Koschey the immortal origin story. Koschey the Immortal, who are you? Filmography and actors

Power beyond the grave, relics, dried fruit, miser, thin, thin, worm, thin as a sliver, old man, skeleton Dictionary of Russian synonyms. koschey see thin Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova ... Synonym dictionary

- (or kashchei), koschei, husband. (Cossack. poor man). 1. (K capital). In Russian folk tales mythical creature: a thin, bony old man with the secret of longevity, rich and evil. Koschei the Deathless. 2. An emaciated, skinny and tall old man (colloquial) ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

KOSHCHEY, Kashchey. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dahl. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

- (Koschei the Immortal. 1. Unlock Disapproved About an evil, greedy, stingy man. BMS 1998, 312. 2. Discussion. Disapproved About an extremely thin person. BMS 1998, 312; BTS, 75; Mokienko 1989, 147. 3. Jarg. school Joking. iron. or Neglect Elderly, elderly teacher;... ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

KOSHCHEY, me, husband. 1. In Russian fairy tales: a thin and evil old man, owner of treasures and the secret of longevity. K. Immortal. 2. transfer About skinny and tall man, often an old man, and also about a miser (colloquial neod.). Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu.... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

KOSHCHEY- Koschey, a man of the Grand Duke of Moscow. OK. 1459. A.K. I, 548. Kosche, peasant, zap. 1582. Arch. VI, 1, 115… Biographical Dictionary

Ko(a)shchey immortal (eternal Jew). Wed. He took from his relatives, he took from the poor, He was known as a good man... Nekrasov. Vlas. Wed. He lives there alone at the forge, like the immortal Kashchei, filling his own little jar!... He has become greedy! fear! Markevich... ... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

M. coll. Endowed with immortality, a bony and evil old man, the owner of enormous wealth as a Russian character folk tales; Koschei the Deathless. Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova

KOSHCHEY- (character of Russian fairy tales; see also KASHCHEY) Koschey was not evil either, What, perhaps, will be the uprising of things. Why do we spoil things? Khl909 (189) ... Given name in Russian poetry of the 20th century: a dictionary of personal names

Koschey- This word, meaning thin, skinny person and miser, is probably derived from bone. According to another version, in Old Russian there was koschey - slave, captive, borrowed from Turkic languages and not connected in any way with Koshchei the Immortal... Etymological dictionary Russian language Krylov

Books

• Koschey. Reboot. Roman, Galkin R.. "Koschei. Reboot". What do you know about Koshchei the Immortal, about Baba Yaga, about Leshy and other fairy-tale characters? Do you consider them treacherous villains? George thought the same thing, until his soul after...
• Koschey the Immortal: a fairy tale with games, . Koschey the Immortal: a fairy tale with games ISBN:978-5-222-19883-4…

In Viktor Kalashnikov’s book “Russian Demonology” an attempt was made to systematize the heroes and plots of Russian folk tales. This is being done not because of the desire to create an encyclopedia of folklore, but in order to discern how, behind the layers of eras and cultures (Christianity, the secular state), the ancient Slavic epic, whose heroes were pagan gods and perfume.

Koschey the Immortal (or Kashchei) is perhaps the most mysterious figure in Russian fairy tales. Afanasyev, for example, believed that the Serpent Gorynych and Koschey the Immortal are, if not the same, then at least interchangeable characters: “As a demonic creature, the serpent in Russian folk legends often appears under the name of Koshchei the Immortal. The meaning of both in our fairy tales is completely identical: Koschey plays the same role of a stingy treasure keeper and a dangerous kidnapper of beauties as the snake; they are both equally hostile fairy-tale heroes and freely replace each other, so that in the same tale in the same version actor snakes are hatched, and in the other – Koschey.”

But is it possible to confuse a living mummy and a dragon? They are so different! And anyway, what the strange name- Koschey? What does it mean? Afanasyev believed that it comes either from “bone” or from “blasphemy” - witchcraft. Other scientists, inclined to see borrowings from the languages ​​of neighboring peoples in Russian words, believed that the name of the living skeleton comes from a Turkic word meaning “slave, servant.”

If a slave, then whose? After all, in Russian fairy tales the owner Koshchei is not mentioned. This living skeleton may be captured by Marya Morevna, but like a prisoner chained to the wall, he is not a servant at all. How could the Russian Koshchei have a Turkic name? What does his death mean, resting in a casket either under the treasured oak tree, or at the bottom of the sea? What does this have to do with animal helpers?..

In short, many questions arise, but there are no clear answers. Maybe Afanasyev was right after all when he elevated Koshchei’s name to blasphemy, that is, he called him a wizard. Well, really, who else could extend his life so much that people would call him Immortal? Of course, an almighty magician. Or a person who turned to demonic forces for help, like, say, Faust. But Koschey in fairy tales is not a wizard or a person at all; he himself, most likely, belongs to the demonic world. So Afanasyev’s explanation suffers from approximation and inaccuracy.

Perhaps the most interesting guess is that of L. M. Alekseeva, who wrote in “Aurora Borealis in the Mythology of the Slavs”:

“Undoubtedly, Karachun belongs to the single world of the dead and cold. He is supposedly considered a winter Slavic deity who retained the features of the personification of death. At the same time, Belarusian beliefs specify that Karachun shortens life and is the cause sudden death In young age. It is important for us that this image is associated with an objective and clear natural factor: Karachun is not only a name evil spirit, but also the name of the winter solstice and the holiday associated with it. To track the Sun, you need a certain scientific qualification, if not all, then at least some members of society (magi). In addition, the name of the deity introduces us to the circle of developed plots of the East Slavic fairy tale: Karachun is one of the names of Koshchei the Immortal.”

That is, according to Alekseeva, Koschey is the god of death from cold, and the god, or rather demon, is very ancient. To defeat him, you need to spin the wheel of time back, as it were, to return to the very beginning of the world, when the Immortal was born. Then it is clear why the following appear successively in the fairy tale: a brown bear - the ruler of the forests, then birds - a hawk and a duck, which can often be seen in the northern tundra. Following them, inhabitants of the earth and air, appears an aquatic inhabitant, a fish, in this case a pike. Maybe once upon a time it was not a pike, but a completely different fish?

Cover of Viktor Kalashnikov’s book “Russian Demonology”.

Let's say a beluga whale living in the polar regions. If this is so, then in the fairy tale we move not only in space from south to north, from the zone of dense forests through the tundra to the polar seas, but also backwards in time - in the opposite direction along the path that our distant ancestors once took, fleeing the onset of the Great Ice Age. Simply put, fabulous animals point us to the north - to where the ancestral home of all Aryan peoples, Arctida, once existed.

Perhaps they paid tribute there with sacrifices to the evil god of severe cold Karachun, who was born at the very beginning of the creation of the world - from a golden egg laid by the miracle hen Ryaba. Then Karachun lost control - the cold became more and more unbearable, taking away everything more lives, and the time has come, having left the homeland, which was becoming covered with ice before our eyes, to follow the fish, following the birds to a distant continent and go further and further, escaping from Karachun-Koshchei, who is moving on the heels. They should have gone into the forests, under the protection of trees, and the southern fields, where the frost was not so severe.

It was an exodus from the ancestral home, from the roof of the world, where heaven and earth almost touch each other, where the myth of the Golden Egg originated. Therefore, going from north to south also meant moving from the distant past to the present and future.

Our assumptions are not at all as fantastic as they might seem at first glance. According to numerous legends, everything came from the golden egg: not only Heaven and Earth, but also the depths of the underground; not only a clear Day, but also a dark Night, not only Good, but also Evil. Following the logic of the myth, you need to go back to the very beginning of time in order to defeat Evil in its bud, while breaking... the needle. Why an igloo? In the book already mentioned, Alekseeva suggests that we're talking about about the spear - the main weapon northern peoples, with which they beat the sea beast and polar bear. And to this day, whales are hunted only with harpoons - large spears, or, if you prefer, needles.

Although the immortal demon of the cold, of course, is not a bear, not a walrus, or even a whale. You can’t take it with an ordinary harpoon; you need something more powerful. For example, a magic wand is the same magic wand that is spoken of in almost all fairy tales.

And again the question is - why not turn this magic rod against Koshchei in order to take his life by casting spells? Why does the rod need to be broken? Yes, for the simple reason that this rod, apparently, belonged, if not to Koshchei himself, then to the high priest of his cult. Only by destroying the rod can one cut off the thread of life of an ancient, but by no means immortal, demon. This is what Ivan did in the fairy tale, although Koschey was sure that he was not capable of reaching such wisdom with his mind. The immortal was sure that the Russian people had forgotten where they came from to the forests. But no, they didn’t forget: they remembered at the right moment, and then “karachun” came to Koschey - that is, the end.

There is another assumption about what the treasured Koshcheev’s needle is. The immortal is not completely alive, but not completely dead either, he seems to be in the middle of the path between this and this light, that is, he is practically the same as the walking dead; their bodies were buried, but they rise from their graves and come as ghosts to their home to disturb their relatives.

The only way to protect yourself from the annoying dead was in a known way: at midnight, dig up their grave, find an invisible “Nav” bone and destroy it by breaking it, or, more accurately, burn it. And then the dead man calmed down and died completely. If the needle hidden in the egg is considered the “Navia” bone of Koshchei himself, then it is clear why death overtook him.

Perhaps in ancient times there was some kind of ritual that promised a person the acquisition of immortality. In any case, in the grave of the founder of the city of Chernigov (let’s not forget that the servants of Chernobog were called Chernigov in Rus'), Prince Cherny, excavated by archaeologists, the scene depicted in the fairy tale was found: a deadly needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, a hare - in a treasured casket.

And here we come to an understanding of what immortality actually is. Is this a punishment or a blessing? The ritual of gaining immortality itself has long been forgotten, but its symbol has been preserved - immortelle flowers, about which, remembering his native village of Antonovka, Mirolyubov wrote: “In Antonovka it was customary to sow immortelle flowers on graves, special rough, dry to the touch flowers, yellowish, reddish and, it seems, , bluish, which could be picked and placed in a glass of water, and they could stand like that for months; if they were placed in a vase without water, they also stood for months. Apparently there was life in them, but it was as if there wasn’t.

Since I was still a boy at that time, I was interested in why the peasants preferred to sow them in the cemetery. “Old people” answered me that “that’s why immortelle flowers are flowers of dead relatives, because they are like dead ones even in life.” Old Trembochka, a woman in the village, like a healer, explained differently:

“The same flowers are blooming in the pit! They are from the pit, and everyone whom the pit takes away can communicate with us through those flowers. These flowers are like a line (border) between us and them, and we touch them here, and they touch them there. Death does not take them. Whether they are thwarted or not, for them life and death are one and the same. These flowers are without death." Another woman who lived near the bridge over the Zheltye Vody river said: “So, if God made light, he took it and began to create the earth, but death did not want it. Then God mounted a horse and began to call death to battle, and she armed herself with all sorts of knives, iron claws, clubs, and a gun and went against God. The fight lasted for an eternity. Either God fights, or she, the damned one, and while God fought against death, He created in fits and starts, now this, now something else. God will create, but death will destroy!

Finally, God lay in wait for death when it was gaping and killed it. But, falling, Death grabbed onto bushes, grass, branches, and what it grabs will dry up. She also grabbed the immortelle flowers and began tearing them by the roots. God told them to grow stronger so that she could not tear them out, and the flowers grew around the lying death only so much that they covered it halfway, and God could not hit death so that it would stop moving! Then He said: “Well, then be without life and without death!” And the flowers remained like this forever. And they put them on the graves to announce to the deceased that “There is no Death! She was killed by God!” But since death has not yet stopped moving and is still killing people, flowers remind the deceased of life, and the living of death!”

Indeed, I had to observe later - the peasants did not like to keep immortelle flowers in the house. These were grave flowers. There was an almost religious attitude towards them. Having picked several of these flowers, I came home from the cemetery, where children gathered in the spring to play, and wanted to put the flowers in the water, but the servants, noticing them, took them away and threw them into the fire.

Well, this is probably best explanation the immortality of Koshchei, which is no longer life and death is unattainable; he was stuck between these two worlds and remained there until Ivan Tsarevich saved him from eternal torment and granted him the blissful oblivion of death.

If we consider Koshchei a slave, then he was a servant of his damned immortality. Still, he rather belonged to the other world, because he recognizes the appearance of Ivan by the smell of the living: “It smells like Russian bone!” For the dead, as we know, the smell of the living is intolerable, just as the smell of carrion is disgusting for the living. Ethnographer V. Ya. Propp in “ Historical roots fairy tale" wrote about this: "Ivan smells not just like a person, but like a living person. The dead, the incorporeal, do not smell, the living smell, the dead recognize the living by their smell... This smell of the living is in highest degree disgusted by the dead... The dead generally fear the living. No one alive should cross the cherished threshold.”

Image

Etymology

Word "koschei" in the 12th century it meant a slave, a captive; in the Tale of Igor’s Campaign the term is mentioned twice: Igor, having been captured by Konchak, sits “in the saddle of Koshcheevo”; the author of “The Lay” says that if Vsevolod Yuryevich the Big Nest had come to the aid of the Polovtsians, then the chaga (slave) would have been nogata, and the koschei would have been rezane (small monetary units). In the same meaning, koschey appears in the Ipatiev Chronicle. In birch bark letters of the 12th century from Novgorod and Torzhok, Koschey (also Koshkei, with the dialect Novgorod reading -sch- like -shk-) appears as a personal name. This word, according to the most common etymology, is from the Turkic košči “slave”, which, in turn, is derived from koš “camp, stop” (in Old Russian “kosh” - camp, convoy; in Ukrainian “kish” means camp, settlement , and “koshevoy” is the foreman, the head of the kosh. In the Belarusian language, “kashevats” meant to spread out the camp); however, A.I. Sobolevsky proposed a Slavic etymology - from kostit “to scold.”

Koschey, as the name of a fairy tale hero and as a designation of a skinny man, Max Vasmer in his dictionary considers not Turkism, but primordially Slavic word(a homonym) and connects it with the word bone (Common Slavic *kostь)

Appearance

Koschei the Deathless (Koschei the Immortal)- a negative character in Russian fairy tales and in Russian folklore. A king, sometimes a rider on a magical talking horse. Often acts as the protagonist's bride kidnapper. He is depicted as a thin, tall old man, often presented as stingy and stingy (cf. “there Tsar Koschey is wasting away over gold” by A.S. Pushkin).

Origin

First of all, we know that this is one of the brightest fairy-tale characters. His appearance is vague, and the options for interpreting the image are contradictory. In addition, his name has a not entirely clear etymology. There are at least two versions of the origin of this dubious fairy-tale (and maybe not fairy-tale) personality: 1. This is the result of the people's imagination, which later became folklore and the property of the republic. 2. Koschey the Immortal is a prototype of a real person. Koschey the Immortal, whose photo for a number of reasons is not possible to demonstrate to you (only drawings) as a folklore fictional character endowed with many powers. He turns into a black raven, and sometimes into a flying snake. This allows him to easily and quickly move around the world and different worlds, stealing everything he needs. And what he needs is gold and other riches... Remember how Pushkin said about Koshchei, who languishes over gold? That's how it is. According to folklore, water gives it strength. Having drunk three whole buckets at a time, he is able to tame even the Serpent Gorynych himself! By the way, some researchers in the field Slavic mythology argue that the images of the Immortal and Gorynych are interchangeable in Russian fairy tales. Both of them simply adore wealth, and also steal beautiful girls! However, Koschey is endowed with a little more power, beyond the control of the Serpent Gorynych. According to this version, the prototype of the fabulous Koshchei is none other than Saint Kasyan himself. The fact is that the above-mentioned prototype could well have been called Koshchei because of the consonance of these names. In addition, two holidays coincide: the day of Chernobog and the day of St. Kasyan were celebrated by the Slavs at the same time - at the end of February. According to some reports, for this holiday they put on strange outfits in the form human bones with a crown on his head, which to this day are popular at children's matinees and in fairy-tale performances. This refers to the costume of Koshchei the Immortal. Meanwhile, Kasyan did a lot to spread Christianity on earth, but he was still considered evil, not holy!

Habitat

The exact location of the Hero is unknown, in different sources Various things are mentioned.

• FAR THREE NINE EARTHS away - In the fairy tale “The Frog Princess,” the heroine manages to say goodbye to Tsarevich Ivan with the phrase: “Look for me far away, in the thirtieth kingdom, with Kashchei the Immortal.” At such a dramatic moment, Vasilisa the Beautiful would not have spoken empty, meaningless sayings. She showed Ivan Tsarevich the exact place where Kashchei’s kingdom was located. That’s where they had to look for her in order to rescue her from Kashcheev’s captivity.

• The perception of Koshchei the Immortal as a representative of the “other” world, the world of death, is indicated by the characteristics of his location. The kingdom of Koshchei is very far away: the hero has to go to “the end of the world, to the very end” of it. Of all the paths, the longest, most difficult and dangerous one leads there: the hero wears out iron boots, an iron coat and an iron hat, eats three iron loaves; he has to overcome numerous obstacles, turn to assistants for advice and help, fight an insidious enemy, and even die and be resurrected. The dwelling of Koshchei the Immortal is depicted in a fairy tale as a palace, castle, big house, “fa-terka - golden windows.” Here there are untold riches - gold, silver, ray pearls, which the hero, after defeating the enemy, takes from his kingdom. According to researchers, the golden color of objects in the mythopoetic consciousness is perceived as a sign of the other world. The same applies to the image of the glass mountains, where, according to some fairy tale texts, the palace of Koshchei the Immortal is located. Lives in the underground kingdom.

Relatives

• According to some retrospections Koschey seems son Mother Earth in ancient Slavic mythology.

• Family connections of Koshchei the Immortal. E.V. Karavaeva notes: the fairy tale directly mentions that Vasilisa is daughter of Koshchei Immortal, whom he does not want to marry to anyone, which is another manifestation of his greed and acquisitiveness, authoritarianism. And the name Vasilisa comes from the Byzantine “basileos”, which means “king” or “queen”. That is, Vasilisa is the royal daughter, she is related to Koshchei and confirms his high social status king

Character traits and habits

Ruthless, evil, terrible sorcerer, terribly stingy.

In Dahl's Russian language dictionary, “Kashchey” is written with an “A”. And it explains why. “Kashchey,” according to Dahl, comes from the word “castit,” which means “to dirty, spoil, dirty, dirty, litter, scold, use foul language.” “Kast” is a dirty trick, an abomination, a disgusting thing, a filth..

In this case, the name very accurately defines the character and habits of our hero.

Interests

Collects gold and silver and various treasures. Loves to kidnap beauties.

Friends

Friends in different fairy tales we didn't find

Enemies

• Baba Yaga. Most often these two negative character at the same time, but in some fairy tales it is this old woman who tells the main character how to destroy the villain.
• The heroes are the kind Dobrynya, the smart Usynya and the savvy Gorynya.
• Koshchei’s main enemy is still Ivan Tsarevich, a man who never tires of fighting him.

Characteristic phrases, quotes

- “Fu, fu! You can’t hear a Russian braid, you can’t see it, but here it smells of Russia!”

- “I have death in such and such a place; there is an oak tree, under the oak tree there is a box, in the box there is a hare, in the hare there is a duck, in the duck there is an egg, in the egg is my death.”

- “Look for me far away, in the thirtieth kingdom, near Koshchei the Immortal...”

- “What are you, Koschey the Immortal! You yourself flew around Rus', picked up the Russian spirit - you smell of the Russian spirit.”

- “And I was here, I drank honey and wine, it was running down my mustache, it wasn’t in my mouth.”

Image in art

Works in which the creature appears

Marya Morevna. Princess Frog. Koschei the Deathless. Bulat is great. Russian folk tales

Ivan Sosnovich. White Sea fairy tale

Koshcheevo kingdom. Everyday tale

Panyushkin V. Koshchei's code: Russian fairy tales through the eyes of a lawyer.

The famous writer Valery Panyushkin discovered the origins of the modern legal system in Russian folk tales: even then the litigants were sure that the truth was unattainable, the punishment was determined social status criminal, the strongest always turned out to be right, the terms of the contract were revised retroactively, and evil in an open trial was a priori invincible. Has nothing really changed in so many centuries?

Yu. Kostrov Sukin sir, or Koshchei's egg.

After visiting the Apogee company, headed by Ilya Suvorov, several mysteriously disappear big businessmen and politicians. The unsuspecting owner of the company begins to be hunted by an all-Russian oligarch nicknamed Kalson, who manages to lure Suvorov to the closed clinic of Dr. Spleen, where they conduct strange experiments on people. The resourceful and resourceful Ilya Suvorov, who is at the same time “under the hood” of the colonel from the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department Petrovna and Long Johns, not only extricates himself from the tenacious clutches of the experimental doctor, but also manages to bestow passionate love on the women he meets on the way to salvation...

Shemshuk V.A. Meeting with Koshchei the Immortal. Practice of immortality.

Filmography

Photo by Koshchei the Immortal

from a children's film "Koschei the Immortal",Directed by Alexander Rowe. Premiere - May 27, 1945

Rimsky-Korsakov Musical film. 1952 (Evgeny Lebedev)

Cartoon frame "Princess Frog" 1954

Fire, water and... copper pipes Children's, musical. 1968 (Georgy Millyar)

Fun magic Movie. 19669 (Fyodor Nikitin)

New Year's adventures Masha and Vitya A film for children. 1975 (Nikolai Boyarsky)

There, on unknown paths... A film for children. 1982 (Alexander Filippenko)

After the rain on Thursday A film for children. 1985 (Oleg Tabakov)

They sat on the golden porch A film for children. 1986 (Viktor Sergachev)

A tale about a painter in love A film for children. 1987 (Valery Ivchenko)

purple ball Fantastic children's film. 1987 (Igor Yasulovich)

Koshcheevo kingdom. A film for children. 2003 Russia. Director: Svetlana Kenetsius

• Miracles in Reshetov A film for children. 2003 (Nodar Mgaloblishvili)

Book of Masters A film for children. 2009 (Gosha Kutsenko)

Similar creatures in the myths of other peoples, fairy tales, and science fiction works

Koschey Copperbeard- in Polish fairy tales there is a water monster. A merman with a copper beard, a toad head, crustacean claws and huge eyes. He can do magic. While talking he croaks all the time. Has power over all waters, even underground. “From the well, eye to eye, a monster looks at him: a toad’s head with a bucket, a mouth from ear to ear, eyes like baskets, instead of hands there are crayfish claws... the monster stuck out of the well halfway - its red beard spread out across the water, like rusty algae, Each hair moves one by one. - I am Koschey Copperbeard, ruler of the underworld...

Well, dear readers of Likbez, Children’s Day is just around the corner, so today I propose for consideration an almost childish question - how to write a name correctly fairy tale character, or ?

To begin with, let us recall, as usual, a story with a biography: “or Koschei the Deathless, in East Slavic mythology evil sorcerer, whose death is hidden in several nested magical animals and objects. In Russian fairy tales, Koschey takes the heroine to the ends of the world to his home, she finds out where his death is hidden; conveys the secret to his hero-savior, who achieves death, and Koschey dies.”

In Pushkin, if you remember, the name of this character is written with an a -: “...There Tsar Kashchei is wasting away over gold...”. Everyone has this mythological character. Eastern Slavs: a bony and evil old man endowed with immortality, the owner of enormous wealth, a king, a werewolf and a sorcerer, a kidnapper of beauties who starved them, etc.

The history of the origin and spelling of this stingy old man's estate remains largely unclear.

According to one hypothesis, one should write - from cost, bone, “bony.” Koshchei can also be associated with the verb ossify- freeze, harden, fall into numbness: “Koschey, the kidnapper of the red maiden-sun, personifies the winter clouds, because of which the earth becomes ossified, numb, and freezes.” Under the influence of Koschey's machinations, the heroes of fairy tales turn into stone, wood, ice - they ossify. Hence the Russian “blasphemous”, “sorcerer”, “to create blasphemies”.

According to another hypothesis, one should write - from cast- to bone or scold (scold). It is interesting that the Slavic “kostit” means not just “to vilify, blaspheme,” but also “to spoil, to cause harm.” By the way, this meaning is also preserved in the word “dirty” - intentional harm caused to someone. Indeed, in all fairy tales this old miser does nothing but “knock” - he does dirty tricks on the good characters.

There is another hypothesis that interprets the meaning of the name Koschey: it is considered a borrowing from Turkic languages ​​during the period of early Slavic-Turkic connections and correlates with the Turkic word koshchi - “captive”. This hypothesis is the only one presented in encyclopedic dictionary“Myths of the peoples of the world.”

According to Dahl's dictionary, at first it was Kashchei, which means “a vile, nasty dirty trick”, from the word “kast” - dirty trick. This is how Pushkin also wrote Kashcheya. And then they started writing Koschey - bony. Maybe by association with Baba Yaga's bone leg?

However, you can also write Kashchei - after all, after reading this “Educational Education Program”, you probably noticed the difference between the malicious, dirty old man - Kashchei and Koshchei - the bony miser.

Thanks for the help to the book “Images of an East Slavic fairy tale” by N. Novikov.