Koschey the Immortal - who is he? Theories about the origin of the folk anti-hero

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The question of who Koschey the Deathless is is still relevant today. Is this folk art or did it have a prototype of some historical figure? Perhaps this is generally a figment of the imagination of all times and peoples? And why does this immortal fairy tale anti-hero have such a strange name? Let's talk about all this in more detail…

Koschey the Immortal, who are you?

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 fabulous (or maybe not fabulous) personality:

1. This is the result of popular imagination, which later became folklore and the property of the republic.
2. Koschei the Immortal (photo) is a prototype of a real person.

Version one: folk fiction (folklore)

Koschey the Immortal, whose photo for a number of reasons is not possible for youdemonstrate (drawings only) how a folklore fictional character is endowed with many powers. He turns into a black crow, and sometimes into a flying kite. 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… Do you remember how Pushkin said about Koshchei, who languishes over gold? That's how it is. According to popular belief, water gives strength to it. Having drunk as many as three buckets at a time, he is able to tame even the Zmey Gorynych himself! By the way, some researchers in the field of Slavic mythology argue that the images of the Immortal and Gorynych are interchangeable in Russian fairy tales. Both of them just love riches and also steal beautiful girls! However, Koschey is endowed with a little more power, beyond the control of the Serpent Gorynych.

Version two: real prototype

According to this version, the prototype of the fabulous Koshchei is none other than Saint Kasyan himself. The fact is that the aforementioned 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 are still popular at children's matinees and in fairy-tale performances to this day. 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 saints!

The meaning of his name

The origin of the name of this fairy-tale character has a philological character: consonance and general semantics with some words, for example, with blasphemy. "Koschun" is a sorcerer. And indeed: only omnipotent black magicians are immortal, as well as people who turned to the dark forces for help (for example, Goethe's Faust).

Besides, in the Old Slavonic language the word "kosh" (or "kosht") means "skinny", "dry" or "thin". We all remember the appearance of our anti-hero: skin and bones… Some etymologists say that his name is nothing more than a mythological image of nature ossified and frozen from severe frosts.

Summarize

Let's put all the above thoughts together. So, Koschey the Immortal is a folklore image of ancient Russian fairy tales, which arose due to dubious rumors about St. Kasyan, supported by such Old Slavonicisms as kosht and koshchun. Though small, but true!