A photo from open sources
Folk tales most often speak of a dense forest as a dangerous, mysterious place, from where it is worth waiting for troubles and troubles and it’s better not to come close to him without special need. Obviously what is the traditional perception of the forest is not at all connected with wild animals (although there were previously reasons to fear wolves and bears much more than now), but with ideas about some supernatural beings living there. And the main one from the forest mythological creatures was, of course, the goblin. Forest can’t be without a host The idea that the forest is populated by special creatures connected with him by supernatural relationships, belong to the most ancient strata of religious consciousness person. There was no idea of one God, but now the most different varieties of forest creatures that protected the forest and trees from uninvited guests themselves were not too friendly, already existed. Messages about goblin wandering through the dense forests, welcome in the Old Testament – what to speak of antique pagan beliefs where creatures such as satyrs and fauns (half people, half animals) were quite ordinary, popular and common. Scientists are currently trying find the origins of the image of the devil in human consciousness as in the sources purely religious thinking (forest, like other natural zones, should have been animated), and in possible “real” prototypes (versions are being put forward that for the goblin they took survivors Neanderthals, Bigfoot and the like). Folk beliefs say that you can usually see the devil only in that appearance in which he himself wants to appear before a man. More often all he wants to appear in a completely humanlike manner, usually it’s either an old man or a sullen powerful man in sloppy clothes, which gives his distance from the world of ordinary people. Is the goblin always it looks like this, various legends dispute one another. By some versions of the devil always have such a humanoid image, according to to others, he can change his appearance, turning into any forest an animal (except birds), the third a goblin in its natural state this is a kind of forest monster, which is a hybrid between a bear and a goat. Lesha need to be entered in the Red Book? Behavior goblin in folklore in general is exhausted by its role guardian of the forest. In this regard, it bears responsibility for all forest inhabitants, whereby the goblin is actually Head of Forestry. He’s not too sentimental, but at this is the responsible owner whose main task is compliance natural balance, conservation of small species of animals from extinction and limitation of the number of overgrown animals. In this regard, the strained and sometimes frankly understandable hostile relationships of goblin with people, since people are actively invade the ancestral territory of the devil, cut down a forest and hunt animals. Therefore, to meet the devil, according to legend, is more often for a person just not good. Goblin lures a man into the thicket, where his leprosy frightens the latter either to madness or to death. True, the further the legends of goblin go from antiquity, the more The “goblin” becomes “social” in them. Gradually appeared consideration that the goblin and the person can enter into business relations. So, hunters can carry out their activities in forest, if only agree with the local goblin – and agree more often everything was possible due to alcohol, to which goblin was big lovers. Or if herds grazed right next to the forests pets, then their shepherds should have been at the beginning of the summer season to give the devil one animal as a fee: otherwise the case had to wait for systematic attacks on the herd. But even in this scenario, goblin and people remained more likely enemies than partners: goblin suspected of abducting girls and little children. However, if the girls were talking about ordinary violence (in in some cases, they talk about how girls get in touch with Leshim in exchange for wealth), then they persuade children and seduce kind attitude (therefore children go to them from cruel parents). The relationship between goblins is usually described as complex, goblin are presented as lonely and closed creatures, but there are also versions of entire families or even goblin villages in dense forests. Alexander Babitsky
The Bears
