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« 2026. # 2 (188)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 2 (188), 548—556

UDK 398:186/.188

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2026.02.548

  • Received: 02.03.2026
  • Accepted: 23.03.2026
  • Published: 27.04.2026

THE IMAGE OF THE OTHER WORLD (BASED ON VOLODYMYR HNATIUK’S FOLKLORE RECORDS)

HNATIV Maria

  • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1357-5965
  • Post-graduate Student, Ivan Franko National University
  • of Lviv, Philological Faculty, Philareth Kolessa Department 
  • of Ukrainian Folklore Studies,
  • 1, Universytetska str., 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: humenna_maria@ukr.net 

Abstract. The article emphasizes that in traditional folk beliefs, human life does not end with death but merely changes its mode of existence and spatiotemporal boundaries, transitioning from one substance to another, where it continues its being. For a comprehensive understanding of the final destination of the supra-body, the concept of the other world is commonly employed, as according to ancestral narratives, it is there that the deceased — or rather, their souls — arrive. The folk depiction of this transition from one world to another is reflected in the folklore materials collected by Volodymyr Hnatiuk. The article attempts to reconstruct the image of the afterlife primarily on the basis of the folklore texts published by this scholar, which determines the relevance of the study. From V. Hnatiuk’s folklore materials, the concepts of Heaven and Hell are distinguished, most frequently emerging through the ambivalence of sin. According to folk beliefs, if a person sinned during their lifetime, they must atone after death and therefore enter the predetermined place —Hell. If, however, a person was God-fearing and righteous in their deeds, they transition to a luminous realm — Heaven. The other world may also be perceived not only after death but in dreams, during clinical death, or in deathlike states. The object of the study is the folklore materials published by V. Hnatiuk, and the subject is the specific features of representing the afterlife within them. The methodological framework is based on general scholarly methods, including analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, and others. The image of the other world remains a generally insufficiently explored topic, particularly when examined through the prism of V. Hnatiuk’s folklore records; therefore, the article will be of interest to researchers.

Keywords: folklore, deathlike state, the image of the other world, sin, heaven, hell, Volodymyr Hnatiuk.

REFERENCES

  • Hnatiuk, V. (1902). Folk Legends from Halychyna and Rus. The Ethnological Compendium (Vol. 13) [in Ukrainian].
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  • Van-Gennep, A. (1909). The rites of de passage. Paris [in French].
  • Naumovska, O. (2022). The Invariant Structure of Rites of Passage into the Other World in the Scholarly Interpretation of Arnold van Gennep. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Series: Literary Studies. Linguistics. Folklore Studies, 1 (31), 51—54 [in Ukrainian]. 
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