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Post by Montezuma on Aug 5, 2022 23:28:31 GMT -5
Below are some threat-related interpretations that used to be popular:
• To see a bear in your dream portends an uneasy time ahead of you, or a struggle. This may be a warning that, because of your rude and tactless manners, you risk acquiring a dangerous and cruel but not too cunning enemy.
• If a woman dreams of a bear, a strong rival will come across her way.
• Running away from a bear in your sleep is a precursor of risky romantic adventures in an unorthodox environment.
• A wounded bear in your sleep indicates that you have problems in communicating with the opposite sex and may become a victim of evil-eyed gossipers.
On the other hand, there are some positive interpretations as well:
• Seeing a bear in a sleep means getting a profit.
• Killing a bear in your sleep portends coping successfully with a difficult situation.
• If a woman sees a bear in her sleep, she will get married or have a new friend.
• A girl who caresses a bear in their sleep will soon get married.
• To see a bear with cubs foretells a benefit and higher income. The same dream, however, may mean that you don’t go gently with your children.
scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russian-of-all-beasts/#:~:text=All%20in%20all%2C%20there%20are,to%20get%20along%20with%20people.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 5, 2022 23:30:02 GMT -5
"On the other hand, numerous fairy-tales and myths created by the peoples of North-Eastern Asia and North America highlight kin relations between man and a bear.
This is a typical plot of Evenki, Nanais and Chukchi fairy-tales: because of a set of circumstances a woman finds herself in a forest, where a bear takes her as his wife, and she subsequently gives birth to bear cubs or strong boys. Another plot goes that a man marries a she-bear who takes the appearance of a girl, and later she gives birth to a cub and a boy.
Northern nationalities have quite many stories of the animal giving a hand to a man. For example, a bear helps the hunters who have got into trouble; a she-bear picks up kids who have lost their parents, brings them up, and returns to people. Sometimes, it is the other way round: a man helps a bear, for example, a woman raises an orphaned bear cub, which subsequently looks after her.
It goes without saying that everybody knows heroes of modern western fairy-tales: Winnie-the-Pooh, the Disney Teddy and Balu. Kind-hearted and clumsy, they do not always sparkle with wit but unfailingly win our affection."
scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russian-of-all-beasts/#:~:text=All%20in%20all%2C%20there%20are,to%20get%20along%20with%20people.
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 20, 2022 16:50:07 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Sept 20, 2022 20:28:30 GMT -5
Thats great information bro!
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 9, 2024 23:07:34 GMT -5
The Goddess and the Bear (I): The Sacred Bear as an Ancestor Spirit
"In northern Eurasia, climatic, economic and cultural conditions have remained relatively stable. Hunting under Arctic conditions has not changed considerably from Palaeolithic times. Another example of stability is the continuity of mythological beliefs crystallized around the bear. Evidence for the cult of the bear dates from remote times, and bear hunting rituals are still performed in western Siberia. The relationship of a female divinity with the bear is present, with regional variations, throughout Eurasia, from the Saami culture in the west to the Chukchee culture on the eastern tip of Siberia.
Many animal species are depicted in Eurasian iconography, usually in a realistic fashion. Abramova (1995: 39ff.) lists the following species represented in the visual heritage of the Siberian Palaeolithic: mammoth, rhinoceros, bison, horse, felines, bear, wolf, birds, serpents and fishes. The first three animal species disappeared from the iconographic record of later periods because they become extinct. There are no traces in the oral traditions of Siberian peoples that might provide a clue about the mythological value of those Palaeolithic animals communities."
"The animal which shows the most vivid persistence in visual imagery is the bear. No other animal has been continuously venerated throughout the ages in such a respectful manner as the bear. Representations of this animal goes back to the Siberian Palaeolithic (such as sculptures from Mal´ta and Tolbaga). The oldest miniature bear sculpture comes from the site of Tolbaga, east of Lake Baykal, which is dated to c. 34,000 BP.11 The bear has been continuously modeled as sculpture, depicted in relief, engraved in petroglyphs, and painted as a sacred symbol on shamans´ drums (Figure 10).
For many peoples in northern Eurasia, the bear is the revered ancestor of the entire clan or ethnic group. As an ancestor spirit the bear is amply celebrated in oral literature (Honko et al. 1993: 160 f.). Among the Uralic peoples in western Siberia, the Khanty and Mansi, “elements of the ‘bear’ concept pervade the entire Ob-Ugrian culture, creating one of the world´s richest bear cults” (Schmidt 1989: 189). There are about 360 items of taboo terminology―euphemistic and periphrastic expressions referring to the bear, its body parts and to its behavior―which form part of the Khanty and Mansi vocabularies (Bakró-Nagy 1979)."
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.archaeomythology.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2007-vol3-a7-marler-haarmann.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi60bWsxumHAxXVTKQEHe7rCCIQFnoECBkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0DSaZkgogKfJIE_0xTabTg
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 9, 2024 23:12:51 GMT -5
"In the cultural memory of the Ob-Ugrians and the Tungus of central and eastern Siberia, many stories about the bear have been preserved, in particular about its role in human genesis. The bear is considered to have come from the sky down to earth. There, the bear takes a female guardian spirit of the forest as his wife, and their offspring become the first ancestors of the Khanty (and Mansi, respectively). Among the Palaeoasiatic Ket, the female being chosen by the bear as his wife was “Heaven´s Daughter, disguised as a female reindeer” (Alekseyenko 2001: 58).
The totemistic ancestry relating to the bear is familiar also among the peoples in western Eurasia, for example among the Mordvinians who live on both sides of the central Volga. In their cultural heritage, tales about relationships between the bear and humans have been preserved. Such stories form also part of the oral tradition among Finns, Karelians and Saami (the Skolt Saami, in particular). This theme has remained popular up to the present day."
"The bear was not seen as a fearsome animal. It was respected and revered. The Erzian Mordvinians worshipped the bear as a deity and gave it the name nishkepaz. Among the Mordvinians, the bear was considered the protector of people´s homesteads. The bear was even seen in the role of a godfather to newly wed couples.
In marriage rituals, the bear’s role was usually played by a woman in a fur-coat turned inside out. She also came out to meet a newly married couple. The bear symbolized progenitiveness of the future married couple and wealth. A bride and bridegroom were seated on a bear’s skin or fur-coat. The bride stepped on a fur-coat after a marriage ceremony in church when entering the bridegroom´s house. The newly-married couple’s bed was also covered with a fur-coat (Devyatkina 2004: 40).
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 9, 2024 23:20:39 GMT -5
The sacred trinity in Eurasian symbolism: Female divinity, the bear, and birds
The concept of the Sacred in female forms serves as the metaphor par excellence for symbolizing the Source from which the world originates—the generative force which creates and protects all forms of life and assigns all things their proper purpose. All that is created returns to the Source for regeneration, and, in this way, the Life Cycle is renewed. The elementary perception that all of nature is interconnected through this generative force is so central that it exists as the originating morphic field of the deep structure of Eurasian mythology. In the canon of Eurasian belief systems, there are dozens of symbols with mythological significance. The bear is the most important link between humans and the fauna of totemistic beliefs. Birds also have a totemistic significance and possess fundamental functions in the shamanistic worldview. Without birds, the shaman would be unable to perform her or his transcendental journeys.
"The sacred woman, or goddess, the bear, and the bird are key symbols in Palaeo-Siberian imagery, grouped “as a defined compositional unit according to definite stylistic traditions” (Martynov 1991:107). All three constituents form a harmonic unity in the same archetypical context. As expressed in a bronze pendant from western Siberia (Figure 11), the bird, with the shape of an eagle, has the head of a bear. On its breast, the face of the goddess as Mistress of Nature is depicted. In front of her image, a bear is positioned in a venerating posture. In this ensemble, the ancient animistic beliefs of northern Eurasia are visualized. The Mistress or Goddess of Nature is a character with motherly features, giving the fruits of the forest as gifts to people and protecting the animals. But as the one who reigns in the realm of nature, the deity is shown in an awe-inspiring posture, demanding respect and obedience (Figure 12). A closer inspection of her bodily features reveals that her hands are shaped like eagle´s claws, while her legs and feet resemble those of a bear. In a highly sophisticated web of visual allusions with floating boundaries between anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features, this sculpture illustrates the sacred trinity of northern Eurasia."
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 9, 2024 23:27:00 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 10, 2024 5:38:16 GMT -5
This phrase here says it all. Awesome bro.
I also liked the mistress of nature representation at reply #27.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 12, 2024 11:40:50 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 12, 2024 11:50:43 GMT -5
"When Soviet power came to Siberia it was faced with many unexpected rivals. One of these, and by far one of the strongest, was - the bear. The cult of the bear, which has its origins in the palaeolithic period, was to be found among various peoples. The Tunguz peoples (Evenk, Even etc.) for example, believed that the bear was creator of the world, lord of the universe, and a great hero of culture who, among many other blessings, gave the people fire. A common myth among the Tunguz tells how the Great Bear was hunting his adversary who had stolen the sun, overtook him and returned with the heavenly light to the people. Several Siberian tribes used the same terms to refer to the bear, nature, the heavens and God. The bear figures in ethnic myths and legends as the primal progenitor of the various peoples. Even now in Siberia they call him "master", "grandfather", "father". The great events in the year of the Evenk, Khant, Mansi, Ket, Nivkh, and other peoples were seasonal "festivals of the bear". Some held this day after a successful hunt, others (the Nivkh for example) performed the ritual slaughter of a bear which for three years prior to the occasion had been reared in the village like one of their own kind. The ritual slaughter of the beast signified its return to the world of the spirits, who in return would bless the people with a new generation of children. This day of ritual drew together the different communities who lived widely scattered over the huge expanses. The honour of killing the bear fell to the members of allied tribes from among whom the owners of the bear had taken their brides. On the day itself all those present would be allocated a certain portion of the bear's carcass, each according to his place in the exogamic and social hierarchy. In many Siberian tribes the pelt of the bear was used by the most powerful shamans, who wore it at council meetings and thus presented themselves in the guise of the almighty master of the world. One could say that the members of the Siberian communities were represented as a whole in the body of one bear. The bear symbolised the socio-religious organism which functioned perfectly due to this ritual metabolism: the exchange between the (human) communities and the world of the supernatural." Other pages from the articles tells about Bear stories and rituals among the various tribes. www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09637498508431188&ved=2ahUKEwiP6tbR9O-HAxUDVvEDHRCvKCUQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1hmBP5jnwamZSRSm98pa3h
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 13, 2024 8:32:18 GMT -5
Nice find there:
The Tunguz are the indigenous people of Siberia.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 13, 2024 9:09:28 GMT -5
Nice find there:The Tunguz are the indigenous people of Siberia.
Animal across the globe have featured in human mythology from universe creation to apocalypse, and I am well aware of Middle Eastern, Mesoamerican, Andean, European, and a bit about Indic and Sinic mythologies where animals have a prominent role but no where is have seen any animal occupying as high status as a bear. Basically animals just symbolise or accompany gods in very supreme tasks like universe creation but being an animal that is the creator and lord of universe it's own as bear is indeed something very unique and incomparable in mythology of animals in religions. In all human mythologies, the character of bear where it is revered as in Siberia is simply unparalleled. |
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 13, 2024 11:03:41 GMT -5
Nice find there:The Tunguz are the indigenous people of Siberia.
Animal across the globe have featured in human mythology from universe creation to apocalypse, and I am well aware of Middle Eastern, Mesoamerican, Andean, European, and a bit about Indic and Sinic mythologies where animals have a prominent role but no where is have seen any animal occupying as high status as a bear. Basically animals just symbolise or accompany gods in very supreme tasks like universe creation but being an animal that is the creator and lord of universe it's own as bear is indeed something very unique and incomparable in mythology of animals in religions. In all human mythologies, the character of bear where it is revered as in Siberia is simply unparalleled.
Reply #1:
beargorillarealm.proboards.com/post/137/thread |
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 14:56:20 GMT -5
After a lot of thinking, I have changed this thread's name as "Russo-Siberian" since it not only shows of bear cult in Turkic Siberia but in Slavic Russia as well. Though the cult bear among Russian (aka East Slavs along with Belarusians and Ukrainians) has also been shown in European bear cult thread however since the bear symbol is so much important to Russia and Russia is also more than half Asiatic, it deserves a separate and noteworthy mention, apart from Europe and along with Siberia.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 16:36:44 GMT -5
Details about this book on Russian Folklore from which we are going to witness about Bears in Russian culture and history in the East Slavs, the Russians.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 16:43:39 GMT -5
"The first publication of a Russian folktale was Dmitrii Gerasimov’s story about the bear, the peasant, and the honey tree, with which this book began and which Paolo Giovio included in his De legatione Basilii M.P. Moscoviae liber, which appeared in Rome in 1525 (Novikov 1971:8).""In the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1547–84), who was very favorably disposed to Muscovite popular culture and kept storytellers in his Kremlin palace, church documents mention bands of sixty or more skomorokhs roaming the countryside in search of employment, shelter, and nourishment. As Ivan prepared for his second marriage, to Marfa Sobakina, in 1571, he sent one of his closest confidants, Subbota Osetr Osorgin, to Novgorod to bring back the skomorokhs and bear trainers for his wedding."
"These tests of emotional maturity are reflected in a tale told by Pelagiia Nikiforovna Korennaia in the 1920s in the village of Kos’m-Lake, in the north of Russia (Karnaukhova 1934:27). This variant of type A–T 480, “The Spinning Woman by the Well,” is known as “Mishka the Bear and Myshka the Mouse,” and in it a stepmother sends her ill-treated stepdaughter into the forest to die. The stepdaughter finds a hut and prepares food there. She shares it with another disadvantaged creature, often a mouse. A bear purposefully comes to the hut, and he and the girl play “blindman’s bluff.” Leaping from bench to floor, back onto the bench, and again onto the floor, the maiden outwits the bear with the help of the mouse and receives gifts from the bear for her skill. She then returns unexpectedly to her stepmother’s home. The stepmother is dismayed but envious of the girl’s rewards, which are identical to dowry gifts. She then sends her favored daughter to the hut in the forest. Disaster follows when the daughter refuses to feed the mouse, and therefore, when the bear comes, the mouse refuses to help. In the ensuing game of blindman’s bluff, the bear wins and devours the girl, and her bones are returned to her mother."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=ApheqkwHE-IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+Introduction+to+the+Russian+Folktale&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Russian%20Folktale&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 16:55:58 GMT -5
Chapter V: THE RUSSIAN FOLKTALE AS A SOURCE FOR UNDERSTANDING RITUAL
" I have worked on restoring the framework of two such forgotten rituals, the bear sacrifice and the confirmation of the kingship. In this chapter, I focus on these two rites using the evidence of associated, fragmentary rituals in Russia and demonstrate that specific Russian tales describe these two rituals in sufficient detail that they may be compared to the established rituals of related peoples. Various rituals concerning the bear, for instance, are common to many of the circumpolar peoples of Eurasia and North America, but, with one important exception, the komoeditsy (the spring festival/holiday celebrating the bear’s emergence from hibernation), none has survived in Russian folk culture, despite the bear’s prominence."
Bear Rituals in Folk Tradition
"In the pre-Christian period, the bear became so closely identified with the religious beliefs of the Slavic peoples and most other northern Europeans that its very name could not be mentioned. It became taboo, and the Slavs gave the animal a substitute name, medved' (honey-eater), associated with one of its favorite foods. This is not to say that they worshipped the bear, although they probably did so. It is quite certain that they were in awe not only of the animal’s strength but also of its uncanny ability to disappear into the ground, Mother Earth, and reappear in the spring. It apparently died only to be reborn. It figured prominently in the indigenous beliefs of the Upper Volga and northern and central Russia (Rybakov 1981:102 ff). The archaeological evidence suggests that the bear’s paw and claws were especially revered and even interred with the corpses of powerful hunters. That same bear’s paw was still hung on Moscow-area livestock barns at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was known as the livestock god, skotii bog, which is precisely the name given to the god Veles in the twelfth-century Russian chronicle. Continuing the function of Veles, the bear’s paw was intended to protect domestic animals. In the Russian animal tales, especially those catalogued A–T 161 A, an old man cuts off a bear’s paw without the proper obsequies, and in revenge for this sacrilege, the bear comes to the peasant’s hut and devours both him and his old wife (Afanas'ev 1984:57)."
"Ancient evidence also suggests that a word for “bear” was used to describe the passions associated with mating. Certainly the bear was commonly associated with fertility, both in Slavic antiquity and in oral tradition. Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1984: vol. 2, 499) argue that the bear originally was even a symbol of fertility, something the Russian tradition supports. In the distant past, as Rybakov indicates, Russians often buried replicas of human and bear penises together with the corpses of hunters; in modern times, it is customary in parts of rural Russia to refer to newlyweds as “bears.” The bear is the only animal to appear in the folktales as a bridegroom or bride for a human. Versions of A–T 650 such as “Ivanko the Bear’s Son” and “Bearskin–Human Face but Thumb-Sized with a Long Beard” demonstrate its role as progenitor. In the tale “Ivanko the Bear’s Son,” the hero is the offspring of a woman who has wandered into the forest in search of mushrooms. She is accosted by a bear and remains with it in the forest as its wife. The bear and the woman have a child, who “down to the waist […] was like a man, but below the waist he was a bear” (Afanas'ev 1984:152). In the second of the tales, a peasant goes off into the woods, where he is caught and seduced by a she-bear, who subsequently gives birth to a son. The child grows up and kills his mother, and he and his father return home. This particular version is from Zelenin’s collection of Perm tales (Zelenin 1991:14–22), but the type is common enough."
"Documents in the reign of Ivan the Terrible refer to exhibitions involving the bear as the “devil’s pleasures” and to those who maintain and exhibit bears as “impious.” As mentioned earlier, this did not deter this same tsar from sending a runner in 1571 to Novgorod to summon a bear and skomorokhs to Moscow to perform at his wedding."
"The bear had always been the object of the hunt, the time of which was in part governed by the Pleiades, which the hunters called Volosynia, the constellation of Veles (Tudorovskaia 1960:102–26). When the hunt was successful, the hunters did not bring the bear’s skin in through the door but rather through a window, which was immediately closed. This was done in order to confuse the bear’s spirit, which would only enter a house through the same opening as the skin. It could not enter through a closed window, but it could enter through an occasionally opened door and then wreak vengeance on the hunter or his family. Russians in Siberia were afraid to acknowledge killing a bear, which is illustrated by the fact that half a century ago they intoned after killing a bear, “I didn’t kill you, a Tungus killed you. It wasn’t we who killed you, you killed yourself (Popova and Vinogradov 1936:3). Very likely such notions were connected to the widespread belief that the bear had a soul and was closely related to humans. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand the resemblance of the rite of passing the bear’s skin through the window to human funeral rites that may confidently be related to preChristian Rus."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=ApheqkwHE-IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+Introduction+to+the+Russian+Folktale&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Russian%20Folktale&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 17:04:29 GMT -5
"In the nineteenth century, motifs reflecting a mythology of the bear were common. Bears and goats, or humans masked to resemble bears and goats, were an obligatory fixture of the Winter Solstice-New Year’s celebrations, and they made the rounds with the village youths, often engaging in vulgar dancing and singing. Eyewitnesses report that in Moscow in the nineteenth century not a single week of carnival passed without a bear performance. In St. Petersburg, the bear was nearly always accompanied by a bearded goat (Nekrylova 1984:35). In the central regions of Russia, it was the custom for a childless woman to dance with a bear and a goat to promote her fertility."
"In the church calendar as well as in popular practice, the periods of the solstices and equinoxes were marked by elaborate rituals. The equinoxes were both associated with the bear, and in the nineteenth century one “bear holiday,” the komoeditsy, was still celebrated sporadically among the East Slavs in the general area where the present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet. The komoeditsy was celebrated on 24 March, the day before the Christian holiday of the Annunciation, and it coincided with the belief that the bear emerged from its den at this time, as mentioned above. Special foods were prepared, and on the day itself coats were turned inside out to give the appearance of bears’ skins. There was even a special dance that imitated the movements of the bear awakening from its hibernation (Rybakov 1981:106). Its return to the otherworld was fixed for the time of the autumnal equinox, celebrated on 25 September. This is the day in Russia devoted to St. Sergius of Radonezh, who was a protector of bears, even sharing his meager meals with them and regarded as their patron saint. He was also the patron saint of Muscovy. St. Sergius replaced the bear as mediator between the Russian peasant and the gods when the Russian peasants finally began to accept Christianity in the sixteenth century."
"In wondertales, it may be the hero’s transport to the otherworld, although it is more commonly a bridegroom for a very young girl. Occasionally, one of the hero’s parents may be a bear. In more modern tales, the bear is often used to punish misbehaving wives or their stupid husbands. It also serves as the scourge of errant priests."
"One very curious animal tale recorded in this century from the Upper Volga points to the human origins of the bear. According to “Where Bears Came From” (Potiavin 1960:24), an old man is sent into the forest to fetch some firewood. In exchange for a promise not to cut it down, a talking linden tree provides the old couple with quantities of firewood. The greedy old woman sends the old man back to threaten the linden twice more, requesting first ample grain and then much money. Both requests are granted. Wealthy now, the couple find no peace because they are afraid of robbers. For a fatal fourth time, the old man goes to the tree. His request is for something to ward off would-be thieves. The tree agrees. The old man returns but trips on the threshold and is turned into a black bear. When his frightened wife tries to escape, she trips over the same threshold and is turned into a cinnamoncolored bear. This tale is one of a very few in which the transformation of humans is permanent. It provides support for the belief, widespread among the East Slavs, that the bear is their common ancestor."
"Typical of the Russian versions of marriage to the bear are those tales in which three, or usually three, maidens go into the forest to pick berries or mushrooms, or they may be taken there and abandoned, which is the more archaic form. They are captured by a bear. Usually the girls eventually manage to escape, although one girl is frequently left behind as the bear’s “temporary” bride. The bear is often killed at the end of the tale. The marriage of the girl to the bear was probably part of an ancient ritual of sacrifice of a girl to the god Veles or the bear. This practice is supported by considerable ethnographic and archaeological evidence."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=ApheqkwHE-IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+Introduction+to+the+Russian+Folktale&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Russian%20Folktale&f=false
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 16, 2024 17:07:28 GMT -5
"It seems odd that northern peoples, excluding the Slavs, have preserved so much evidence of a bear sacrifice, yet no bear sacrifice has ever been described in the Russian tradition, probably because none has actually taken place for many centuries. One tale (A–T 154**, Smirnov 1917:124–26), recorded about 1911 in the province of Smolensk, nevertheless clearly presents the ancient Russian ritual in a Russian folktale. A bear had started visiting an apiary and smashed up the hives. The apiarist finally decided to get rid of the bear, whom he significantly called “heathen,” a common term for the devil. He brought out a barrel of wine and attempted to intoxicate the bear, but the bear merely enjoyed the wine and smashed some more tuns of honey. Eventually the old man plied him with sufficient drink for the bear to pass out. In the morning, the old man found him lying there with his paws straight up in the air. He assumed the bear had died, and he and his sons loaded the carcass onto a cart, tied it down in three places, and left the cart on the threshing floor. Then they went off to cut buckwheat, for it was already September. While the old man was gone, the bear woke up and found itself tied to the cart. It struggled and got its front paws free and somehow propelled itself on the cart in the direction of the forest through a field of hemp. When he returned, the old man quickly realized what had happened and set off following the tracks of the cart and the bear into the forest. He found it, tangled up in the brush and howling. The old man summoned all the people, and they came running, even “from the steppe.” Together they beat the bear to death, and the old man rewarded the community with a barrel of wine. The tale concludes with a memorial service and memorial meal for the bear (pominki). It is most unusual among Russian tales for a month of the year to be mentioned. There must be a special reason for drawing attention to the month, since the peasants to whom the tale was traditionally told all knew when buckwheat was harvested. The narrator could merely have said, “It was harvest time, you know.” In fact, the September harvest date is very suspicious, since buckwheat was almost certainly harvested in late July in Smolensk. As for the field of hemp, Russian konoplia, that also would have been harvested by September. The significance of this month is that 25 September is the celebration of the autumnal equinox and the feast of St. Sergius, the patron saint of bears. That would have been a very appropriate time to dispatch a bear as messenger to the otherworld and would “balance” the komoeditsy, which summoned the bear forth from the otherworld on 24 March. One can also assume a relationship between hemp and ceremonies designed to ease communication with the otherworld."
"Other things strike one as odd in the tale. Wine has never been a common drink in Smolensk. Until very recently in Russia, wine was always a drink reserved for “royalty” or for the sacraments. Why did the peasant choose to protect his apiary by offering the bear wine? It is clearly intended to be a sacramental drink for the bear and reappears at the end of the tale as the community’s sacrificial drink at the killing of the bear. Why, too, does the peasant choose to rid himself of the bear by getting it drunk and then killing it? Strong drink, then ropes, and finally beating are employed to kill the bear, which are the same means by which sacrificial victims were dispatched throughout the ancient Indo-European world. No blood was spilled. The practice of offering bloodless sacrifices was specifically condemned by the Council of the Hundred Chapters, the Stoglav, in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, although no one seriously doubts that it continued into modern times. What had ostensibly been a punishment for the bear’s stealing honey is shown to be an occasion for popular ceremony. Not only was the bear “prepared” for its mission with honey and wine; afterward the dispatch of the “heathen” messenger was celebrated by the whole community. The bear was even given a religious service after its “threefold” death. One cannot derive the whole of the archaic bear sacrifice from this one tale, but this tale contains a fair reflection of many of the basic elements of such a ritual."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=ApheqkwHE-IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=An+Introduction+to+the+Russian+Folktale&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=An%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Russian%20Folktale&f=false
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