The Mistress of the Copper Mountain ( rus, Хозяйка медной горы, Hozjajka mednoj gory), also known as The Malachite Maid, is a legendary creature from

Slavic mythology Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the B ...

and a

Russian fairy tale A Russian fairy tale or folktale (russian: ска́зка; ''skazka''; "story"; plural russian: ска́зки , translit = skazki) is a fairy tale from Russia. Various sub-genres of ''skazka'' exist. A ''volshebnaya skazka''

Ural Ural may refer to: *Ural (region), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural Mountains, in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural (river), in Russia and Kazakhstan * Ual (tool), a mortar tool used by the Bodo people of India *Ural Federal District, in Russia *Ural econ ...

miners and the Mistress of the Ural Mountains of Russia. In the national Folklore, folktales and legends, she is depicted as an extremely beautiful green-eyed young woman in a

malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures ...

gown or as a

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

with a crown. She has been viewed as the patroness of

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

s, the protector and owner of hidden underground riches, the one who can either permit or prevent the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

of stones and metals in certain places. "The Copper Mountain" is the Gumyoshevsky mine, the oldest mine of the Ural Mountains, which was called "The Copper Mountain" or simply "The Mountain" by the populace. It is now located in the town of

Polevskoy Polevskoy (russian: Полевско́й) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 60,000 (1974); 25,000 (1939). History The town is best known for its ...

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as S ...

. In some regions of the Ural Mountains, the image of the Mistress is connected with another female creature from the local folktales, the Azov Girl ( rus, Азовка, Azovka), the enchanted girl or princess who lives inside

Mount Azov Azov (russian: Азов) is a mountain in Central Ural, Russia. It is located 8 km from Polevskoy meat Zyuzelsky village. It's one of the natural monuments of Russia. According to Aleksandr Matveyev, the configuration of the rocks gives ...

. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain became a well known character from her appearance in

Pavel Bazhov Pavel Petrovich Bazhov (russian: Па́вел Петро́вич Бажо́в; 27 January 1879 – 3 December 1950) was a Russian writer and publicist. Bazhov is best known for his collection of fairy tales ''The Malachite Box'', based on Ural ...

's collection of the Ural Mountains folktales (also known as ''

skaz Skaz ( rus, сказ, p=ˈskas) is a Russian oral form of narrative. The word comes from '' skazátʹ'', "to tell", and is also related to such words as ''rasskaz'', "short story" and ''skazka'', "fairy tale". The speech makes use of dialect and sla ...

'') called ''

The Malachite Box ''The Malachite Box'' or ''The Malachite Casket'' ( rus, Малахитовая шкатулка, r=Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, p=məlɐˈxʲitəvəjə ʂkɐˈtulkə) is a book of fairy tales and folk tales (also known as ''skaz'') of the Ural regi ...

''. The Mistress appears in the third ''skaz'', "

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain The Mistress of the Copper Mountain ( rus, Хозяйка медной горы, Hozjajka mednoj gory), also known as The Malachite Maid, is a legendary creature from Slavic mythology and a Russian fairy tale_character,_the_mountain_spirit_from_ ...

", and in 9 other stories from the collection, including "

The Stone Flower "The Stone Flower" ( rus, Каменный цветок, Kamennyj tsvetok, p=ˈkamʲɪnːɨj tsvʲɪˈtok), also known as "The Flower of Stone", is a folk tale (also known as ''skaz'') of the Ural region of Russia collected and reworked by Pave ...

", " The Manager's Boot-Soles", and " Sochen and His Stones".

Characteristics

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain has the appearance of an extremely beautiful young woman with green eyes. Some of her more distinctive features include dark

braided hair The Coronet large cent was a type of large cent issued by the United States Mint at the Philadelphia Mint from 1816 until 1839. There are two similar designs of the Coronet large cent, the Matron Head and the Braided Hair, the latter with a ...

, ribbons from thin tinkling

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

, and a gown that is made from

. She wears a diadem decorated with malachite and precious stones. As a mountain spirit, she is the protector and owner of hidden underground riches. She is said to be always surrounded by her servants, small

s, which can be green, blue, golden or luminous. The Mistress can appear as a lizard herself. According to the legends, a person who sees the Mistress comes under her spell. She shows kindness to good people and skilled craftsmen, helping them to find jewels and gold, but if her conditions aren't met, the person loses all his luck, skill and can even die.Blazhes 1983, p. 9. She could permit or prevent the mining in certain places, give or take wealth. The sacral being, the Mistress was surrounded by rituals and

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

s, e.g. women did not come down in the mine, because it was the Mistress's domain, and young men seeking her patronage did not marry. The violation of the taboos was supposed to bring a harsh punishment. Children were taught not to shout and quarrel next to the stones, and to keep quiet in the mines, because, according to popular belief, the Maid disliked loud noises. Her distinguishing attributes were lizards, copper and malachite.

Other names

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain has many other names, such as The Stone Mother ( rus, Горная матка, Gornaja matka, links=no), The Stone Maiden ( rus, Каменная девка, Kamennaja devka, links=no), The Serpent Mistress, The Lizard Queen, The Mistress of the Copper Mine, The Malachite Girl, The Malachite Maid or The Malachite Lady ( rus, Малахитница, Malakhitnitsa, links=no). The miners simply called her "Herself".

The Azov Girl

In many national folktales, the Mistress and

Azovka "Beloved Name" or "That Dear Name" ( rus, Дорогое имячко, Dorogoe imjachko, lit. "The Dear Name") is a folk tale (the so-called ''skaz'') of the Ural region of Siberia collected and reworked by Pavel Bazhov. It was first published i ...

(lit. "the Azov Girl") are identical with each other, and the same stories are told about each of them. The tales about Azovka are very different from one another, although they share some common characteristics. Firstly, that there's a cave with hidden treasures inside

. Secondly, few people found the cave, and no one could get the treasures. The treasures belong to the Tatars, the

Bashkirs , native_name_lang = bak , flag = File:Bashkirs of Baymak rayon.jpg , flag_caption = Bashkirs of Baymak in traditional dress , image = , caption = , population = approx. 2 million , popplace ...

, or "the Old People". According to popular belief, Azovka lives/is held captive inside the cave (or the mountain), and she guards the treasures. In most tales, she is the enchanted girl, possibly stolen by the

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

, the cursed Tatar princess, the Old People's queen or their elder's daughter.

Appearances

In ''The Malachite Box''

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain appears in the third

's ''skaz'' from ''The Malachite Box'', "

", first published in the 11th issue of ''Krasnaya Nov'' in 1936; and then in many other tales: " The Malachite Casket", "

", " The Manager's Boot-Soles", " Sochen and His Stones", " The Master Craftsman", " The Two Lizards", " A Fragile Twig", " The Grass Hideaway", and " Tayutka's Mirror". Bazhov confirmed that he based the character on local legends. He said: "Yes, I believe that the series of tales connected with the Gumyoshevsky mine is closer to folklore. In my opinion, they represent the attempt to reconstruct the folklore of this mine". When asked whether the character from his writing differs from its folklore interpretation, Bazhov replied: "I don't believe there is a difference. If there is, it is bad ews.Mironov, A. "''Obraz Hozjajki Mednoj gory v skazah P. P. Bazhova'' Образ Хозяйки Медной горы в сказах П. П. Бажова he character of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain in P. P. Bazhov's tales in: ''P. P. Bazhov i socialisticheskij realizm.'' In "

" she is described as follows:

You could see from her plait she was a maid. It was a sort of deep black, that plait of hers, and didn't dangle as our maids' do, but lay close and straight down her back. And the ribbons at the end weren't quite red and weren't quite green, they'd something of both. You could see the light shining through them and they seemed to click a little, like thin leaves of copper. ..She was not very tall, with a pretty figure, and she was a real fidget - couldn't sit still a minute. ..Her robe, now, it was something you'd never see anywhere else. It was all made of silk malachite, that's a kind you get sometimes. It's stone but it looks like silk, you want to take and stroke it.

In "

" it's said that the Mistress has her own "mountain craftsmen":

They're skilful craftsmen who live in the mountain, and no man ever sees them. Whatever the Mistress wants, they make it for her. I saw a bit of their work once. ..Our serpents, no matter how good they are, they're but stone, but this was like as if it was living. A black line down the black, and eyes—ye'd think it was just going to up and sting ye. They can make anything!

In "The Manager's Boot-Soles" it's said that the Mistress "didn't like it when folks were treated ill underground". She appears before the cruel bailiff:

All of a sudden the bailiff saw a figure in front of him. It was moving lightly, waving a lamp. At the turn of the gallery he saw it was a woman. ..He started running after her, but his faithful men weren't in any great hurry to follow. They were all shaking. Because they saw this was bad — it was ''she'' herself. ..The bailiff saw a maid of amazing beauty standing before him, and here brows were drawn together in a line and her eyes blazed like burning coals.

In ''The Malachite Box'', she serves as a "magic helper" to the characters.Balina 2013, p. 269. "It's a chancy thing to meet her, it brings woe for a bad man". She can be reached through the stone forest.Shvabauer 2009, p. 146. She is cruel and just, she dislikes greedy people and is indifferent toward their suffering, but she shows her benevolent side to those with talent and selflessness. Valentin Blazhes stated that in ''the Malachite Box'' she is a classical ambivalent character, because she combines good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness. Nataliya Shvabauer commented that her duality is represented in her every trait, from the appearance to her functions. Even her jokes can be deadly, as evident from "Sochen and His Stones".

In other media

The character Queen of the Copper Mountain appeared in

Mercedes Lackey Mercedes Ritchie Lackey (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels include i ...

's 2007 novel '' Fortune's Fool''. She also appears as the title character in

’s 2020 novel '' Jolene'' which is set in the coal mines of rural Tennessee.

Shimun Vrochek Shimun (Syriac alphabet: ), also transliterated as Shemʿon or Shimon is the form of Simon (given name), Simon used in Syriac language, Classical Syriac and other Aramaic languages. Mar Shimun may refer to any of the following Patriarchs of the Chu ...

authored a story called ''The Master of the Copper Mountain'' ( rus, Хозяин Медной горы, Hozjain Mednoj gory, links=no), in which he mentioned the character. It was published in his ''Serzhantu Nikto Ne Zvonit'' collection in 2006.

Vladimir Makanin Vladimir Semyonovich Makanin (russian: Владимир Семёнович Маканин; 13 March 1937 in Orsk, Orenburg Oblast, RSFSR, Soviet Union – 1 November 2017 in , Aksaysky District, Rostov Oblast, Russia) was a Russian writer of ...

wrote the Mistress parody characters in some of his stories, such as the mother of the character Kolka in his 1976 short story "Voices" ( rus, Голоса, Golosa, links=no).

Origin and development

Coat of Arms of Sverdlovsk (Sverdlovsk oblast) (1973)

Pavel Bazhov had heard the tales about her at the

Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant The Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant ( rus, Полевской медеплавильный завод, Polevskoj medeplavilnyj zavod), also known as Polevaya or Poleva, was one of the major metallurgical facilities located in Polevskoy, in Sverdl ...

from the miners' storyteller Vasily Hmelinin ( rus, Василий Хмелинин, links=no), nicknamed "Grandpa Slyshko" by children. "The Copper Mountain" is believed to be the Gumyoshevsky mine, the oldest mine of the Ural Mountains. It was sometimes called "The Copper Mountain" or simply "The Mountain" by the populace. Valery Dyomin commented that the Mistress is a universal

mytheme In structuralism-influenced studies of mythology, a mytheme is a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure (typically involving a relationship between a character, an event, and a theme) from which myths are thought to be constructed—a mi ...

, while the Copper mountain is the specific location: the Gumyoshevsky mine and

. The origin of the character is unclear. A concept of a

mother goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...

or Mother Earth was very popular in every culture, including the local

Mansi Mansi may refer to: People * Mansi people, an indigenous people living in Tyumen Oblast, Russia ** Mansi language * Giovanni Domenico Mansi Gian (Giovanni) Domenico Mansi (16 February 1692 – 27 September 1769) was an Italian prelate, theolog ...

and

Khanty people The Khanty (Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together ...

. The Ural ethnographer A. Sagalayev suggested that the character originated from the goddesses

Umay Umay (also known as Umai; otk, 𐰆𐰢𐰖; kk, Ұмай ана, ''Umay ana''; ky, Умай эне, ''Umay ene''; russian: Ума́й / Ымай, ''Umáj / Ymaj'', tr, Umay (Ana)) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengrii ...

and

Kaltes-Ekwa In Ugrian mythology, Kaltes-Ekwa (Khanty, Kaltes Ankw) was the mother of the hero Mir-Susne-Hum and the wife of the god Num-Torum, who defeated her in heaven. She was also a goddess of the moon associated with the month April; a birth giving go ...

. He noted that the figure of a mother goddess in people's perception sometimes shrinks to the size of a rock and a sculpture or expands to the size of a mountain. The Mistress might have appeared as a successor of Azovka, because she was most famous in the same areas as Azovka before her, so the keeper of treasures slowly turned into their master.Shvabauer 2009, p. 147. Bazhov believed that the most ancient creature of the Ural mythology was in fact Azovka, the Great Serpent appeared next, and the last one was the Mistress. Just like Azovka, the Malachite Maid attracts single men. Mark Lipovetsky commented her black hair colour hints at her non-Slavic parentage, possibly from the "Old People", like Azovka. Dark-haired and mysterious, she does not look like typical Russian girls. Bazhov believed that miners simply missed women, because their work allowed for little contact with them. He also thought that the Mistress outgrew her initial function of a treasure keeper. She became "the embodiment of power, wealth and beauty" which revealed itself only before the best of people. E. Kulikova theorized that her place in the Ural mythology is most likely connected with the perception of the mountains as "magical space". The mountain was the source of life, the protector from hostile forces and the residence of divine patrons. Alexei Ivanov suggested that the Mistress most likely originates from a

spirit of place Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales, festivals and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible ...

as a "stone

dryad A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved t ...

". There is also a hypothesis that she repsesents the Roman goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, as local copper from the

was branded with the

Venus symbol A planet symbol (or ''planetary symbol'') is a graphical symbol used in astrology and astronomy to represent a classical planet (including the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The symbols were also used in alchemy to represent the me ...

(♀) for tens of years in the 18th century. V. Bezrukova theorizes that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain symbolizes the "relationship" between people and the mountain riches, and that she in fact protects Christian virtues, e.g. she prevents greed, encourages kindness, modesty, honor and skill (Christian virtues). However Alexei Ivanov argues that she reveals her "genetic relationship" with

pagan god Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

s, and her ethics is not Christian. In one of the stories she takes the gold out of the mine after a church is built nearby. Maya Nikulina points at her relation to the realm of the dead, as she does not ear or drink, does not leave any traces, her clothing is made of stone and so on, and the Mountain connects her to the world of the living. The character might be of Finnic origin. The Finnic peoples, who lived in that area, later migrated to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

or assimilated into the new Russian culture. Their folklore featured the underground riches, moral and spiritual powers, impersonated in

Chthonic The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...

deities, mining and metallurgic techniques unknown to Russians. The Mistress's attributes—lizards, copper and malachite—are not Christian. Nataliya Shvabauer commented that the lizards are foul supernatural creatures. The images of lizards and snakes were found on the Permian bronze casts (the 5-15 centuries) around

. Copper was a symbol of female beauty at the Urals. Malachite symbolized youth, hope, misfortune and grief at the same time. The craftsmen who worked with malachite often died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, affected by the poisonous malachite dust. The

gemcutter Lapidary (from the Latin ) is the practice of shaping stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems (including cameos), and faceted designs. A person who practices lapidary is known as a lapidarist. A lap ...

s produced malachite jewellery for sale only, but never wore it themselves. Keeping it in the house was a bad omen.

Reception

The Mistress became a popular character in the Soviet Union. The

folklorists Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

the Ural State University The Ural State University (russian: Урáльский госудáрственный университéт и́мени А.М. Гóрького, , often shortened to USU, УрГУ) is a public university located in the city of Yekaterinburg, Sv ...

, who collected tales near

Sysert Sysert (russian: Сысе́рть) is a town and the administrative center of Sysertsky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Sysert River ( Ob basin, right tributary of the Iset), south of Yekaterinburg. Population: Histo ...

after Pavel Bazhov's death, noted they "have not met a single person who did not hear about the Mistress", but they mostly knew about her from Bazhov's ''skazy'' and referred to them: "Read some Bazhov, he wrote it down". Few story-tellers heard of her from

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

. During Soviet times critics commonly described this character as the protector of the working class from the oppressors. Maya Nikulina argued that the Mistress is neither the rescuer nor the protector. Rather than defending the workers, she tests them. Social justice is of no concern to her: "the landlord is punished for being greedy and stupid", not for being the landlord. Mark Lipovetsky commented that she is the most terrifying characters of the collection, a beautiful girl and a dangerous demonic creature at the same time.Lipovetsky 2014, p. 217. He believed that she represents the struggle and unity between

Eros and Thanatos ''Beyond the Pleasure Principle'' (german: Jenseits des Lustprinzips) is a 1920 essay by Sigmund Freud. It marks a major turning point in the formulation of his drive theory, where Freud had previously attributed self-preservation in human behav ...

, and that she is characterized by three major Freudian motives—the

sexual drive Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act up ...

, the

death drive In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the death drive (german: Todestrieb) is the drive toward death and destruction, often expressed through behaviors such as aggression, repetition compulsion, and self-destructiveness.Eric Berne, ''Wha ...

(her realm is the realm of the dead) and the

castration anxiety Castration anxiety is the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Castration anxiety is an overwhelming fear of damage to, or loss of, the penis—one of Sigmund Freud's earliest psychoanalytic theories. Although Freu ...

(loss of power). The latter is shown when she persistently and spitefully provokes the local administration, forcing the protagonists ("The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", "The Two Lizards") to relay offensive messages. Denis Zherdev pointed out that the Mistress's female domain is the world of chaos, destruction or spontaneous uncontrolled acts of creation. Colliding with the ordered factory world, such power brings in randomness, variability, unpredictability and capriciousness. Direct contact with it is a violation of world order, and does not end well. The author of ''The Fairy Tale Encyclopedia'' suggests that the Mistress represents the conflict between human kind and nature. She compares the character with

Mephistopheles Mephistopheles (, ), also known as Mephisto, is a demon featured in German folklore. He originally appeared in literature as the demon in the Faust legend, and he has since appeared in other works as a stock character (see: Mephistopheles in t ...

, because a human needs to wager his soul with her in order to get the ultimate knowledge, however, the Mistress does not force anyone to abandon their moral values, and therefore "is not painted in dark colours". Lyudmila Skorino believed that she represented the nature of the Urals, which inspires a creative person with its beauty.Bazhov 1952, p. 232.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mistress of the Copper Mountain, The Slavic tutelary deities Russian folklore characters Mythic humanoids Fictional lizards Female legendary creatures Mining folklore Fictional characters with earth or stone abilities Russian mythology Female characters in fairy tales Legendary serpents Mythological queens Slavic legendary creatures Slavic folklore characters