Koschei the Immortal - who is he? Theories of the origin of the people's anti-hero

The question of who is Koschey the Immortal is still relevant to this day. Is this folk creativity or was it a prototype of any historical personality? Maybe this is the fruit of the imagination of all times and nations? And why does this immortal fairy-tale anti-hero have such a strange name? Let's discuss this in more detail ...

Koschei the Immortal, who are you?

First of all, we know that this is one of the bright fairy-tale characters. His appearance is vague, and the variants of the interpretation of the image are contradictory. In addition, his name has not quite clear etymology. There are at least two versions of the origin of this questionable fairy (and maybe not fantastic) person:

1. This is the result of the popular imagination, which later became the folklore and heritage of the republic.
2. Koshchei the Immortal is a prototype of the real person.

Version one: folk fiction (folklore)

Koschey the Immortal, photo Which for a number of reasons is not possible for you to demonstrate (only drawings) as a folklore fictional character is endowed with many powers. He turns into a black crow, and sometimes into a flying serpent. This allows him to easily and quickly move around the world and different worlds, stealing everything he needs. And it is necessary for him exactly gold and other riches ... Do you remember how Pushkin said about Koshchei, who languishes over gold? Here it is. According to the people's giving, the water gives it strength. After drinking three buckets at a time, he can tame even the very Snake Gorynych! By the way, some researchers in the field of Slavic mythology claim that the images of Immortal and Gorynych are interchangeable in Russian fairy tales. Both of them simply adore wealth, and also steal beautiful girls! However, Koschey is endowed with a little more power, beyond the control of Snake Gorynych. Version two: the real prototype

According to this version, the prototype of the fairy-tale Koshchei is none other than Saint Kasyan himself. The fact is that the aforementioned prototype could well be called Koshchei because of the consonance of these names. In addition, two holidays coincide: the day of Chernobog and the day of St. Kasyan Slavs celebrated at the same time - at the end of February. According to some reports, on this holiday they wore strange outfits in the form of human bones with a crown on their head, which to this day are popular on children's matinees and in fairy-tale performances. This refers to the costume of Koshchei the Immortal. Meanwhile, Kasyan did much to make Christianity spread on the earth, but he was still considered evil, not holy!

The meaning of his name

The origin of the name of this fairy-tale character has a philological character: consonance and general semantics with some words, for example, with blasphemy. "Koshun" is a sorcerer. And indeed: only the almighty black magicians are immortal, and also people who turned to help the dark forces (for example, Faustus Goethe).

In addition, in the Old Slavonic language the word "kosh" (or "kosht") means "skinny", "dry" or "lean". We all remember the outward appearance of our anti-hero: skin and bone ... Some etymologists say that his name is nothing more than a mythological image of an ossified and frost-frozen nature. Summarize

Let's gather all the above thoughts together. So, Koschey the Immortal is a folk-folklore image of Old Russian fairy tales, which arose because of doubtful rumors about Holy Kasyan, backed up by such Old Slavs as a scab and a scab. Though small, but true!