Article

Name: A doll with golden eyes: about а unique fairy-tale-mythological plot in the folklore of Russians in Mongolia

Authors: Vladimir L. Klyaus

A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Полевые исследования

Abstract:

The issue of uniqueness in folklore is of utmost methodological importance as it directly relates to the emergence and evolution of oral texts. There are two approaches to considering the uniqueness of a work. The first states that texts without analogs in terms of plot are not worth considering and can be ignored when studying folklore tradition. According to the second, such works are formed in a broad folklore-ethnographic context so that they may clarify the text-generating mechanisms of oral culture. This article addresses this problem by analyzing a specific material, a fairy-tale-mythological story about a doll with golden eyes. This text was recorded from descendants of Transbaikal Cossacks who moved to Mongolia in the 1920s, specifically from the Menzenskaya stanitsa. The author of the article conducted several expedition trips to the Menza River in the 1990s–2000s. Two settlements are located on the two banks of the river: Menza, where descendants of Cossacks live, and Ukyr, founded by Semeiski (Transbaikalian Old Believers). The expeditions revealed that the Trinity rituals were strongly preserved in this location. The tale under consideration is unique, with no similar ones found in East Slavic folklore prose. The only known reference to it can be found in a song from the Kaluga region, which was sung on Dukhov Day as part of the custom of creating ceremonial dolls. Based on this information, it can be suggested that the story was brought to the Menzenskaya stanitsa by the ancestors of the Cossacks who relocated here from the Kaluga-Smolensk borderland of European Russia.

Keywords: Russians from Mongolia, Cossacks of Transbaikal, Menza, Trinity Day, ritual dolls, spiritual songs, fantastic mythological narratives, uniqueness in folklore

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