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In Russian fairy tales there are very mysterious characters. For example, Marya Morevna. Clever, beautiful, the future wife of Ivan Tsarevich, a sorceress who managed to shackle Koshchei the Immortal himself in chains ... Who is she?
Some versions of fairy tales say that Marya Morevna is the daughter of Baba Yaga. And who is dad? What's his name? The patronymic "Morevna" gives the answer - dad's name is More!
In modern Russian, the word "pestilence" means "epidemic", "mass fatal disease". However, this word used to mean something else! The same as Latin mors, Italian morte, Spanish muerte, French mort and, most importantly, the ancient Proto-Indo-European *mertis - "death".
Historians and ethnographers write that the ancient Slavs, in addition to other gods, revered the goddess of death - Mora or Morena, and even sacrificed captives to her. According to academician B.A. Rybakov in his work “Paganism of Ancient Rus'”, the ancient Slavs in some cases (for example, wars or epidemics) even built giant images of Moraine made of logs and twigs, planted captives intended for sacrifice, and so burned. It was believed that this allows you to propitiate Morena.
So, the “father” of Marya Morevna is More, the male incarnation of Morena, the god of death. It is no wonder that his wife, Baba Yaga, has a "bone leg" - because Baba Yaga was originally a skeleton woman, the wife of the god of death himself!
(By the way, our word “Yaga” is related to the Old Slavonic ѩѕа and the East Slavic “ide”, “eza”, “edza” - with the meanings “anger”, “suffering”, “danger”, “witch”.)
It is clear why Marya Morevna has fantastic power - because death in ancient texts has always been considered "a force that is subject to everything and always."
Marya Morevna captures Koshchei the Deathless - that is, death captures immortality, think what an interesting symbolism! And the unlucky Ivan Tsarevich, having given Koshchei to drink forty buckets of water, frees immortality from the captivity of death - and thereby brings countless troubles to the earth. Why?
For the ancient Slavs, death was the movement of a person from the bodily, visible world (which was called "reality") to the world of spirits, which was called "nav". Baba Yaga, the wife of More, is a guide from the world of the living to the world of the dead, the world of magic and unprecedented abilities. Without the help of this world, Ivan Tsarevich would be incapable of anything. Do you remember that Living Water is powerless without Dead Water?
And Marya Morevna, the daughter of the god of death himself, possessing incredible magical power and wisdom, holds captive immortality, violating the natural course of things - the eternal cycle of life and death, everyday life and magic, human weakness and fortitude (spirits) - gods and ancestors.