The Ethnology Notebooks. 2019, № 5 (149), 1211—1219
UDK 398.88(=161.2)
DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2019.05.1211
METAMORPHOSIS IN UKRAINIAN CAROLS WITH APOCRYPHAL MOTIFS
KACHMAR Maria
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7811-9576
candidate of Philological Sciences,
a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
15 Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine
e-mail: mariakachmar@ukr.net
Abstract. The article is devoted to the analysis of the principle of metamorphosis in Ukrainian carols with apocryphal motifs, which constitute the source base and object of the work. The purpose of the study is to unravel the meaning and function of the metamorphosis in these texts, the connection between the images of change, that codifies the experience of many generations, to find out the role and place of folk symbols. It is important, without a doubt, to consider the impact on the act of transforming people’s beliefs, Christian factors, moral and ethical norms, social realities and more. The article focuses on the main types of incarnation: the conversion of the tears of the Lord or other saint into a river, well, sea (metamorphosis of eminent character); the blood of the Savior into wine or the church; separate parts of Jesus’ body into different objects. The binary character of such changes in Ukrainian carols is indicated: mythological origin and later Christian influences. These include the motive of the appearance of rivers from human blood: blood — well — Danube — in the texts about the bathing of Christ and the dispute with the Apostle Peter. The semantics of water and fire as a matter of creation, often backed by the image of the world tree, is common in works about the transformation of sparks into three seas, the tear of the Lord into wheat. We trace the combination of Christian and pagan motifs in the texts about the change of the blood of Christ to the church and the tears to the wine. The sources of such metamorphosis may be the mythological notions as well as the biblical story about the conversion of water into wine in Cana of Galilee, the Christian doctrine of the church as the «Body of Jesus Christ». Metamorphosis of individual parts of the body of Jesus into different objects (thrones, candles, books, images, bells), despite Christian influences, is also of ancient origin. It is based on mythological beliefs about the emergence of individual parts of the world from the body of the first person. It is proved that the connection between incoming and outgoing images of change is regulated by folk symbols. Structural-semantic, structural-semiotic, textual, comparative, interdisciplinary methods, field research method were used to fulfill the purpose and tasks of the work.
Keywords: metamorphosis, carol, apocryphal motives, mythological consciousness, folk symbolism.
Received 28.09.2019
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