The archaic beliefs about wind in the Kalmyk folklore: an interdisciplinary approach

. The paper deals with the archaic beliefs of the Kalmyk people and their ancestors about wind being one of the main fragments of the worldview within the ‘weather’ frame. The author provides insight into the shaping of meanings and connotations that constitute the very concept of ‘wind’. Reconstructing this fragment in an archaic worldview seems to be crucial, since these ideas reflect the ancient beliefs of the Kalmyks and their ancestors. The investigated materials are multi-genre folklore texts, both published and unpublished ones. The study comes to a number of conclusions. So, the inner form of the lexeme салькн ‘wind’ mirrors the evident semantics of wind. The important characteristics of the word are humidity, temperature, and intensity, indicating that the archaic worldview contained certain scientific elements. Some myths and folktale texts depict this natural phenomenon as a living being characterized by human deeds (but not emotions). Wind acts as both a positive and destructive figure in folklore narratives, quite a share of oral lore texts retaining this ambivalent structure of the concept. According to the spatial universe model, wind comes not from the Middle world but rather from the Lower one. Gradually, wind started being perceived not only as a powerful tool in the service of positive or negative characters but as an independent force capable of bringing in food and, consequently, sustaining life.