A God-Oracle Bear Song
This is the third of four god-oracle bear songs (istenjóslatos medveénekek) — songs in which the dead bear speaks through the ceremony as a divine witness. Where the simple bear songs narrate the bear's life as an animal, and the dawn-awakening songs rouse the bear's spirit for the ceremony, the god-oracle songs are the bear's own testimony: the voice of one who has been killed and who speaks from the other side of death.
The theological centre of this song is the shared name. The bear and the hunter are both called "the Old One of the Vagla Headwaters." The bear recognises his own animal form as "marked" for this particular hunter — not a random encounter but a divine appointment. The killing is reunion. The bear's father is Polém-god, whose idol-shrine the bear sees upstream on the river: a man with a foamy head and a fiery belt. The five-night ceremony (the male count — female bears receive four) is the passage between death and the bear's return to the sky.
The bear's body is his vessel in both the literal and sacred sense. He calls his belly "my little canoe with three bottom-planks" and paddles across rivers with his hands and feet. He calls his mouth "the ten-toothed wide mouth." He calls his heart "my convenient flying-place" — the spot from which the soul takes flight. This is not metaphor. This is the bear's own language for his own body, spoken from within it.
Recorded by Bernát Munkácsi among the Mansi people of the Vagla River headwaters, Western Siberia, and published in his Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény, Volume III: Medveénekek (Bear Songs), Budapest, 1893. No English translation of this song has previously existed.
The Sixth Section: God-Oracle Bear Songs
I am a little man who has passed the winter.
To the bank of the Little Konda I went down
for a scrap of spring grass-stalk.
The low-sprouting tender grass with its two leaf-shoots,
into the ten-toothed wide mouth
I stuff.
Down this branching Konda
I walk along.
I come to the edge of a Meadow-man's audible noise.
As I look:
a horse-herd of seven horses
walks about there.
I rush at them from behind a hiding-tree;
with three animal-leaps I drive them off.
The twenty claws of bitter pitch
sink deep in —
the fearsome reddened four fangs
sink deep in.
For one new-moon week,
a true seven prey-sittings, I sit here.
As I look upon the noble horse's flank:
my noble animal form
is marked for Polém-god, my father —
is marked for the Old One of the Vagla Headwaters.
The Old One of the Vagla Headwaters' good animal-seeking trail —
I know it also.
With three animal-strides I walk his forest;
his boggy places I knead with my shins,
his thicket-places I walk with my soles.
All at once to some sort of
river I come.
I look upstream, toward the source-land of the spring-fed river:
a man with a foamy head,
a man who has put on a fiery belt —
Polém-god my father's idol-shrine is there.
I look toward the mouth of the mouthed river:
at the mouth of the mouthed river,
seven water-sprites in a sandy village
dwell.
To the branching Polém River's bank,
when I come there,
my little canoe with three bottom-planks
I push onto the water.
My poor paddles of stave-wood pieces:
my two little hands.
My two oars of hard wood:
my two feet.
I paddle to the left:
may no upstream boat-guest come this way!
May no downstream sled-guest come this way!
Through boggy places I go, kneading them with my shins;
through thicket-places I go, walking with my soles.
All at once to some sort of river I arrive;
as I look — that oft-mentioned branching Lozva,
it is you!
My little canoe with three bottom-planks
once more I push onto the water.
I paddle to the left:
may no upstream boat-guest come this way!
May no downstream boat-guest come this way!
A long time I walk, or a short time I walk.
Near the edge of the Old One of the Vagla Headwaters'
good sable-hunting trail —
my golden-seven, my silvery-seven smoke-hole mouth,
there I fling it open.
The Old One of the Vagla Headwaters' sable-dog
runs about here.
From the base of a rooted tree it sniffs;
from the visible reach of a visible tree it scents.
My scent — the scent of a scented animal —
I let go forth.
A dog the size of a male wolf
barks at me there.
The Old One of the Vagla Headwaters runs forward now.
His armful of black iron arrows —
for that purpose he brings it.
His good axe the size of a bull's thigh —
for that purpose he brings it.
His side-sheathed knife —
for that purpose he brings it.
The animal's convenient flying-place —
my heart —
aiming, he looks upon it.
Like the husk of a back-bundle whose food is consumed,
so is my head crushed.
Like an empty forest-skin,
so am I rolled up there.
My lady's noble son,
the Old One of the Vagla Headwaters —
into a root-curved pack
he places me there.
We arrive at the region of girl-noise.
My lady's noble son gives a shout —
like one whose food was scarce,
whose drink was scarce,
such a shout he gives.
Many weak-handed little women
come forward.
Like a male squirrel swimming in water —
those dear fathers of yours! —
the little women soak us through.
My lady's noble son provided
a fine nest of bright-sided cloth.
For five nights, five days
I sat about.
My dish blessed with foal-fat —
for five nights, five days
I gazed upon it.
Good hand-twisting play
I gazed upon.
Good foot-twisting play
I saw.
Like a male squirrel swimming in water,
the people were soaked through.
My lady's noble son —
to God's thousand days
I leave him here.
Colophon
Translated from Mansi (Vogul) source text via Munkácsi Bernát's Hungarian intermediary translation. Source: Munkácsi, Bernát. Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény, III. kötet: Medveénekek (Bear Songs). Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893. Sixth Section (Hatodik szakasz: Istenjóslatos medveénekek — God-oracle Bear Songs), Song III (A vagla-fői öreg éneke), pp. 335–343. Archive.org identifier: f1vogulnpklt03munkuoft. Public domain.
The Hungarian translation was the primary intermediary; the Mansi source text (presented below) was consulted for proper nouns, ritual formulae, river names, and structural verification. Two versions of the Mansi text exist in the volume: (a) Antal Reguly's original field transcription (1843–1845), a prose rendering in an early phonetic notation, and (b) an Upper Lozva dialect retranscription into Munkácsi's standard phonetic system. The translation follows version (b) where available; for the middle narrative section (the hunt, killing, and ceremonial procession), only version (a) survives in full, and the Hungarian translation there bridges both layers.
The shared name: Both the bear and the hunter are called Völ'-tal'éy ansuy ("the Old One of the Vagla Headwaters"). The bear recognises his animal form as "marked" (yansimé) for this particular hunter — dedicated by Polém-god at birth. The killing is not violence but the fulfilment of a divine appointment. This theology is central to the Mansi bear ceremony: the bear descends from heaven, lives an animal life, is killed by the person he was meant for, and returns to heaven through the ceremony. The hunter and the bear are two faces of one sacred relationship, which is why they share a name.
Polém-god (Polém-tōrém, Hungarian Polém-isten): A deity of the Mansi pantheon associated with the Polém (Pelim) river territory. The bear's father. The "man with a foamy head and a fiery belt" is the god's idol, standing at the river's source.
Key circumlocutions: "Little canoe with three bottom-planks" (három tatfás kis csónak) = the bear's belly, used to cross rivers — the three "planks" are the muscular ridges of the abdomen. "Meadow-man" (réti férfiú, Mansi nürmén yum) = bear, a ritual avoidance name. "Ten-toothed wide mouth" (tíz fogú öblös száj) = the bear's mouth. "Convenient flying-place" (repesö alkalmas hely) = the heart, from which the animal's soul takes flight at the moment of death. "Girl-noise" (leányzajgás) = the sound of women at the village, marking the arrival of the ceremonial procession. "Root-curved pack" (fagyökér-hajlatú hajlatos bátyú) = the birch-bark carrying frame. "Sable-dog" (nyuszt-eb) = a hunting dog trained for sable. The "soaking" (áztatás): the ritual washing of the bear's body by women upon arrival. "My lady's noble son" (nájim jomés pi) = the hunter, whom the bear addresses through his wife's title — a courtesy that positions the bear as a honoured guest of the household. "God's thousand days" (isten ezer napja) = forever, eternity — the bear's final blessing upon the hunter before ascending.
Good Works Translation (AI-assisted). Translated by Ljóð, Tulku of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, for the Good Works Project. First English translation. March 2026.
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Source Text
Mansi (Upper Lozva dialect) — Völ-tatéy ansuy eri'
Mansi source text from Munkácsi's Upper Lozva dialect retranscription (version b), pp. 335–343, with Reguly's field prose (version a) supplied where version b is fragmentary. OCR quality is moderate — Mansi diacritics are partially degraded. Line numbers follow Munkácsi's original. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
Version b (Upper Lozva retranscription):
Tál yujim yumrés qsém,
Man-Xqntén vátan nal jamsém
tüjd porV suprés ma'és,
jolél pokpi kit yaspd nár jintán
5 lqu nispá yalén süpné
am sumrilém,
ti kwalém Xqntén lqnyál
am jqmente'im,
nürmén yum yata yürné joyteim,
10 kwoss yanteim :
sat lupa lü-jewér
tot jqmente'it,
am tüli jiw sajin yinfiáném,
uj yürém átél am el várilém,
15 sqrdm anyén yüs kwons
tü sajle'it,
yum pilné vortém nild sajV
tü sajle'it.
Telpd jányép mantén sát
20 söl' sát potaytél üt ünlenteim.
jqmés lüiv sankwné kwoss yanteim
jqmés uj yurim
Polém-tarém asémné tü yansimé,
Völ-taléy ansuyné tü yansimé.
25 Völ'-tal'éy ansuy uj kinsi jqmés jos
am qs yansílém,
uj yürém patítél üntd jqmenteim;
ndrén mdtd sqrmél posyente'im,
sujin mdtd pattal jqmente'im.
30 Akw'-mat-ert mater qlpd
mat jdné jqmliteim.
alyd sunse'im, tal'yéfi jd tal'ydn :
yum — yumplén punkpd,
uldn entép yartém yum,
35 Polém-tqrém dsém ürndtd.
titén jd titdn sunse'im :
titén jd titdn
jeméfi paulpd sdt vitkééné
ünélndtd.
40 Kwdlém Polém vdtdn
yün jqmliteim,
yürém toytpd mdn ydpém
nal narémtilém.
saüd-jiw pal tüt tüp :
45 kit kátldyém,
vort-jiw pal kit tüp :
kit Wilayém.
Álétn pdlné tqwliteim ;
alyd minné yapén muj ul qld !
50 lqnyd minné sünén muj ul qld!
Ndrén mdtné kwale'im : sqrmél posyente'im,
sujin mdtné kwdleim : patitél jqménteim,
akw'-mat-ert mater qlpd mater jdné joyte'im,
kwoss yqntilém : an ldiveltané kwdlém Lüsm nan ti!
55 As yürém toytpd mdn yapém
nal narémtilém.
dlém pdlné tqwliteim :
alyd minné ydpén muj ul qld !
Iqnyd minné ydpén muj ul qld !
60 yqsd jqmente'im, man vdii jqmenteim,
Völ'-taHéy ansuy noys kinsi jqmés jos-vdtdn
sqrni sdt, qltén [sdt] sürém-süntém
tü raumtilém.
Völ'-taHéy ansuy jqmés noys-dmpd
65 tit yajtentiy
Version a (Reguly's field prose, supplying lines 66–94):
kinnéi, jommas jqs vátan, sarn sqat qltn surin süniem tu rdumtilm. Uw tciídy qnsuh jommas noys aampd iH kaitdnti, pdtüng iju pattan dt kqrtdnti, uuning iju uontne dt vdenti.
Áting uj dtem illtaritilm. kar sés jant qampetén iui korrmtaum.
Uw tdl'dy ansuh te kaiti; semel kérp ndling aln tannmos tqtit, kdr pés jdnt jommas sqirp tannmos tqtit, péspoq suotqkqld tannmos tátit, uj telt jqring mdm poasse sunzüdm; téhd taaim kvdssem tqul pdngem rditeldm; tqatl qlpd unté tqul' íut peritdm.
Naim jommas pi ul tdtdy ansuh nqusitpd siting ndpnd tut tdritaum.
Aai sarr kuornd joytimdn naim jommas pi kal'nq voqri, tépd nqalt ut'd nqalt kalna voari.
Must kdipd sau ang kuontkáti uítci uj karlin. Jdin tining qngtnd íui ndprd jaumdn.
Version b (resumed, lines 95–110):
95 Nájém jqmés pV xqntém
nákwén nuj jqmés pit'it
at étén at yqtél
am ünlentdsém.
nawér-vöj sunin kiwrém
100 at étén at yqtél
am sunsdsém.
kdtd peri jqmés jonV
am sunsdsém,
Wild peri jqmés jonV
105 am vasém.
Vitte uji ydr lein
mdm napréjaytdst. —
ndjim jqmés pV
tqréin sqtrén yqtél kastél
110 no ía yülilém.
Source Colophon
Mansi (Vogul) source text from Munkácsi, Bernát. Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény, III. kötet: Medveénekek. Budapest, 1893. Upper Lozva dialect retranscription (version b) by Munkácsi from Antal Reguly's field recordings (1843–1845), supplemented by Reguly's original transcription (version a) for the narrative middle section. OCR extracted from the Internet Archive digitisation (identifier: f1vogulnpklt03munkuoft). OCR quality is moderate; Mansi diacritics are partially degraded — consult the Archive.org PDF for authoritative readings. Public domain.
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