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From the folk demonology of Transcarpathians: nechystyy (according to expedition materials)

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The authors of the publication:
Krasykov Mykhailo
p.:
80-94
UDC:
398.41(477.87)
Bibliographic description:
Krasykov, M. (2019) From the folk demonology of Transcarpathians: nechystyy (according to expedition materials). Materials to Ukrainian Ethnology, 18 (21), 80–94.

Author

Krasykov Mykhailo

candidate of philological sciences, professor of the Department of Ukrainian Studies, Cultural Studies and History of Science of the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, director of the H. Khotkevych Ethnographic Museum “Treasures of Slobozhanshchyna”, NTU “KhPI”.

 

From the folk demonology of Transcarpathians: nechystyy (according to expedition materials)

 

Abstract

Folk demonology of Ukrainians belongs to the priority subjects of the present-day researchers of folk culture. It has been studied assiduously also by the ethnographers and folklorists of the 19th – 20th centuries. Transcarpathians’ demonology is not an exclusion here. It is studied systematically by the scientists of today at the expeditions. The proposed article is written after the materials, recorded by the author during the folklore-ethnographic expedition of 2017 in the villages of Rakhiv district of Transcarpathian region.

It’s dedicated to the image of devil in the perception of the rural population of the region. The range of devil local names is proposed. Typical superstitions are analyzed. Comparing the present-day records with the texts, obtained a hundred and more years ago not only in Transcarpathian region but in the whole Carpathian one, the author concludes that tradition of this character perception is permanent and sustainable and alive. The narrations that devil can be ‘heated’ while sitting on the masonry stove with an egg from the black hen under the left armpit for nine days and following certain conditions are still very popular. The records about the people who ‘have got a devil’ and their contact with devilry are submitted.

The narratives, where the respondents tell about their personal meeting with a devil and describe (often rather at length) its appearance and behavior, still happen. There are quite a few traditional stories about the address to demon (‘did’ko’ who is called sometimes as a devil) in the case of some object disappearance in the house. A considerable number of texts about the people’s attempts to get rid of devil, including its sale at the market or granting as a ‘frienly gift’ to some acquaintances which is marked by the phrase ‘bery zo vsim’ (take it with everything) is analyzed. Attention is paid to the narratives where the ‘hromovytsia’ is described. It is a tree hit by a lighting (‘thunder’ according to folk terminology), which can’t be used not only for house building but for its heating as well. However, as it turns out, just with the help of this tree splinters one can get rid of a devil in the own house on Easter day. The local, regional, all-Ukrainian or all-Slavic nature of one or another legend recorded by the author is mentioned constantly in the work.

 

Keywords

Ukrainian folk demonology, Transcarpathia, Hutsuls, devil, current records.

 

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