Myths about the world creation from an egg of Baltic-Finnish peoples in comparison with cosmogonomic myths of Mary and Udmurts

Abstract

The subject of this study is the motives of the myth of creation from an egg among Mari and Udmurts. Until now, the myth of the world creation from an egg (MCE) has been noted in the tradition of the Baltic-Finnish peoples, as well as the Mordvins and Komi. An analysis of Mari cosmogonic myths and folk songs reveals two mythological motives related to MCE: 1) a cuckoo builds a nest on an oak tree with six branches; 2) a duck (goose) breeds five, six, seven, twelve chicks right on the water (the top of the grass growing in the river middle). The main conclusions of the study are the following provisions. The image of a duck of the Eastern Mari is not so popular and is replaced by the images of a cuckoo and a swan. A wagtail and an ermine are also mentioned in the Mari folklore which finds parallels in Ainu and Nenets myths. Udmurt variants of folk songs include the mythologem of a duck (goose) with ducklings. The myth of a creator eagle and two ducks was perhaps characteristic not only of the Finns, Hungarians and North American Indians but also of the Mari. The Udmurt myth of creation is characterized by the presence, in addition to Inmar and Shaitan, of a cancer which finds a parallel in the Buryat cosmogonic myth. The motif of primordial ice and frozen primordial earth was probably widespread in the traditions of Izhora, Mari, part of the Bashkirs who were descendants of the Finno-Ugric peoples, Nganasan. And, thus, this motif was apparently present in the Proto-Uralic mythology.