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Buyan
In the Dove Book and other medieval Russian books, Buyan (russian: Буя́н, sometimes transliterated as Bujan) is described as a mysterious island in the ocean with the ability to appear and disappear with the tide. Three brothers—Northern, Western, and Eastern Winds—live there, and also the Zoryas, solar goddesses who are servants or daughters of the solar god Dazhbog. Background The island of Buyan features prominently in many famous myths; Koschei the Deathless keeps his soul or immortality hidden there, secreted inside a needle placed inside an egg in the mystical oak-tree; other legends call the island the source of all weather, generated there and sent forth into the world by the god Perun. Buyan also appears in ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan'' (an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, set partially in Tmutarakan and in Buyan's magical city of Ledenets (russian: � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buyan-class Corvette
The Buyan class (russian: Буян, , Buyan), Russian designations Project 21630 ''Buyan'' and Project 21631 ''Buyan-M'', are series of corvettes (small artillery and missile ships in Russian classification) developed by Zelenodolsk Design Bureau for the Russian Navy. Since 2010, all subsequent vessels are being constructed as improved Project 21631 subclass, incorporating greater tonnage, Stealth ship, stealth technology and the 3S14 vertical launching system for either 3M-54 Kalibr, Kalibr or P-800 Oniks, Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles, significantly enhancing combat capabilities. The ships are primarily designed for operations within littoral zones to protect Russia's vast coastal areas. Due to the small tonnage, they can operate even within shallow parts of oceans and seas and Unified Deep Water System of European Russia, Russia's extensive inland waterway system. The export variant is known as Project 21632 ''Tornado''. Design In August 2010, some information about the newl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deathless (novel)
''Deathless'' is an alternate history novel by Catherynne M. Valente, combining the Russian fairy tale ''The Death of Koschei the Deathless'' with the events and aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The novel follows the life of Marya Morevna as she transforms from a young child witnessing the revolution to her newfound position as bride after her marriage with Koschei, Tsar of Life. The book is divided into six parts and is told primarily through the third person perspective of Marya Morevna, however, it does feature other characters such as Ivan Tsarevich. Plot Marya Morevna and her sisters live with their upper middle class parents in Saint Petersburg before and during the Russian Revolution. Marya witnesses birds transform into handsome young men who marry her sisters, and meets the council of domovoi or brownies who live in her house along with the other families that get assigned to live there by the Bolsheviks, and cherishes her secret knowledge that magic exists in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tale Of Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov)
''The Tale of Tsar Saltan'' ( rus, Сказка о царе Салтане, Skazka o Tsare Saltane ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue (a total of seven scenes) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on the 1831 poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. The opera was composed in 1899–1900 to coincide with Pushkin's centenary, and was first performed in 1900 in Moscow, Russia. The lengthy full title of both the opera and the poem is ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan'' (russian: Сказка о царе Салтане, о сыне его славном и могучем богатыре князе Гвидоне Салтановиче и о прекрасной царевне Лебеди ''Skazka o tsare Saltane, o syne yego slavnom i moguchem bogatyre knyaze Gvidone Saltanoviche i o prekrasnoy tsarevne Lebedi''). Composition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alatyr (mythology)
The Alatyr in East Slavic legends and folklore is a sacred stone, the "father to all stones", the navel of the earth, containing sacred letters and endowed with healing properties. Although the name Alatyr appears only in East Slavic sources, the awareness of the existence of such a stone exists in various parts of the Slavdom. It is often mentioned in stories and referred to in love spells as "a mighty force that has no end." In the '' Dove Book'', the Alatyr is associated with an altar located in the " navel of the world", in the middle of the , on the Buyan island. On it stands the World tree. The stone is endowed with healing and magical properties. Spiritual verses describe how "from under the white-alatyr-stone" flows a miraculous source that gives the whole world "food and healing." The Alatyr is guarded by the wise snake Garafena and the bird Gagana. Etymology The stone is usually called ''Alatyr'' (russian: Алатырь), ''Alabor'' (russian: ала́бор), ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gagana
Gagana is a miraculous bird with an iron beak and copper claws featured in Russian folklore. She is said to live on the Buyan Island. The bird is often mentioned in incantations. It is also said this bird guards the Alatyr, alongside Garafena the snake. According to Tatyana Buynova, all birds in the world originated from Gagana. Gagana knows how to conjure and work miracles and, if she is asked correctly, can help a person. This bird is also the only one capable of giving milk. Background The bird Gagana is possibly attested in a tale compiled by author A. A. Erlenwein, and translated by Angelo de Gubernatis in his ''Florilegio'' with the name ''Vaniúsha'', where the hero's sisters marry a bear, an iron-nosed bird ("uccello dal naso di ferro") and a pike ("luccio").Gubernatis, Angelo de. ''Florilegio delle novelline popolari''. Milano U. Hoepli. 1883. pp. 212-214. The "bird with iron beak" appears to be a creature that inhabits several Slavic folktales. William Ralston Shedden- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zorya
Zorya ( lit. "Dawn"; also many variants: Zarya, Zara, Zaranitsa, Zoryushka, etc.) is a figure in Slavic folklore, a feminine personification of dawn, possibly goddess. Depending on tradition, she may appear as a singular entity, often called "The Red Maiden", or two or three sisters at once. Although Zorya is etymologically unrelated to the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn ''*H₂éwsōs'', she shares most of her characteristics. She is often depicted as the sister of the Sun, the Moon, and Zvezda, the Morning Star with which she is sometimes identified. She lives in the Palace of the Sun, opens the gate for him in the morning so that he can set off on a journey through the sky, guards his white horses, she is also described as a virgin. In the Eastern Slavic tradition of zagovory she represents the supreme power that a practitioner appeals to. Etymology The all-Slavic word ''zora'' "dawn, aurora" (from Proto-Slavic ''*zoŗà''), and its variants, comes from the same ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koschei
Koschei ( rus, Коще́й, r=Koshchey, p=kɐˈɕːej), often given the epithet "the Immortal", or "the Deathless" (russian: Коще́й Бессме́ртный), is an archetypal male antagonist in Russian folklore. The most common feature of tales involving Koschei is a spell which prevents him from being killed. He hides his soul inside nested objects to protect it. For example, the soul (or in the tales, it is usually called "death") may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a far island. Usually he takes the role of a malevolent rival father figure, who competes for (or entraps) a male hero's love interest. The origin of the tales is unknown. The archetype may contain elements derived from the 12th-century pagan Cuman-Kipchak (Polovtsian) leader Khan Konchak, who is recorded in ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign''; over time a balanced view of the non-Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Tree
The world tree is a motif present in several religions and mythologies, particularly Indo-European religions, Siberian religions, and Native American religions. The world tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. It may also be strongly connected to the motif of the tree of life, but it is the source of wisdom of the ages. Specific world trees include '' égig érő fa'' in Hungarian mythology, Ağaç Ana in Turkic mythology, Andndayin Ca˙r in Armenian mythology, Modun in Mongol mythology, '' Yggdrasil'' in Norse mythology, Irminsul in Germanic mythology, the oak in Slavic, Finnish and Baltic, Iroko in Yoruba religion, ''Jianmu'' in Chinese mythology, and in Hindu mythology the '' Ashvattha'' (a ''Ficus religiosa''). General description Scholarship states that many Eurasian mythologies share the motif of the "world tree", "cosmic tree", or "Eagle and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Opona
The Oponskoye Kingdom (russian: Опонское/опоньское царство, supposed to mean "Yaponskoye tsarstvo", or "kingdom of Japan"), in "Orthodox Encyclopedia''АндреаМайер-Фратц(Andrea Meyer-Fraatz) "Andrei Bitovʼs Autobiographical Myth on Japan as a Creative Utopia: Neizbezhnost’ Nenapisannogo" or as some English sources erroneously put it, Kingdom of Opona, is a mythical kingdom in |
Dove Book
The Verse about the Book of the Dove (Голубиная книга, ''Golubinaya Kniga'') is a medieval . At least 20 versions are known. They vary in length from 30 to over 900 lines. The poem is generally thought to have been written ca. 1500 in the Novgorod region, though Russian nationalists postulate its great antiquity. The earliest extant manuscript is dated to the 17th century. The main part of the ''Dove-Book'' is a long sequence of riddles. In a series of answers to those riddles, King David explains the origin of light, sun, moon, and social classes. He also mentions a mysterious stone "clept the Alatyr". Isabel Florence Hapgood describes the content of one version in the following terms: The poem's folk cosmology and the title have been derived by Vladimir Toporov from the ''Bundahishn''. The root "golub" (dove) in title "Golubinaya" is not about birds. It is believed to be derived from the root "glub" (depth, deep), which refers to depth of concepts described ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rügen
Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where it is linked to the mainland by road and railway via the Rügen Bridge and Causeway, two routes crossing the two-kilometre-wide Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea. Rügen has a maximum length of (from north to south), a maximum width of in the south and an area of . The coast is characterized by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons () and open bays (), as well as projecting peninsulas and headlands. In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island. The island of Rügen is part of the district of Vorpommern-Rügen, with its county seat in Stralsund. The towns on Rügen are: Berg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
