 | The epic songs of Russia |  |
Volgá and Mikula
MIKULA represents the intermediate stage between
the embodiment of purely physical and
of moral power—the stage between Svyatogor
and Ilya. He partakes of Ilya's nature, as the
Thunder-god, and his nightingale mare signifies,
probably, the thunder-cloud. The assistance rendered
to agriculture through the rain by the Thunder-deity
led in course of time to his being regarded as the god
of agriculture also, who opened the plains of heaven
with his whirlwinds, ploughed them with his lightning
darts, and scattered his seed broadcast over them.
The dependence of man on the seasons early suggested
the idea that the gods had set the example of
ploughing. Many ceremonies and traditions are preserved
in various countries, which point to such a
mythical significance of the plough. The Siamese, for
instance, celebrate a festival in its honour, of Buddhistic
origin.
Herodotus, in his description of the customs and
beliefs of the ancient Scythians, the ancestors of the
Slavs, gives a tradition of a plough which fell from
heaven in supernatural wise. With the possession of
this plough and of a golden axe, yoke, and cup which
had also fallen from heaven, went the imperial power.
It may safely be affirmed, that the tradition of the
golden implements of agriculture proceeding from
heaven comes down to us from the most remote antiquity.—The
Russian peasant still sees the plough
which Mikula hurled heavenward, in the constellation
of Orion.
Mikula, like Ilya, is a glorification of the peasant.
Some of the Germanic chieftains were prevented from
accepting Christianity, by the thought that they should
be obliged to enjoy heaven in the mixed society of
common people, and even of slaves. On the other
hand, Slavic traditions all represent the princely powers
as derived from simple tillers of the soil; and in the
Bohemian Chronicle of Kosma of Prague, dating from
the twelfth century, it is asserted that "we are all made
equal by nature" (Quia facti sumus omnes œquales per
naturam)—a characteristically Slavic utterance in the
midst of feudal Europe.
St. Nicholas, always called Mikola, has taken
Mikula's place as the Christian deity of agriculture, and
is a very great favourite among the peasant brethren
of the "Villager's Son."
The affair of the bridge strongly resembles one at
the bridge of Ovrukh, related in the Chronicles, where
perished Oleg Svyatoslavich—the Volgá Vseslavich of
the epic song.
| The epic songs of Russia | |