ДОМ↔КОКОШКА (Към въпроса за генезиса на „избушка на курьих ножках”)
HOME↔HEN. (On the Genesis of “The Cottage Revolving on Hen legs”)

Summary/Abstract: This article is a new link in a chain of the author’s previous works analyzing problems, connected with the popular all over Europe game “The Eagle and the Brood-Hen”. First of all, the author poses the question of the hen as one of the possible animals to be sacrificied when a new house is built, or in rites of transition. Regarding M. Eliade’s ideas about the symbolic meaning that the building of a home incorporates, the material under study draws the researcher’s attention to the relation hen-egg (cosmic egg) and stresses the fact that the hen is a perfect mediator between earth and heaven, the alien and the own space. Secondly, the author studies the relationship hen-home – “cottage on hen legs” – Baba Yaga. Her hypothesis is that one of the zoomorphic hypostasa of the nether world hostess is the hen. Further on, Baba Yaga as an anthropomorphic version of the nether world hostess is also connected with this bird. To prove this idea, the author analyzes in addition some South Slavic variants of “The Golden Girl” tale.

• Details
• Contents