THE IMAGE OF “TREE-HORSE” IN THE SLAVIC FOLK CULTURE

Svetlana D. Sinchuk

Svetlana D. Sinchuk, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor, Stavropol State Pedagogical Institute, Svobody pr., 14, 357430 Zheleznovodsk, pos. Inozemtsevo, Russia. E-mail: svetlana. sinchuk@yandex.ru

Theory and history of culture

2017

Vol. 43

Pp. 96–110

August 17, 2016

March 15, 2017

008+398

63.5+82.3(2Рос=Рус)

On the material of Slavic folk culture the paper deals with the question of identification of the image of horse with the image of tree that once existed among the ancient Slavs. The analysis of such analogies, the traces of which are preserved in the riddles, fairy tales, true stories, rituals, language, is carried out taking into account the peculiarities of the pagan world. The reason for such an imagery and semantic connection between horse and tree is that “universal horse” and “tree world” once were equally cosmological symbols. Drawing on the presented and analyzed material the fantastic image of the “wood-horse,” captured in the Slavic arts and crafts (embroidery and woodcarving), becomes comprehensible — just as the “horse” names for wooden objects, existing in the Russian national dialects, and the interchangeability of the images of horse and tree, observed in the Slavic traditions and folklore. All of this attests to the fact that the identification of the image of horse with the image of tree in the ancient worldview was acceptable.

horse, tree, riddles, rituals, folk dialects, archaic thinking.

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