THE IMAGE OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH IN RUSSIAN POETRY OF 1890–1910

Abstract

We can find the image of the Scandinavian North in works of many Russian poets. This image emerges for the first time in poetry of G.R. Derzhavin in the late 18th century and obtains the complicated structure in 1890–1910, when the author’s myth merges with a complex system of Scandinavian mythological images, Estonian and Finnish (also taken as Scandinavian) myths and legends. Here we see important images, which were borrowed from modern Swedish and Norwegian literature. This article contains research on basic representations of the image of the Scandinavian North in the lyrics by several poets of the Silver Age (I. Severyanin, A. A. Akhmatova, K. D. Balmont, O. E. Mandelshtam, A. A. Blok and V. J. Bryusov). Moreover, the article deals with the analysis of artistic semantics of these representations, as well as of plots and motifs connected with them. In lyrics of these authors, the image of the Scandinavian North has a few symbolic meanings, which become objects of the research: firstly, the North as a part of Motherland, secondly, the North as a poetic Paradise, thirdly, the North as a place of Ragnarök, the end of the world. All of these representations are interconnected and complementary, each one needs to be interpreted specially. The basic representative image of this epic Scandinavian world is the beloved (who is a northern girl), this character being dependant on the type of time and space. The aspect chosen for research helps us to answer the question about the position of the image of the Scandinavian North in the Russian culture mentality of the late 19th – early 20th century. Furthermore, we shall include this image into a broad context of the Scandinavian text of Russian literature.

Keywords

• поэзия Серебряного века
• мифология
• мифотворчество
• ролевая лирика
• образ возлюбленной.