ASPECTS OF THE SUPERNATURAL ACCORDING TO FOLK BELIEF IN NORTHWESTERN BULGARIA (ON MATERIALS FROM DIMITAR MARINOV'S WORK "FOLK FAITH")

Abstract

The understanding of the supernatural in Bulgarian folk culture corresponds to the notion of the existence of an invisible world, the space for the manifestation of the supernatural. In the folklore narratives systematized by the Bulgarian ethnographer Dimitar Marinov, mainly from Northwestern Bulgaria, about folk ideas of non-human beings, one is struck by the synthesis between pagan beliefs and Christian images and narratives, symptomatic of the processes of folklorization of Christianity. The understanding of the natural world in folklore is refracted through the human sensory ability to perceive the appearance, the form, of the object. Whereas, the supernatural world is treated as unattainable to human vision and is therefore invisible and characterized by its inhumanity, i.e., lack of clear visible form. It is a fact, however, that popular culture designates both the visible and the invisible world with the category of truth and reality, But the invisible world is treated as a supernatural reality dominating the life of the natural world and the destiny of human beings. In the unseen, supernatural world, there are creatures embodying axiological and ethical values, testifying to dualistic traditions absorbed from popular culture. Among them, the descriptions of God, angels and devils, whose images, described in detail in Dimitar Marinov's work, are indicative of the development and internal elements of Bulgarian folk culture.