The famous fairy tale of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin about Tsar Saltan includes the mention of such an interesting character as the uncle of 33 heroes. Let's discuss some historical roots of the appearance of his name.
To begin with, let us recall the name of the uncle of the heroes.The answer, by the efforts of the great poet, is familiar to all readers - from small to large. Yes, his name was Chernomor. However, few thought about the true origin of this simple, seemingly proper name. The simplest association, of course, is the Black Sea. Indeed, 33 heroes and uncle Chernomor in a fairy tale rose from the sea. What kind of sea do we associate with black color? The answer is to the surface.
But...If we go a little deeper into the history of the Russian nation, and also inquire about Pushkin's knowledge of these very depths, then very unusual details appear, which I would like to dwell on.
So, the name Chernomor, as they called the uncle of the heroes,goes back to such an important and catastrophic phenomenon of Russian reality as the epidemic of bubonic plague that visited our venerable homeland in the distant 1352. Which in Russia was called, as is known from the annals, black morrow.
However, consider all the incredibly entertainingthe sequence from which the name appeared in the fairy tale, incidentally, introduced there by the ironic pen of the great creator. 33 heroes and uncle Chernomor are an interesting contrast, because in the presence of a clearly heroic plaque in the last character, at least in this tale, there is a contradiction with its prototype. After Chernomor in folklore works is clearly painted negative. Known is his incarnation, as an evil sorcerer, abducting women of fairy-tale heroes. So here is the first hint with a bunch of subtexts from the child prodigy of the Russian literary workshop.
But we return to the bubonic plague.Answering the question about the name of the uncle of the heroes, one should remember the historical path of the given name in folklore. So, the plague was brought from China to Italy by the Great Silk Road. Having first peopled the population of this proud country, she set off on her black route to Germany, covering the territory of almost the whole of Europe. It even got to Sweden, from where it safely reached Novgorod, Pskov and rushed through the territory of our vast camp.
And now the very salt of history.During the siege of the fortress of Kafu - the one now called Theodosia - our response to the Trojan horse was used. For the walls of the fortress, with the help of a catapult, the body of the deceased from this very bubonic plague was abandoned. Defenders of that time Genoese, of course, contracted a terrible disease. As a result, the survivors had to leave the fortress, and "Uncle Chernomor", remained in the folklore as a symbol of the weapon, successfully used to win the next conquest of the flow of history.
Finally, we can note one more interestingan allusion used by Pushkin. So, "in scales, like the heat of grief" is a perfectly obvious hint of a fever arising from a plague patient, well, scales are nothing but buboes or ulcers that arise on the body of a terrible disease that has become infected.
In general, the whole work of the glorious Tsar Saltancan be considered from the point of view of the numerous interesting allusions used by the unsurpassed master of metaphors. Take at least a hint of the peninsula Crimea (Bujan Island) and the raging war on it for the right to own territory in the distant fourteenth century. But this is a completely different story. And we can only marvel that from the fact that the uncle of the heroes was called in Pushkin's simple tale, one can draw out a whole historical elephant.
