Motifs of transference / receival of verbal magic and their reflection in lexical units (a case study of mythological narratives of Perm krai)

The article examines the ways of transference of verbal magic which is considered as part of the magical and ritual tradition of the Russians in Perm Krai. Data collected and stored in the folklore and dialectology archives of the Department of Philology of Perm State University, texts of the folklore and ethnography corpus and monographs were used as the main sources for this article. Russian mythological narratives of Perm Krai are shown to have several motifs connected with special conditions and ways of transference of verbal magic to a neophyte so that he/she could influence people and the world around. The first group of motifs describes the conditions of transference and / or receival of sacral texts. The second group deals with the ways how this transference is performed. Lastly, the article shows the motif of how a person with magical powers transfers their supernatural abilities and knowledge to others on his / her deathbed. The most common group of motifs are those depicting the act of special supernatural training that a neophyte must undergo in a Russian bathhouse at midnight. The Devil usually takes on a zoomoprhic appearance (such as a dog, a frog, a toad, sometimes a snake, a crocodile, a pig, a wood grouse, a pike). Most frequently, before this contact with the Devil, the neophyte must read a book called Chyornaya magiya (Black Magic). This challenge is so difficult for the psyche of the person undergoing it that some people fail to complete their “learning” process and go mad. As comparative analysis shows, the above described motifs are also found in the narratives of the Russian North. However, the motif of a neophyte who is to establish a contact with a mythical creature in a Russian bathhouse is more vividly presented in the mythological narrative of Perm Krai. The role of articulated text in the magical ritual should not be taken lightly. Its importance can be seen not only in the thematic group of mythological lexis - lexemes that denote a sacred or magical text (Russian words molitva, prigovor, slova etc.), influence on something or someone with the help of verbal magic (Russian words govorit ’, sheptat ’), people who use sacred or magical texts in their professional activities (Russian words slovnik, sheptar ’) - but also in set expressions denoting the act of transference / receival of verbal magic (and magical abilities on the whole) (peredat ’ /peredavat ’, perenyat ’ /perenimat ’, prinyat ’ / prinimat’ - slova, molitvy, znaniya, dar, silu, chertey).