The Treasure-bearer in East Slavic and Finno-Ugric Contexts

• Published in: Studia mythologica Slavica
• Main Authors: Mare Kõiva, Elena Boganeva
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: German; English; Croatian; Italian; Slovenian
• Published: ZRC SAZU, Založba ZRC 2022
• Subjects: dragon; khut; kratt; magic; milk magic; treasure bearer; tsmok; Religions. Mythology. Rationalism; BL1-2790; Archaeology; CC1-960; Folklore; GR1-950; Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology; GN301-674; vepsian
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3986/SMS20222504; https://doaj.org/article/287246126d544ce692d327e622247a74

The goal of this article is to conduct comparative and structural-semantic research into belief narratives concerning flying serpents and treasure-bearers in East Slavic (Belarusian, Estonian Russian, other Slavic traditions) and Finno-Ugric (Estonian, Votic, Livonian, Finnish, Vepsian) regions related to Baltic and Scandinavian beliefs. The source material was collected between the 19th and 21st centuries. Based on the available materials, a character profile was created with respect to the following features while describing a flying serpent and a treasure-bringer: description of the origin (how and from whom the supernatural being originates), general forms of appearance, aspects of time and location, as well as the creature’s behaviour (active/passive; rituals) and genre affiliation (the process of storytelling, perception of the character).