Belarusian And Polish Spells: From Parallels to a Common Plot-Motive Space

Abstract

Spells from the western territories are an organic part of the folk magic compendium of Belarus, which are included in the general ethnic piggy bank with the main and frequent plots, motifs and images, but at the level of priorities and development of individual elements they make up a slightly different and at the same time complete picture. There are a lot of formulas, images, and motifs that continue the Polish spell tradition and then „dissipate”, point-by-point fixed in places of compact residence of the Catholic population. At the same time, several motifs and even complexes associated with individual functional spell groups fall out of the border zone. The Polish folk magic tradition has become a kind of conductor of Western European influences for Belarusian ones, while direct borrowings from Polish texts are rare. In general, comparative studies give grounds to express the idea of the existence of a common Western Belarusian-Polish plot and motif spell space.