Golden woman

Foreign

The first mention of the golden idol of the North is contained in the Scandinavian "Saga of St. Olav", which is most fully preserved in the Snorri Sturluson 's arch "Circle of the Earth" (XIII century). According to this saga, around 1023, the Norwegian Vikings , led by the famous Torir Dog, made a trip to Biarmia . On the river (which some call Vina and identify with the Northern Dvina ^[1] ) they managed to find out the location of the sanctuary of the deity of the local Bjarma tribes - Yomali (Yumaly) - and secretly penetrate it. Amazed Vikings saw a large wooden statue with a silver bowl on his lap and a necklace on his neck. On the head of the idol was a golden crown adorned with twelve different images. The bowl was filled with silver coins, and behind the fence enclosing the statue was a mound in which gold and silver were mixed with the ground ^[2] .

Around 1420, the German chronicler Ulrich von Ricenthal, in his Chronicle of the Council of Constance, mentions a certain city “by the Golden Old Woman” lying behind Russia, whose inhabitants “worship the Golden Old Woman” ^[3] .

More detailed news about the Golden Woman, or the "Golden Old Woman", appears in the books of Western European travelers and writers of the XVI century about the Russian state. This information is quite contradictory.

Professor of the University of Krakow, doctor of medicine Matvey Mehovsky in his Treatise on Two Sarmatians (1517), based on the stories of Russian prisoners who ended up in Krakow after the rout near Orsha (1514), places this idol, whom Zlota baba calls, behind Vyatka “at penetration into Scythia ” ^[4] . Subsequent authors, such as Sigismund Herberstein ( Notes on Muscovy , 1549) ^[5] , Alessandro Gvanyini (Description of European Sarmatia, 1578), Giles Fletcher (On the Russian State, 1591) , Peter Petreus de Erlesund ("The Story of the Grand Duchy of Moscow", 1615), The Golden Woman is already near the mouth of the Ob , in the Obdoria region.

The descriptions of the idol of the Golden Woman say:

• about the statue in the form of an old woman, in the womb of which there is a son and another child is visible - the grandson ( S. Herberstein ) ^[6] ;
• about the idol in the form of an old woman with a child in her arms, and next to another child is her grandson ( A. Gvanyini ) ^[7] ;
• about a rock that looks like a woman in tatters with a child in her arms ( J. Fletcher ) ^[8] ;
• about the gilded, hollowed-out inside and hollow sculptures of the old woman, capable of making trumpet sounds and, “like the Delphic oracle”, predicting the future ( Petreus de Erlesund ) ^[9] .

The image of the statue with a child in her arms and the signature “Golden Baba” (Slata baba) is available on some Western European maps of the Russian state of the 16th century. in the lower reaches of the Ob .

The English diplomat and traveler, a sales agent of the Moscow company Anthony Jenkinson, in an explanatory inscription to his "Map of Russia, Muscovy and Tartaria" in 1562 reports:

“The Golden Old Woman is worshiped by otters and Ugra. The priest asks this idol what they should do and where to migrate, and the idol (an amazing thing!) Gives the interrogators answers, and the predictions come true ... ” ^[10]

Domestic

From Russian sources, for the first time , the Sophia First Anniversary ^[11] tells about the worship of the Golden Woman of pagan Komi under 1398 ^[11] , in connection with the announcement of the death of the enlightener of this people, Stephen Permsky ^[12] . Subsequently, for almost three centuries, not a single Russian document, with the exception of the message of the Moscow Metropolitan Simon to the Permians (1501), who actually repeated the message of the annals, does not contain direct evidence of this goddess ^[13] .

Passing through Siberian lands in 1675 on the way to China, the Russian diplomat Nikolai Spafariy testifies:

“And near Berezov there are Ostyak idol’s temples, and land writers write about them that there is an idol Golden Women, they don’t say the same as gold women, but that there are many silver and wooden painted ones and copper ones are poured ...” ^[14]

The legendary tradition connects with the mysterious idol of the participants of the Siberian expedition Ermak Timofeevich . According to Kungur "tales", the existence of his Cossacks became known from the Chuvash, who fled to their camp during the siege of the Demyan settlement ^[15] . Compiled at the end of the 17th century, the Remezov Chronicle , telling about the campaign of Pentecost Ermak Bogdan Bryazgi in the spring of 1582 along the Irtysh and Ob to Belogorye, reports:

“That’s a booth for them, the greater goddess of old: the naga and her son sitting on a chair, sitting down, accepting gifts from one's own, and giving her statues in every business, and whoever by no means will give, torment and languish, and who brings pity to them, that Presiding her, she will die, having gluttony and congresses of greatness ... ” ^[16]

The famous Dutch scientist, politician and entrepreneur Nikolaas Witsen in the second edition of his essay “Northern and Eastern Tartaria” ( Dutch Noord en Oost Tartarye ) (1705), which is the first work in Siberian history and ethnography in European science, citing data from Jenkinson, Gwanini and a certain "noble Russian master", reports:

“At the foot of the mountain, in Obdoria, stands a carved statue of the Golden Baba in the form of a woman. The words "Zlata Baba" mean "golden old woman." I am informed that the Ostyaks and other pagans - natives near Tobol and the Ob, worship the devil, who, they say, appears to them in the form of a woman with children in her lap. Her bells are ringing on her body. She is very afraid and revered ... " ^[17]

The Swedish officer and traveler Johann Philipp von Stralenberg , who spent 13 years in Russian captivity and collected rich ethnographic and cartographic material about discoveries in Siberia, in his “Historical and Geographical Description of the Northern and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia,” published in 1730 in light of Stockholm , for the first time identified Yomali (Yumalu) Scandinavian sagas with the Golden Baba of Great Perm ^[18] .

In the works of Russian scientists of the XVIII century, in particular I. I. Lepekhin , a message appears that the Golden Woman is an ancient Komi deity, whose statue was taken to the Ob by pagans who did not want to be baptized. G.F. Miller in “History of Siberia” describes the “Golden Woman” as “the statue of the pagan goddess who held the child on her lap”, to whom the Ostyaks made sacrifices, for which she “assisted them in hunting, fishing and in all their affairs” ^[19] .

The mystery of the Golden Woman has given rise to extensive literature, in which, along with a thoughtful analysis of sources and serious assumptions, many overt fictions have accumulated over the years. The “Golden Woman” was also called the “Roman Statue of Juno”, unknown to those who fell beyond the Urals, and the Tibetan image of the goddess Tara . However, back in 1906, the Russian linguist and Eurasian philosopher N. S. Trubetskoy convincingly identified the “Golden Woman” with the supreme mother goddess of mythology Mansi Kaltash (Kaltas) , one of the epithets of which is “weed-equa” - literally translated as “golden old woman". The Mansi word “weed” can mean both gold and sunny luster ^[20] .

In the literature

The famous Ural writer S. N. Plekhanov published in 1985 in the literary almanac "Adventures-85" of the publishing house "Young Guard" the historical novel "The Golden Woman", dedicated to the search by Russian industrialists in the Urals in the first half of the 18th century for the legendary idol. In 1986, at the Sverdlovsk film studio, director V. M. Kobzev put the eponymous film on this book.

The main character of Alexander Bushkov ’s novel “The Trail of Piranha ” (1996), Cyril Mazur , accidentally wanders into the cave where the Golden Baba is stored in attempts to get out of the taiga with his American partner. After some thought, Mazur decides to leave the legendary statue in place, however, he almost becomes a victim of the guards of the statue.

Around the myth of the Golden Woman revolves a significant part of the story of Alexei Ivanov ’s historical novel “The Heart of Parma ”. In an attempt to find and steal a cult statue, as well as in an attempt to win it back, some heroes of the work die and go insane. For other participants, on the contrary, an oath to seize the idol (or protect it) will grant a long life that cannot end until the promise is fulfilled.

Ernst Butin's story “The Golden Fire of Yugra ” tells about the liquidation of the remnants of the kulak-Socialist Revolutionary gang leading the hunt for “Weedy Nai” during the struggle to establish Soviet power in Western Siberia.

In the adventure story of Yuri Kurochkin “The Legend of the Golden Woman”, the author uses the literary plot as a means of historical research of the legends of the Golden Woman, attracting rich local history material.

In the novel by Anna Kiryanova “Hunting Sorni-Nye”, a mystical interpretation is given of the death of the tourist group Dyatlov , who fell victim to the hunting of the formidable goddess.

In Boris Zotov’s short story “Following the Trail of the Golden Idol,” a group of teenagers gets a description of the Golden Baba and some of the information about where the idol may be. The main text about their adventures on the trip.

In Sergei Bulyga ’s novel “The Golden Affair,” detective Markel Kosoy, a solicitor of the Robbery’s order, goes in the winter of 1595/1596 on a secret mission to Ugra to search for an elusive witch named Golden Baba. The case is very complicated and confusing ...

In the movie

• Golden woman (film)
• Treasures of the Dead (TV series)

In museum displays

In the Uvat museum of local lore “Legends of the gray Irtysh” (Tyumen region) there is an exposition dedicated to the legend of the Golden Woman. According to the Kungur Chronicle , the famous Khanty idol was four centuries ago in the Demyansk town (territory of the Uvat region ) and mysteriously disappeared from there after the capture of the town by the Yermak Cossacks led by Ataman Bryazgi ^[21] . In the center of the hall is a reconstruction of the altar with the Golden Woman standing above it, reproduced in accordance with the drawings of the chronicler S. U. Remezov and covered with real gold.

Nonfiction

• Adaev V.N. The departed owner of Demyan (worship by the Khanty of the host spirit of the Demyanka river in the 20th century) (inaccessible link) // Tyumen Land: Yearbook of the Tyumen Regional Museum of Local Lore: 2006. - Vol. 20. - Tyumen, 2007 .-- S. 186-205.
• Alekseev M.P. Siberia in the news of Western European travelers and writers. XIII-XVIII centuries. - 2nd ed. - Irkutsk, 1941.
• Gemuev I.N., Sagalaev A.M., Soloviev A.I. Legends and were of the taiga region . - Novosibirsk: Science, Siberia. Department, 1989 .-- 176 pp., ill. - (Pages of the history of our Motherland). - ISBN 5-02-029181-1 .
• Sokolova Z. P. Ardvi Sura Anahita of the Iranians and “Zlata Baba” of the Finno-Ugrians // Soviet Archeology . - 1990 . - Number 3.
• Golden woman // Northern Encyclopedia. - M .: European publications, 2004. - S. 303-304.
• Maroshi V.V. Use of a mythopoetic resource in modern regional prose: the hunt for Sorni-Nye // Ural Literature: history and modernity: Collection of articles. - Vol. 3. - T. 2. - Yekaterinburg: Publishing House "Union of Writers", 2007. - S. 266—278.
• Burykin A. A. Golden woman - an idol or a toponym? // Culture as a system in a historical context: the experience of the West Siberian archaeological and ethnographic conferences ... - Materials of the International West Siberian archaeological and ethnographic conference. Tomsk, May 19-21, 2010 - Tomsk: Agraf-Press, 2010 .-- 506 p. - S. 54-56.

Popular science and reference books

• Following the Great Goddess: the legend of the Golden Baba: Compilation. - M .: Veche, 2007.
• Golden woman // Komi Republic. Encyclopedia. - T. 1. - Syktyvkar, 1997 .-- S. 464.
• Ionina N.A. The Wanderings of the Golden Woman // Ionina N.A. 100 Great Treasures. - M .: Veche, 2000.
• Kulemzin V.M. Zolotaya Baba // Ugoria. Encyclopedia of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. - T. 1. - Khanty-Mansiysk, 2000.

Fiction

• Kurochkin Yuri . The Legend of the Golden Woman: A Tale / [Art. N. Kazantseva]. - 2nd ed., Ext. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural Book Publishing House , 1968. - 156 p. - (Ural library: adventure, science fiction, travel). - 50,000 copies.
• Shestalov Juvan . The Secret of Sorni Nai. - M., 1976.
• Sergey Plekhanov . Golden Woman - 1985 (short story, filmed in 1987).
• Ivanov Alexey . The heart of Parma . The novel is a legend. - M .: Palmyra , 2003.
• Palaces Vasily Terra Obdoria // Moscow . - 2005.
• Kiryanova Anna . Sorni Nye Hunt :
  • Kiryanova Anna . Hunting Sorni-Nye: Roman (Beginning) // Ural . - 2005 . - No. 6.
  • Kiryanova Anna . Hunt Sorni-Nye: Roman (Continued) // Ural . - 2005 . - No. 7.
  • Kiryanova Anna . Hunt Sorni-Nye: Roman (Ending) // Ural . - 2005 . - No. 8.
• Sergey Bulyga , “Golden Deal”, novel - M., Veche, 2018

• Golden woman (film)