NORTHERN RUSSIAN MYTHOLOGICAL STORIES (BYVALSHCHINY) IN KOMI-ZYRYAN FOLKLORE: IMAGINARY SPOUSES

The article examines the plots of two mythological stories (byvalshchiny) borrowed by the Komi narrative tradition. The first plot is about a hunter’s cohabitation with an imaginary wife, who in the end tears apart the child she has just born. The second plot is about the cohabitation of a hunter’s wife with an imaginary husband and her ultimate separation from him, which is associated with a pilgrimage to the Solovetsky monastery. Both examples have a two-part plot structure. The first part of the mythological stories could exist as an independent plot about the cohabitation with a werewolf. The second part does not have any analogues in the Russian demonological tradition and is derived from Old Testament and apocryphal plots. The first case reminds one оf a biblical legend about Solomon’s Court. In the plot of the mythological story, the image of the imaginary mother underscores the unreality of the events that happened to the person. In the folklore of the Komi this plot is projected onto hunting realities and existed in the form of memorates. The second plot could be linked to the apocryphal legend of Noah’s Ark in which Noah’s wife lures her devil lover onto the ark. In the plot of the story the situation is inverted: in the apocryphal legend the lover displays cunning, but in the byvalshchina it is the people not allowing the werewolf to come on the ship who show cunning.