Светлана Жарникова – The Distaff and the phallic cult (страница 3)

The tiers-worlds both on the front and on the back of the spinning wheel were separated by horizontal frieze stripes filled with a geometric report (repeating) pattern. Despite the fact that the geometric patterns were made up of the same type and even monotonous elements, on a separate spinning wheel such a pattern looked unusual, giving originality to the entire spinning wheel as a whole. A similar effect was achieved by the fact that each master combined elements of geometric ornament in his own way and on each spinning wheel in different ways.

It is important to note that the geometric rows under consideration, dividing the Mezen spinning wheels into three parts, were drawn by masters at the same level, both on the front and on the back of the spinning wheel. This, in our opinion, testifies to the fact that the spinning wheel was perceived by their creators as something voluminous and round. If this assumption is correct, it leads us to the idea that, on the whole, the design of the spinning wheels was likened to the "tree of life", divided, as already mentioned, into several tiers-worlds. B.A. Rybakov, having examined in detail the spinning wheels with the image of the Universe, noticed that the spinning wheels are developing another idea - a "world tree" rising to the sky ³². We have already said that this idea is quite vividly reflected in the art of the Finnish peoples, in particular in the Kalevala. A vivid description of the "world tree" is also found in the Scandinavian epic ³³.

The image of a "wonderful tree with three lands" is present in Russian, Ukrainian and South Slavic wedding songs, carols, vyunishny and other ritual songs ³⁴. The researchers associate the motif of the three "lands" in the roots, middle and top of the tree with the most ancient Indo-European ideas about the "world tree" as a model of the Universe ³⁵. The idea of the “world tree” as an initial concept in the ornament of spinning wheels, according to B.A. Rybakov, is due to the real purpose of spinning wheels in the life of peasants since ancient times. The spinning wheel and the spindle became indispensable tools of labor already in the Neolithic: they caught forest animals and birds with nets made of spun threads. Long strands of yarn have become associated with the "threads of life"³⁶. Many Indo-European peoples have developed an image of heavenly spinners spinning the golden threads of human destinies. These are antique moira (parks), Scandinavian norns spinning threads at the roots of Ash-Igrassil. According to Germanic legends, the goddess Freya, known as a hunter, is engaged in spinning in secluded places; the heroine of other legends - Golda, dressed in a long white dress and a veil, sitting in a grotto or forest thicket, turns a golden spinning wheel to the sound of melodious songs. The golden spindle is one of the attributes of Artemis. The southern Slavs had the image of the goddess of Fate-Sreche, spinning a golden thread. The Eastern Slavs had an idea of a wonderful self-spinning wheel spinning pure gold, of gold and silver threads descending from the sky ³⁷. The kikimora of Russian byliches, spinning yarn at night, appearing in a long white robe, in all likelihood, is also related to the goddesses of Fate. The image of a spinner spinning thread for tying (stitching) wounds is found in Russian conspiracies. For example, in conspiracies for blood, it is said that on the sea-okiyan, on the island of Buyan, on an iron or gold chair, a girl (sometimes three) weaves an unusual thread: “three girls spun, torn off a thread and tied blood to a slave (name) ³⁸.

The fact that the spinning wheel was perceived as a tree is evidenced by the design of the spinning wheels itself. The Mezen spinning wheel was called by the local “kokoritsy spinning wheel” or “root-eater”. The name emphasized the design feature of the spinning wheel: its bottom was made from the root, while the blade was cut from the tree trunk. The spinning wheels here were not composite, as in many other Russian regions, but monolithic, as if repeating the structure of the tree from which they were made.

In addition, a close connection in the popular representation of spinning wheels and spinning with family life, that is, with procreation and fate, is known. The spinning wheel was an indispensable gift from the groom to the bride. An interesting story testifying to the role of the spinning wheel in family life was recorded by Y. Arbat in one of the North Russian villages. “We had such an incident with a spinning wheel. The girl got married two yards from me. They live well. Brought her husband a daughter. The neighbors laugh: "Your woman has stepped bast shoes." This is a saying. A husband, of course, desires a son. She ordered: a spinning wheel with a value. The master drew a boy in a red shirt, and black boots. Do you dare to what? Strands, they say, but look. When the son is born, they say here: "The wife stepped in with her boot." And believe it or not - this woman another time brought her son to her husband. ³⁹ In the Mezen villages, we heard stories that at gatherings where girls came with spinning wheels, it happened that the guys, as a sign of a special relationship to the girls they liked, broke off (“knocked off”) the figures crowning the spinning wheels.

Figures completing the Mezen spinning wheels in their upper part deserve special attention (Fig. 1). Art historians call them chapters, meaning their resemblance to the heads of churches. N. I. Tolstoy pointed out the connection of these figurines with anthropomorphic images on tombstones among some East Slavic and South Slavic peoples ⁴⁰. The validity of such a comparison is confirmed, in our opinion, by the similarity of the shape of the figures under consideration with images of deceased ancestors among the eastern neighbors of the Slavic peoples ⁴¹. The connection between the spinning wheels and family life and rituals, which we have indicated, indirectly indicates that the figures on the Mezen spinning wheels are related to the images of ancestors.

It is important to note that the main images of the Mezen spinning wheels (birds, horses, deer, boats) do not leave the circle of the most ancient images of Russian folklore, which are most reflected in ritual poetry and fairy tales. All these images connected people with the other world. According to linguistic analysis, the oldest of these images is a bird, later replaced by a deer, a horse⁴². The study of folklore material showed that this replacement took place gradually, as evidenced by transitional (hybrid) images like winged horses and flying boats⁴³. These include the images of horses on the Mezen spinning wheels: their legs, as already mentioned, were painted in the same way as the wings of birds depicted on the same spinning wheels. In addition, boats and ships on Mezen spinning wheels were often depicted surrounded by flying birds.

Hybridity (diversity) of images, a combination of zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic features in them is a characteristic feature of folk art, and the further into the depths of time, the more vividly it manifests itself. In North Russian art, we especially often see a horse-bird, a horse-deer-bird, etc. As an example, we can cite the decoration of the roof of a house with a "ridge" characteristic of the Mezen and other regions of the North. In the configuration of the latter, the features of a waterfowl, and sometimes a deer, often appear. This feature connects the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images of the Mezen folk art with similar images on ancient monuments of art, known to us from archaeological and ethnographic materials. First of all, this concerns the art of the so-called Scythian-Siberian animal style, which is reflected, as you know, in the culture of many peoples of Eurasia ⁴⁴. The presence of motives and images of the Scythian style in the art of the Eastern Slavs is due to the participation in their ethnogenesis of the creators of this style - steppe, including Scythian, tribes. The more ancient contacts of the Slavs with the Iranian and Turkic-speaking tribes of the Black Sea and Caspian regions also played a significant role. So, for example, the influence of the Dacian-Sarmatian and Scythian elements is found in one of the most common motives in North Russian art - a three-part composition with a female figure (tree) in the center ⁴⁵. One of the variants of this composition became widespread on the Mezen - lions on the sides of the tree. Some researchers associate its appearance in the North with the lively trade with England, which took place before the era of Peter I through the Northern Dvina and contributed to the spread in the North in the 16-17 century of magnificently ornamented household items, often painted with paintings with lions ⁴⁶. However, another, eastern way of the spread of the considered composition in the North is also possible, as evidenced by one of their characteristic features. Lions in the Mezen paintings are depicted with a raised right paw, climbing the side of a hill with a tree at the top. A similar composition with lions, as was first pointed out by I. V. Makovetsky, is found in paintings and woodcarving in the Upper Volga regions of the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir and Gorky regions ⁴⁷. The following argument can be made in favor of the eastern route of distribution. On the pediments of some houses of Ancient Khorezm, as evidenced by archaeological excavations, there are relief images of a three-part composition with lions, very similar to the Mezen one. They have the same characteristic: lions are depicted with a raised paw, climbing the side of a hill. ⁴⁸