Korol V. Folk demonology of Hutsuls of Transcarpathia

The thesis is based on a significant number of field, archival and literary sources and conducts history and ethnography reconstruction of traditional demonology representations of Hutsuls of ethno-historical Transcarpathia. The genesis of demonological characters is shown, local features of demons and demonological motifs are found out. The folk demonology of Hutsuls of Transcarpathia is considered in the all-Ukrainian and eastern European context. The demonic tradition of the Hutsuls of Transcarpathia has a certain local specificity. The popular beliefs of the area that are explored in the thesis include: diverse dialectal vocabulary to refer the demonological characters; specialization of a number of characters in the demonological system: khovantsia (to the music, dance, money, management, etc.), so called «neprosti» people (hradoburnyky, bailnyky, «the one who spells snake»); special magic receptions at burial «nechysti» deceased; the existence of numerous stories about rare and ancient origin of demonological characters as povitrulia, krasna, sahastriuk, lisna, chuhaister, snake with crown, sharkan.