Pitsen's role is contradictory. It could bring luck, but also troubles, leading humans to the wilderness.
Shapeshifting is common for Pitsen: he may look like an elder with a staff and knapsack, but also like different animals, for example apes. Pitsen prefers to live in derelict lodges. He also likes to ride horses and to oil their mane with tar.[2]
Pitsen, when transformed to a damsel, may have sexual intercourse or marry a human. One legend says that one hunter happened upon beautiful damsel in a forest and married her. Soon they become rich. Once he came home ahead of time and saw a tusky monster eating lizards. He cried, being horrified, and that moment his wife and his riches disappeared.[2]
Pitsen is a counterpart of ChuvashArçuri and Volga-Ural Tatar Şüräle. In the mythology of the Siberian Tatars, Tobol and Omsk Tatars had shaggy and stinking yysh-keshe.[3] They carry away travelers and force them to marry. At night the spirit of yysh-keshe used to fly away from an armpit.[2]
↑ also spelled biçen, pichan, pechan, pitsin, picen, picin, yen, yenpäri, Urman İäse– the Host of the Forest; Cyrillic: Пице́н.
1 2 3 (in Russian) Валеев Ф. Т., О религиозных представлениях западносибирских татар, в сб.: Природа и человек в религиозных представлениях народов Сибири и Севера, Л., 1976, с. 320-29.
The Tatars, is an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" across Eastern Europe and Asia.
Tatar is a Turkic language spoken by the Volga Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan, as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tatar, which are closely related but belong to different subgroups of the Kipchak languages.
The early history of Siberia was greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians (Pazyryk) on the west of the Ural Mountains and Xiongnu (Noin-Ula) on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the common era. The steppes of Siberia were occupied by a succession of nomadic peoples, including the Khitan people, various Turkic peoples, and the Mongol Empire. In the Late Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism spread into the areas south of Lake Baikal.
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves.
Tara is a town in Omsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tara and Irtysh Rivers at a point where the forested country merges into the steppe, about 300 kilometers (190 mi) north of Omsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 27,318 (2010 Census); 26,888 (2002 Census); 26,152 (1989 Soviet census).
Şüräle or Shurale is a forest spirit in Turkic mythology. According to legends, Shurali lives in forests. He has long fingers, a horn on its forehead, and a woolly body. He lures victims into the thickets and can tickle them to death.
Äbädä is an innocent forest spirit in Turkic mythology. It looks like an old woman. Äbädä also is represented in mythologies of Siberian peoples.
The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. Most of them live in the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Their native language is Tatar, a language of the Turkic language family. The predominant religion is Sunni Islam, followed by Orthodox Christianity.
Verechelen, also known as Chuvash dragons, are winged fire-breathing and shapeshifting dragons. The legend originates with the ancestral people of the Chuvashians.
Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and warrior way of life of Turkic and Mongol peoples in ancient times. Turkic mythology shares numerous ideas and practices with Mongol mythology. Turkic mythology has also been influenced by other local Asiatic and Eurasian mythologies. For example, in Tatar mythology elements of Finnic and Indo-European mythologies co-exist. Beings from Tatar mythology include Äbädä, Alara, Şüräle, Şekä, Pitsen, Tulpar, and Zilant.
Mythic humanoids are legendary, folkloric, or mythological creatures that are part human, or that resemble humans through appearance or character. Each culture has different mythical creatures that come from many different origins, and many of these creatures are humanoids. They are often able to talk and in many stories they guide the hero on their journey.
The Baraba are a sub-group of Siberian Tatars and the indigenous people of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve. After a strenuous resistance to Russian conquest and much suffering at a later period from Kyrgyz and Kalmyk raids, they now live by agriculture — either in separate villages or along with Russians. Some of them still speak the Baraba dialect of Siberian Tatar. They traditionally live on the Baraba steppe.
Baltasinsky District is a territorial administrative unit and municipality of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation. The district is located in the north of the republic and occupies an area of 1,094.5 square kilometers (422.6 sq mi). According to the 2010 census, the municipality had a population of 33,879 people. Its administrative center — an urban-type settlement of Baltasi — accounts for 22.8% of the district's total population.
Ishimsky District is an administrative district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Tyumen Oblast, Russia. Within the framework of municipal divisions, it is incorporated as Ishimsky Municipal District. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is 5,500 square kilometers (2,100 sq mi). Its administrative center is the town of Ishim. Population: 31,085 ; 34,693 (2002 Census); 35,063 (1989 Soviet census).
The Mishar Tatars, previously known as the Meshcheryaki (мещеряки), are the second largest subgroup of the Volga Tatars, after the Kazan Tatars. Traditionally, they have inhabited the middle and western side of Volga, including the nowadays Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Ryazan, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions of Russia. Many have since relocated to Moscow. Mishars also comprise the majority of Finnish Tatars and Tatars living in other Nordic and Baltic countries.
Siberian Tatar is a Turkic language spoken by about 140,000 people in Western Siberia, Russia, primarily in the oblasts of Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Omsk but also in Tomsk and Kemerovo. According to Marcel Erdal, due to its particular characteristics, Siberian Tatar can be considered as a bridge to Siberian Turkic languages.
The Commonwealth of Pagan Communities of Siberia–Siberian Veche, also known as SibVeche (СибВече), is a Rodnover organisation which covers the region of Siberia, Russia, officially recognised by the government since 2015.
The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise is a Russian fairy tale published by author Alexander Afanasyev in his collection of Russian Fairy Tales, numbered 219. The tale features legendary characters Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
