Mikhail Bulgakov's Azazello, Behemoth and Abadonna, Viewed Against the Background of Their Onomastic Prototypes

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Three of the demonic characters from Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita bear names derived from the biblical and later Jewish and Christian literary tradition. They are: Azazello, Behemoth and Abadonna. Are traces of these traditions visible in Bulgakov's literary creations, despite the fact that they most likely reached him indirectly? In itself, the biblical-traditional origin of these names is well known, and some basic relationships between these characters and their onomastic prototypes in biblical and non-canonical literature have been already described. Even on many popular websites dedicated to The Master and Margarita one can find information that Azazello refers to the figure of Azazel from the Book of Leviticus and the fallen angel from the First Book of Enoch, Behemoth appears as a great beast in the Book of Job, and Abadonna refers to the Angel of Abyss from the Book of Revelation. My goal is to deepen and verify these insights by reversing their usual direction. I wish to reconstruct the demonology of the onomastic prototypes of Azazello, Behemoth and Abadonna in the Bible and in non-canonical literature, and then to inspect the characters in the book against that background. An analysis of the original contexts and comparing it with the demonology of the novel, for some characters (in the first place for Azazello, and partly also Abadonna) shows significant traces of concepts and images associated with their names in Bulgakov's literary creation. In the case of others—mainly Behemoth—these relationships turn out to be much looser.