ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

Texts of Ossetian folklore, recorded by G.A. Dzagurov, are of great interest for specialists, because they were recorded from the best narrators during a large time interval. The text commented in the present article, which is stored in the Scientific Archive of the North-Ossetian Institute of Humanitarian and Social Studies, by its genre affiliation, is a legend (fabulat) and is published for the first time. It includes two independent characters – Elia and Huari˗Uacelia, who, according to a number of researchers, are variants of the same sacred image of the Thunderer of the Ossetian traditional faith. At the same time, in the Ossetian (Digorian) tradition, the division of “powers” between Elia and Wacilla is stated; Wacilla is the patron of the harvest, Elia ˗ Thunderbolt (T.A. Khamitsaeva) – which, in fact, is reflected in the published text of the legend “Eliai Furth (Son of Elia)”. The legend has an edifying and etiological character. It talks about new ways of establishing life, in which it is impossible not to work, given to people with sacred images of the Ossetian traditional faith. As for the functioning of the designated sacred images in other genres of folklore at the present stage, for example, in oral stories about the sanctuaries dedicated to Elia and Wacilla, the narrators consider these names to be variants of the name of the same sacral image. The publication of the text of the legend contributes to clarifying the semantics of the sacred images of the Ossetian traditional faith and the characters of Ossetian folklore: Elia and Wacilla.

Keywords: legend, fable, Ossetian traditional faith, sacral image, Elia, Wacilla.

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