vavila moroz

[O.F. Boele]

Dear colleagues,

Recently I came across a cartoon by Ivan Terebenev called "Napoleon's
Glory". There is one element which puzzles me. Napoleon's glory is
represented by an angel with the tale of a snake (or a dragon, for
that matter), standing on a pile of human bones. A Russian soldier
removes the angle's mask with his bayonet, so that his real face
becomes visible (Satan). A cossack thrashes Napoleon's laurels with
his whip. The third attribute of Napoleon's glory is a trumpet which
apparently has become silent: Vavila Moroz is stuffing it with snow
(of course, an allusion to the memorable winter of 1812 which proved
to be fatal to the French army). The caption of the cartoon reads:

"Popalas' v prosak! (i.e. Napoleon's `slava') Russkij soldat shtykom
snjal s nee masku. Kozak nagajkoju vse vency lavrovye oxlestal, a
Vavila Moroz i gromkuju trubu ee zamknul snegom!"


My question is: who is VAVILA moroz? Is he just a prefiguration of
DED moroz? And even so why `Vavila'? I have already looked it up in
"Mify narodov mira", Dal' and Uspenskij ("Filologicheskie razyskanija
v oblasti slavjanskix drevnostej, M. 1982). There is no mentioning of
this particular Vavila.

Any suggestions, hints, references would be very much appreciated.

Otto Boele, University of Groningen (Netherlands)

boele at let.ru.ned