“And the maiden will pick up the shield…”: female warrior in A. Blok's poetry (article ii)

The second article of the two-part cycle considers the image of the female warrior in Blok’s lyrics of 1905-1916. While in the earlier lyrics Wagnerian motifs were marginal, since 1905 they are woven into the main plot. Previously, key motifs related to the Ring tetralogy in Blok’s poetic works were fire surrounding the sleeping heroine and her awakening but in the second volume of Blok’s poetry they are overshadowed by the motif of Siegfried’s betrayal and death - together with the motif of anamnesis, i.e. recalling (of the lost heroic past), and in the third volume - by the motif of oblivion, of fatal non-recognition of the “first love”. The relation between Valkyria and the images of snake maiden (in the second volume) and swan maiden (in the second and third volumes of Blok’s lyrics) is described. Characteristic for the third volume juxtaposition of the female warrior not only with Virgin Mary and angel but also with Russia (Rus’) as homeland is revealed. The author shows that Blok’s creative reception of the image of female warrior typologically includes two plot possibilities which usually appear as contradicting. On the one hand, the contest of strength between the lyrical hero perceived as a warrior and the female warrior happens (and finishes with the death of one or both characters), and on the other hand, this contest is replaced by love pursuit, erotic quest. Due to the fact that Blok’s main plot is Gnostic plot of salvation, of the awakening of one character by another one while the status of the saving / being saved is changing, non-stable (same as the fact of implementation or non-implementation of salvation), those plot possibilities alternate, flicker, reflect one another.