Alkonost

What it is

Russian stories give the Alkonost the head of a woman on a bird's body, and place her in Rai, the paradise of the dead, among other creatures of mixed form. She is best known for her singing: belief holds that a listener forgets all they ever knew and wants nothing else again. Folklore pairs her with the Sirin, another bird woman, as a matched pair of opposites. The Alkonost carries the glad meanings, happiness and paradise, while the Sirin carries disaster and bad luck; yet both are linked with death, which they are held to foretell or to bring.

Where it comes from

The bird's roots are uncertain. One account traces her to Xrafstar, a being of Persian folklore, though this is offered only as a possibility. Her fame grew wide after Christianity reached Russia. Believers then read her as a messenger sent by God to lift the pain of hard times; others took her for an image of the human soul rising to Heaven. In that Christian setting she moved from wonder bird to sign of comfort, and it is from that period that her popularity dates.

How it is done

Folk accounts give her doings a set pattern. She lays her eggs on a beach and rolls them into the sea. For as long as the eggs rest in the water, the sky stays quiet: no storm and no disaster rises. When the eggs break open, the hatching itself whips up very violent storms. Her song works differently, on the mind: anyone who hears it loses all they know and ceases to wish for anything, ever again.

What it is for

Her meanings are mostly glad ones. She stands for happiness and for paradise, and in the Christian reading she is God's messenger, meant to ease the pain of hardship. On the Apple Feast of the Saviour the dew from her wings is said to give the fruit on her tree healing power. The picture has a dark edge too: together with the Sirin she is tied to death, which the two birds are believed to foretell or to cause.

Peoples and places

The bird belongs to Russian folklore, where she is drawn and told of beside the Sirin. Lists of kindred winged figures set her next to Gamayun, the harpy and Uchek Langmeitong. Her name has travelled far beyond the tales: the Croatian singer Nina Kraljić, who performed at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, takes the stage as Alkonost of Balkan.

What people believe

The tales assume a paradise called Rai, the dwelling of the dead, where the Alkonost keeps her home among other beings half bird and half human. Her pairing with the Sirin runs on contrast: one bird embodies happiness and paradise, the other misfortune and calamities such as natural disasters. Yet the two share a bond with death, which they are held to foretell or to bring about. Christianity added a further layer, reading the bird as a messenger from God who eases hardship, or as a picture of the soul climbing to Heaven.

When it is done

Folk tales fix her yearly appearance to the Apple Feast of the Saviour. At daybreak the Sirin enters the apple orchard and weeps; when afternoon comes, the Alkonost flies to the same spot, rejoicing and laughing. The dew she brushes from her wings gives healing power to every fruit on the tree she has settled in. The rest of her year runs to the rhythm of her eggs: quiet seas while they lie in the water, and very violent storms at the hatching.

Compare and confuse

She is met most often beside her foil, the Sirin, a bird woman of matching form and opposite meaning; the pair are almost always shown together. Lists of kindred creatures set her next to Gamayun and Uchek Langmeitong, and with the harpy of older story.

Today

The name has kept working long after the tales were first told. A publishing house called Alkonost, run by Samuil Mironovich Alyansky, worked in the Silver Age of Russian poetry in the years between the two world wars, bringing out avant-garde verse and books, among them the almanac Zapiski Mechtatelei, notes of dreamers. The bird holds a small part in an opera about the hidden city of Kitezh. In 2019 she was made a rare minion of the Dreni faction in the digital card game Mythgard, and a folk metal band that started in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan, in 1995 has borne the name.

Questions people ask about Alkonost

Good reading and sources

• Alkonost on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data