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Komi mythology is the traditional mythology of the Komi peoples of northern Russia.

Gods and spirits

Creation myth

A duck egg gave birth to En and Omöl, the spirits of good and evil respectively. En took the form of a swan, Omöl that of a grebe. They rose from the bottom of the primordial ocean to create the world.

Soul

In Komi religious belief the human soul (лов, "lov") had a double (орт, "ort", or орд, "ord"). The ort is born with each human being and gives a premonition of death either to the person who is to die or to one of their family.

Underworld

The land of the dead was usually thought to be far to the north of the living, beyond mountains, rivers and forests. The Komi equivalent of the Styx (the river of the underworld in Greek mythology) was "Syr Yu" (Сыр Ю), "River of Pitch". Dead souls were assigned various means of crossing the river, according to their sins in this world: an iron bridge, a shaky beam, a thin pole or a cobweb. After this the dead had to climb a huge slippery mountain. This was only possible if the person had led a good life and had strong fingernails. Traditionally, the Komis kept their fingernail clippings so they could be buried with them for use in the afterlife.

Shamans and sorcerers

The Komis had shamans and believed in sorcerers and witches. The most notorious witch in Komi folklore is Yoma (or Yoma-Baba).

Video games

See also

References

  1. ^ Aronov, Igor. Kandinsky's Quest: A Study in the Artist's Personal Symbolism, 1866–1907. Peter Lang, 2006, p. 41.

Further reading

  • Avril, Yves. Parlons komi. Harmattan, 2006. pp. 142-147.
  • Coates, J. G. “Shomvukva. A Komi Folk-Tale”. In: Folklore 77, no. 4 (1966): 257–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1258668.
  • Konakov, Nikolay. "Rationality and mythological foundations of calendar symbols of the ancient Komi". In: Shamanism and Northern Ecology. Edited by Juha Pentikäinen. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011 [1996]. pp. 135-142. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110811674.135
  • Konakov, N. D. "Komi Mythology". In: Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies. Akadémai Kiadó, 1999.
  • Kuznetsov, Nikolai. "Komi Folklore. Collected by Paul Ariste". In: Folklore vol. 29 (2005): 191-196. doi:10.7592/FEJF2005.29.komi
  • Limerov, Pavel (2019). "Some Motifs in Komi Legends about the Creation of the World". Electronic Journal of Folklore. 76: 29–38. doi:10.7592/FEJF2019.76.limerov.
  • Misharina, Galina. "Funeral and Magical Rituals among the Komi". In: Folklore vol. 47 (2011): 155-172. doi:10.7592/FEJF2011.47.misharina
  • Pantiukhin, Dmitri Aleksandrovich (2012). "The Komi-Permiak Prollaver Feast Day with the Bykoboi [Bull-Slaughter] Rite". In: Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia, 51:2, 8-40. DOI: 10.2753/AAE1061-1959510201
  • Podyukov, Ivan A. "О НЕКОТОРЫХ ОСОБЕННОСТЯХ КОМИ-ПЕРМЯЦКОЙ ХРОНОНИМИКИ" [ABOUT SOME PECULIARITIES OF KOMI-PERMYAK CHRONONYMICS]. In: Philological Studies Vol. 15, No 2 (2017): 47-55. (In Russian)
  • Teryukov, Alexander. "Materials on Komi-Zyryan mythology: Notions of the soul". In: Shamanism and Northern Ecology. Edited by Juha Pentikäinen. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011 [1996]. pp. 143-150. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110811674.143
  • Филимонов, В. В. (2014). Фольклор и верования народа коми в «Известиях Архангельского общества изучения русского Севера» [FOLKLORE AND BELIEFS OF THE KOMI PEOPLE IN “PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARKHANGELSK SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE RUSSIAN NORTH”]. Вестник Северного (Арктического) федерального университета. Серия: Гуманитарные и социальные науки, (1), 88-94. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/folklor-i-verovaniya-naroda-komi-v-izvestiyah-arhangelskogo-obschestva-izucheniya-russkogo-severa (дата обращения: 04.08.2022).