Ivanova, L. I. THE FIGURE OF YÖNITKETTÄI THE NIGHT WEEPER IN KARELIAN MYTHOLOGY // Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2018. No 4 (173). DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2018.144


Literary studies

THE FIGURE OF YÖNITKETTÄI THE NIGHT WEEPER IN KARELIAN MYTHOLOGY

Ivanova
L. I. 		Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the RAS
Keywords:
Karelians
mythology
magic spell
ritual
night
disease
children
crying		 Summary: The folk and ethnographic materials deposited in the archives of Karelia and Finland are used in this article. For the first time in the national folkloristiсs the image of yönitkettäi the night keener is analyzed through the prism of the texts of the mythological prose and magic spells, as well as beliefs and rituals. Firstly, the semantic interpretation and the correct translation of the name, which simultaneously has the meaning of the childhood disease and the mythological firure, into Russian was the main purpose of the textological and comparative typological analyzing. Secondly, the figurative system and visual parameters, which are common to the spirit of night insomnia, were examined. As a result, it can be concluded that yönitkettäi is a different age and not always a single spirit which can develop and improve it’s skills. It is connected not only with the world of the children, but also with the world of the adults. This image is most often an amorphous creature, although sometimes in its description there are anthropo-, zoo- and ornithomorphic characteristics, as well as solar motives. Its connection with the elements of water, forest and domestic spirits is also identified.



Displays: 289;