Ethnolinguistics and Folklore Poetics. 4. «A Mother Bewitches her Son into a Snake»

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Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the Bulgarian folk songs «Mother turns her son into a snake», which are distinguished by a unique mythological plot and describe the transformation of a person due to the magic activity of the mother into a hybrid creature – half-man, half-snake. The study focuses on the structure of the song and the combination of repeated and unique content blocks. A special place is given to mythological aspects – the description of gypsies as carriers of magical knowledge, herbs that separate spouses, preparation of a witch’s potion, the characteristics of how a demonological character is presented in the songs and in other folklore genres. The explicit didacticism of the song is shown – using the example of reprisals against the mother, the ideas are conveyed that slander, hatred in the family, and black magic are punishable. The conclusion contains the main ideas of the depiction of ethnographic reality with folklore poetic means.

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About the authors

Irina A. Sedakova

Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: ised@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9252-5407

D. Sc. (Philology), Head of the Department

Russian Federation, Moscow

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