Query about Swans/Shells

[nataliek at UALBERTA.CA]

My suggestion would be to look at epic poetry - byliny, esp. because  
of Sadko.  In addition to the woman who transforms in Sadko and has  
various names, depending on the version (see Bailey and Ivanova) there  
is Mar'ia Lebed Belaia in the bylina about Mikhailo Potyk.  Mar'ia the  
white swan, in many versions of this epic, quite literally transforms  
into a swan.  She undergoes another transformation also.  Like the  
women in Sadko, she is transformed in the netherworld.  In Potyk,  
Mar'ia goes from being a loving wife to someone who attempts murder.

While I can think of lots of swan references from folklore and lit., I  
draw a blank when it comes to shells.

Quoting Kristi Groberg <Kristi.Groberg at NDSU.EDU>:

> Dear Colleagues:
>
> I am working on an article on women from folklore and a few symbolic
> shells in the ouevre of Mikhail Vrubel'.  The women are mostly
> paintings of his wife, who sang the roles of Volkhova in
> Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sadko" and Tsarevna Lebed in his "Tale of Tsar
> Saltan," but also images of rusalki and naiads.  The shells are
> drawings, watercolors, preliminary cartoons and watercolors for
> majolica plates on the theme "Sadko," the plates themselves, some other
> paintings that are experiments in capturing irridescence, and one shell
> in particular appears in one of his Vrubel's late Self-Portraits.  I
> can relate all of these images to Russkii stil and the recovery of
> folkloric themes, symbols, and patterns in that period.  However, aside
> from the very basics I am more familiar with Decadent & Symbolist art
> than I am with symbols from folklore.
>
> To get to my point, I would be most grateful for direction about women
> who turn into swans, female water creatures with transformative powers,
> underwater princesses,
> and shells (seashells, not walnut shells) in Slavic folklore.  I've
> gathered quite a bit of information over the years, but I know that
> there are a lot of folklorists on this list.  Any information or points
> of view will be helpful.  I will, of course, honor the sources and
> acknowledge you in my published work.
>
> Kris Groberg, Ph.D.
> 324D Division of Fine Arts
> NDSU Downtown Campus
> 650 Northern Pacific Avenue
> Fargo, ND  58102
> 701.231.8359
> kristi.groberg at ndsu.edu
> http://www.ndsu.edu/finearts/visual_arts/faculty/groberg/shtml
>
>
>
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Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
200 Arts Building
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
Phone: 780-492-6810
Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/

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