Polevik (mythology)

The image of the Polevik captured by the researchers is rather vague, pale and shapeless ^{[5] [6]} . Folk beliefs about the field were much less common than beliefs about such owners of places as water , brownie or goblin ^{[1] [6]} . Cossacks and former experiences of meeting him are also rare ^{[7] [8]} . Representations of the field were far from everywhere ^[6] , mainly in regions where a significant part of the territory was occupied by fields ^{[2] [6]} . Mention of the field was recorded in the northwestern and southern regions of Russia ( Vologda , Yaroslavl , Novgorod , Smolensk , Oryol , Tula , Ryazan , Kaluga , Belgorod , Kursk regions), in the northeastern regions of Belarus ( Vitebsk , Mogilev regions) and in some regions of Ukraine ( Kharkov , Vinnitsa region) ^[1] .

The names of the spirit are of the same type and reflect its connection with the field: Russians - field -vole , field , grandfather- field , grandfather field (Vologda), field master (Yaroslavl), field father (Novgorod) ^[1] ; Belarusian - palyavіk , palyavy ^[3] ; Ukrainian - polovik ^[4] , polovy devil ^[1] . In addition, the names of the grandfather ^[9] and free ^{[10] [11]} (Yaroslavl ^[11] ) are mentioned.

The ideas about the appearance of the polewick are quite diverse ^{[1] [7]} , although folk fantasy painted it mostly humanlike , but, along with other Slavic mythical characters, with animal and plant features, as well as signs of evil spirits ^{[4] [12]} . He could be imagined as a long-legged peasant, overgrown with fiery-colored hair, with bulging eyes, horns, a long tail with a tassel at the end, a beard of ears ^{[2] [4] [7] [8] [13] [14]} . Ukrainians also believed that he had ears like a calf ^{[2] [13]} , claws, large teeth and wings ^[13] . In the Novgorod province, they thought that the field was dressed in all white ^{[2] [7] [12]} , that he was gray-haired ^{[1] [3]} , also in Ukraine they imagined that he was all white as snow, or that he was an old man with white a beard ^[2] . In Belarus, the fieldman was depicted in long clothes, in bast shoes and with a cane in his hands ^[3] . In the Oryol province , on the contrary, he was described as a naked , earth- black person with hair-grass and multi-colored eyes ^{[1] [5] [7]} ( personification of the field ^{[1] [6] [7]} ). In tales and former field, the field can take the form of a young “hefty little” or a small ugly old man, can pretend to be familiar ^{[2] [3] [4] [7] [15]} or an animal (for example, a bull or a goat ^[13] ), can change its growth depending on the surrounding vegetation ^{[1] [3] [7]} . Field knows how to speak humanly ^{[5] [15]} .

It was believed that the field is accompanied by a strong gusty wind , a whirlwind ^{[2] [7] [12]} . Sometimes windy weather was associated with the fact that the field blows or whistles ^{[2] [7] [12] [14]} . He can raise the dust with the brush of his tail to become invisible ^{[2] [7] [12]} . The field is also associated with the fire element, so in the Yaroslavl province it was believed that he sweeps three in the village before the fire ^{[7] [10] [12]} . The field can move very quickly, making it seem to man that he does not see his skin of fiery color, but flying sparks ^{[2] [7] [12]} . There were also ideas that the field day looks like a little man, and at night - like a flickering light ^{[2] [10]} . M.N. Vlasova and, after her, E.L. Madlevskaya believe that the fieldman is associated with “fire (sparks of flame) and the movement of the sun, with the noon and the time of the summer heyday of the earth. He is a personified half-day light and heat that promotes the growth of bread, but turns into a fire ” ^{[7] [12]} . EE Levkievskaya “correlates this character with the solar cult ” ^[1] .

It was believed that the field lives in the fields on the hillocks, in ravines, among the stones lying on the edges of the field, near the boundary posts and pits ^{[1] [7] [13]} , in trees and shrubs in the middle of the field ^[16] , sometimes in the forest ^{[ 1] [8]} . In the Yaroslavl province, intersections were also considered his habitat ^{[7] [12]} . In the Vitebsk province , it was believed that field workers do not like dampness and therefore rise to high places during floods and during rains ^{[3] [16]} . In the Russian North there was a belief that each field should have its own field field, and in the Oryol province - that four field fields live in the lands of each village ^{[1] [5]} , in the Vitebsk province, on the contrary, it was assumed that one field field can operate on fields of several adjacent villages between which there are no water or forest barriers ^{[15] [16]} . According to legend, the field protects the field, affects its fertility , flowering and grain yield, the well-being of livestock grazing on the field ^{[2] [7] [12]} , guards the treasures buried in it ^{[2] [12] [16]} . In Belarus, it was believed that a field harvest pleases a rich harvest, and a crop failure is angry ^[3] .

According to various ideas, the field can be found either at noon , or on a very hot day, or before sunset , or on a moonlit night ^{[2] [7] [12] [14]} , or at midnight ^[1] . According to Ukrainian beliefs, the field can be seen only when he sleeps ^{[2] [13]} . In the Vitebsk province, it was believed that field workers actively communicate with each other, go to visit each other, scare people together, call each other, especially on quiet nights ^[16] . Field likes to sweep along the boundary on a gray horse or three ^{[2] [7]} . In the Oryol province, there was a notion that the Polevik invented alcoholic beverages ^{[1] [7] [14]} (usually attributed to the devil ^[14] ).

The idea of ​​the origin of the field does not differ from the idea of ​​the origin of the rest of the evil spirits ^[1] : these are angels overthrown by God from heaven from the army of Satanail , who fell on the fields ^{[1] [4]} . According to a legend from the Vinnytsia region, the field were devils who fell onto the fields from a tower built by them in order to become equal to God ^[1] .

The image of the field worker as the owner of the field is blurred, only sometimes it clearly correlates with the field and field work ^{[8] [12]} . In the Russian North, when cattle were driven to a pasture, they asked him to take care of her, and when they took her back, they thanked her for her safety. If the grazing cattle disappeared, then the field was asked to return it, while he was brought a gift that was thrown over his right shoulder - a piece of bread and three pennies ^{[2] [7] [8] [12]} . To ensure the favor of the fieldman, small sacrifices could be made to him, for example, in the Oryol province, it was customary to leave a couple of eggs and a voiceless rooster stolen from neighbors on the eve of Spirit Day ^{[1] [5] [7]} . It was believed that during the harvest, field workers run away from the sickle and hide in the ears that remained uncompressed on the field, until they finally ended up in the last crushed sheaf, which played a ritual role among the peasants ^{[9] [17] [18]} . In the Vologda and Yaroslavl provinces, at the end of the harvest, a handful of uncompressed ears were left for the field worker ^{[1] [7] [12]} . According to V. A. Vasilevich , the notion of a polevik as a patron of fertility was reflected in the Belarusian folk ornaments of squares, rectangles, octahedrons and rhombs ^[3] .

According to popular belief, the field is generally hostile to humans and dangerous for him ^{[2] [7] [12]} . He, like a devil , can knock him off the road, leading into a swamp or river ^{[2] [7] [12]} (where he sometimes drowns ^{[5] [7]} ), makes him wander ^{[2] [7] [12]} , puts him to bed on a pile of stones or agricultural waste or in mud ^[16] . Especially often his victims were those who swear on the field ^[7] , drunken plowmen and children picking wildflowers ^{[1] [16]} . The field scares people who do not like people with a loud echo, whistling ^{[2] [7] [12]} and clapping ^{[2] [7]} , indistinct singing ^[7] , a huge shadow, as if chasing a person ^{[2] [16]} , flickering sparks ^{[7] [12]} , throws fireballs ^[7] . However, in the Novgorod province it was believed that the fieldman, although "scary, but does not touch" ^[7] .

It was believed that the field could send a sunstroke , fever and other serious illnesses to a person, in particular to those who go to bed in the field in the sun, especially at noon ^{[2] [7] [16]} , or those who fall asleep in field before sunset ^{[7] [12]} . It was forbidden to sleep on the boundary, since the sleeping man could be crushed by a horse, unfastened by a lash, or taken away with him by a field or strangled by his children of a land mine ^{[1] [7] [12]} . It was easy to anger Polevoy, which was manifested in the fact that he tortured cattle (sent blood-sucking insects and diseases on him, “flying” into his ears) ^{[1] [16]} and even destroyed him ^[7] , spoiled the crops (hedged and twisted plants, sent pests to them and lured cattle, averted rain, sowed weeds), destroyed hedges in the fields ^{[1] [16]} . In the Vitebsk province, they argued that although field workers are almost inactive in winter, sometimes they converge to dust roads, snow ditches and potholes, which a person can then fall into, "drive" a traveler until he freezes to death ^[16] . It was also said that the field can sit in the sled, so that the horse can not carry them ^[10] . In the Smolensk province indicated that the field sends "unhealthy winds" ^[14] . To see or hear the field was considered a bad omen ^{[2] [7] [12]} . However, as S. A. Tokarev notes, the field carried far less risks for the peasant, was not considered a hostile element, and therefore, references to the aggressive spirit of the fields are rare ^[6] . Against the field worker, like the rest of evil spirits, prayer can help ^[19] .

But there are stories in which the field warns a person of danger, for example, the coming thunderstorm ^{[2] [7]} , the field helps the lost person to find the way ( Kuban ) ^[20] . In Belarus, there was a legend telling about how two hungry travelers asked breadman from a fieldman, but he shared only with one who had labor corns on his hands. Belarusians turned to the field king / master in conspiracies from various diseases and other misfortunes ^[3] .

The people's imagination sometimes endowed the fieldman with his wife - a pole , a field hostess , a field mother and children ^{[7] [12]} . Mentions of the field mistress are sketchy and are more often paired with the mention of the field in respectful addresses ^{[1] [7]} . The idea of ​​her as a little ugly man and her single identification with a bird ^{[1] [7] [8] is} fixed. In different provinces, the plot was popular about the meeting of a peasant woman in a field with a dying field or field, who asked to transmit a brownie or a brownie about their death ^{[1] [5] [7]} . Children of field workers were sometimes considered to be Mezhevichka and Luhovichka , who ran along the boundaries, catching birds for food for themselves and their parents ^{[5] [7] [12]} ; but in other places they were considered as independent characters associated with the corresponding place names ^[12] .

Close to the meadow field meadow - the spirit of the meadow , references to which are very rare. In Tula province, meadows were shaggy and dwelling in holes; it was believed that they send diseases to those who sleep on the field at noon and before sunset ^{[12] [21] [22]} .

A spirit close to the fieldman is also the rarely-mentioned boundary line , the boundary line , the intersection ( Gomel ), which lives on the border of the field - the boundary - and can sometimes be regarded as an independent character ^{[1] [23] [24]} . In the Oryol province he was represented in the form of an old man with a beard from ears of corn ^{[14] [15] [23] [24]} . As a gift, they brought him a kutia of grains of the first compressed sheaf ^{[7] [12] [23] [24]} . It was believed that it is impossible to build a house on the boundary, since the boundary will not allow you to live in peace, this belief was first mentioned in the 17th century ^[23] .

Noon has a number of common signs with a fieldman - personification of noon as a dangerous time of day for a person: connection with the field, noon, sun heat, wind, whirlwind, hostility to a person, forcing him to wander, white clothes ^{[1] [6] [7] [14] [15]} . E. V. Pomerantseva even believed that they can be considered “as two hypostases - male and female, of a single idea of ​​the field spirit” ^[14] .

In a number of regions (Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Vologda oblasts), the ideas about the Polevik were mixed with the ideas about the Leshem : they said that he, like a Leshem, lives in the forest, leads into the forest, “sings songs”, “leads” people, “everyones it may seem: young and old, even a familiar person ” ^{[1] [7] [8] [10]} , picking his bast shoes (Ryazan province) ^[15] . Such a confusion was probably caused by the location of fields among forests and the fact that both field and forest spirits were considered cattle defenders ^{[7] [8]} . N. A. Krinichnaya suggests separating the field from the goblin in the process of people moving away from slash-and-burn agriculture (separating the field from the forest) and re-merging with it when the mythological tradition is dissolved ^[25] .

Similar to the fieldman are the corn grandfather and Ukrainian sitting in the cornzalizna and zoomorphic arable land spirits in the guise of a goat, a bull, etc. ^[15] . In some descriptions of the appearance of the field, there are obvious attributes of the trait : wool, horns, tail ^{[1] [8]} . Protecting the fields from various mystical forces brings the fieldman closer to the mermaids that appear in the flowering life. In the little stories about the drowning of people, the fieldman resembles a water field. In the Oryol province, the image of the Polevik was close to the image of the brownie , it was even called the “field brownie” ^[15] . In addition to these characters in the field may appear robbery and wagon ^[15] .

Polevoy did not become a full-fledged master of the field in popular beliefs, probably because until the beginning of the 20th century, peasants animated and revered the land itself as a field that harvested , the field was also suppressed by such patrons of the field and donors of fertility as the Virgin and Saints Ilya and Nikolai ^[7] , moreover, in woodlands, the goblin often became the patron of the fields ^{[6] [7]} .

Beliefs about field spirits are characteristic, in addition to the Eastern Slavs, for German , Lithuanian ^{[15] [17]} , Udmurt ( Ludmurt ) and other peoples.

Polevik along with other mythological characters became the hero of a number of literary tales based on Slavic folklore ^[26] . For example, in the fairy tale by N. S. Leskov “The hour of the will of God ” (1890), the old man Polevik is one of three ancient hermits , who, having outlived their lives, have long lived only by praying for the kingdom in which they live; he buried himself "waist-deep in the ground and suffers as a loose worm gnaws at him, and he only eats goats that crawl into his mouth" ^[27] . And in A.N. Tolstoy ’s fairy tale “ Polevik ” (1909, the series “The Little Mermaid Tales ”), the protagonist is long, thatched, legs thin, he resembles an old grouchy grandfather who takes care that people are not lazy - because rye has not been crushed yet, he yearns among the bare field and lays down for the winter in a ditch, where it is covered with snow ^[28] .

Review literature in Russian

• Vlasova M.N. Meadow; Mezhevik; Polevik // Encyclopedia of Russian Superstitions. - SPb. : ABC classic, 2008 .-- 622 p. - 15,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91181-705-3 .
• Corinthian A. A. Daily bread // People’s Russia: All year round of legends, beliefs, customs and proverbs of the Russian people . - M .: Edition of the bookseller M.V. Klyukin, 1901. - S. 22-23.
• Levkievskaya E.E. Polevoy // Myths of the Russian people. - M .: Astrel, AST, 2000. - S. 351-354, 501. - 528 p. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-271-00676-X , ISBN 5-17-002811-3 .
• Madelevskaya E. L. Lower mythology: Polevik // Russian mythology. Encyclopedia. - M .: Eksmo, Midgard, 2005 .-- S. 337-340. - 784 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-13535-6 .
• Maksimov S.V. Polevoy // Unclean, unknown and the cross power . - SPb. : Partnership R. Golike and A. Vilvorg, 1903. - S. 78-80.
• Nikitina A.V. Polevik and noon // Russian demonology. - 3rd ed., Erased. - M .: Flint, 2013 .-- S. 166-178. - 400 p. - ISBN 978-5-9765-1767-7 .
• Nikiforovsky N. Ya. Poleviki // Uncleans: Code of common folk tales of evil spirits in Vitebsk Belarus . - Vilna: N. Matz and Co., 1907. - S. 66-68.
• Novichkova T.A. Lugoviki; Boundary; Field // Russian demonological dictionary. - SPb. : Petersburg writer, 1995 .-- S. 355, 365, 463-464. - 640 s. - 4100 copies. - ISBN 5-265-02803-X .
• Pomerantseva E.V. Interethnic community of beliefs and legends about midday // Slavic and Balkan folklore : Genesis. Archaic. Traditions / Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences . - M .: Nauka , 1978. - S. 146-147. - 1950 copies.
• Polevik / N. I. Tolstoy // Slavic mythology. Encyclopedic Dictionary / Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences . - 2nd ed., Rev. and additional .. - M .: International Relations , 2002. - S. 376-377. - 512 s. - ISBN 5-7133-1069-8 .
• Polevik / E. E. Levkievskaya // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2009. - T. 4: P (Crossing the water) - C (Sieve). - S. 138–139. - ISBN 5-7133-0703-4 , 978-5-7133-1312-8.
• Tokarev S.A. Polevik and midday // Religious Beliefs of the East Slavic Peoples of the 19th - Early 20th Centuries / Otv. ed. S. I. Kovalev. - 2nd ed. - M .: Librocom, 2012 .-- S. 84. - 168 p. - (Academy of Basic Research: Ethnology). - ISBN 978-5-397-02283-5 .
• Cherepanova O. A. Essay on the traditional folk beliefs of the Russian North (comments on texts): Popular demonology: Other characters // Mythological stories and legends of the Russian North. - SPb. : Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University , 1996. - S. 155-156. - 212 p. - ISBN 5-288-01444-2 .

Review literature in other languages

• Palyavіk / U. A. Vasilevich // Belarusian mіfalogіya: Entsyklapedychny slo слnіk . - Mn. : Belarus, 2004 .-- S. 360—361. - 592 p. - ISBN 985-01-0473-2 . (belor.)
• Gnatyuk V. M. The remains of the anterious Christian religion of our ancestors: Polevik // . T. XXXIII. Notes to the Ukrainian demonolyo, t. II, issue 1 . - Lviv: Drukarnya of the Science Partnership im. T. Shevchenko , 1912.- S. XXI. (Ukrainian)

Mythological Stories

• Field // Mythological stories of Russian peasants XIX-XX centuries. / Compilation, preparation of texts, introductory article and comments by M. N. Vlasova. - SPb. : Pushkin House , 2013 .-- S. 224-228, 718-719. - 920 s. - 300 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91476-049-3 .
• Popular demonology: Other characters // Mythological stories and legends of the Russian North / Comp. and comm. O. A. Cherepanova . - SPb. : Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University , 1996. - S. 64. - 212 p. - ISBN 5-288-01444-2 .
• Real perfume // . T. XXXIII. Notes to Ukrainian demonology, vol. II, issue 1 / Зібрав V. M. Gnatyuk . - Lviv: Drukarnya of the Science Partnership im. T. Shevchenko , 1912. - S. 176-177. (Ukrainian)
• Palyavіk // Mіfalagіchny ўяўленні Belarusаў / Stacked, sistematizatsytsya, tekstalagichnaya praza, consecrated articles, redagavanne . - Mn. : Rights and Ecology, 2010. - P. 210-212. - 533 s. - (Humanitarian Navuk). - ISBN 9854428559 , ISBN 978-985-442-855-0 . Archived March 4, 2016. Archived March 4, 2016 on Wayback Machine (bel.)
• Palyavіk // The Lowest Mifalogy of Belarus in Common Notes / А /тары-ўкладальнікі , A. A. Kastrytsa, K. V. Pabortsava. - 2014 .-- S. 68-70. - 97 p. - (Humanitarian Navuk). - ISBN 9855523725 , ISBN 978-985-552-372-8 . (belor.)
• Palyavik // Slavic mifalogy (on materials of Gomel oblast) / . - Mn. : Law and Economics, 2009. - S. 229-230. - 324 p. - (Humanitarian Navuk). - ISBN 9854427161 , ISBN 978-985-442-716-4 . Archived on August 13, 2016. Archived August 13, 2016 on Wayback Machine (bel.)