Hõimlane verejõe tagant: Saami muinaslood tootempõhjapõdrast. VI

• Main Author: Enn Ernits
• Format: Article
• Language: Estonian
• Published: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum 1999-01-01
• Series: Mäetagused
• Online Access: http://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr9/6meand.htm
• ISSN: 1406-992X; 1406-9938

The sixth part is concerned with Meandash as a cultural hero (4.2) and Meandash being chased by thunder-god (4.3.1).The story of the cultural hero (story 23.; written by V.Charnolusky) reveals that Meandash has given the Lapp a bow and taught him to hunt. In the story Meandash imparts of teaching (taboos) to the archer how to hunt so that there would be enough wild animals.Five pieces of writing refer to thunder-god. Two of them (story 24 and 25) have been published by V. Nemirovich-Dantchenko whereby the latter differs only by its additional ending. The third tale (story 26) based on the previous ones and information gathered from Kola has been written down by V.Charnolusky. The rest of the texts (story 27 and 28) deal with traditions associated with thunder-god; they might be based on the myth, still, in their present form they serve rather as an additional material of the three first variations.The three eschatological variations under discussion are multi-layered. The genuine concepts formed under the influence of a powerful natural phenomenon have been appended most obviously to the Scandinavian ragnarök and the Iranian story of Mithra. The Christian period, on the other hand, has brought in biblical scenes about the doomsday. Furthermore, the collectors-authors have formed the material into a literary text. A number of folk traditions, including that of the Lapps, have developed a concept of a rainbow made of thunder-bow, the idea originates in nature itself. It also gives rise to the battle-motif. A rainbow is the bow of the thunder-god, as well as its aurochs. How this ox would be associated with the sun-god is another question - the connection seems loose.