Why Kashchey is immortal

 

Illustration of Kashchey

            I started to research on Russian folklores when I was writing my blog about Baba Yaga and I fell in love with it. It has such a vast history of folklore characters. The Russian folklore characters attract me very much. Today my story is about another Russian folklore character named Kashchey.

          Kashchey is considered to be a male antagonist in Russian folklore. It is said that he is immortal. The origin of his tales are unknown. But it is said that by at least the 18th century and may be earlier, Kashchey's legends had been appearing bin Slavic tales.

         The origin of the tales of Kashchey is related to many historic events. It is said that Kashchey's tales are related to Polovtsian leader Khan Konchak who dated from 12th century because in the book "The Regiment of Igor" Konchak is reffered to as Koshey.

           Various names are attributed to Kashchey such as Koschei, kaschai, Kashchey, Kosh and many more. In old Russian 'Kosh' means a camp, in Turkish language it means 'a wanwerer'. Nikolai Novikov suggested that the meaning of the name Koshchii is "youth" or"boy" or "Captive" or "slave".

           Kashchey is a common antigoro in East Slavic folktales. He mostly functions as a antagonist to a hero. The most common feature of the takes of Kashchey is his protection against being killed. To do so he hides his soul inside nested objects to protect it.

           The most famous tales of kashchey is from Maryam Morevna's "The Red Fairy Book". In the story Ivan encounters Kashchey chained in his wife's(Marya's) dungeon. He releases him and Kashchey abducts Marya. He goes to rescue Marya several times but fails. After the third attempt Kashchey cuts up Ivan's body parts and throws them into the sea. But Ivan is revived with the aid of the water of life. He seeks Baba Yaga, steals her horse and rescued Marya by killing Kashchey.

            The character Kashchey is referred to some other stories as well. They are "Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard", "The Snake Princess" and "Ruslan and Ludmila".

            The Russian folklores are getting more importance today. As the main characters from these folklores like Baba Yaga and Deathless are gaining more fame from the media.