Picture and Text: The Myth about a Conflict between a Bird and a Snake on the Old Graphics and in Folklore

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Stability and continuity of the tradition entitle folklorists and ethnologists to connect folk tales written down in the 19th and 20th centuries with such historical periods that have no written sources at all. Such investigations need to be careful. If reconstruction of the folkloric motifs does not rely on the historic facts, on the knowledge of stability of the tradition and on the comparative studies, then resulting conclusions will cause deplorable results. The West-European studies of folklore considers that the phenomenon, which we refer to as ‘folk tales,’ is not dated by prehistoric times, but it has a much later origin. Investigators, which share this point of view (Hainz Rölleke, Detlev Fehling, Sabine Wincker-Piepho and others), attribute the most ancient fixed records to the sphere of literature and not to the sphere of oral culture (Rölleke 1984, Fehling 1984; Wincker- Piepho 2005).

Opinions of the investigators (amongst them, Heino Gehrts, Isidor Levin, Dieter Rőth, Jan Ovid Svahn, Rusudan Tcholokashvili), who insist on the archaic origin of the folk tales with corresponding arguments, are radically different. Lütz Röhrich mentioned yet in 1976 that tales in folklore existed in the forms of religious-mythological narrations, epic legends and poetry, but not in the form typical for records of the 19th century (Röhrich 1976: 293). Narration of a story is a live form of the human relationship and, obviously, oral tradition is one of the most important categories in the investigation of folklore materials. We really do not know, how this tale was told in the ancient times.

It is difficult to give an answer to this question. Instead, we possess many motifs and mythologems, which make the ‘building material’ for the folk tales. Some of them can be older than the written documents of the folk tales. Plots, depicted on the monuments of the archaic art found in the territory of Georgia, are discussed by investigators in view of ritual and mythological aspects. Archaeological materials are used also by folklorists, too, while reconstructing the Georgian mythology. They used to make accent on folk tales (Chikovani 1947: 57-88). Ethnologist Irakli Surguladze also paid attention to the topic of correlation of the archaeological materials and folk tales (Surguladze 1986: 107-108).

The historian Manana Khidasheli draws a parallel line between the plot depicted on the bronze belt (ca. beginning of I millennium, end of the IX century BC). There are depicted various motifs on the girdle, including the fight between the bird and the snake. The bird and the snake on the bronze girdle are depicted opposite to each other. M. Khidasheli refers to this image as the “Scene of the fight between the snake and the bird” and links it with the motifs of the Georgian folk tales and the Sumerian epos (Khidasheli 1982: 65). We meet the snake possessing two functions mainly in the Georgian folk tales. In the folk tale of the AaTh 301 type the dragon is an adversary of the hero, and in the tale of AaTh 425 type, it is a supernatural spouse.

The type of the tale in which the snake and the bird are both present together, is AaTh 301. The hero goes down into the lower world, sets free the King’s daughter from the captivity of the snake and comes up to the earth. Paskunji helps him to get back to the earth from the lower world (Paskunji, the fantastic bird). Paskunji is a very important character in the Georgian folk tales. It is pertained to the range of fantastic creatures. In the plot of the tale the paskunji has the function of a helper: it takes the hero from the lower world up to the surface of earth again. The paskunji and the giant snake represent the couple that will necessarily be present in the tales narrating of the adventure of the youngest brother in the lower world.

In the Georgian folk tales the meeting point of the opposing giant snake and paskunji is the tree, where the paskunji has a nest. This motif preserves the oldest myths of the cosmic tree (the World Tree). According to the Georgian mythological tradition, in the middle of the Universe there stands a poplar tree emitting myrrh, and in the ancient Georgian ornaments the motif of the World Tree is abundant, with animals depicted in it. In the Sumerian epic the model of the World Tree is such: the snake in the roots, the fantastic bird in the shoots and the virgin in the trunk of the tree. According to the Akkadian epic, the befriended snake and eagle are sheltered under the World Tree.

In the Scandinavian mythology the tree of Iggdrasil represents the structural basis of the Universe, in the roots of which there is sheltered the snake, in the shoots, the eagle, and its leaves are grated by the nanny-goat. In the German scientific terminology in order to depict a fantastic creature (including the giant snake and the paskunji) there was used the notion ‘mixed creature’ (Mischwesen), which exactly expresses their essence. Under a dragon, which is described as a winged snake, covered with fish scales and possessing a head of this or that bird, there is implied a monster. It is opposed and fought with by gods and heroes. In general, the word ‘dragon’ spread in the folklore of the peoples of Europe, as well as its variants (e.g., German ‘Drache’, English ‘dragon’) are derived from the Latin word ‘draco,’ which means ‘snake’ (the noun, ‘a snake’).

My opinion is such that when the snake and the bird found themselves in the epos, both of them must already have had an ambivalent nature _ the paskunji dwells in the lower world, and the snake can move in any of the ways (walking and flying). This is true form the folk tales of various peoples of the world. According to the Georgian materials, in the tales of the tree brothers, winged snakes in the lower world are rare. In the Georgian folk tale, the giant snake, defeated by the youngest brother, has no wings. In the Georgian folk tales the bird and the snake do not represent the same creature. They live in each other’s neighbourhood, but they are different.

Study of the folk tales has attested that folk tales preserve the ancient motifs, but motif is different from the overall composition of the tale. We cannot say for sure whether plots depicted on some monuments of culture existed in narrative form as well. We know for certain only the fact that the tales fixed in the 20th century contain such mythologem, which can only be reconstructed in the oral way. This fact itself needs explanations. The phenomenon of continuity and change of the tradition demands to be studied in many aspects (ethnological, psychological, sociological, theological, etc.).

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 10 (2009), pp. 146–156. Open the paper