Gamayun is a
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
ic
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
of
Russian folklore
Folklore of Russia is folklore of Russians and other ethnic groups of Russia.
Russian folklore takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales._Epic_Russian_ олше́бн_...s._Epic_Russi ...
.
It is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and lives on an island in the mythical east, close to
paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
. She is said to spread divine messages and prophecies, as she knows everything of all creation, gods, heroes, and man. Like the
Sirin and the
Alkonost, other creatures likewise deriving ultimately from the Greek myths and
siren mythology,
the Gamayun is normally depicted as a large bird with a woman's head. In the books of the 17th-19th centuries, Gamayun was described as a legless and wingless bird, ever-flying with the help of a tail, foreshadowing the death of statesmen by her fall.
Popular culture
In his esoteric cosmography ''Roza Mira'' (1997), Daniil Andreev maintains that Sirins, Alkonosts, and Gamayuns are transformed into Archangels in Paradise.
In season one, episode 10 the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
original television series ''
The Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
'',
the
Duke of Windsor speaks on the phone with his niece
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
, and likens the personhood of a monarch to a
Sphinx or a Gamayun in that both creatures are fusions of two beings, never succeeding in being either.
Katherine Arden's second book from the
Winternight trilogy mentions a Gamayun.
''Gamayun Tales'' is a
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
series created by Alexander Utkin for
Nobrow Press, in which Gamayun serves as the
narrator for adaptations of Slavic legends and folklore.
References
Further reading
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Legendary birds
Russian mythology
Human-headed mythical creatures
Female legendary creatures
Slavic legendary creatures
Avian humanoids
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