Miracle fish whale (like the ruff chased together). Orders of mammals. Cetaceans, pinnipeds, proboscis, carnivores Etymology and versions of the origin of the character

Miracle Yudo- a character in Russian folk epics and fairy tales, Slavic heroic epic and, possibly, pre-Slavic mythology (according to a number of authors, it is a kind of nomadic plot from earlier, pre-Slavic beliefs). Initially, it did not have a clearly expressed negative role in the narratives. The character's gender also changed over time: from female to male, and to neuter, respectively. To date, there has been no consensus on the origin of the character in the works of ethnographers and cultural scientists. The nature of the character in narratives that have survived to this day often resembles the sea monsters of ancient mythology.

Etymology and versions of the origin of the character

A number of unlikely etymologies have been proposed in 19th-century literature. Thus, the Complete Church Slavonic Dictionary under the general editorship of G. M. Dyachenko compares Yudo with Sanskrit (Sanskrit jadas), which means sea animal in general, especially “fabulous.” Miracle Yudo is also used in the meaning of “marvel of the sea.” According to “Materials for comparison. words" edited by A. S. Khomyakov, miracle-yudo is the name of the mythical serpent (dragon), derived from the words miracle, which in the old days meant a giant, and it is known that in the ancient era of the development of religious and poetic views of nature, all its powerful forces (whirlwinds, storms and thunderstorms) were personified in the titanic images of giants. The legends about snakes and giants are in the closest and closest relationship, and, according to folk tales, the king of the sea takes on the form of a serpent. AND Yudo on behalf of Judas, which even in the period of early Christianity began to be attributed to the unclean and other demonic creatures.

Historian and publicist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yu. N. Afanasyev, notes that in one version of the folk tale about the Sea King and his things, the daughters Sea King directly named Ocean-Sea; in other lists, his role is transferred to the snake, the devil and the lawless Miracle-Yud. This Slavic Neptune is mentioned in other fairy tales. As the bringer of dark clouds, which darken the heavenly light and often harm the ripening harvests, from ancient times he combined in his character, along with beneficial properties, the traits of a demonic being; the same dual character was adopted by the Sea King. That is why it is so common in folk tales to replace the Sea King with the devil. As an example, Afanasyev cites a German fairy tale, published in Galtrich’s collection, in which the pekel prince, identical with our Sea King, retains all the attributes of the ancient deity of thunderstorms: he has a wonderful scourge (= lightning), the blows of which make the entire kingdom shake and call forth countless armies ; he rushes to the milk pond and, having drunk on the boiling milk (= rain), bursts with a terrible crash and dies - just as a cloud broken by thunder and poured by rain disappears. Name Miracle Yudo, according to Afanasyev, confirms the same idea: it is mostly attributed to the mythical serpent (cloud dragon).

Demonologist L.N. Vinogradova, based on the study of Slavic songs, comes to the conclusion that the miracle-yudo is a certain implicitly outlined mythological character, or the result of confusion with a mermaid (or with a more generalized image of a harmful force) - one way or another, the song characteristics allow note the features of “otherworldliness”, the dangers of the character and the motives for his exile.

According to I. Zakharenko, in Russian folk epics and legends, the Yudo miracle goes back to the Poganous Idol, with whom Russian heroes fight.

Following the pseudoscientific theory proposed by V.N. Demin, the miracle-yudo is a Russified image of the ancient Greek Medusa Gorgon. There is practically nothing fishy in the very image of the Russian Medusa - fish simply surround her, indicating marine environment. This version of the origin seems to Demin to be much closer to that original pre-Hellenic archetype of the beautiful Sea Princess, who, in a process called by Demin the “Olympic Religious Revolution,” was turned into a miracle-judo. The memory of the ancient Hellenic-Slavic Medusa was also preserved in medieval legends about the Virgin Gorgonia. According to Slavic legends, she knew the language of all animals. Later in apocryphal manuscripts female image The Gorgon turned into the "beast Gorgonia"; his functions remain largely the same: he guards the entrance to paradise (that is, in other words, he is the guardian of the passage to the Isles of the Blessed).

M. Vasmer considers it most likely that Yudo- “just a rhymed formation based on the word miracle", and is unlikely to be related to Bulgarian yuda. At the same time, the Bulgarian word yuda(an evil mythical female creature, lives in the mountains, near lakes, flies through the air like a whirlwind) and Ukrainian yuda(genus evil spirit) are recognized, according to O. N. Trubachev, as related (proto-Slavic form * juda) with Sanskrit yodhá and going back to Proto-Indo-European * ịoudh-.

Academician B. A. Rybakov notes that the miracle of Yudo is the deepest archaism of ancient Slavic mythology.

Modern usage

According to Explanatory dictionary Russian language Ushakov, in modern Russian language, miracle yudo used in the meaning of a fairy-tale monster, as well as in the meaning miracle, as something amazing, inexplicable, surprising with its extraordinaryness (in an ironic form).

According to the linguistic and cultural dictionary of Irina Zakharenko and Irina Brileva, Russians can remember miracle-yudo and use this expression when talking about someone or something unusual, strange, about some kind of miracle or about an unusually huge fish.

In epics and legends

According to B. A. Rybakov, in Slavic legends the monster is always multi-headed. Fairy tales often mention trunks, and call the Snake himself “trunky.” “The serpent has twelve heads and twelve trunks; stomping his feet... grinding his teeth.” Miracle Yudo does not bite or claw his opponents, but “drives them into the ground” or hits them with his trunk (“burned with his trunk”). Here you need to understand that the word “trunk” used to mean not a fleshy extension of the nose and upper lip, like an elephant’s, but the tail of a lizard or snake. Therefore, the Serpent with twelve trunks is a serpent with twelve tails (see the meaning of the word trunk in Dahl's dictionary). He himself is killed (in addition to the standard fairy tale sword) with arrows, spears and hot stones, which the hero’s assistants throw into his mouth; often the hero rips open the belly of the monster. After defeating the Serpent, his carcass is burned at the stake.

In Russian folk tales

In Russian folk tale“Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle Yudo”, Miracle Yudo is a group of multi-headed (6, 9, 12) dragons, negative characters. They live across the Smorodina River, across which they cross along the Kalinov Bridge. In the fairy tale, Miracle Yudo is depicted riding a horse. The harm from it lies in the fact that it burns towns and villages with fire. The 12-headed Miracle Yudo has a fiery finger that allows him to regenerate chopped off heads. Miracle Yudo lives in stone chambers, where Miracle Yudo has witch wives and a snake mother. Main opponent miracle-yuda, as the title of the fairy tale suggests, Ivan is a peasant son.

In fairy tales of Russian writers

In the fairy tale by Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” of 1834, there is an independent character Miracle Yudo Fish-Whale. Actually, this is an island fish that lies “across the sea.”

In the film “Barbara-Beauty, Long Braid”, based on the fairy tale by Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky “The Tale of Tsar Berendey, the good Tsar Eremey and the evil Miracle-Yuda, about the love of Varvara-Krasa for the fisherman’s son Andrey”, Miracle-Yudo is the Tsar underwater world, who kidnapped the king of the earth - Eremey. Andrei, the fisherman's son, helps out Tsar Eremey, based on a folk tale.

For those who read with me David Wilcock with Corey Goode
ENLIGHTENED
Perhaps someone else remembers the several mentioned and two of them are 48-kilometer mother spaceships discovered under the ice of Antarctica and put into operation again, which themselves are carriers of flotillas of reconnaissance ships..

Below is a Russian fairytale illustration from Ershov's "The Little Humpbacked Horse"

Well, so our Ivan is going for the ring to the okiyan. The little hunchback flies like the wind, and on the first evening he covered a hundred thousand miles and did not rest anywhere. Approaching the okiyan, the horse says to Ivan: “Well, Ivanushka, look, in about three minutes we will arrive at the clearing - Straight to the sea-okiyan; Across it lies the Miracle-Yudo fish-whale; He has been suffering for ten years, And still he does not know , How to get forgiveness; He will teach you to ask, So that you in the sunny village Ask him for forgiveness; You promise to fulfill, Yes, look, don’t forget!” Here they enter a clearing, straight to the ocean-sea; Across it lies the Miracle Yudo fish-whale. All its sides are pitted, palisades are driven into its ribs, the fuss is making noise on its tail, the village stands on its back; The peasants are plowing on their lips, the boys are dancing between their eyes, and in the oak grove, between their mustaches, the girls are looking for mushrooms. Here the horse runs along the whale, knocking on the bones with its hoof. Miracle-Yudo fish-whale So he speaks to passers-by, opening his mouth wide, sighing heavily, bitterly: “The way is the road, gentlemen! Where are you from and where are you going?” - “We are ambassadors from the Tsar Maiden, We are both going from the capital,” the horse says to the whale, “Towards the sun directly to the east, To the golden mansions.” - “So is it possible, dear fathers, to ask you the sun: How long will I be in disgrace, And for my sins I suffer troubles and torment?” - "Okay, okay, whale fish!" - Our Ivan shouts to him. “Be a merciful father to me! See how I suffer, poor thing! I’ve been lying here for ten years... I’ll serve them myself!..” - Kit begs Ivan, but he himself sighs bitterly. "Okay, okay, whale fish!" - Our Ivan shouts to him. Then the horse began to thrash under him, Jumped onto the shore - and took off, You can only see how the sand curls like a whirlwind at his feet. Whether they were driving close or far, whether they were driving low or high, and whether they saw anyone - I don’t know anything. Soon the fairy tale will be told, Things are going on slowly. Only, brothers, I found out that a horse ran there, where (I heard from the side) the sky meets the earth, where peasant women spin flax, and put spinning wheels in the sky. Then Ivan said goodbye to the earth And found himself in the sky And rode off like a prince, Cap on one side, cheered up.
“What a marvel! What a marvel! Our kingdom is at least beautiful,” Ivan says to the horse. Among the azure glades, “But how can it compare with the sky, It’s not suitable for an insole. What is the earth!.. after all, it’s both black and dirty; Here the earth is blue, and how bright it is!.. Look, little hunchback, See, over there, to the east,

Like lightning is glowing...
Tea, heavenly light...
Something is painfully high!" -
So Ivan asked the horse.
"This is the tower of the Tsar Maiden,
Our future queen, -
The little hunchback shouts to him, -
At night the sun sleeps here,
And at midday
The month is coming for peace."

They arrive; at the gate
There is a crystal vault made of pillars;
All those pillars are curled
Cunningly with golden snakes;
There are three stars on the tops,
There are gardens around the tower;
On the silver branches there
In gilded cages
Birds of paradise live
They sing royal songs.
But there are towers with towers
Like a city with villages;
And on the tower of stars -
Orthodox Russian cross.

Now a horse enters the yard;
Our Ivan gets off him,
In the mansion the month is coming
And he speaks like this:
"Hello, Mesyats Mesyatsovich!
I am Ivanushka Petrovich,
From distant sides
And I brought you a bow." -
“Sit down, Ivanushka Petrovich,”
Mesyats Mesyatsovich said, -
And tell me the blame
To our bright country
Your coming from the land;
What people are you from?
How did you get to this region, -
Tell me everything, don’t hide it,”
"I came from the land of Zemlyanskaya,
From a Christian country, after all, -
Ivan says, sitting down, -
Okiyan moved
With instructions from the queen -
Bow in the bright chamber
And say like this, wait:
"Tell my dear:
Her daughter wants to know her
Why is she hiding?
Three nights, three days
Some kind of face is from me;
And why is my brother red
Wrapped up in stormy darkness
And in the foggy heights
Won't you send a beam to me?"
So, it seems? - Craftswoman
The queen speaks eloquently;

You won’t remember everything in full,
What did she tell me?" -
“What kind of queen?” -
"This, you know, is the Tsar Maiden." -
"The Tsar Maiden?.. So she
Was it taken away by you?" -
Mesyats Mesyatsovich cried out.
And Ivanushka Petrovich
He says: “It is known, by me!
See, I am the royal stirrup;
Well, so the king sent me,
So that I can deliver her
In three weeks to the palace;
Otherwise me, father,
He threatened to impale him."
The month cried with joy,
Well, hug Ivan,
Kiss and have mercy.
"Oh, Ivanushka Petrovich! -
Mesyats Mesyatsovich spoke. -
You brought such news,
Which I don’t know what to count!
And how we grieved,
What a princess they lost!..
That's why, you see, I
Three nights, three days
I walked in a dark cloud,
I was sad and sad,
I didn’t sleep for three days.
I didn’t take a crumb of bread,
That's why my son is red
Wrapped up in stormy darkness,
The hot ray extinguished,
Didn't shine on God's world:

I was still sad, you see, for my sister,
That red Tsar Maiden.
What, is she healthy?
Aren't you sad, aren't you sick?" -
"Everyone would think she's a beauty,
Yes, she seems to be dry:
Well, like a match, listen, thin,
Tea, about three inches in girth;
This is how she gets married,
This is how he will probably get fat:
The king, listen, will marry her."
The moon cried out: “Oh, villain!

I decided to get married at seventy
On a young girl!
Yes, I stand firmly in that -
He'll be a groom!
See what the old devil is up to:
He wants to reap where he has not sown!
Come on, the varnish hurt!"
Here Ivan said again:
"I still have a request for you,
That's about whale forgiveness...
There is, you see, the sea; miracle whale
Across it lies:
All its sides are torn,
Palisades driven into the ribs...
He, a poor man, asked me
So that I ask you:
Will the torment end soon?
How can I find forgiveness for him?
And why is he lying here?”
The clear moon says:
"He bears torment for this,
What without God's command
Swallowed among the seas
Three dozen ships.
If he gives them freedom,
God will remove adversity from him,
Instantly all wounds will heal,
He will reward you with a long life."

Then Ivanushka stood up,
I said goodbye to the bright month,
He hugged his neck tightly,
He kissed me on the cheeks three times.
"Well, Ivanushka Petrovich! -
Mesyats Mesyatsovich spoke. -
Thank you
For my son and for myself.
Give a blessing
Our daughter is comforted
And tell my dear:
“Your mother is always with you;
Full of crying and ruin:
Soon your sadness will be resolved, -
And not old, with a beard,
And the handsome young man
He will lead you to the leash."
Well, goodbye! God be with you!"
Bowing as best I could,
Ivan sat down on his skate,
He whistled like a noble knight,
And he set off on the return journey.

The next day our Ivan
Came to the okiyan again.
Here's a horse running over a whale,
A hoof hits the bones.
Miracle Yudo fish-whale
So, sighing, he says:

"What, fathers, is my request?
When will I receive forgiveness?" -
"Wait, whale fish!" -
Here the horse screams to him.

So he comes running to the village,
He calls the men to his place,
The black mane is shaking
And he speaks like this:
"Hey, listen up, laymen,
Orthodox Christians!
If none of you wants
Order to sit down with the waterman,
Get out of here immediately.
A miracle will happen here:
The sea will boil violently,
The fish-whale will turn..."
Here are peasants and laymen,
Orthodox Christians
They shouted: “There will be trouble!”
And they went home.
All the carts were collected;
Without hesitation, they put in them
Everything that was in the belly
And they left the whale.
Morning met noon,
And there’s no longer any left in the village
Not a single soul alive
It was as if Mamai was going to war!

Here the horse runs onto its tail,
Close to feathers
And he screams with all his might:
"Miracle Yudo fish-whale!
That's why your torment
What without God's command
You swallowed among the seas
Three dozen ships.
If you give them freedom,
God will remove adversity from you,
Instantly all wounds will heal,
He will reward you with a long life."
And, having finished speaking like this,
I bit the steel bridle,
I strained - and instantly
Jump to a distant shore.

The miracle whale moved
It's like the hill has turned
The sea began to disturb
And throw from the jaws
Ships after ships
With sails and rowers.

There was such a noise here,
That the king of the sea woke up:
They fired copper cannons,
Forged trumpets were blown;
The white sail has risen
The flag on the mast unfurled;
Pop with respect to all employees
Sang prayers on deck;

And there’s a cheerful row of rowers
The song burst out loudly:
"Like along the sea, along the sea,
Along the wide expanse,
That to the very ends of the earth,
The ships are running out..."

The waves of the sea swirled
The ships disappeared from view.
Miracle Yudo fish-whale
Screams in a loud voice
Opening my mouth wide,
Breaking the waves with a splash:
"What can I do for you, friends?
How to reward for service?
Do we need flowery shells?
Do we need golden fish?
Do you need large pearls?
I’m ready to get everything for you!” -
"No, whale-fish, we are rewarded
Nothing is needed, -
Ivan tells him,
Better get us the ring -
The ring, you know, the Tsar Maiden,
Our future queen." -
"Okay, okay! For my friend
And an earring!
I'll find you before lightning
Ring of the red Tsar Maiden" -

Keith replied to Ivan
And, like a key, it fell to the bottom.

Here he hits with his splash,
Calls with a loud voice
Sturgeon all the people
And he speaks like this:
"You reach the lightning
Ring of the red Tsar Maiden,
Hidden in a drawer at the bottom.
Who will deliver it to me?
I will reward him with the rank:
He will be a thoughtful nobleman.
If my order is smart
Don't execute... I will!"
The sturgeons bowed here
And they left in order.

In a few hours
Two white sturgeons
They slowly swam up to the whale
And they humbly said:
"Great king! do not be angry!
We are all the sea, it seems,
They came out and dug up,
But they didn’t open the sign either.

Only one of us is ruff
I would carry out your order:
He walks across all seas,
So, it’s true, the ring knows;
But, as if out of luck, he
It's gone somewhere."
"Find him in a minute
And send me to my cabin!" -
Keith shouted angrily
And he shook his mustache.

The sturgeons bowed here,
They started to run to the zemstvo court
And they ordered at the same hour
From the whale to write a decree,
So that messengers are sent quickly
And they caught that ruff.
Bream, hearing this order,
The decree was written by the name;
Som (he was called an adviser)
I signed the decree;
The black cancer laid down the decree
And I attached the seal.
Two dolphins were called here
And, having given the decree, they said,
So that, on behalf of the king,
We've covered all the seas
And that ruff reveler,
Screamer and bully,
Wherever found
They brought me to the sovereign.

Here the dolphins bowed
And they set off to look for the ruff.

They are looking for an hour in the seas,
They are looking for an hour in the rivers,
All the lakes came out
All the straits have been crossed,

Couldn't find the ruff
And they came back
Almost crying from sadness...

Suddenly the dolphins heard
Somewhere in a small pond
A scream unheard of in the water.
Dolphins turned into a pond
And they dived to the bottom, -
Lo and behold: in the pond, under the reeds,
Ruff fights with crucian carp.
"Attention! Damn you!
Look, what a soda they have raised,
Like important fighters!" -
The messengers shouted to them.
"Well, what do you care? -
Ruff shouts boldly to the dolphins. -
I don't like to joke,
I’ll kill everyone at once!” -
"Oh, you eternal reveler
And a screamer and a bully!
That's it, rubbish, you should go for a walk,
Everyone would fight and scream.
At home - no, I can’t sit still!..
Well, why bother dressing up with you, -
Here is the king's decree for you,
So that you swim to him immediately."

There are naughty dolphins here
Picked up by the stubble
And we went back.
Ruff, well, burst and shout:
"Be merciful, brothers!
Let's fight a little.
Damn that crucian carp
You bullied me yesterday
In an honest meeting with everyone
Inappropriate and varied abuse..."
The ruff continued to scream for a long time,
Finally he fell silent;
And the naughty dolphins
Everyone was dragged by the bristles,
Without saying anything
And they appeared before the king.


"Why haven't you been here for so long?
Where have you been, son of the enemy?"
Keith shouted angrily.
The ruff fell to his knees,
And, having confessed to the crime,
He prayed for forgiveness.
“Well, God will forgive you!”
The sovereign whale speaks. -
But for that your forgiveness
You fulfill the command." -

"Glad to try, miracle whale!" -
The ruff squeaks on its knees.
"You walk across all the seas,
So, it’s true, you know the ring
Tsar Maidens?" - "How can you not know!
We can find it at once." -
"So go quickly
Find him quickly!"

Here, having bowed to the king,
Ruff went, bent over, out.
He quarreled with the royal servants,
Dragged after the roach

And the little bastards are six
He broke his nose on the way.
Having done such a thing,
He boldly rushed into the pool
And in the underwater depths
I dug a box at the bottom -
At least a hundred pounds.
“Oh, this is not an easy matter!”
And come from all the seas
Ruff calls for herring to come to him.

The herrings gathered their courage,
They started to drag the chest,
You can only hear and that’s all -
"Uh-oh!" yes "oh-oh-oh!"
But no matter how loudly they shouted,
They just tore their stomachs,
And the damn chest
I didn't even get an inch.
"Real herrings!
You should have a whip instead of vodka!" -
The ruff shouted from all his heart
And dived on the sturgeon.

Sturgeons are swimming here
And without a cry they rise
Firmly stuck in the sand
A red chest with a ring.

"Well, guys, look,
You are now sailing to the king,
I'm going to the bottom now
Let me rest a little:
Something overcomes sleep,
So he closes his eyes..."
Sturgeons are swimming to the king,
Ruff-reveler straight into the pond
(From which the dolphins
Dragged by the stubbles)
Tea, fight with crucian carp, -
I don't know about that.
But now we will say goodbye to him
And we will return to Ivan.

Quiet ocean sea.
Ivan sits on the sand,
Waiting for a whale from the blue sea
And purrs with grief;
Collapsed on the sand,
The faithful little hunchback is dozing.
It was getting late in the evening;
Now the sun has gone down;
With a quiet flame of grief,
The dawn unfolded.
But the whale was not there.
“So that those thiefs are crushed!
Look, what a sea devil! -
Ivan says to himself. -
Promised until dawn
Take out the ring of the Tsar Maiden,
I haven’t found it yet,
Damned scoffer!
And the sun has already set,
And..." Then the sea boiled:
A miracle whale has appeared
And to Ivan he says:
"For your good deed
I kept my promise."
A chest with this word
Clanked tightly onto the sand,
Only the shore swayed.
"Well, now I'm even.
If I'm forced again,
Call me again;
Your good deed
Don’t forget me... Goodbye!”
Here the miracle whale fell silent
And, splashing, he fell to the bottom.

The little humpbacked horse woke up,
Got up on his paws, shook himself off,
Looked at Ivanushka
And he jumped four times.
"Oh yes Keith Kitovich! Nice!
I paid my debt properly!
Well, thank you, whale fish! -
The little humpbacked horse screams. -
Well, master, get dressed,
Set off on your journey;
Three days have already passed:
Tomorrow is an urgent date.
Tea, the old man is already dying."
Here Vanyusha answers:
"I would be glad to raise with joy,
But there’s no shortage of strength!
The chest is painfully tight,
Tea, there are five hundred devils in it
The damn whale impaled.
I've already raised it three times;
It’s such a terrible burden!”
Here's the thing, without answering,
He lifted the box with his foot,
Like some pebble
And he waved it around his neck.
“Well, Ivan, sit down quickly!
Remember, tomorrow the deadline will pass,
And the way back is long."

Ershov Pyotr Pavlovich, with his tales about the Little Humpbacked Horse and the Miracle Yuda, gave a whole generation faith in the unknown. This author made us look at the wonders of nature in a new way, because such anomalies as the Miracle Yudo Fish-Whale were found in the mythology of other peoples.

She has an impressive mouth capable of swallowing a ship, a bad disposition, despite the relative calmness of the real prototype of the animal, and a modified physiology.

The animal's features are distorted. If in the end the fish became more or less natural in appearance, excluding its size, of course, then initially it was practically a dragon, with an elongated mouth full of sharp teeth.

According to the materials “for comparative words” edited by Khomyakov, Miracle Yudo should be interpreted as a dragon. Also in the 19th century, this expression was used to describe any “diva of the sea,” which even included killer whales. Despite the fact that in different sources the Miracle Yudo is presented in its own way, most of these creatures have a natural prototype or at least a natural explanation.

Origin of terminology

The word “Miracle Yudo” also has its own history. The first part is easily explained, since it directly means something “wonderful” or “unusual.”

But the second part of the term has a more specific and interesting story. In early Christianity the word "yudo" consonant with the name Judas, used to denote everything demonic, evil and unclean.

Perhaps this is why most prototypes of such wonders, including those described in Ershov’s prose
fish, is attributed extremely aggressive disposition.

So, for example, the hero of another mythology, this time from the East, Sinbad the Sailor, escaped from the “false island” in a trough, pursued by a huge creature that wanted to feast on members of his crew.

The whale mentioned in “The Humpbacked Horse,” in turn, could hardly repeat those atrocities that are attributed to its more “evil” brothers. The fish was punished for chasing ships, but the whale did not have to pretend to be an island.

Is there only one image of a monster?

In Old Slavonic legends, Miracle Yudo is a dragon- or snake-like monster “with several heads.” For example, in the fairy tale “Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle Yudo” it is presented as.

As for the whale, it most likely received its classification as a curiosity for its snake-like body, albeit modified. The fish that lies “across the sea” also has complete natural characteristics, characteristic of a really existing subspecies. So, for example, the animal also gets rid of excess water in the body with the help of a fountain in the front part of the body, called a “blowhole”, around which the guys have fun and jump.

Real prototype

If we are talking about Ershov’s whale, then it should be noted that he has a very real image.

It is certainly exaggerated for the sake of entertainment and the scale of the legend, but one way or another corresponds to the image that was described in prose.

At first, you might think that we are talking about a minke whale, since most of the illustrations to Ershov’s prose show that same fish with characteristic longitudinal stripes under its mouth, in which the whalebone is clearly visible.

However, most representatives of this species hunt exclusively for plankton, which makes it extremely difficult for them to directly swallow anything, including “three dozen ships.”

It is quite possible that Ershov used the sperm whale as the basis for his Miracle-Yuda, which often swallows various objects that later cause the animal significant inconvenience.

Of course, we are not talking about any “big city” that can fit on the back of this representative of mammals. Average length the animal is approximately 15-20 meters.

Bible script

Ershov never revealed the secret of what exactly served as the prototype for that same whale. Some saw in the fish the “living island” described above from more ancient mythology, which is the pet animal of the local ruler of the seas, others even saw the background to the parable, describing a biblical motif.

We are talking about the Book of the Prophet Jonah, who was also swallowed by a whale when he angered the Lord and did not repent of his sins. However, as in the case of Ershov’s whale, the prophet was not left to his own devices and had the opportunity to change his fate, as a result of which he was thrown ashore.

Likewise, the fish received its forgiveness when it released all 30 swallowed ships.

Moralizing the Narrative

In Ershov's prose, the Sun gave the whale a second chance, releasing the fish, which immediately declared its own dominion over the territory of the sea surface.

In this case, we can trace the evolution of the image from a completely negative and destructive one to a thinking and understanding one. Keith had to let go of all the ships after the Little Humpbacked Horse brought him the news of the rescue from plight. Even the peasants who left the island in time were not harmed.

Ershov’s contribution to the humanization of Miracle Yud should not be underestimated; the author consciously gave impetus to the development of the image.

Despite the fact that the Slavs were extremely far from both the sea and the mythology characteristic of the peoples in whose culture shipping was important important role, they nevertheless created their leviathan.

Perhaps it’s because of the “unseen thing” that ordinary people imagined the surface of the sea to be. It is also possible that Miracle Yudo simply evolved from the characters of local fishing folklore. In any case, this image remained one of the key ones in the overall description of the forces opposing the hero of epics and fairy tales.