The wolf came and the people fell silent, the falcon is clear. Scenario of the extra-curricular event "Oral folk art"

Wolf shepherd and wolves Tradition of the Russian people

Wolf shepherd and wolves In the fairy tales of the Slavs, the wolf most often acts from the animals. The meaningfulness of the behavior of a wolf pack, cunning, intelligence and courage gray predators always inspired not only fear, but also respect. No wonder there was a personal name in antiquity - the Wolf. It was believed that wolves do not destroy their victims without exception, but choose only those who are doomed to death by Egor the Brave, the wolf shepherd, that is, the shepherd. This image merged with Egor the Brave already in later, Christian times. Our most ancient ancestors saw in the wolf shepherd, first of all, the lord of the heavenly wolves, who, like hounds, participate with him in wild hunt and fly across the sky. Descending to the ground, the wolf shepherd rides out on a wolf, cracking his whip, driving wolf packs and threatens them with a club. Sometimes he approaches the villages in the form of a gray-haired old man, but sometimes he turns around wild beast- and then no shepherd can protect his flocks from him. In the forest, he calls the wolves to him and determines his prey for each. Whoever it is - a sheep, a cow, a pig, a foal or a person - he will not escape his fate, no matter how careful he is, because the wolf shepherd is inexorable, like fate itself.
Proverbs also speak of this: "What a wolf has in its teeth, Yegoriy gave", "The wolf catches the fatal sheep", "The doomed cattle is no longer a little animal." That is why the animal crushed by the wolf was never eaten: after all, it was intended for the predator by the wolf shepherd himself.
According to folk tales, the wolf is the personification of a black cloud that keeps living water rain. The concept of strength, health and beauty is inextricably linked with it, so the wolf sometimes acts as an assistant to the hero of legends. At the same time, the wolf is a cloud that obscures the sun, and in general the embodiment of darkness. "The wolf has come" dark night) - all the people fell silent; the clear-falcon (sun) took off - all the people went!" - makes an old riddle.
There is even such a character of ancient legends - a self-swallowing wolf. It's a wolf-cloud, a devourer heavenly bodies. He lives on the sea-ocean (i.e., in the sky), his terrible mouth is ready to devour any adversary. Under the wolf's tail is a bathhouse and the sea: if you evaporate in that bathhouse and swim in that sea, you will find eternal youth and beauty.
According to the word of pagan antiquity, even Perun himself sometimes turns into a wolf, appearing on earth; sorcerers and witches tried to imitate the god of the Slavic gods. In one of the most ancient conspiracies, it is due that on the fabulous island of Buyan "in a hollow clearing, a month shines on an aspen stump, in a green forest, in a wide valley. A shaggy wolf walks around the stump, with all the horned cattle on his teeth."
Repeating not only in Rus', but also among all Slavic and neighboring peoples, fairy tales about Ivan Tsarevich and gray wolf endow this beast of prey even with wings. He flies faster than the wind, carries the gray prince on his back from one white side of the world to another, helps him get the wonderful Firebird, the golden-maned horse and all the beauties the beauty - the Tsar Maiden. This fabulous wolf speaks with a human voice and is gifted with extraordinary wisdom.
Why is it that the wolf - a thief and a robber by its bestial nature - helps a person in almost all legends and is even ready to sacrifice his life for him? We find here traces of the veneration of the wolf as a totem, a sacred ancestor, the patron of people from his tribe. That is why he is even able to get living and dead water, resurrect dead hero, although it was beyond the power of an ordinary beast.
But over time, the veneration of the ancestor totem and the fear of a fierce beast went in different directions. The wolf became more of an enemy than a helper, and people found ways to protect themselves from him - both with the help of weapons and witchcraft means.
From winter Nikola, people say, wolves begin to prowl in packs through forests, fields and meadows, daring to attack even whole carts. From that day until Epiphany - wolf holidays. Only after the baptismal blessing of water does their courage disappear.
According to the stories of coachmen, wolves are afraid of bells and fire. An inflated bell drives them away from the traveler: "The evil spirits feel that the baptized are coming!" - says the old man. In many villages, to protect livestock from wolves, winter time approaching the backyards at night, in the old days it was customary to run around the outskirts with a bell in hand, lamenting to the ringing: “There is an iron fence near the yard, so that neither a fierce beast, nor a reptile, nor evil person!" People who believe in the power of witchcraft say that if you throw a dried wolf heart towards the wedding train, then the young will live unhappily. Wolf hair was considered in the old days as one of the evil forces in the hands of sorcerers.

(S. Maksimov)

Once a man rode through the forest. It was during the day, in the summer. Suddenly he sees: the wolf rushed at the sheep. The sheep was frightened, rushed under the cart. The wolf was also frightened and ran away. The peasant took the sheep and took it with him, drove about five sazhens from that place, it became not visible at all - it was a dark night. He was amazed. He drove, he drove, and he did not know where.
Suddenly he sees a light. - Ah, - he thinks, - these are, apparently, herdsmen. At least ask them where to go. He drives up and sees - the fire is laid out, and around - the wolves are sitting and Yegoriy the Brave himself is with them. And one wolf sits on the sidelines and clicks his teeth.
The man says that, they say, so and so, he got lost - I don’t know where to find the way. Yegoriy says to him:
- Why, - he says, - took the sheep away from the wolf?
- Yes, she, - says the man, - rushed to me. I felt sorry for her.
- And what will the wolves feed on? These, you see, are well-fed, and this hungry one is clicking his teeth. I feed them; everyone is happy, only one complains. Throw him a sheep, then I will show you the way. After all, this sheep was doomed to the wolf, so why did you take it away?
The man took and threw the sheep to the wolves. As soon as I left it, the day became clear again, and I found my way home.

WEREWOLVES

Cloud wolf. In mythological representations, the image of a wolf was associated with a hostile demon, personifying the power of night darkness, winter, and cold. There was also such folk riddle: “The wolf came, all the people fell silent, the falcon came clear - all the people went”, that is, when the wolf-night comes, people calm down and sleep, and when the clear falcon arrives, they wake up from sleep and go to work.

However, the wolf could also be a faithful assistant to the protagonist of folk tales. Almost all Indo-European peoples knew the tale of the gray wolf, which, with the speed of the wind, takes the prince to distant lands and helps him get a firebird, a golden-maned horse and a beautiful bride. Many fairy tales told about the "winged wolf", the image of which appeared, obviously, in those days when a person "inhabited" the sky with animals that personified flying clouds.

Representing rain clouds milk cows, sheep, goats, people believed that for the winter these herds were kidnapped by demons, who, moreover, also eat the divine luminaries - the sun and the moon. Clouds-wolves torment with their teeth the sun and the moon and those countless herds of sheep and goats, in the form of which the stars were personified. Since the sun, moon and stars are fantasy ancient man recognized as heavenly fires, then a belief arose that wolves devour fire. And according to the legend of the Western Slavs, the king-sun fights with evil spirits - winter, attacking him in the form of a wolf. Winter, especially December, seemed to be the period of the triumph of the demons of cold, fog, snow clouds over the sun and warmth. That is why the whole winter from November to February was called wolf time among the people. The Slavs called February "fierce" (a characteristic epithet for wolves).

IN folk tales the sun born on Kolyada seemed to be a beautiful baby, captured by an evil witch-winter, who turns him into a wolf cub, and only when removed from him wolf skin(i.e. when spring warmth melt the winter clouds), it takes on its true form.

solar and lunar eclipses were explained by the hostile attack of the demons of darkness on the bright gods living in the high sky. The cloud wolf, the devourer of heavenly bodies, appeared in Russian folk tales under the name of the self-swallowing wolf. He lives on the sea-okiyane (i.e., in the sky), extracts fairy tale hero gusli-samogudy (a metaphor for lightning discharges), his mouth is terrible, ready to swallow the enemy. “Under the tail of the wolf-clouds is a bathhouse, and in the ass is the sea. If you evaporate in this bath, and swim in that sea, then you will become a handsome fellow. That is, the wolf-cloud keeps in its womb the living water of rain, with which the concepts of health, strength, and beauty are inseparable.

The tales of the cloud-wolf explain some folk omens: the howl of wolves portends frost, famine, pestilence, war; if wolves walk through the fields in packs and howl, then this is a sign of a future crop failure. The concepts of victory, triumph over enemies were also associated with a bold, predatory wolf. In some mythologies, the image of the wolf was associated with the cult of the leader of the fighting squad (or the god of war) and the ancestor of the tribe. In this regard, common to many European legends is the motive of raising the ancestor of the tribe, and sometimes his twin as a she-wolf. Such are the legends about Romulus and Remus, the ancient Iranian legend about the she-wolf who nursed Cyrus.

In a stormy thunderstorm, the warlike gods rushed to the battle with the demons, followed by greedy wolves on the field and a crow flew to devour the corpses of the dead. Winter blizzards and destructive "storms" of "wolf time" give rise to famine, pestilence. The same sad consequences are caused by human wars that devastate the fields of the farmer; that is why, according to beliefs, the howl of wolves prophesies not only military alarms, but also general impoverishment.

Werewolves. In Slavic mythology, we also find "volkodlaks" - werewolf people who supposedly have the supernatural ability to turn into a wolf. It was also believed that such werewolves could turn entire wedding trains into wolves.

In Hittite mythology, the transformation of the groom into a wolf was associated with a common form of marriage - the kidnapping of the bride. In the old Russian tradition, the best man at the wedding was called the wolf by the groom. The ability to turn into a wolf was endowed with mythical heroes in Serbia (Snake - Fire Wolf). In the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the ancient Russian prince Vseslav of Polotsk is called a wolf, which testifies to the common Slavic roots of the myth of the wolf hero.

As they say in the beliefs about the transformation of a person into a bear or a wolf, you can recognize werewolves by the fact that their knees of their hind legs are turned forward, like a person, and not back, like an animal (wolf). They do not harm people, except for those who "spoiled" them. Those should not be seen by them. Wizards become werewolves. They pretend to be cats, dogs, roosters. Werewolves are fickle creatures: the sorcerers themselves pretend to be them for a while, they also “turn” (turn into werewolves) unbaptized babies, girls who have taken their own lives, etc.