PAGAN CULTURE IN THE UPPER VOLGA AND THE TEXT OF THE “EDDA”

The aim of the article is a cultural study of the local toponymy of the Upper Volga area and a comparison of cultural heritage. The novelty of the article lies in the connection between the cultural heritage expressed in the toponymy of the Upper Volga and in the cultural information of the texts of the “Prose Edda” and the “Poetic Edda”. The presence of a connection is seen in the coincidence of some significant words of the texts and the toponymy of the area, which has distinctive names of settlements and geographical points. Assuming the permissible migration of ancient cultures from the south and south-east to the north and north-west, it seems possible to move to the Upper Volga a branch of culture similar to the one that brought cultural material to Scandinavia. The result of the study is the formation of an idea about the possibility of finding in the Upper Volga area bearers of a culture whose peculiarity was the presence of a world order system similar to that present in the culture whose legacy was later recorded in Iceland, in the texts of the “Prose Edda” and the “Poetic Edda”. Analysis of the world order system of the culture, recorded in fragments of texts, makes it possible to form a partial idea of an earlier, similar culture located in the Upper Volga area.