Giant bird from fairy tales. mythical birds

“The bird is at the same time a symbol of happiness, flight, dreams; sadness, sadness and reflection; gluttony and cunning. Therefore, probably, in myths, legends and traditions, there are different birds.

So, Alkonost and Gamayun, Sirin and Phoenix, the Firebird and griffins are our today's heroes.

Alkonost

A fabulous bird with a human face, depicted in old Russian popular prints. The voice is sweet and magical. The face of a beautiful woman. The body is a bird.

Alkonost lives in the Slavic paradise (Iria).

Whoever hears the singing of Alkonost will forget everything from delight and joy. Alkonost can lay eggs “at the edge of the sea”, not hatching, but plunging into the depths of the sea. The weather has been clear and calm for seven days in a row, which means that Alkonost's chicks are about to hatch.

It is interesting that the Slavic myth about Alkonost has something in common with the ancient Greek legend about the girl Alcyone. According to ancient Greek myth, Alcyone, having learned about the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird, named after her alcyone (kingfisher). Apparently, this is how the word got into the Russian language: this is a distortion of the old Russian expression “alcyone is a bird”.

Sirin

One of the birds of paradise. Its name resembles the name of the Slavic paradise - Iriy. Although, of course, the name comes from the Greek word siren.

In ancient Russian writing and oral legends - a mythical bird with a female face and chest.

But Sirin, unlike Gamayun and Alkonost, is a gloomy, dark and sad bird. Sirin is the embodiment of an unfortunate soul.

In Russian art, Sirin and Alkonost are a common plot.

Gamayun

Gamayun is also a bird, the herald of the Slavic gods. She sings divine hymns to people, informs the future.

The storm has sprung up,

A menacing cloud was rising.

The oak trees made a noise, bowed,

The feather-grass stirred up in the field.

That flew Gamayun - a prophetic bird -

From the east side,

Raising a storm with wings.

Because of the mountains flew high ...

The poet Nikolai Klyuev dedicated the lines to this bird:

I love raspberry

Leaf fall burning and combustible,

That's why my poems are like clouds

With the distant thunder of warm strings.

So in a dream Gamayun sobs,

That the bard forgotten by the tour is mighty.

Firebird

The Firebird is a fabulous bird from the Slavic epic, the embodiment of the radiant sun god and at the same time the angry thunder god.

In the popular imagination, the Firebird is inextricably linked with the heavenly fire-flame, and its radiance is as blinding to the eyes as the sun or lightning. Fabulous good fellows go after the Firebird, and great happiness comes to those who master at least one of its feathers.

The Firebird lives in a faraway kingdom, a faraway state in a beautiful garden surrounding the tower of the Tsar Maiden (or near Koshchei the Immortal in stone caves among other treasures that he guards). Golden apples grow in that garden, restoring youth to the elderly. During the day, the Firebird sits in a golden cage, sings heavenly songs to the Tsar Maiden. When the Firebird sings, scatter pearls fall from its beak. At night, the Firebird flies through the garden, all burning like a fever; fly somewhere - everything around will be lit up at once. One of her feathers will cost more than a whole kingdom, but the Firebird itself will have no price at all.

Phoenix

A legendary and somewhat tragic bird that creates a funeral pyre for itself and is reborn from its own ashes. Its place of origin is often associated with Ethiopia. The name was given to it by the Assyrians. Even in ancient Egypt, the Phoenix was a sacred creature. There he was called Venu and had a resemblance to an eagle. It was said that this bird (only male) with beautiful red-gold plumage lives five hundred years and longer. It is said that at the end of life, the Phoenix builds a nest from the branches of incense trees and sets it on fire. The flame devours both the bird and its nest. A caterpillar crawls out of the ashes, and a new Phoenix grows from it.

Herodotus offers a version according to which the Phoenix bird from Arabia carries the ashes of his father in an egg to Egypt, where the priests burn him.

In early Christian literature, the Phoenix is ​​a symbol of immortality and resurrection.

Simurgh

A gigantic prophetic bird of ancient Iranian myths nesting in the branches of the Tree of Knowledge.

As the king of birds, Simurgh was depicted as a fantastic winged creature with the head and paws of a dog, covered with fish scales (which symbolized his dominance on earth, in air and in water). Its bright plumage outshone the brilliance of the pheasant and peacock. The Simurgh was endowed with the ability to heal, sometimes he acted as an instrument of fate, and immortality was attributed to him. He witnessed the death of the world three times and knows everything about all epochs, past and future.

Roc

A giant bird, known from Arabian tales, legends, according to the legends of ancient travelers. According to the descriptions, these gigantic birds were so huge and powerful that they grabbed an elephant with their paws, lifted it into the air, and then threw it to the ground to kill and then peck. They attacked the ships, throwing them with huge stones and rocks.

The famous traveler Marco Polo reports that the inhabitants of the island of Madagascar told him about amazing birds, whose feathers are eight steps long. In appearance, they resemble eagles, only much larger in size. Marco Polo adds that the Chinese ambassadors brought the Great Khan a feather from the bird Roc.

Garuda

In Hindu mythology, the progenitor and king of all birds, a ruthless snake eater, a giant bird on which the god Vishnu makes his flights. He is depicted as a humanoid creature with an eagle's beak, golden wings and clawed feet. The movement of his wings created a storm, the brilliance of Garuda's plumage was so strong that it outshone even the radiance of the sun. Garuda had the ability to increase his strength as much as he needed.

Garuda agreed to become the mount of the god Vishnu when he recognized Garuda as superior to himself and placed his image on his banner. In the temples of India, statues of Garuda made of bronze or stone have been worshiped since ancient times, in the 5th century AD. e. his images appear on coins.

Griffin

Griffins are mythical winged creatures, with the body of a lion, the head of an eagle or lion. They have sharp claws and snow-white or golden wings. Griffins are contradictory creatures, simultaneously uniting Heaven and Earth, Good and Evil. Their role in various myths and literature is ambiguous. They can act both as defenders, patrons, and as vicious, unrestrained animals.

Genre: fairy tales of the peoples of the East
Subject: Fairy tales with ethical meaning - stories about good and evil, about worthy and unworthy behavior
Keywords: stork, crow, sparrow, swallow, blackbird, wealth, greed, generosity, love, family, China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea
Knowledge and skills: This book will introduce the reader to the folk tales of the East, each of which is devoted to some ethical problem. In addition to the new cultural and moral experience, the young reader will also receive considerable aesthetic pleasure, because the book is illustrated by one of the greatest masters of Soviet book graphics N. M. Kochergin.
For what age: 5-12 years old
For independent reading, for family reading

Buy on Ozon.ru 526 rubles.

Buy in the Labyrinth 538 rubles.

FROM The series of the Nygma publishing house “Heritage of N. M. Kochergin” is interesting not only for fans of good illustrations, it is also good in content. After all, it is in this series that the fairy tales of the peoples of the world, illustrated by Kochergin, are reprinted, and finally, readers, without long searches in the distant shelves of second-hand booksellers, can purchase not only Japanese fairy tales, but also Indian, Korean, Egyptian fairy tales in their home library. Collections of Chinese, Vietnamese and Mongolian fairy tales are being prepared for release. "Assorted" from oriental tales for preschoolers and children of primary school age is a collection of "Mountain of the Sun".

The book "Mountain of the Sun" contains five fairy tales: two Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese fairy tales. Each of the fairy tales is a story about the behavior of people and their relationships, about how to behave in society and what kind of people deserve the best. In the fairy tale "Yellow Stork", a man painted a magical stork on the wall that can dance for people. But he could only bring good luck if he danced for everyone. If the stork dances for a single person, then all his magic disappears! The tale tells the reader that a miracle should please everyone, and belong to people, and not hide for someone alone. In the next fairy tale, the main characters are siblings, one of whom was lucky enough to visit the "Mountain of the Sun", overflowing with wealth, and escape unharmed, while the second does not. Greed and greed are denounced in history - one brother, generous and noble, does not try to get excess benefits, and receives a generous reward, the other brother, greedy and evil, is punished. The Japanese fairy tale "The Sparrow", about a sparrow with its tongue cut off, is quite well known and appears in many collections. In this story, the old man who saved the sparrow and did not show himself greedy received gratitude and rich gifts, and the old man's wife, who wanted to get more than she needed, was punished. In the Korean fairy tale The Swallow, good and hard-working people save a swallow, for which she gives them magic plants. Their relatives, who wanted to get rich in the same way, turn out to be liars and get what they deserve. The collection concludes with the fairy tale "Pumpkin", in which two lovers, also, of course, honest and noble, after long ups and downs and hardships, were able to unite their destinies and become happy.

IN All the tales in the collection are very ethical. They tell young readers about the need to help others, especially our smaller brothers, who cannot take care of themselves, help the poor and the elderly, do not wish for excess benefits and be able to rejoice in what you have. There is not so much dynamics and magic in them as in the stories about Ivanov-Tsareviches familiar to us, although, of course, magical helpers and objects with fabulous properties are found in abundance, while they help only honest and good people, but the same ones are bad and greedy. objects bring only misfortune.

All these fairy tales were published by the Children's Literature publishing house more than half a century ago in the form of separate thin books, but now the Nigma publishing house has collected them into one large collection, slightly changing the design. Compared to old books from the 50s. edition is striking that the margins have been significantly enlarged and filled with a large number of decorative elements. Some of the readers like it, some grumble, as usual, when someone suddenly makes old books familiar from childhood a little different from what we are used to. But now many children and parents will again or for the first time get acquainted with the work of the artist N. M. Kochergin!

Mountain of the sun. Eastern tales.– M.: Nigma, 2012. – 120 p.: ill. – ISBN 978-5-4335-0015-0

Other reviews:

Many of today's teenagers are not eager to read the long, descriptive works of Jules Verne. And yet it's a shame that a whole layer of good books can pass by a child, especially since these books were read in childhood by their parents and this is an excellent tool for the "relay race of generations."

Alkonost

The wonderful bird Alkonost, or Alcyone, with a female appearance and similar to a kingfisher, lives either on the banks of the Euphrates, or on the island of Buyan, or in the ancient Slavic paradise of Iria. A creature of fabulous beauty lays its eggs on the seabed, on the edge of the sea, and for seven days, until the chicks are born, according to legend, the weather is calm and calm. Alkonost is a bird of goodness and sadness. She does not carry any danger to humans, but on the contrary, she mourns those who died on the field after the battle. And the singing of Alkonost, like love itself, is so beautiful that one who hears it can forget everything in the world.

Sirin

Another bird of paradise - Sirina, reminiscent of the ancient Greek Sirens - is usually attributed to the dark forces. Outwardly, she is very similar to Alkonost and is his frequent companion. However, despite the fact that, unlike Alkonost, Sirin sings songs of Joy, promising bliss to come soon, his singing is detrimental to people, because hearing it, you can lose your mind.

Gamayun

The prophetic Gamayun bird is a wise messenger of the Slavic gods and a harbinger of happiness. Her name probably comes from the old word "gamayunit", that is, to lull. The cry of Gamayun is good news, and she sings divine songs to people. Gamayun knows about everything in the world, knows the secrets of the origin of the earth and sky, and is ready to tell about the future to anyone who knows how to understand the secret. In Slavic mythology, it was customary to turn to her for advice. According to popular beliefs, this miracle bird was born along with our world and its purpose is to remind people of the highest values ​​of life.

Stratim

The mysterious and gigantic Stratim bird, she is also the Strafil bird, is the archetype of the progenitor, the mother of all birds. She lives on the sea-ocean and keeps the whole white world under her right wing. Stratim personified the most terrible and permissive forces of nature. She flaps her wing - the sea will stir, scream - a storm will rise, and fly - so it will close the white light ... Ships will sink in the sea, the deepest abysses will open, cities and forests will disappear under water.

Firebird

The most famous and late bird in the world of Russian folk fantasy is the Firebird, which has adopted some of the properties of many other fabulous birds. Its prototype, obviously, was the Phoenix. Similar to a peacock, she also lives in the beautiful Garden of Eden of Iria in a golden cage, from which she flies out only at night. Her golden feathers are able to shine in the darkness and amaze human vision, but at the same time, the Firebird returns the ability to see to the blind, and her singing heals the sick. At the same time, when she sings, pearls fall from her beak. The Firebird feeds on golden apples, which give it eternal youth, beauty and immortality. Perhaps that is why fairy-tale heroes hunted for her, and musicians and artists sang about her in their works.

The first mention of Roc bird we find in the Arabian tales "A Thousand and One Nights", which also says that Rukh has been known for more than a thousand years. On the 404th night, Scheherazade tells the story of Abd al-Rahman, who, as a result of a shipwreck, finds himself on a desert island, where he sees a giant bird with wingspan of a thousand fathoms and its chicks. From this journey, he brings down from the wing of a fledgling chick.

On the 405th night, a story follows that, while traveling to the Chinese seas, Abd al-Rahman goes ashore and there he sees a white dome a hundred cubits high, which turns out to be the egg of the Rukh bird. Abd al-Rahman and his companions break the egg and carry away the unhatched chick. On the way they are overtaken by Rukh with a huge piece of rock in his claws, fortunately, Rukh misses. The youth miraculously returns to the sailors who have tasted the meat of the chick.

On the 543rd night, the queen tells about the second journey of Sinbad. The rebellious team lands Sinbad on a desert island, where he finds a huge dome with a circumference of 50 steps. Suddenly, a huge bird appears, covering the sun with its wings. Sinbad remembers the story of the bird Roc feeding the chicks to the elephants, which he had heard before, and realizes that the dome is nothing more than a bird's egg. He binds himself to the paws of a sleeping Roc in the hope of escaping the island. In the morning, Rukh takes Sinbad to another island inhabited by huge snakes.

Finally, on the 556th night, it is told how, on his fourth journey, Sinbad moored on a ship to the island and again sees the towering white dome. Despite Sinbad's warnings, his merchant companions break the egg, kill the chick and cut off large pieces of meat from it. At sea, a pair of monstrous Roc birds with huge stones in their paws are approaching the ship. Birds break the ship, and all who were on it are in the sea. Sinbad ties himself to the board and swims to land on it.

The Thousand and One Nights is not the only Arabic source that mentions the Rukh bird. About her in the XIII century. the geographer al-Kaswini and the naturalist al-Vardi report in their books.

Myths similar to Arabic ones, in which the name of the bird is not specified, are captured in the Jatakas, collections of Indian legends of the 4th century BC. BC. Egyptian priests told Herodotus (5th century BC) about a giant bird capable of lifting a person into the sky.

Its image can be associated with the Arabian bird anka, the Persian simurgh, the Egyptian phoenix, the Jewish bird ziz and giant birds from European and North American legends. According to various descriptions, the white bird Roc resembles an eagle, condor or albatross, but it is much larger than each of these birds.

According to legend, her wingspan is "60 paces", and each of her feathers is "8 paces" long. It takes "over fifty steps" to get around the bird's egg. The roc is large enough and strong enough to lift not only a man, but also three elephants high into the air in its claws.

In the XIII century. The Roc bird was described by Marco Polo in his diaries. In the chapter on the island of Madagascar, he writes that, according to the natives, Rukh appears once in a year in the south of the island. The bird looks like an eagle, but is much larger than it. Rukh lifts the elephants into the air and kills them by throwing them on the rocks.

Those who saw the bird said that Rukh is known in Europe under the name "griffin", although it does not look like a classic griffin - a bird with a lion's body. Marco Polo said that the inhabitants of Madagascar answered his questions that the Roc was a real bird. The Indian ruler, having heard about the bird, sent his people to Madagascar, from where they brought a huge feather nine spans long.

In 1658, the book of the French traveler Etienne de Flacourt, The History of the Great Island of Madagascar, was published. The author of the book was laughed at: no one believed the stories recorded by Flacourt from the words of local residents. How could one believe, for example, that a bird almost the size of an elephant lives on the island?

Years passed, new messages appeared. Those who visited the island reported that an unknown bird of enormous size really lives there and it lays such large eggs that the inhabitants use their shells as vessels for water ... Around this time, Europe became acquainted with Arabian tales - with the amazing world of powerful wizards, incomparable Oriental beauties and wise genies. And these tales also mention a mysterious bird!

What is this animal? Did it even exist in nature?

In 1834, the French traveler Goudeau found in Madagascar half an eggshell of such a size that it could indeed be used as a water dish. The traveler sent a sketch of the shell to the Parisian ornithologist Verro. Based on the drawing, the scientist christened the bird that laid the egg "great" - epiornis.

Several years passed, and two whole eggs were delivered to Paris. And then, in the swamps of the island, several giant bones were found, which at first were mistaken for the remains of an elephant or a rhinoceros. But the bones belonged to a bird! And that bird must have weighed at least half a ton.

Not so long ago, French zoologists again discovered the remains of epiornis in Madagascar. Now they, of course, did not surprise anyone. Something else became a sensation: a bronze ring (!) was attached to the bird's leg, and even with some mysterious signs. Experts came to the conclusion that the signs on the ring are nothing more than an imprint of the seal of the era of the most ancient urban civilization in India - Mohenjo-Daro. This means that the seal was made about 5 thousand years ago. Radiocarbon analysis of the bird's bones helped to establish its age: it is equal to five millennia!

For specialists who carefully compared many facts, something became clear. In the 3rd millennium BC. the inhabitants of Hindustan made bold sea expeditions. By this time, they had accumulated experience in driving ships - now scientists know the seaports built in the 5th millennium BC. The Indians also visited Madagascar. The island impressed travelers with a variety of flora and fauna.

Then epiornis were found in abundance here. Among the sailors, there were probably lovers of fantastic stories who had an ardent imagination, so the stories of the sailors who returned home were overgrown with additional details, the wingless bird began to fly, noticeably increased in size, and acquired a predatory disposition. This image of the Rukh bird entered the ancient epos. From there, she migrated to the Persians, Arabs and other peoples. Of course, this is only an assumption, and new findings can either confirm or disprove it.

Zoologists are concerned not only with the history of the image of the mysterious bird. The eggs found on the sand dunes and swamps in the southern part of the island looked suspiciously fresh. It seemed that they were demolished quite recently... The locals are sure that giant birds still live in the densest forests of the island, but it is not easy to see them. In fact, relatively recently, European missionaries heard the deaf, guttural cries of an unknown bird coming from the depths of the forest swamps.

At the same time, local legends do not say a word about hunting epiornis, which means that the inhabitants did not exterminate them for the sake of meat. Of course, a reduction in the number or even the disappearance of outlandish birds could occur in the process of developing the island - deforestation, drainage of swamps. But after all, in Madagascar there are still huge tracts of protected jungles and untrodden swamps. In a word, there is enough space for the animal epiornis ...

By the way, this monstrous bird was also known in Russia, they called it Fear, Nog or Noga, giving it new fabulous features. “The leg-bird is so strong that it can lift an ox, it flies through the air and walks on the ground with four legs,” says the ancient Russian Alphabet of the 16th century.

In the legends of the Chukchi, a huge Noga bird is mentioned, devouring deer, elk, whales and people. Similar myths existed among the Aleuts of the Pacific Islands. The folklore of the North American Apache Indians speaks of a huge eagle that carries people away. Legends about giant birds were also common among the Indians of the prairies of North America.
In Persian, the word "rukh" also means "chess boat" and - sometimes - "rhinoceros".

The legends of Rukh are closely related to the Arabian myths of the anka bird. Created by God as a bird of perfection, it then turned into a real disaster for people. Anka is also described as a huge bird capable of lifting an elephant; she lives for 1700 years, which makes her related to the Egyptian phoenix. In some Arabic books, anku is called an extinct bird. According to legend, during the Fatimid dynasty (X-XII centuries), anki were often kept in the zoological gardens of the caliphs.

After the translation of Arabic tales, the Rukh bird became a common character in European painting and literature. An engraving by the 16th-century Dutch artist Johann Stradanus "Magellan Opens the Straits" depicts a bird with a huge beak, twice the size of an elephant, which it holds in its claws.

Of particular interest is the mention of Roc in Michael Drayton's poem The Flood, in which Noah collects "each creature in pairs" on his ark - from a small lark to a huge Roc, the greatest of birds. The American writer Herman Melville in his novel Moby Dick (1851) compares the huge albatross to the Roc.

The Brothers Grimm mention the big bird twice in their fairy tales. In "White and Rose" two girls save a dwarf from a huge bird that wanted to carry him away in its claws, and in the fairy tale "Chick Foundling" the hunter meets a boy whom a big bird brought in its beak to a nest located at the top of a huge tree.

Rukh bird, Europeans learned after getting acquainted with the tales of "A Thousand and One Nights." When this happened is hard to say. Perhaps after Marco Polo's many years of eastern voyage in the thirteenth century, or maybe a little earlier or later. The magical world of fairy tales, which absorbed the thousand-year-old folklore of the Eastern peoples, captivated the Europeans.

According to some researchers, not only unknown storytellers, but also very specific ancient writers of Persia, India, had a hand in the creation of this fabulous cycle. Be that as it may, the Europeans appreciated the fabulous exotic world of the East, in which the magical bird Rukh occupied a worthy place .

There were no fairy tales in Europe in which a giant bird would appear, so the Arabic legends in which people fight this winged monster went there, as they say, with a bang. Later, historians, biologists and writers of the Old World began to wonder: why did it happen that in Europe there is no information about huge birds, but there are more than a lot of them in Arab legends. They began to look for where Rukh could be found, or at least its prototype.

Europeans had known ostriches for a long time, but they were too thin to arouse an attack of magical inspiration in the writers of fairy tales. When the researchers tried to analyze the legends on the subject of travelers' encounters with the bird, it turned out that almost everyone surprisingly unanimously points to the island of Madagascar.

But by the time the Europeans arrived on the island in the seventeenth century, they had not found anything of the sort. For some time, the opinion that information about a giant bird is nothing more than a poetic exaggeration, and possibly fiction from beginning to end, was established both in science and in society.

But very soon, the researchers discovered that the island really had giants, and they were destroyed after the Europeans met the island. It is possible that numerous European pirates also had a hand in the extermination, who even founded their own state in Madagascar, which existed for a long time, and only after the pirates became insolent beyond measure, destroyed by French troops. The pirates did not keep chronicles, they did not publish newspapers, and their stories about the hunt for a giant bird could well be regarded by contemporaries as traditional sea tales.

According to modern estimates, the Rukh bird of Arabian fairy tales (or epiornis according to the name adopted today) reached a height of five meters. The growth is more than solid, but by no means sufficient to call her the name "elephant bird", under which Rukh appears in some Arabic sources.

According to the Arabs, Rukh fed on elephants and could lift, according to various sources, from one to three of these huge animals into the air. And the flight of the Roc bird created a lot of inconvenience for sailors: it covered the sun with its wings and created such a strong wind that it supposedly even sank ships.

Of course, no five-meter epiornis could do such disgrace, even if he really wanted to. Apparently, the Arabs, having met epiornis, mistook him for a chick, and his mother, according to their ideas, should have been much larger in size and, of course, should be able to fly. And such a giant must also eat giants, hence the tales about elephants raised into the air.

The ancient Arabs had no idea about either aerodynamics. Otherwise, they would know that a bird of the sizes indicated by them, under the conditions of the planet Earth, cannot fly in principle. And to maintain the number of the Roc bird, sufficient for the normal reproduction of the population, there will not be enough elephants.