Girls drown there, they say that the water devil drags them away there: Fear in folk narratives about water

Abstract

In the article, the author explores the perception of water in modern Mari folklore. Based on the corpus of oral texts (memorates, fabulates, historical legends, belief narratives collected during field work), the author analyzes the images of the water element (rivers, lakes, reservoirs) in oral tradition. In modern folklore, fear of water is expressed in 1) narratives about drowned people and 2) texts about curses, jinxes, diseases, the source of which can be either the water itself or its guardian spirit, provided that a person violates certain prohibitions. In popular beliefs, the water element can be a source of danger if a person pollutes the aquatic environment, swears at the water, or comments on its quality. In this case, the fear of water can be represented in folklore both as a non-personified element and in the form of a specific character: vÿd ia (the water devil), vÿd oz (the master of water), the undead, etc. In the article, the author also attempts to explore the mechanisms of developing a fear fear of water in modern narratives: narrator’s personal experience, demonization of loci in local culture, etc