Toponymic Legends and Historical Facts (Legends about Robbers in the Area of Vologda and Kostroma Regions Eastern Boundary)

Abstract

The article deals with toponymic legends about robbers collected by the Ural University Toponymic Expedition on the eastern boundary between Vologda and Kostroma Regions, these legends being especially widely spread in Vokhomsky District of Kostroma Region and Nikolsky District of Vologda Region. Within these two large zones the authors isolate areas with place names recurrent in the legends: two areas in Vokhomsky District (in the upper and lower Vokhma River basin) and two areas in Nikolsky District (in the Yug River basin and the upper reaches of the Kema River). For each area the authors reconstruct historical, linguistic and textual factors relevant to the origin and functioning of the legends. The authors argue that the creation of the legends in the studied areas can be explained by invasions of rebels, fugitive serfs, deserters — i. e., persons whom the local inhabitants could have treated as robbers. In the Yug River area the legends seem to retain the memory of the 14th century Novgorodian pirate Anfal Nikitin’s forays; the legends about the robbery tribe Sech collected in the Kema River area may be an echo of the 15th century Tatar invasions. The main linguistic factors of the legends’ creations are place names whose internal form favours their transformation by folk etymology and “attracts” robbery plots (e. g., Razboynitsa River, the folklore name of the Vokhma River — Zolotoye Dno). In rare instances names reflect real historical facts (e. g., Zastava, Storozhevaya). The authors show that with the course of time a toponymic legend can lose or acquire episodes, it can also vary under the influence of typologically similar folklore plots, attracting new place names and eventually changing their form and meaning.

Keywords

• Russian language
• toponymy
• placenames
• toponymic legend
• folklore
• folklore remotivation of a place name
• Vologda region