god's children» probably eventually led to the substitution of drowning by exile. Indeed, according to the old Russian custom, the worned out sacral objects were floated in the river. The women marked by god were believed to have drowned or have been driven out by waterways. They were those who become mermaids (in Russian «rusalki»).

Mermaids in the 19th century peasant Russia were understood as drowned women or children who died before christening. They were believed to have been offended, not having lived the term granted to them by god. Therefore, they could be evil-doers, but on occasion some help could be coaxed from them as well since these characters were recently diseased relatives or neighbours. They were believed to have power over weather (calling forth the rain) and were linked to the oak, the Perun's tree. In the custom of «sending off (or driving) the rusalka away» human sacrifices were reflected: a witch or some other woman was sent to the god as an advocate for her home-folks.Some other characters were sent off too: in the early spring (on Shrovetide, in Russian «Maslenitsa») Maslenitsa was sent; in the Midsummer (on the summer solstice, or St. John the Baptist's day, in Russian Ivan Krestitel's day, or its eve, Kupalo) Ivan Kupalo was thrown into the river; among the Southern Slavs, Mara, or Marena, was seen off. As observed by Vladimir Propp, the similarity of the major components of the ritual pertaining to different festivals is striking. However, his contention that it may be explained by the similarity of peasant working operations is suspect: indeed, the seasons of the festivals are quite different.