This course of lectures is based on principles and concepts of ethnolinguistics in synchrony and diachrony, as well as principles of linguistic and cultural studies, using methods of semantic, etymological and textual analysis. The course's aim is to form an understanding of the word and text as a source of cultural information of a particular people; to show the depth of the folk cultural memory, to expand the students' view of the language as the main element of the people's culture and the principal medium of its representation; to introduce students to the treasures of the spiritual and intellectual culture of the North of Russia that are preserved in folk literature and lore.