Koshchei the immortal had. Where is Koshchei's death hidden?

0 If you live in Russia, then you are well aware of such a fairy-tale character as Koschei the Deathless, the most terrible creature from East Slavic legends. Name " Koschey" comes from the Slavic word for "bone", and this indicates that this creature is skinny or very bony. Myths about Koshchei are mainly found in East Slavic lands, and researchers see in him an association with the Slavic god of Death or a frost sorcerer who can bring death and cold to anyone who opposes him. You can find many more on our resource. useful information, for example, deciphering street slang or fashionistas' jargon. Add this site to your bookmarks to always have access to necessary and useful information.
However, before I continue, I would like to point you to a couple of interesting publications on the topic of religion and cults. For example, who is Baba Yaga, learn about the Slavic goddesses briefly; who is the god Perun, what does the word Hermit mean, etc.
So, let's continue, Koschey the Immortal, meaning?

Koschei the Deathless is an evil sorcerer, and his death is hidden in several nested things and magical animals. In some legends, he takes the form of a king or even a rider on a black talking horse. He often kidnaps women, namely the bride of the main character in the fairy tale. Outwardly it looks like a skeleton or a tall or thin old man. Usually appears to be vindictive, harmful and greedy.

Who really is Koschey the Immortal?

Why is he called "Immortal"?

The Legend of Prince Ivan and Koshchei the Immortal

Not all Russian folk tales are endowed with only positive characters. Some heroes instill fear and horror in young children. It is worth remembering the ugly old woman who lured girls and boys into her house on chicken legs, who went straight into the oven. You can meet in the ominous forest, and mermaids live in the lake. Beauties with fish tails are not at all good creatures, which we are used to seeing in pictures, because they rush at people, catch them and tickle them to death.

Besides, in deep forests You should beware of the mystical character Koshchei the Immortal, who appears in the form of an evil sorcerer. Bad luck for anyone who ends up in his kingdom! This old man, always wasting away over gold, attracted attention famous artists, directors, animators and literary diaspora. One has only to remember the painting by the master of folklore painting “Koshey the Immortal” to understand how terrible this old man is.

Image and appearance

Where Koschey came from is still not clear to scientists, so there are several opinions in research circles. The first believe that the owner of the sword and the owner of chests of gold were invented thanks to Slavic god Karachun, personifying death and cold. The second say that the Immortal was “based” on the German mythical ruler Odin. Still others are sure that the ruler of the dark kingdom does not have a specific prototype, and imagine him in the form of a sorcerer with magical abilities.

Koschey plays a fundamental role in Russian folk tales, with the description of this character varying depending on the story. Mostly, film and literature lovers are accustomed to imagining Koshchei as a thin old man in a dark suit with bones sticking out of him. His skin is so pale and taut that the outline of his skull and eye sockets are visible. The sorcerer's face is decorated with frowning eyebrows and a hooked nose. Sometimes the Immortal was even depicted as a skeleton. In any case, it appearance associated with darkness and death, it is not for nothing that it is said:

“Koschey looks at everything - everything withers. Scythe on the cattle - the cattle dies, Koschey on the grass - the grass dries."

Many stories mention that Koschey is a prisoner who was imprisoned for 300 years either in a tower or in a dungeon, bound in chains.

It is customary to distinguish three hypostases of the Immortal. In the first group of stories, the old man appears in the guise of a king who has magical powers and owns untold wealth. Most often, Koshchei has a companion - a faithful skeleton horse, personifying the world of livestock. But sometimes he appears without it.

the main objective The hero's goal is to kidnap the beauties and get even with the enemies: Dubynya, Gorynya and other heroes. The girls who were captured by the thin wizard were very unlucky. However, there was a case when the gallant gentleman Koschey seduced the young lady. By at least, this is demonstrated in the epic “About Ivan Godinovich”: the sorcerer wooed the Chernigov princess Marya Dmitrievichna, who reciprocated.

In other tales, the Immortal is mentioned as the father of Chud-yud, married to a snake-witch. Koschey spends his days idly: he lies on the bed with his eyelids closed, which raise him two dozen mighty heroes. Thus, the thin sorcerer is somewhat reminiscent of the story of the same name.

Koshchei can also be seen in the form of an old man, to whom the authors gave the following description: “he is as big as a fingernail, with a beard as long as his elbow.” The hero lives in a hut on chicken legs. This image is demonstrated by the fairy tales “Zorka, Vechorka and Polunochka”, “Medvedko”, “Gorynya” and some other works of folk art.

Force

Koschey is a very professional sorcerer who would be the envy of someone from Harry Potter. Moreover, the dark wizard approaches his magical crimes in a very original way.

You don't have to look far for examples. In the fairy tale “Elena the Beautiful,” he turned his sworn enemy Ivan Tsarevich into a nut, turned the beauty into a frog princess, and another young lady into a snake. And in the story of “Ivan Sosnovich,” the sorcerer got even with the entire kingdom, turning its inhabitants into blocks of stone.

By the way, if you see a huge black raven in the forest, then perhaps it is Koschey the Immortal who has reincarnated as the proud bird from the poem.

Koshchei can be called lucky, because he draws his strength from ordinary water. When the old man drank three buckets of water offered by Ivan Tsarevich, he easily broke twelve chains and freed himself from the dungeon. However, the ruler of the throne also has weak sides. Killing him is not easy, but you can:

“Koshchei’s death is at the end of a needle, that needle is in an egg, that egg is in a duck, that duck is in a hare, that hare is in a chest, and the chest stands on a tall oak tree, and Koschei protects that tree like his own eye.”

However, in the fairy tale about Marya Morevna, an old man with immortality fell from the magic horse Ivan, who hit the sorcerer with his hoof and crushed his head. Next, Ivan burned the unfortunate man at the stake and threw the ashes to the wind. In another variation of the tale, the prince finishes off his sworn enemy with a club.

Filmography and actors

It’s impossible to count the number of cinematic works about Koshchei the Immortal on one hand, so let’s present a few famous paintings with the participation of famous actors.

"Kashchei the Immortal" (1944)

“After the Rain on Thursday” (1985)

In 1985, director Mikhail Yuzovsky presented a fairy tale based on the libretto. The plot tells how, after rain on Thursday, Tsar Avdey became a father: his wife gave birth to a boy. On the same day, housekeeper Varvara also gave birth to her first child, and a newborn foundling was discovered in the cabbage.

All the boys were named Ivan, and the owner of the crown ordered them to be raised together. However, the housekeeper decided to use cunning: she put her son in the royal cradle, and gave the rest to the robbers. 20 years passed, and the two Ivans decided to free themselves from their shackles and defeat Koshchei the Immortal. The role of the sorcerer went to, who worked with Gennady Frolov, and.

“They sat on the golden porch” (1986)

The magical fairy tale by Boris Rytsarev tells about two neighboring kings - Fedot and Amphibrachius. But the last monarch seemed to have fallen through the ground, and the queen could not cope with state affairs by oneself. Therefore, the lady began to think about how to give her daughter Alena in marriage on favorable terms. The girl’s heart was won by Ivan Tsarevich, who had to fight Koshchei the Immortal.

The gold lover was played by Viktor Sergachev, and his colleagues were, and.

"The Book of Masters" (2009)

In 2009, the first Russian film was released in collaboration with the film company " Walt Disney Pictures". The director was Vadim Sokolovsky. The story tells that the Stone Princess, imprisoned in the tower, will soon be released, and the world will end. By coincidence, the role of the arbiter of people's fate goes to Ivan, who will have to face Koshchei the Immortal.

IN cast paintings included

Well, dear readers of “Likbez”, Children’s Day is just around the corner, so today I propose for consideration an almost childish question - how to correctly write the name of a fairy-tale character, or?

To begin with, let us recall, as usual, a story with a biography: “or Koschei the Deathless, in the east Slavic mythology an evil sorcerer whose death is hidden in several nested magical animals and objects. In Russian fairy tales, Koschey takes the heroine to the ends of the world to his home, she finds out where his death is hidden; conveys the secret to his hero-savior, who achieves death, and Koschey dies.”

In Pushkin, if you remember, the name of this character is written with an a -: “...There Tsar Kashchei is wasting away over gold...”. Everyone has this mythological character. Eastern Slavs: endowed with immortality, bony and angry old man, owner of enormous wealth, king, werewolf and sorcerer, kidnapper of beauties, starved them, etc.

The history of the origin and spelling of this stingy old man's estate remains largely unclear.

According to one hypothesis, one should write - from cost, bone, “bony.” Koshchei can also be associated with the verb ossify- freeze, harden, fall into numbness: “Koschey, the kidnapper of the red maiden-sun, personifies winter clouds, because of which the earth becomes ossified, numb, and freezes.” Under the influence of Koschey's machinations, the heroes of fairy tales turn into stone, wood, ice - they ossify. Hence the Russian “blasphemous”, “sorcerer”, “to create blasphemies”.

According to another hypothesis, one should write - from cast- to bone or scold (scold). It is interesting that the Slavic “kostit” means not just “to vilify, blaspheme,” but also “to spoil, to cause harm.” By the way, this meaning is also preserved in the word “dirty” - intentional harm caused to someone. Indeed, in all fairy tales this old miser does nothing but “knock” - he does dirty tricks on the good characters.

There is another hypothesis that interprets the meaning of the name Koschey: it is considered a borrowing from Turkic languages ​​during the period of early Slavic-Turkic connections and correlates with the Turkic word koshchi - “captive”. This hypothesis is the only one presented in encyclopedic dictionary“Myths of the peoples of the world.”

According to Dahl's dictionary, at first it was Kashchei, which means “a vile, nasty dirty trick”, from the word “kast” - dirty trick. This is how Pushkin also wrote Kashcheya. And then they started writing Koschey - bony. Maybe by association with Baba Yaga's bone leg?

However, you can also write Kashchei - after all, after reading this “Educational Education Program”, you probably noticed the difference between the malicious, dirty old man - Kashchei and Koshchei - the bony miser.

Thanks for the help to the book “Images of East Slavic fairy tale» N. Novikova.

Image

Etymology

Word "koschei" in the 12th century it meant a slave, a captive; in the Tale of Igor’s Campaign the term is mentioned twice: Igor, having been captured by Konchak, sits “in the saddle of Koshcheevo”; the author of “The Lay” says that if Vsevolod Yuryevich the Big Nest had come to the aid of the Polovtsians, then the chaga (slave) would have been nogata, and the koschei would have been rezane (small monetary units). In the same meaning, koschey appears in the Ipatiev Chronicle. IN birch bark charters 12th century from Novgorod and Torzhok Koschey (also Koshkey, with the dialect Novgorod reading -sch- like -shk-) occurs as a personal name. This word, according to the most common etymology, is from the Turkic košči “slave”, which, in turn, is derived from koš “camp, stop” (in Old Russian “kosh” - camp, convoy; in Ukrainian “kish” means camp, settlement , and “koshevoy” is the foreman, the head of the kosh. In the Belarusian language, “kashevats” meant to spread out the camp); however, A.I. Sobolevsky proposed a Slavic etymology - from kosti “to scold.”

Koschey, as the name of the hero of a fairy tale and as a designation of a skinny person, Max Vasmer in his dictionary considers it not a Turkism, but an original Slavic word (homonym) and associates it with the word bone (common Slavic *kostь)

Appearance

Koschei the Deathless (Koschei the Immortal)- a negative character in Russian fairy tales and in Russian folklore. A king, sometimes a rider on a magical talking horse. Often acts as the protagonist's bride kidnapper. He is depicted as a thin, tall old man, often presented as stingy and stingy (cf. “there Tsar Koschey is wasting away over gold” by A. S. Pushkin).

Origin

First of all, we know that this is one of the brightest fairy tale characters. His appearance is vague, and the options for interpreting the image are contradictory. In addition, his name has a not entirely clear etymology. There are at least two versions of the origin of this dubious fairy-tale (and maybe not fairy-tale) personality: 1. This is the result of the people's imagination, which later became folklore and the property of the republic. 2. Koschey the Immortal is a prototype of a real person. Koschey the Immortal, whose photo for a number of reasons is not possible to demonstrate to you (only drawings) as a folklore fictional character endowed with many powers. He turns into a black raven, and sometimes into a flying snake. This allows him to easily and quickly move around the world and different worlds, stealing everything he needs. And what he needs is gold and other riches... Remember how Pushkin said about Koshchei, who languishes over gold? That's how it is. According to folklore, water gives it strength. Having drunk three whole buckets at a time, he is able to tame even the Serpent Gorynych himself! By the way, some researchers in the field of Slavic mythology claim that the images of the Immortal and Gorynych are interchangeable in Russian fairy tales. Both of them simply adore wealth, and also steal beautiful girls! However, Koschey is endowed with a little more power, beyond the control of the Serpent Gorynych. According to this version, the prototype of the fabulous Koshchei is none other than Saint Kasyan himself. The fact is that the above-mentioned prototype could well have been called Koshchei because of the consonance of these names. In addition, two holidays coincide: the day of Chernobog and the day of St. Kasyan were celebrated by the Slavs at the same time - at the end of February. According to some reports, for this holiday they put on strange outfits in the form of human bones with a crown on their heads, which to this day are popular at children's matinees and in fairy-tale performances. This refers to the costume of Koshchei the Immortal. Meanwhile, Kasyan did a lot to spread Christianity on earth, but he was still considered evil, not holy!

Habitat

The exact location of the Hero is unknown; different sources mention different things.

• THREE NINE EARTHS FAR AWAY - In the fairy tale “The Frog Princess,” the heroine manages to say goodbye to Tsarevich Ivan with the phrase: “Look for me far away, in the thirtieth kingdom, with Kashchei the Immortal.” At such a dramatic moment, Vasilisa the Beautiful would not have spoken empty, meaningless sayings. She showed Ivan Tsarevich the exact place where Kashchei’s kingdom was located. That’s where they had to look for her in order to rescue her from Kashcheev’s captivity.

• The perception of Koshchei the Immortal as a representative of the “other” world, the world of death, is indicated by the characteristics of his location. The kingdom of Koshchei is very far away: the hero has to go to “the end of the world, to the very end” of it. Of all the paths, the longest, most difficult and dangerous one leads there: the hero wears out iron boots, an iron coat and an iron hat, eats three iron loaves; he has to overcome numerous obstacles, turn to assistants for advice and help, fight an insidious enemy, and even die and be resurrected. The dwelling of Koshchei the Immortal is depicted in a fairy tale as a palace, castle, big house, “fa-terka - golden windows.” Here are untold riches- gold, silver, ray pearls, which the hero, after defeating the enemy, takes from his kingdom. According to researchers, the golden color of objects in the mythopoetic consciousness is perceived as a sign of the other world. The same applies to the image of the glass mountains, where, according to some fairy tale texts, the palace of Koshchei the Immortal is located. Lives in the underground kingdom.

Relatives

• According to some retrospections Koschey seems son Mother Earth in ancient Slavic mythology.

• Family connections of Koshchei the Immortal. E.V. Karavaeva notes: the fairy tale directly mentions that Vasilisa is daughter of Koshchei Immortal, whom he does not want to marry to anyone, which is another manifestation of his greed and acquisitiveness, authoritarianism. And the name Vasilisa comes from the Byzantine “basileos”, which means “king” or “queen”. That is, Vasilisa is the royal daughter, she is related to Koshchei and confirms his high social status king

Character traits and habits

Ruthless, evil, terrible sorcerer, terribly stingy.

In Dahl's Russian language dictionary, “Kashchey” is written with an “A”. And it explains why. “Kashchey,” according to Dahl, comes from the word “castit,” which means “to dirty, spoil, dirty, dirty, litter, scold, use foul language.” “Kast” is a dirty trick, an abomination, a disgusting thing, a filth..

IN in this case the name very accurately defines the character and habits of our hero.

Interests

Collects gold and silver and various treasures. Loves to kidnap beauties.

Friends

We did not find friends in different fairy tales

Enemies

• Baba Yaga. Most often these two negative character at the same time, but in some fairy tales it is this old woman who tells the main character how to destroy the villain.
• The heroes are the kind Dobrynya, the smart Usynya and the savvy Gorynya.
• Koshchei’s main enemy is still Ivan Tsarevich, a man who never tires of fighting him.

Characteristic phrases, quotes

- “Fu, fu! You can’t hear a Russian braid, you can’t see it, but here it smells of Russia!”

- “I have death in such and such a place; there is an oak tree, under the oak tree there is a box, in the box there is a hare, in the hare there is a duck, in the duck there is an egg, in the egg is my death.”

- “Look for me far away, in the thirtieth kingdom, near Koshchei the Immortal...”

- “What are you, Koschey the Immortal! You yourself flew around Rus', picked up the Russian spirit - you smell of the Russian spirit.”

- “And I was here, I drank honey and wine, it was running down my mustache, it wasn’t in my mouth.”

Image in art

Works in which the creature appears

Marya Morevna. Princess Frog. Koschei the Deathless. Bulat is great. Russian folk tales

Ivan Sosnovich. White Sea fairy tale

Koshcheevo kingdom. Everyday tale

Panyushkin V. Koshchei's code: Russian fairy tales through the eyes of a lawyer.

The famous writer Valery Panyushkin discovered the origins of the modern legal system in Russian folk tales: even then the litigants were sure that the truth was unattainable, the punishment was determined social status criminal, the strongest always turned out to be right, the terms of the contract were revised retroactively, and evil in an open trial was a priori invincible. Has nothing really changed in so many centuries?

Yu. Kostrov Sukin sir, or Koshchei's egg.

After visiting the Apogee company, headed by Ilya Suvorov, several large businessmen and politicians mysteriously disappear. The unsuspecting owner of the company begins to be hunted by an all-Russian oligarch nicknamed Kalson, who manages to lure Suvorov to the closed clinic of Dr. Spleen, where they conduct strange experiments on people. The resourceful and resourceful Ilya Suvorov, who is at the same time “under the hood” of the colonel from the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department Petrovna and Long Johns, not only extricates himself from the tenacious clutches of the experimental doctor, but also manages to bestow passionate love on the women he meets on the way to salvation...

Shemshuk V.A. Meeting with Koshchei the Immortal. Practice of immortality.

Filmography

Photo by Koshchei the Immortal

from a children's film "Koschei the Immortal",Directed by Alexander Rowe. Premiere - May 27, 1945

Rimsky-Korsakov Musical film. 1952 (Evgeny Lebedev)

Cartoon frame "Princess Frog" 1954

Fire, water and... copper pipes Children's, musical. 1968 (Georgy Millyar)

Fun magic Movie. 19669 (Fyodor Nikitin)

New Year's adventures Masha and Vitya A film for children. 1975 (Nikolai Boyarsky)

There, on unknown paths... A film for children. 1982 (Alexander Filippenko)

After the rain on Thursday A film for children. 1985 (Oleg Tabakov)

They sat on the golden porch A film for children. 1986 (Viktor Sergachev)

A tale about a painter in love A film for children. 1987 (Valery Ivchenko)

purple ball Fantastic children's film. 1987 (Igor Yasulovich)

Koshcheevo kingdom. A film for children. 2003 Russia. Director: Svetlana Kenetsius

• Miracles in Reshetov A film for children. 2003 (Nodar Mgaloblishvili)

Book of Masters A film for children. 2009 (Gosha Kutsenko)

Similar creatures in the myths of other peoples, fairy tales, and fantastic works

Koschey Copperbeard- V Polish fairy tales water monster. A merman with a copper beard, a toad head, crustacean claws and huge eyes. He can do magic. While talking he croaks all the time. Has power over all waters, even underground. “From the well, eye to eye, a monster looks at him: a toad’s head with a bucket, a mouth from ear to ear, eyes like baskets, instead of hands there are crayfish claws... the monster leaned out of the well halfway - its red beard spread out across the water, like rusty algae, each hair moves one by one. - I am Koschey Copperbeard, ruler of the underworld...