Article

Name: Songs about a dying daughter in the Mordovian traditions of autochthonous and Siberian existence: motif, plot, genre

Authors: Pavel S. Shakhov

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of folklore

Abstract:

Drawing upon published and archival sources from various historical periods, this study examines Erzya and Moksha folk songs in both their autochthonous and Siberian circulation. The analysis focuses on texts featuring the poetic motif of a young woman who, facing illness, in-forms a relative of her impending death at a predetermined time. The structural anatomy of this motif is described, revealing three core elements: the girl’s illness, the prediction of her death, and the temporal circumstance of her passing. Specific patterns of compatibility among these motif elements are established within Mordovian folk songs. The texts analyzed are systematically categorized into two distinct plot groups, detailing their plot-motif composition and over-arching genre-thematic content. The plot basis of the first group is identified as “The Dead Prin-cess” (type 709 in the Aarne-Thompson index) or “The Enchanted One is Revived” (type K129 in the Berezkin-Duvakin catalog). Conversely, the second group demonstrates a significant semantic transformation, with the death prediction motif evolving into a leitmotif centered on the daughter’s feigned illness. The study characterizes the Siberian song variants of this second group, establishing structural parallels with the autochthonous tradition. A structural analysis reveals that the investigated motif serves as a common indicator of an initial “lack” in the narrative. In each storyline, this lack is resolved according to the internal logic of plot development, relying on differing methods of organizing the event sequence, specifically, narrative and cumulative structures. These methods form two compositional types of song lyrics, characterized by highly distinct genre and thematic content.

Keywords: Mordovian songs, poetics, motif, plot, genre

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