Между езичество и християнство: свети Трифон в българските народни представи
On the Borderline between Paganism and Christianity: Saint Trifon in Bulgarian Folk Notions

Summary/Abstract: The article treats the legend about Saint Trifon and the Mother of God as a concise expression of the notions associated with the worship of the saint in Bulgarian folk culture. The author cites also some less common and only locally spread beliefs and life-way characteristic features of the saint, which emphasize the comprehensiveness of the legend under investigation as regards the folkloric image of the saint. The legend has been analysed form a structural viewpoint and several basic versions have been established, according to the recurrence of the single component parts. The author attempts to prove the existence of a mythological invariant, and determines the main outline of the action as consisting of conflict and punishment. She also draws the major characteristic features of the personages. The two main characters, Saint Trifon and the Mother of God, and their attitude to the conflict have been successively analysed. Special attention has been drawn upon the punishment, Saint Trifon’s nose being cut off, which proves to be an invariable component part within the structure of the legend. Indications have been given as to the possible correspondences between the folklore motifs under consideration and the customs and rites performed on Saint Trifon’s Day, the pruning of vines in particular. Two conclusions have been suggested as a result of the semantic and stratigraphic analysis. The first one is linked to the possible historical fixation of the most ancient stratum of the legend and its actual underlying mythological core to the ancient Balkan (ancient Greek and Thracian) religious and cultural stock. Sacred narratives such as the myth of Dionysus and Lykurgos are found to be grounded on the same core. The second conclusion regards the most immediate relation between Bulgarian rites and the legend: the latter reflects a number of practices typical of the celebration of Saint Trifon’s Day, and could be regarded as evidence attesting the centuries-old existence of the group of rites and feasts known as “Saint Trifon’s Day”.

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