# Menk

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Menk
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Menk.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menk
> Source revision: 1227201158
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Forest spirit of Khanty and Mansi mythology}}
{{for|the surname|Menk (surname)}}
In [Khanty](/source/Khanty) and [Mansi](/source/Mansi_people) [folklore](/source/folklore), the '''Menk''' is a forest spirit of these peoples' mythology.<ref name="Hatto2017">{{cite book|author=Arthur Hatto|title=The World of the Khanty Epic Hero-Princes: An Exploration of a Siberian Oral Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYDuDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA243|date=2 February 2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-10321-4|pages=243–}}</ref><ref name="Balzer1999">{{cite book|author=Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer|title=The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZedV50h5-kC|date=21 November 1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-00673-3}}</ref> The [Khanty](/source/Khanty) and [Mansi](/source/Mansi_people) are [Indigenous people](/source/Indigenous_peoples) living in the [Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug](/source/Khanty-Mansi_Autonomous_Okrug) of [Russia](/source/Russia).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/mansis.shtml|title=THE MANSIS |publisher=The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire|author=|date=|website=www.eki.ee}}</ref>

==Mythology==
The menk is part of the [Siberian](/source/Siberia) [oral tradition](/source/oral_tradition). These beliefs were retained by the Khanty and Mansi people, even though they became, or were compelled to become Russian Orthodox Christians in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Khanty [epics](/source/Epic_poetry), the menk are presented as "formidable forest spirits". The Hero-Prince typically inflicts many "pseudo-deaths" on a menk until he is able to inflict a "total death". Menk are protected by gods who intervene to prevent their deaths, however the laws of the gods can be bypassed by humans. In the epics, menk occur in sevens, such as seven menk from one mother, or seven menk with one soul. According to the mythology, menk's eyes cannot look down, so the Hero-Princes often attack them from below while fighting in rivers. <ref name="Hatto2017" />

In Khanty mythology, local people of ''Por'' ancestry are aligned with menk, who they believe to be "just like humans, only spirits of the parallel forest world".<ref name="Balzer1999" />

==Popular culture==
According to skeptical investigator [Benjamin Radford](/source/Benjamin_Radford), a 2014 [Discovery Channel](/source/Discovery_Channel) program that suggested a menk was responsible for deaths in the [Dyatlov Pass incident](/source/Dyatlov_Pass_incident) is "a textbook example of modern cable TV mystery-mongering".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/discoverys_mountain_of_mystery_mongering_the_mass_murdering_yeti|title=Discovery's Mountain of Mystery Mongering: The Mass Murdering Yeti - CSI|author=Benjamin Radford|date=2014|website=www.csicop.org}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary}}

Category:Khanty
Category:Mansi
Category:Russian folklore

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Menk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menk) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menk?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.