Tugarin ( Snake Tugarin, Snake Tugaretin, Tugarin Zmeevich, Snake Tugarishche ) is an evil hero in Russian epics and fairy tales , an opponent of the Russian heroes Dobrynia Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich . “In the era of the struggle against nomads, he became a symbol of the wild steppe, the danger emanating from it, paganism” [1] . The main text about Tugarin is the epic about the fight between Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin in its various versions [2] .
In the epic image of Tugarin echoes of various layers of the epic tradition merge. First of all, in the serpentine nature of Tugarin, one cannot help but see one of the variations of a wandering motive about snake-fighting, which is very common in Russian folk poetry (tales and epics), the antiquity of which is attested to by monuments (a chronicle legend about Nikita Kozhemyak , epics about the Snake Gorynycha ), as well as analogies in South Slavic epic. Tugarin’s attitude to Apraxia and Marina, the wife of Dobrynia, gives reason to bring him closer to the serpent-lover of Serbian tales and songs.
Etymology
In the name of Tugarin they see echoes of the struggle of Russians with nomads. Tugarin was associated with the historical Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan [3] . The origin of the name from the biblical Togarma is possible - in a number of medieval sources it was considered the ancestor of the Turkic peoples [4] . The name Tugarin admits, however, other rapprochements, for example, with the Serpent Gorynych from the "Tight Mountains", as this snake is called in some versions of the epic about the struggle of Dobrynia with the serpent (by A. Hilferding ).
Alexander Veselovsky in Tugarin, as in the heroes of the Snakes and Zmeevichs, sees echoes of the Byzantine epic - a direct transfer of the Byzantine " Δράχον ", " Δραχοντόπουλα ". However, A.I. Veselovsky in his later work accepts the assumption of the historical basis of the name Tugarin, while retaining, however, his previous opinion about the connection of Tugarin with the Byzantine epic.
Reflections in Art
- The poem of A. K. Tolstoy " Serpent Tugarin " (1867)
- Full-length animated film " Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey " (2004)
See also
- The Nightingale the Robber
- Idolische Poganoe
Notes
- ↑ Ivanov V.V. , Toporov V.N. Tugarin Archival copy of March 5, 2016 on the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Tugarin // Mythological Dictionary / Editor-in-Chief Eleazar Meletinsky . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1991.
- ↑ Tugarin // Fasmer's Etymological Dictionary
- ↑ Kokovtsov P.K. Jewish-Khazar correspondence in the 10th century. - L., 1932 .-- S. 72.