Koschei the Deathless: Nested Reality in Myth

"The soul of Koschei the Deathless lies across the ocean on the Isle of Buyan where it is bound within a needle that is within an egg that is within a duck that is within a hare that is locked away in a chest of iron buried beneath the roots of a great green oak where no one will ever find it."
-The Tale of Koschei the Deathless, 1819 collected edition.

Recursion, nesting and layered realities are common themes underpinning the structure of myth, folklore and now speculative fiction. Koschei, famed sorcerer-villain of Russian lore immortalized by Stravinsky in his opera The Firebird is a prime example of nesting in fiction. Koschei's soul, by obscure means, was separated from his body long ago and hidden like a Matryoshka doll within a great many other things (which vary between tellings of the myth). He remains vulnerable, though, to any human who can lay hands upon the egg. Consider Koschei as nested within the reality of his own existence. Koschei, then, will be referred to as K, while the egg containing/embodying his soul will be referred to as K-1. What occurs in/to/around K cannot effect K-1, for through the principles of nesting theory K-1 has come to exist as a super-reality for K. The reverse, then, is untrue; if the egg is smashed (sometimes against Koschei's forehead, sometimes simply against a rock) then Koschei will die.

The idea presented by the necessity of breaking the egg against Koschei's body is an interesting one. It affirms the idea that K and K-1 are not separate ideals but a disjointed whole capable of reintegration. When K and K-1 are reunited, their distinct realities collapse into one and correlation is replaced by singularity. Koschei becomes whole and, his interstitial existence collapsed, he dies. Or, rather, his body is allowed to experience the Death that has befallen it.

Death via reunion with one's soul, or freeing of one's soul from mortal bonds, is a popular trope in today's speculative fiction. Voldemort, villain of J. K. Rowling's acclaimed Harry Potter septad, possesses magical phylacteries which each contain a piece of his soul. The books state that Voldemort could, were he to experience true remorse, rebuild his mangled animus, but that the existential pain would more than likely prove lethal. The archetype of the lich, his body soulless and unstuck from time, is a powerful one. As (un)living expressions of Cartesian dualism, they resonate powerfully with the mythic conscience of humanity. No violation could be more profound, or more intriguing, than the subversion of death. The subtext of inward-outward definition through Nesting act as an effective anchor for a theoretical dissection of the mechanics of Lichism, parsing mysticism, metaphysics and psychology from a dense and resonant subject.

In Koschei's story we are shown, ultimately, the folly of Practical Dualism when the sorcerer's soul ends up in the hands of an enemy, a state of affairs that would never have been possible had Koschei not committed his existential crime. A fanciful lesson, but an interesting one.

Word of the Day: Milieu.
Book of the Day: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.
Author of the Day: Oscar Wilde, English playwright and novelist/philosopher.