All Russia’s Are Valid

Ночное небо Приморья. Фотограф Грамаков Юрий. Россия (Москва). The night sky of Primorye. Photographer Yuri Gramakov. Russia (Moscow).

I hardly mentioned wildlife birds in my previous post. That’s because there are so much of them(hundreds of kinds!) I don’t even know where to begin! Just ask questions about them, if you have any) And, since I’m confused about real birds…why not tell about fairytale ones?: D In Russian fairytales you will most likely meet:

1.       Magpie, who is a big gossip and chatterbox, and “is bringing news on her tail”. Sometimes she gives a true warning, sometimes it is just a complete nonsence.

2.       Raven, a sage bird. Helpful, but watch out – he doesn’t have any problem with eating up your corpse for dinner >:)) But he also knows how to revive the dead at the same time.

3.       Swan, who is 99,9% of the time actually a sorceress girl in bird form. There also 4 mythological birds. 1. Firebird, usually depicted as a peacock shining bright like a diamond fire. Likes stealing  apples from a favourite apple tree of a Tzar and thus driving him nuts. Which means some poor Ivan whoever will have to catch the arrogant brat. Non sapient. 2-4. Alkonost, Sirin and Gamayun. Oh, these folks are to be avoided! They all are birds with head and breast of a beautiful woman and breathtaking singers. Alkonost and Sirin are sometimes sad, even crying birds, but they sing promises about happy future that will come. And Gamayun predicts future. Too bad she only predicts war, terror and  misfortune ^^” But it doesn’t matter at the end of the day, as Alkonost and Sirin sing so beautiful you literally go insane and listening to Gamayun’s predictions won’t help your mental state either. Oh, did I mention they are Heaven’s birds?))  It seems Russia(character) was sceptic about Byzantium’s  Christianity and its idea of afterlife x) You see, these birds appeared in 10-12 century(and Rus was baptized in 10 century)with incorrect translation of Greek myths about kingfisher. 

(This is a painting of Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov. Sirin is shown as a sad bird here and Alkonost as joyful. But they change their roles and mood in different stories. In the end both promise happy future, not much difference here. Promises only. No guarantee of refund for your broken dreams, sorry.)

Except for Gamayun, who appeared much later, but before 15 century. Just the right time to begin actively defying the Golden Horde and say bye to innocence… Coincidence or not? You see, this bird in fact wasn’t that special, known just as a heaven creature.  Her “dark predictions” feature appeared in the beginning of 20 century only, in Russian art…but maybe Ivan himself knew who she truly was centuries earlier.

Oh, please,  don’t mind me mixing real history, Hetalia and myths x)) (This is Vasnetsov’s depiction of Gamayun)

paintings by tetiana bond

(1) manifesto, oil on canvas, 2019

(2) memories last forever, oil on canvas, 2019

(3) moonlight star, oil on canvas, 2019

omg = oh my great old ones

lmao = laughing my azathoth off

idc- i dig cthulhu

ily- i love yog-sothoth

np = necronomicon problems

Ben kederlerin vardığı yeri severim,