Firebird
A firebird ( Russian жар-птица , shar-ptiza firebird , v. Жар embers ) is a bird in Slavic mythology. The magically glowing bird lives in a distant land and brings its catcher both blessing and disaster.
features
The rich plumage of the Firebird shines in red, orange and yellow, such as the embers of a campfire. Individual feathers also glow after they have failed, one alone can illuminate a larger room. Later depictions show the bird as a crowned peacock-like animal with radiant coloring and glowing eye spots on the tail feathers.
The firebird in the original sagas
In fairy tales , the bird becomes the object of difficult tasks: a hero has to bring a feather of the firebird , goes out to catch the bird, of his own accord or at the request of the father or king. The creature is enchanting and highly sought after, but the hero, originally enchanted by the glowing pen, blames him for his circumstances.
The stories always follow the classic structure of fairy tales; The feather serves as a warning of a difficult undertaking, magical helpers stand by the hero on the way: They support him on the journey, catching birds and returning from the distant land with the "reward". The legend of Ivan Tsarevich, the firebird and the gray wolf is known .
In some versions, the hero also saves a captive princess from the clutches of the terrible Prince Koschei .
The bird as a motif in other stories
The story of the Firebird was the model and inspiration for many other works, as well as The Little Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Yershov . With the ballet suite L'Oiseau de feu, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky also pays homage to the legend of the mythical creature.
The motif shows parallels to the Iranian legends of magical birds, to fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm ( The Golden Bird , The Crystal Ball , The Water of Life ) and other Russian magic birds such as Sirin . In the Armenian legend Hazaran Blbul the task in which the bird is caught is described; however, in this version the bird does not glow, but lets the land bloom with its song.
In the film The Firebird, he can heal people through song.
The firebird as a mark of quality
For the lacquer miniatures from Palekh is Firebird used as a mark of quality for decades. After a strict quality check, the cans and caskets made of papier mâché made in the well-known artists' village are given the sign of the firebird, over which the last layer of lacquer is then applied.
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literature
- Pyotr Pavlovich Jerschow : The hunchbacked horse .
- Dagmar Seifert: Firebird , 2004.
- Gennadij Spirin: The Story of the Firebird , 2003.
- Mercedes Lackey: Firebird , 1996.
Media reception
- The humpback horse , direction and screenplay: Iwan Iwanow-Wano , USSR , 1975 (cartoon based on the fairy tale of the same name by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov).
