Väike mos'-naine. Ühe (muinas)jutu lugu

• Main Author: Aado Lintrop
• Format: Article
• Language: Estonian
• Published: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 1997-01-01
• Series: Mäetagused
• Online Access: http://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr2/mosne2.htm

In the summer of 1979 I taped a number of fairy-tales and stories in the northeastern corner of Mansiland in the village of Sukerya. As I had no experience whatsoever of transcribing texts at that time, I asked a student of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, Klavdia Sainakhova, who was in her homevillage at that time, to transcribe some of the more interesting stories so I could later translate them.I gave the tapes to the Archive, but the story of a strange hand with a bell stayed in my mind. Who was that strange Hand With a Bell who troubled the sister while the brother was hunting? I know that in Mansi stories the hero is often depicted by some characteristic feature or sign that within a cultural group should be enough to indentify him. For example in that same year, 1979, I collected a story, the main characters of which were Lungs - khopsi. I was explained that they are to be taken as a thin person perspiring in the sun. But about the Hand with a bell nobody could or wanted to say anything. While translating the story I got at first the impression that it depicts the relationship between two different groups. The sister, who belongs to the mos'- moiety, sits at home and sews good thing of sable, waiting for a suitor. Then comes a man who is symbolized by a hand with a bell and shows that the sister had timed to stop taking care of her brother. But the brother does not want to give up his sister, hides himself and chops off the suitor's hand. This is followed by revenge from the Hand with a bell or his relatives. The chain of actions is started by the brother that broke the unwritten law.In the folklore of the nations of the world it is common that the plot of a fairy-tale or legend is concentrated around marrying, often taking the hero either to faraway lands or the supernatural world. From these we can feel the world conception of small tribes of exogamously related hunter cultures where in the central position were all kinds of problems connected with taking a wife. Often the destiny of the whole tribe depended upon a successful betrothal. But often the hero looking for a spouse is not a mortal man but some supernatural being. In that case the story is taking place in the mythical creation times and in some way influences the future world order.