The Treasure-bearer in East Slavic and Finno-Ugric Contexts

The goal of this article is to conduct comparative and structural-semantic research into belief narratives concerning flying serpents and treasure-bearers in East Slavic (Belarusian, Estonian Russian, other Slavic traditions) and Finno-Ugric (Estonian, Votic, Livonian, Finnish, Vepsian) regions related to Baltic and Scandinavian beliefs. The source material was collected between the 19th and 21st centuries. Based on the available materials, a character profile was created with respect to the following features while describing a flying serpent and a treasure-bringer: description of the origin (how and from whom the supernatural being originates), general forms of appearance, aspects of time and location, as well as the creature’s behaviour (active/passive; rituals) and genre affiliation (the process of storytelling, perception of the character).Namen tega članka je primerjalna in stukturalno-semantična raziskava narativov verovanja v leteče kače in zakladonoše na vzhodnoslovanskih (beloruskih, estonsko ruskih, drugih slovanskih) in ugrofinskih (estonskih, votskih, livonskih, finskih, vepskih) območjih ter povezanosti teh narativov z baltskimi in skandinavskimi verovanji. Gradivo je bilo zbrano med 19. in 21. stoletjem. Sodeč iz razpoložljivega gradiva, je bil lik ustvarjen z opisovanjem lastnosti leteče kače in zakladonoše: izvora (kako se je nadnaravno bitje rodilo in kdo ga je rodil), splošnih pojavnih oblik, časovnih in krajevnih vidikov, obnašanja (aktivno/pasivno; obredi) in žanrske pripadnosti (proces pripovedovanja zgodb, percepcija lika)