Symbolic Equivalences in Belief Tales about Female Nature Spirits

Abstract

Ljudsko izročilo o vilah se pogosto prepleta z izročilom o divjih ženah, morskih deklicah, sibilah, rojenicah, čarovnicah in mnogih drugih ženskih bajeslovnih bitjih in demonih. Ženski duhovi narave se lahko pojavljajo v raznovrstnih pripovednih žanrih in tudi motivi v njih so pogosto povsem heterogeni – toda, po Alanu Dundesu – jih lahko pojasnimo kot vzporedne motive oz. alomotive. Ti imajo različno vsebino, toda sorodno simbolično sporočilnost. Na osnovi bogatega gradiva o bajeslovnih bitjih z območij, kjer se stapljajo slovanske, romanske in germanske kulture, je raziskano, kakšno vlogo v verovanjskih sistemih ljudi so imeli na teh območjih ženski duhovi narave. Raziskane so simbolične ekvivalence vzporednih alomotivov in memov, ki se pojavljajo v značilnih pomenskih zvezah.

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The folklore about fairies often interwines with folk narratives about wild women, mermaids, fates, sybils, witches, and many other supernatural female beings and demons. These nature spirits can appear in diverse types of narratives, and also the motifs in these folktales can be heterogeneous. But – as Alan Dundes stressed – they can be understood as paralell motifs, or allomotifs. These allomotifs have different contents but they have similar symbolical meaning. On the basis of the rich material – about these supernatural beings from the regions where Slavic, German and Romance cultures have intertwined – is researched what role had these nature spirits played in belief system of the population in these regions. On the basis of this narrative material are researched symbolical equvalences of the parallel allomotifs and memes, which appear in characteristic topics.