Russian folklore conceives of an externalized soul nested in layers of concealment

Evidence

His death, the tale tells, was at the point of a needle. That needle was inside an egg. The egg was inside a duck. The duck was inside a hare. The hare was locked in an iron chest. The chest was buried beneath the roots of a great oak tree, and the oak stood on a far, lonely island in the middle of the wide ocean. So long as that needle was safe, Koschei could never die, no matter what any hero did to him — which is why he feared nothing and did as he pleased. — , A Year of World Stories, 13744

Categorization

• XREF: The external-soul motif connects to the readers’ other folklore material (Soslan’s knees, Esfandiyar’s eyes) and Frazer’s The Golden Bough on the external soul.