Koshey is immortal. Who was Koschey the Immortal really? Where does the Nightingale the Robber live?

The actors were paid, although it was not possible to establish how much. Galina Mikhailovna Martynenko says that she received either 18 rubles, or 180 rubles. He also doesn’t remember what the money was used for - apparently, the amount was not that large. But as a souvenir, all the Ozersk girls who participated in the filming were left with colored ribbons, according to their memories - from satin.

These ribbons were woven into our braids. And we were allowed to keep the tape after filming... - says Galina Mikhailovna. - We were so glad. Life was hard. War…

Galina Mikhailovna also remembers that the children were treated to ice cream and cakes in that summer heat. Maybe Rowe, having decided to please the village children, actually found somewhere these delicacies, probably rare in wartime?

Filming in Ozerki lasted three months. Then the filmmakers left and returned in the spring of 1945 with the finished film - so the film has its 70th anniversary next year!

In Rowe’s memoirs it is written: “the village club could not accommodate everyone. We had to “pull” the walls - stretch the canvas on the street, in front of the entrance to the club, and the film was immediately watched by hundreds of spectators.”

Alexander Dmitrievich Zhuravlev was not at the premiere - he had already been drafted into the army. But Galina Mikhailovna remembers everything - a sheet instead of a screen, and the fact that, at the request of the Ozersk residents, the film was shown again and again.

The station showed the film for free... - she says. - Everyone liked it. I was only sorry that I didn’t see myself - I only recognized my friend Vera Lazareva...

The premiere took place in Barnaul on May 9, 1945. Nikita Kozhemyaka defeated Koshchei, who turned out to be not so immortal. This was precisely in those days when reports of the death of Hitler’s leaders were published in newspapers small print, as if by the way. The film ended with the words: “After the thunderstorm, Rus' will blossom better than the old, more beautiful than before” - and everyone probably wanted to believe that it would be so...

The idea to make Koshchey a tourist brand in Altai appeared in 2011.

I often go to State Museum history of literature and culture, from there I learned the story of the film about Koshchei, and thought that this should be developed... - says Sergei Mozgovoy. – And in 2011, regions began to snap up fairy-tale heroes. And I thought that Koschey could be a fabulous brand of Altai. This is a truly large-scale character with world fame. American directors learned from Rowe's films. The other day I watched “The Hobbit” - it has a lot in common with “Koshchei”...

Since the media reported on this idea in early April, many initially treated it as a joke. Many, but not the director of Talmensky local history museum Lyudmila Smirnova. She just saw a practical grain in this.

Before this, we took our guests to the filming location and told the whole story. And I saw interest, not only among Russians, but also among foreign guests - from Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong. In 2009 for scientists and museum workers Siberian region we staged a huge performance “Koshey the Immortal on new way", in which 300 people took part - these are our folk groups and art schools. And from the experience of the family tourist route “Happy Together”, I saw that the story about the filming of the fairy tale about Koshchei is very interesting for both adults and children... - says Lyudmila Smirnova.

If Lyudmila Aleksandrovna sets her mind to something, she does it right away - this is confirmed by a whole list of grants won and projects completed. She quickly prepared and submitted an application for a presidential grant in the field of culture “The Cheerful Storyteller of Darkness. Alexander Rowe." In the spring of 2013, it became known that Lyudmila Smirnova’s application had won.

The project was recognized as having national significance, and the grant amount was increased from 550 thousand rubles to 600 thousand... - Lyudmila Aleksandrovna tells us.

In September 2014, the museum opened a hall dedicated to the film by Alexander Rowe. Now there is a huge screen that allows - the only one in the area - to watch fairy tales in 3D. A portrait of Alexander Rowe, frames and characters from his fairy tales, a unique book about the director, published in his homeland, in the city of Yuryevets, Ivanovo region, and donated to the museum quite recently. There is both a chest and a duck (after all, Koshchei’s death is at the end of a needle, the needle is in the duck, the duck is in the hare, the hare is in the chest, and the chest is on the tree). And most importantly - the huge, two-meter Koschey! The fairy-tale villain was carved from wood by Sergei Mozgovoy.

Koschey (Kashchei) the Immortal is one of the most odious and mysterious villains of Russian fairy tales. The epithet “Immortal” alone makes one fear this character. The absence of fear of the Immortal may mean that you have long been registered in his Koshcheev kingdom.

1. The secret of the name

We still don't know exact origin named "Koschey". The most common version - the name "Koschey" comes from the word "bone" and means a skinny person - is not in fashion among linguists today. Modern researchers of Russian folklore are more inclined to see the roots of the villain either in the Lower Sorbian kostlar (caster), or in the Old Russian “kast” (abomination, muck, etc.). Other scientists believe that the word “koschey” in other Slavic languages ​​is translated as skin, neck, bones. So, in Serbian “koschei” - “bone and skin” or “neck”, in Slovenian and Polish - “neck” (Slovenian kitami, Polish chudzielec).

2. Who is Koschey?

Oddly enough, scientists have not yet come to a clear conclusion. Some see in Koshchei an interpretation of the Slavic god of death from cold Karachun, others - a Russian version of the German god Odin, others - just a somewhat frostbitten sorcerer with large magical abilities. Many modern folklorists generally call for the rehabilitation of Koshchei, declaring that he is not a villain at all, but a kind of role model for a participant in the mystery of initiation of a young girl, which is performed by the father of the initiate.

3. Crimes of Koshchei

In Russian fairy tales, Koschey appears as a very capable sorcerer. Moreover, he was very sophisticated in his magical solutions. So, in the fairy tale “Elena the Beautiful” he turns Ivan Tsarevich into a nut, the princess from “The Frog Princess” he “dresses up” in the skin of an amphibian, and in the fairy tale “Ivan Sosnovich” he deals with the whole kingdom, turning it into stone. The villain himself prefers to turn into a raven.

4. Unsuccessful ladies' man

As a rule, all of Koshchei’s activities are built around young girls. Koschey uses the same failed tactics to win their love: first he spectacularly kidnaps the girl, then unsuccessfully tries to achieve intimacy, and, having failed to achieve it, turns fairy-tale beauties into frogs or snakes.

5. Koschey the Gallant

True, there was a case when the lady reciprocated with Koschey. In the epic “About Ivan Godinovich” the Immortal with the exotic patronymic Tripetovich appears as a gallant, courtly gentleman, wooing the Chernigov princess Marya Dmitrievichna. His rival is the treacherous Ivan Godinovich, who kidnaps Koshchei’s bride and takes her to an open field. Having caught up with the kidnapper, Koschey Tripetovich again asks Beautiful Marya to become his legal wife. And she agrees. Happy couple ties the treacherous Ivan to an oak tree, and they themselves go off to indulge in love pleasures in the tent. Then a raven flies in and begins to croak to the lovers that Marya Dmitrievichna will not be Koshcheeva’s wife, but the wife of Ivan Godinovich. In a rush righteous anger The immortal Romeo shoots at the raven, but the arrow changes its trajectory and kills Koshchei himself. Unhappy Marya the Beautiful decides to put an end to Ivan, but he cleverly snatches the saber from her and quarters the girl. The only one ended so tragically love story Koshcheya.

6. How to kill Koshchei

In one of the fairy tales, Koschey opened up: “My death is far away: there is an island on the sea on the ocean, on that island there is an oak tree, under the oak tree there is a chest buried, in the chest there is a hare, in the hare there is a duck, in the duck there is an egg, and in the egg there is death.” my". Many scientists saw in this “matryoshka” an interpretation of the model of the universe: water (sea-ocean), earth (island), plants (oak), animals (hare), birds (duck), and the oak is the “world tree”. In other words, you can end Koshchei by destroying the world order.

7. Where does Koschey live and does he have any relatives?

Koshchei’s daughter is Vasilisa (from the Greek basilissa - queen) the Wise (aka the Frog Princess), in another version the father of Vasilisa the Wise is the Sea King. Image " sea ​​kings"goes back to the image of the sea-king - the German leaders of sea campaigns of the era Dark Ages(from the Goths to the Vikings), who came from Scandinavia. It is noteworthy that the kingdom of Koshchei is localized in the north. Koschey went to war against Rus' in order to avenge betrayal. By the way, in many fairy tales he is mentioned primarily as a king. Koschey the Immortal: king, slave, sorcerer, does not have the opportunity to die, loves to kidnap maidens, loves gold. Draw a parallel between him and the Scandinavian Troll, and you will get a 100% coincidence, right down to the name, which translates as “slave,” and in both cases there was initially betrayal, and then immortality.

8. Christian interpretation of Koshchei

Some elders of Northern Rus' interpreted Koshchei as the fallen Adam, and Ivan Tsarevich as a “New Testament man.” In other interpretations of “folk Orthodoxy,” Koschey symbolized the sinful body, the girl he kidnapped was human soul, and Ivan Tsarevich is a spirit. The death of Koshchei was interpreted by these ascetics as the cleansing of the soul from sins. True, modern folklorists consider these interpretations anti-scientific.

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 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 Are we talking about different Koschei? 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 body". This word is close in meaning to the word “bone” and perfectly characterizes Koshchei himself: a short old man, so skinny that only the bones are visible. An upright walking skeleton.

Some researchers Slavic myths They 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 is an underground god who rules 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 the kingdom of Koshcheev, the traveler first comes across a brown bear - the ruler 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 the 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 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?

Version-prediction of Professor Garin

According to the fairy tale about Koshchei the Immortal, Koschey'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 Koschey protects that tree like his own eye.

Omitting the cultural and mythological meaning of the attributes of death fairy tale character and his personal specificity or nationality, I dare to challenge fairy tale version about a needle and an oak tree, although the symbol of a needle as an instrument of damage or destruction is extremely multifaceted.

The main needle in our times has become information, or more precisely, the means of its dissemination. If you want, the last of a long line of Koshchei was destroyed by the Internet: the first protests in Ukraine began after the call of journalist Mustafa Nayem on the social network Facebook. This one and others social media provided access to the Kiev Maidan for a million Ukrainians. The result is well known and far from unique: unkilled social networks played a similar role in the overthrow of Mubarak and Gaddafi.

I have little faith in behind-the-scenes intrigues, palace coups(even in the absence of palaces) or antediluvian versions of the Brutes, but I am aware of the impossibility in our times of hiding the needle from the people with tens of millions of computers, even with the staggering costs of security web teams or a massive zombie show.

Therefore, I have no doubt that Koshcheev’s death is at the end of a needle, that needle in the virtual, that virtual in the monitor, that monitor in the computer, that computer in every home, and the houses are located in the cities and towns of the country that the next one did not save Koschey. Koschey understands this, so access to the needle will be severely limited and no expense will be spared for this limitation...

Reviews

On the Internet, it is difficult to store information that is inconvenient for speech. Unless the zombie is faithful to the propaganda of the television screen. I think such people do not visit the pages of free online magazines. Why, if for them the whole truth is in the TV news. But armchair patriots are not the whole people.
I agree with you, dear Igor - Internet in free access has incredible strength, and restrictions on Internet freedoms could lead to mass protests. And where there are protests, there is shaky power.

All authoritarian regimes are an attempt to stop or freeze time. Koshchei do not understand that this was easy to do in primitive times or ancient Egypt, but it's getting harder and harder these days. Of course, the DPRK still exists, but even there, as far as I know, changes have begun - albeit insignificant - but deep, not yet coming to the surface, changes. When the hour “x” comes, and it comes inevitably, no one has ever managed to resist time, although it is always more profitable for the authorities than for the people.
Happy New Year, dear Danae! Health and happiness!

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