The Mistress of the Copper Mountain (Russian: Хозяйка медной горы, romanized: Khozyaika mednoi gory;), also known as The Malachite Maid (Russian: Малахитница, romanized: Malakhitnitsa), is a legendary being of the Ural miners, said to be the Mistress of the Ural Mountains of Russia. A character of Slavic mythology and Russian fairy tales. In folklore or legend, she is depicted as an extremely beautiful green-eyed young woman in a malachite gown or as a lizard. She has been viewed as the patroness of miners, the protector and owner of hidden underground riches, the one who can either permit or prevent the mining of stones and metals in certain places. "The Copper Mountain" is the Gumyoshevsky mine, the oldest mine of the Ural Mountains, which was called "The Copper Mountain" or simply "The Mountain" by the populace. It is now located in the town of Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast. In some regions of the Ural Mountains, the image of the Mistress is connected (or equated) with another female creature from the local folktales, the Azov Girl (Азовка; Azovka), the enchanted girl or princess who lives inside Mount Azov. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain became a well known character from her appearance in Pavel Bazhov's collection of Ural Mountains folktales (also known as skaz) under the title The Malachite Box. The Mistress appears in the third skaz, "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", and in 9 other stories from the collection, including "The Stone Flower", "The Manager's Boot-Soles", and "Sochen and His Stones".
Characteristics The Mistress of the Copper Mountain has the appearance of an extremely beautiful young woman with green eyes (or sometimes a mature woman, though unmarried, as indicated by her unscarved hair). Some of her more distinctive features include dark braided hair, ribbons from thin tinkling copper, and a gown that is made from malachite. She wears a diadem decorated with malachite and precious stones. The mistress can appear as a lizard herself, sometimes wearing a crown, and has the mountain lizards under her command. She may also assume the form of a snake, though the giant snake master is also familiarly embodied by Poloz (cf. the tale "The Great Snake"). As a mountain spirit, she is the protector and owner of hidden underground riches. She is said to be always surrounded by her servants, small lizards, which can be green, of various hues of blue, golden-speckled, glittering like mica, or patterned. According to legend, a person who sees the Mistress comes under her spell. She shows kindness to good people and skilled craftsmen, helping them to find jewels and gold, but if her conditions aren't met, the person loses all his luck and skill, and can even die. She could permit or prevent mining in certain places, give or take wealth, and sometimes employs lizards under her control as her minions to conduct her work. Thus miners for malachite considered their finds to be owing to her blessing, and if they suffered a streak over time not finding any, they suspected they have incurred their wrath. In the Urals it was assumed she only favored those people who were good, honest, and hard-working, or workers who are brave and freedom-loving, tending to be hostile to the aristocracy. The sacral being, the Mistress was surrounded by rituals and taboos, e.g. women did not come down in the mine, because it was the Mistress's domain, and young men seeking her patronage did not marry. The violation of the taboos was supposed to bring a harsh punishment. Children were taught not to shout and quarrel next to the stones, and to keep quiet in the mines, because, according to popular belief, the Maid disliked loud noises. Her distinguishing attributes were lizards, copper and malachite.
Other names The Mistress of the Copper Mountain may be called just "The Mistress of the Mountain", and also has many other names, such as The Mountain Mother (Горная матка, Gornaja matka), The Golden Woman (Золотая баба, Zolotaya baba), The Stone Maiden (Каменная девка, Kamennaja devka), or The Stone Girl The Malachite Girl, The Malachite Maid or The Malachite Lady (Малахитница, Malakhitnitsa), The Serpent Mistress, The Lizard Queen, etc. It has been claimed that because the Mistress is so powerful and dreadful, she has not been named directly by the miners, who say "it was she herself" (сама это).
The Azov Girl In many national folktales, the Mistress and Azovka (lit. "the Azov Girl") are identical with each other, and the same stories are told about each of them. The Azov Girl may also be a sort of underling of the Mistress of the Mountain (rather akin to the army of lizards under the Mistress's command). However, the Azov Girl seems to have an independent identity unconnected to the Mistress of the Mountain, this despite the fact that Azov Girl is certainly the guardian of minable treasure (gold, etc.), and not of weapons or other goods. The tales about Azovka are very different from one another, although they share some common characteristics. Firstly, that there's a cave with hidden treasures inside Mount Azov. Secondly, few people found the cave, and no one could get the treasures. The treasures belong to the Tatars, the Bashkirs, or "the Old People". According to popular belief, Azovka lives/is held captive inside the cave (or the mountain), and she guards the treasures. In most tales, she is the enchanted girl, possibly stolen by the Tatars, the cursed Tatar princess, the Old People's queen or their elder's daughter.
Appearances in works
In The Malachite Box The Mistress of the Copper Mountain appears in the third Pavel Bazhov's skaz from The Malachite Box, "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", first published in the 11th issue of Krasnaya Nov in 1936; and then in many other tales: "The Malachite Casket", "The Stone Flower", "The Manager's Boot-Soles", "Sochen and His Stones", "The Master Craftsman", "The Two Lizards", "A Fragile Twig", "The Grass Hideaway", and "Tayutka's Mirror". Bazhov confirmed that he based the character on local legends. He said: "Yes, I believe that the series of tales connected with the Gumyoshevsky mine is closer to folklore. In my opinion, they represent the attempt to reconstruct the folklore of this mine". When asked whether the character from his writing differs from its folklore interpretation, Bazhov replied: "I don't believe there is a difference. If there is, it is bad [news]". In "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" she is described as follows:
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