The origin of the name Koschey is immortal. Image in art
Koschey the Immortal - a popular character Slavic fairy tales, epics and folk tales. It’s correct to call him Kashchey.
According to tradition, he is most often portrayed as an evil sorcerer, a negative character who asks people for problems. He appeared to be an old man, a very skinny one at that, sometimes even a living skeleton.
Image of Koshchei
IN folk tales Koschey the Immortal appears either as a king or evil sorcerer- sometimes riding on a magical horse that could speak human language, and sometimes on foot.
This is a skinny old man, almost a skeleton. Koschey appears as the ruler of everything Underworld, very stingy - he loves all his gold very much and does not want to share it with anyone.
Koshchei's abilities
Most fairy tales prove that Koschey is a very powerful sorcerer who has a large arsenal of superpowers. For example, Koschey can take the form of wild animals, and most often turns into a black crow. However, despite the ability to transform, Koschey does not like to turn into animals - most of all he likes to remain in his own appearance: a thin old man, but very powerful.
It is simply impossible to kill Koshchei, because the sorcerer’s life is hidden at the end of the game, and it is in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, and the hare sits in a locked chest. And only by breaking the needle can you destroy Koschey - otherwise he is completely invulnerable.
Initially, in the first tales about Koshchei, no one could defeat him at all, since they simply did not know about the existence of a magic egg and needle. In the last fairy tales, they found out about the needle, and Koschey even died several times.
There are quite a lot of demonstrations of Koschey’s power in fairy tales and they all perfectly demonstrate his capabilities. For example, he easily managed to turn Ivan Tsarevich into an ordinary nut, and the whole kingdom into stone. Koschey, like most characters in Russian fairy tales, can fight with swords. His favorite weapon is the bastard sword and no one wields it better than the evil sorcerer
Where does Kashchei live?
Kashchei lives in a castle or palace, his kingdom is located far away - at the end of the world. To get there, you will wear out more than one pair of iron boots. Koschey the immortal is the king of gold and silver, pearls.
Kashchei the immortal in fairy tales
In Russian folk tales, this character always acts as the main opponent of the good character. Koschey kidnaps beautiful princesses and turns the disobedient ones into animals. For example, the frog princess.
One of the main enemies of Koshchei the Immortal is another quite powerful sorceress - Baga Yaga. Of course, her strength does not reach the level of Koschey, but she quite often takes part in the overthrow of the Immortal. For example, it was Baga Yaga who told Ivan Tsarevich the secret of Koshchei’s death. In rare cases, Koschey and Baga Yaga are on the same side of the barricades. Koshchei's sworn enemies have always been heroes, but in most fairy tales they always become victims of a dark sorcerer, since they do not know a way to kill Koshchei, unlike Ivan Tsarevich.
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 tail- are not at all the kind creatures that we are used to seeing in pictures, for 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. 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 stone blocks.
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)
The first one was released in 2009 Russian film 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.
The film's cast includes
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 letters of the 12th century from Novgorod and Torzhok, Koschey (also Koshkei, with the dialect Novgorod reading -sch- like -shk-) appears 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. Belarusian language“kashevats” meant to spread out the camp); however, A.I. Sobolevsky proposed a Slavic etymology - from kostit “to scold.”
Koschey, as the name of a fairy tale hero and as a designation of a skinny man, Max Vasmer in his dictionary considers not Turkism, but primordially Slavic word(a homonym) and connects 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 Slavic mythology argue 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, in different sources Various things are mentioned.
- FAR THREE NINE EARTHS 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 there are untold riches - gold, silver, ray pearls, which the hero, after defeating the enemy, takes from his kingdom. According to researchers, the golden coloring of objects in the mythopoetic consciousness is perceived as a sign 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
Friends in different fairy tales we didn't find
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 was openly 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 mysteriously disappear big businessmen and politicians. 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...
Hello, dear students!
Today I won’t take you for a walk, because the one we are going to meet today is no less powerful a sorcerer, and maybe even more so, than Baba Yaga. So, pour some tea, take the buns freshly baked in our oven with a baked cricket, listen to my story and look, - Zhouli waved her hand towards the stove, and everyone turned around and saw that there were pictures hanging on it.
I think everyone guessed that we would talk about Koshchei the Immortal. Most often it is believed that Baba Yaga and Koschey the Immortal are kind of friends. However, it is Baba Yaga who reveals the secret of how to get to Koshchei the Immortal and how to destroy him. Despite the fact that he has such a telling name - Immortal - his death exists. It is at the end of a needle, the needle is in the egg, the egg is in the duck, the duck is in the hare, the hare is in the chest, the chest, tightly chained, hangs on an oak tree (or is buried under an oak tree), which stands on an island in the middle of the sea-ocean.
However, in some fairy tales main role A magic horse plays in Koshchei's defeat.
Ivan fattened the foal in the green meadows, and it grew into a glorious horse. He rode on horseback for Marya and again took her away from Koshchei. Koschey tried to keep up with them, but now Ivan’s horse was even better than Koschey’s horse. Whether for a long time or for a short time, Koschey caught up with the fugitives and wanted to cut Ivan with a saber, but Ivanov’s horse hit Koschey and crushed his head. Ivan lit a fire and burned Koshchei at the stake, and threw his ashes to the wind
We will talk about magic horses in other lectures.
In another version, Ivan did not burn Koshchei, but finished him off with his club.
It turns out that in different fairy tales we are talking about different Koshchei? This reminds us of the situation with Baba Yaga.
What power does Koschey have?
Can turn into a flying snake or a black raven. So he quickly moves through the worlds and steals what he likes. And he likes beautiful girls and jewelry. Remember Pushkin? “There Tsar Koschey is wasting away over gold.” But no matter how many beauties he brought to him, not one agreed to marry him, and even the countless treasures did not seduce them.
Koschey masterfully wields the magic of transformation. Can turn anyone into anything.
Water gives Koshchei supernatural strength. He drinks three buckets at a time, and then he doesn’t care about breaking the 12 chains on which he is being held in Marya Morevna’s dungeon.
Let us now turn to the very name of this malicious and all-powerful old man.
The Old Slavonic word "kosh" ("kosht") meant "dry, skinny, thin in body." This word is close in meaning to the word “bone” and perfectly characterizes Koshchei himself: a short old man, so skinny that only his bones are visible. A walking skeleton.
Some researchers of Slavic myths believe that the image of Koshchei the Immortal and the Serpent Gorynych in Russian fairy tales are interchangeable: both love wealth and steal beauties. But Koschey is also endowed with other powers that are beyond the control of the Serpent Gorynych. So these are still different creatures.
There is a version that the word “koschey” goes back to “koschun”, which already means a sorcerer. Indeed, only an omnipotent magician, or a person who turned to demonic forces for help, like Faust, could become immortal.
Where Koschey lives, trees do not grow, birds do not sing, the earth is not fertile, and the sun does not send out its blessed rays. In the Koshchei kingdom there is always twilight. Everything is scorched, dried, frozen. What does this remind you of? Well, of course, winter, severe frosts that bind rivers and can kill all living things. It is fair to note that under Koshchei the Immortal could be hidden ancient god death from cold. And so he was. This is Karachun - evil spirit, shortening life, bringing death from cold. The same word is used to describe the winter solstice. Karachun - underground god, commanding frosts. His assistants: connecting rod bears that turn into snowstorms, and blizzard wolves.
The fact that Koschey is associated with cold is also indicated by the following facts gleaned from fairy tales. On the way to Koscheev's kingdom, the traveler first comes across Brown bear- Lord of the forests. Following him are birds, in particular migratory birds, for example, the duck, which can be seen in the northern tundra during the summer nesting period. Next comes fish. Pike, but perhaps this is a later replacement, and earlier there was some fish from northern seas, for example, beluga whale. Thus, the path goes from south to north. And it is in the north that Koschey the Immortal lives in his terrible and cold palaces.
What is immortality? Is this a blessing or a punishment? Perhaps in ancient times there was a ritual for achieving immortality. In any case, archaeologists, while excavating the grave of the founder of the city of Chernigov, Prince Cherny, found a scene depicted in fairy tales: a needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare in a treasured casket. The ritual of gaining immortality has been forgotten, but its symbol has been preserved - immortelle flowers. Rough and dry to the touch, yellowish, reddish. Whether they grow in the ground or are picked and placed in a glass of water - there is not much difference. They can stand without water and do not change their color. There seems to be life in them, and there seems to be no life. They prefer to plant such flowers on graves. The explanation is this: these flowers are like a border between the living and the dead. We touch them in this world, and the dead touch them in the next.
Maybe Koshchei’s immortality is like that? Life is not life, and death is unattainable. And he is stuck between two worlds and remains so until Ivan Tsarevich saves him from such eternal torment, because Koschey is still a being Furthermore, otherworldly, world. He immediately smells the smell of a living person with disgust.
And although the image of Koshchei the Immortal is so unpleasant, it interests many researchers of Slavic mythology. One of these is Alexander Fomich Veltman (1800-1870) - a prolific writer, founder of the Russian genre science fiction, historian, folklorist, director of the Armory Chamber, academician. And although he is the son of a Swedish envoy, he became a true expert and lover of Russian antiquity.
Well, how? Aren't you cold from such a story? If the cold gets through, our tea will quickly drive it away! So pour yourself another cup, and then run to rest. Homework will. What would it be like without him?
1. How many degrees of protection does death have? Tell us why exactly so much.
2. Tell who or what was subjected to Koshcheev’s spell of transformation and how this spell was broken.
3. Now dream up. You have entered the kingdom of Koshcheevo. What did you see there? What they were doing?
