Wind-Mother of the Mordvins
Mordvin · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Erzya/Moksha ⟨Варма ава⟩ Varma ava (varma 'wind' + ava 'mother'). Distinct from the male wind-god Varma-pas (Varmanpaz), who in the Erzya egg-cosmology is a son of the sun-god Chipaz; the mother-figure and the god coexist in the sources and are kept separate here.
Domains
- wind and weather
- mediation between living and dead
Powers
- raises, drives and stills the winds and weather
- bears messages on the wind between the living and the dead
Sources
- Varma-ava (Varmava) is the Mordvin wind-mother, female owner-spirit of wind and weather and a mediator between the living and the dead; an Erzya egg-cosmology also names a male wind-god Varma-pas/Varmanpaz.: Harva, Uno. Die religiösen Vorstellungen der mordwinischen Völker. FF Communications 142. Helsinki, 1952. (secondary); Hamari, Arja, & Rigina Ajanki. 'Mordvin (Erzya and Moksha).' The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages. OUP, 2022, ch. 23 (Varmava, wind-mother and mediator). (secondary)