Folkloristic contemplation

Oral traditions and fairy tales often have an educational function, the so-called moral of the story. For the Uralic peoples nature is at the centre of daily life, so flora and fauna are relevant themes in traditions, and today we present three fairy tales from two peoples from the INEL survey area. All fairy tales and many other traditions can be found in our corpora in the INEL Resource Portal.

The snowy owl

In Dolgan tradition there is a fairy tale "Lenkej", which translates as "The Snowy Owl". This fairy tale takes place a long time ago in a warm country where it gets unexpectedly cold. The birds are afraid of freezing to death and meet for a gathering of birds. A goose, who is the leader of the birds, tells them about a land where there is no winter and suggests that they spend the cold time there. It is unanimously decided to fly south.

However, the little birds are afraid of being eaten by the snowy owls and do not want to take them along. "The birds said then: "Here the owl lives on our kins. And even if she goes there, she will not break that habit. We will not take her with us!'" So the assembly decided that the snowy owl would have to stay in the cold and not flies south with them. The snowy owl man, who attended the meeting, flies to his wife and tells her the decision. He asks his wife to sew him a warm coat out of the fur of a spotted seal, as white as the snow, to protect them from the cold. This way they can live in the cold winter in the north.

This tale tells why the snowy owls, unlike many other birds on the Taimyr Peninsula, are not migratory birds, but stay there even in winter.

Fox and bear

We are familiar with the role allocation in the Evenki tale of the fox and the bear: a cunning fox makes a wicked joke at the expense of the big, strong bear. The two meet in winter in the taiga and the fox pretends to eat something. The bear asks and gets the answer from the fox that he should hold his tail in a hole in the ice and it will produce tallow. The bear follows the advice, but his tail freezes off. A squirrel mocks the tailless bear. The bear searches for the fox, but cannot find the tracks as the fox has covered them with the tail. He then hides in a cave and sleeps through the winter.

This story explains why bears don't have long tails and hibernate.

The mouse and the reindeer

The Dolgan fairy tale "Kutujagɨ gɨtta taba", which translates as "The Mouse and the Reindeer", tells the story of a mouse and a reindeer who play hide and seek together. First, the reindeer hides and the mouse finds it. Then the mouse hides and the reindeer simply cannot find it. As his strength begins to wane, the reindeer sniffs for the mouse. As it still has not found the mouse, it continues to sniff the ground with its snout.

This story provides a fairytale explanation for the reindeer sniffing the ground. Another explanation would be that they sniff at the snow to find out whether lichen is hiding underneath and whether it is worth scraping the snow away.

The traditions of neighbouring peoples often have similar narratives, elements and moral motifs. One motif that occurs in Kamas and Selkup tales and is unknown to us, based on the traditions of the Brothers Grimm, is the only-head. Called kur-ulu (only-head) in Kamas and qun-ol-laga (human-head-piece) in Selkup, this figure rolls and successfully supplies an entire yard by giving commands to objects. In the Selkup tale of the head without a body, for example, the only-head commands the courtyard gates to open and orders soup on the table. These magical powers enable the only-head to live a good life.

Both tales are about the clash between their own hunter culture and the newer way of life based on stockpiling; the Kamas tale explicitly refers to the new culture introduced by Turkish cattle breeders. The only-head represents the stock farmer, the protagonist and her husband are hunters. The hunters are poor and suffer from hunger, in contrast to the stock farmer who is wealthy and well provided for. Due to the shortage of food, the hunter chases away his wife, who finds the farm of the only-head. The only-head is killed by the woman and the farm is taken over. In the Kamas tale, the couple does not manage to keep the farm, but the woman is able to turn the fleeing farm animals into game species with an incantation. In the Selkup tale, the huntress stays on the farm she manages and later takes her husband in.

Source: Klumpp, G. 2010: Kamassisch-Selkupisch-Ketische Parallelen in der Märchenfolklore [Kamas-Selkup-Ket Parallels in Fairytale Folklore]. Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen 32/33: 297-312

The shaman is a very important figure in the life of many peoples, including the Nganasans. So it is not surprising that stories about shamans' deeds occupy a separate place in the folklore of this one of the northernmost peoples of the world. Today we present four stories of the Nganasans, these and many other traditions can be found in our corpora in the INEL Resource Portal.
In these stories shamans usually help people to get rid of diseases or from hunger (‘Shamaness Nejming’, ‘The Diving Shaman’). There are stories about significant shamans from a particular clan who have brought curses on their clan (‘The Shaman of the Khuale clan’, ‘The Diving Shaman’) or, for example, about female shamans (‘Shamaness Nejming’). Names of geographical entities may be associated with these stories (‘The Diving Shaman’, ‘The Shaman of the Khuale clan’). In one of the stories, the appearance of fire is also attributed to the activity of a shaman (‘Fire Sledge’). Sometimes the shaman or his people have to pay a heavy price for their deeds, up to human sacrifices (‘The Shaman of the Khuale Clan’, ‘Fire Sledge’).

 The Shaman of the Khuale Clan

There once lived a shaman of the Huale clan who wanted to increase his power. He forced people to kill an orphan girl to make a tambourine from her skin. Her fiancé was sent to hunt at that time. Then the shaman Huale began to shamanise near the hillside, which is now called the Tambourine Ringing (Hensire soibamu).

Then shaman Huale went hunting one day and met a naked girl - the spirit of that girl from whose skin he had once made his tambourine. The girl said to him: ‘If you catch me, you will become an even stronger shaman, and if you don't catch me, your clan will be cursed.’ The girl lured the shaman into a trap pit, and he died there. And all the people of his clan began to die.

Shamaness Nejming

There was a shamaness named Naming. No one married her, everyone was afraid of her shamanism. One day all the people in the camp, except for her, fell ill. And a young spirit spoke to her: ‘You are good, and your helpers are good, marry me, then everyone will get well’. Neiming agreed to marry him for three years, then people began to get well. She had two children, Lambie and Dyaryka, both of whom later became shamans. And when she was still pregnant, she took off her shaman costume, asked to untie one iron and put it in her overalls. And when she was shamanising during her pregnancy, her belly disappeared, it became empty.

The Diving Shaman

In a hungry year, the shaman Hotarye dived for a long time into the lake, to help his people regain luck in hunting and fishing. He tied himself with a rope and left its end outside. He told people not to touch the rope until he would come out by himself. And one day the teenagers decided to pull the rope, but they became afraid of what came out of the lake and let the rope go. The shaman popped out for a while to say that everyone in his clan would drown now. And the lake has been called Shaman Lake ever since.

 Fire Sledge

Once upon a time there lived an Enets old man, he was a bit of a shaman. In a dream he heard a voice that said to him, ‘If you want your people to get fire, kill your daughter, cut out her spleen and make a fire out of it.’ The old man did as he was told. Then he buried his daughter and made a wooden idol - a female figure. He also made a sledge for the idol. And this sledge with the idol was called the Fire sledge, and it could be inherited only through the male line.