Doctor of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor Ob-Ugriс Institute of Applied Researches and Development Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia [email protected]
Abstract. The swan is rather ambiguous and complex symbol, which can be found in the Khanty folklore, and in the Khanty literature. Only in folklore texts we see the metamorphism of the image (the maiden-swan; we see how color and numeric codes of the ethnos are fixed. The swan opens borders into another world and it is able to carry out these transitions, because it combines two elements – water and air. In the legends we can also found the phytomorphism of a character who is able to make zoomorphic transitions. The swan is one of the incarnations of the Khanty Pantheon’s Goddess Kaltashh, that’s why this bird is sacred, as the authors note. Certain local groups of the Khanty even have a special holiday devoted to this bird. The sacredness of the bird explains its perception as a talisman in poetry (swan’s wings). In the artistic literature of the Khanty this image obtains the established semantics of the symbol of love, happiness and prosperity. All of these values are successfully implemented in the poetic works of M. K. Vagatova, R. P. Rugin, P. E. Saltykov, A. A. Moldanov as well as in prose texts of E. D. Aipin, R. P. Rugin, T. A. Moldanova. The motif of "the swan’s song" remains sustainable in folklore and literary texts. Comparing the cries of swans with music, E. D. Aipin likens them with play of silver trumpets. Khanty writers referred to the image of the swan and pulled together the bird and the maiden, based on the mythological image of the maiden-swan. E. D. Aipin used straight animalism to ad- dress of the character. The image of the swan is one of the components of the ornithological code of the Khanty literature.
Key words: image, swan, metamorphosis, archetype, the Khanty literature, mythologism.