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For fans of folklore and mythology, this comprehensive volume offers the best of both worlds: an astute introduction to and overview of the common themes and motifs in Russian fairy tales, plus an eclectic collection of charming and enchanting fables, stories, and vignettes.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juin 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776538751
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES
A CHOICE COLLECTION OF MUSCOVITE FOLKLORE
* * *
W. R. S. RALSTON

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Russian Fairy Tales A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folklore First published in 1887 Epub ISBN 978-1-77653-875-1 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77653-876-8 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Preface Chapter I - Introductory Chapter II - Mythological - Principal Incarnations of Evil Chapter III - Mythological - Miscellaneous Impersonifications Chapter IV - Magic and Witchcraft Chapter V - Ghost Stories Chapter VI - Legends Endnotes
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To the Memory of
ALEXANDER AFANASIEF
I Dedicate this Book,
TO HIM SO DEEPLY INDEBTED.
Preface
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The stories contained in the following pages are taken from thecollections published by Afanasief, Khudyakof, Erlenvein, andChudinsky. The South-Russian collections of Kulish and Rudchenko Ihave been able to use but little, there being no complete dictionaryavailable of the dialect, or rather the language, in which they arewritten. Of these works that of Afanasief is by far the mostimportant, extending to nearly 3,000 pages, and containing 332distinct stories—of many of which several variants are given,sometimes as many as five. Khudyakof's collection contains 122skazkas—as the Russian folk-tales are called—Erlenvein's 41, andChudinsky's 31. Afanasief has also published a separate volume,containing 33 "legends," and he has inserted a great number of storiesof various kinds in his "Poetic views of the Old Slavonians aboutNature," a work to which I have had constant recourse.
From the stories contained in what may be called the "chap-bookliterature" of Russia, I have made but few extracts. It may, however,be as well to say a few words about them. There is a Russian word lub , diminutive lubok , meaning the soft bark of the lime tree,which at one time was used instead of paper. The popular tales whichwere current in former days were at first printed on sheets or stripsof this substance, whence the term lubochnuiya came to be given toall such productions of the cheap press, even after paper had takenthe place of bark. [1]
The stories which have thus been preserved have no small interest oftheir own, but they cannot be considered as fair illustrations ofRussian folk-lore, for their compilers in many cases took them fromany sources to which they had access, whether eastern or western,merely adapting what they borrowed to Russian forms of thought andspeech. Through some such process, for instance, seem to have passedthe very popular Russian stories of Eruslan Lazarevich and of BovaKorolevich. They have often been quoted as "creations of the Slavonicmind," but there seems to be no reason for doubting that they aremerely Russian adaptations, the first of the adventures of the PersianRustem, the second of those of the Italian Buovo di Antona, our SirBevis of Hampton. The editors of these "chap-book skazkas" belonged tothe pre-scientific period, and had a purely commercial object in view.Their stories were intended simply to sell.
A German version of seventeen of these "chap-book tales," to whichwas prefixed an introduction by Jacob Grimm, was published some fortyyears ago, [2] and has been translated into English. [3] Somewhat later,also, appeared a German version of twelve more of these tales. [4]
Of late years several articles have appeared in some of the Germanperiodicals, [5] giving accounts or translations of some of the RussianPopular Tales. But no thorough investigation of them appeared inprint, out of Russia, until the publication last year of the eruditework on "Zoological Mythology" by Professor Angelo de Gubernatis. Init he has given a summary of the greater part of the stories containedin the collections of Afanasief and Erlenvein, and so fully has hedescribed the part played in them by the members of the animal worldthat I have omitted, in the present volume, the chapter I had preparedon the Russian "Beast-Epos."
Another chapter which I have, at least for a time, suppressed, isthat in which I had attempted to say something about the origin andthe meaning of the Russian folk-tales. The subject is so extensivethat it requires for its proper treatment more space than a singlechapter could grant; and therefore, though not without reluctance, Ihave left the stories I have quoted to speak for themselves, except inthose instances in which I have given the chief parallels to be foundin the two collections of foreign folk-tales best known to the Englishreader, together with a few others which happened to fall within therange of my own reading. Professor de Gubernatis has discussed atlength, and with much learning, the esoteric meaning of the skazkas,and their bearing upon the questions to which the "solar theory" ofmyth-explanation has given rise. To his volumes, and to those of Mr.Cox, I refer all who are interested in those fascinating enquiries. Mychief aim has been to familiarize English readers with the Russianfolk-tale; the historical and mythological problems involved in it canbe discussed at a later period. Before long, in all probability, acopious flood of light will be poured upon the connexion of thePopular Tales of Russia with those of other lands by one of thosescholars who are best qualified to deal with the subject. [6]
Besides the stories about animals, I have left unnoticed two othergroups of skazkas—those which relate to historical events, and thosein which figure the heroes of the Russian "epic poems" or "metricalromances." My next volume will be devoted to the Builinas, as thosepoems are called, and in it the skazkas which are connected with themwill find their fitting place. In it, also, I hope to find space forthe discussion of many questions which in the present volume I havebeen forced to leave unnoticed.
The fifty-one stories which I have translated at length I haverendered as literally as possible. In the very rare instances in whichI have found it necessary to insert any words by way of explanation, Ihave (except in the case of such additions as "he said" or the like)enclosed them between brackets. In giving summaries, also, I have keptclosely to the text, and always translated literally the passagesmarked as quotations. In the imitation of a finished work of art,elaboration and polish are meet and due, but in a transcript fromnature what is most required is fidelity. An "untouched" photograph isin certain cases infinitely preferable to one which has been carefully"worked upon." And it is, as it were, a photograph of the Russianstory-teller that I have tried to produce, and not an ideal portrait.
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The following are the principal Russian books to which reference hasbeen made:—
AFANASIEF (A.N.). Narodnuiya Russkiya Skazki [7] [Russian Popular Tales]. 8 pts. Moscow, 1863-60-63. Narodnuiya Russkiya Legendui [8] [Russian Popular Legends]. Moscow, 1859. Poeticheskiya Vozzryeniya Slavyan na Prirodu [Poetic Views of the Slavonians about Nature]. [9] 3 vols. Moscow, 1865-69.
KHUDYAKOF (I.A.). Velikorusskiya Skazki [Great-Russian Tales]. Moscow, 1860.
CHUDINSKY (E.A.). Russkiya Narodnuiya Skazki, etc. [Russian Popular Tales, etc.]. Moscow, 1864.
ERLENVEIN (A.A.). Narodnuiya Skazki, etc. [Popular Tales, collected by village schoolmasters in the Government of Tula]. Moscow, 1863.
RUDCHENKO (I.). Narodnuiya Yuzhnorusskiya Skazki [South-Russian Popular Tales]. [10] Kief, 1869.
Most of the other works referred to are too well known to require afull setting out of their title. But it is necessary to explain thatreferences to Grimm are as a general rule to the "Kinder- undHausmärchen," 9th ed. Berlin, 1870. Those to Asbjörnsen and Moe are tothe "Norske Folke-Eventyr," 3d ed. Christiania, 1866; those toAsbjörnsen only are to the "New Series" of those tales, Christiania,1871; those to Dasent are to the "Popular Tales from the Norse," 2ded., 1859. The name "Karajich" refers to the "Srpske NarodnePripovijetke," published at Vienna in 1853 by Vuk StefanovichKarajich, and translated by his daughter under the title of"Volksmärchen der Serben," Berlin, 1854. By "Schott" is meant the"Walachische Mährchen," Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1845, by "Schleicher"the "Litauische Märchen," Weimar, 1857, by "Hahn" the "Griechische undalbanesische Märchen," Leipzig, 1864, by "Haltrich" the "DeutscheVolksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen," Berlin, 1856, andby "Campbell" the "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," 4 vols.,Edinburgh, 1860-62.
A few of the ghost stories contained in the following pages appearedin the "Cornhill Magazine" for August 1872, and an account of some ofthe "legends" was given in the "Fortnightly Review" for April 1, 1868.
Chapter I - Introductory
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There are but few among those inhabitants of Fairy-land of whom"Popular Tales" tell, who are better known to the outer world thanCinderella—the despised and flouted younger sister, who long sitsunnoticed beside the hearth, then furtively visits the glitteringhalls of the great and gay, and at last is transferred from herobscure nook to the place of honor justly due to her tardilyacknowledged merits. Somewhat like the fortunes of Cinderella havebeen those of the popular tale itself. Long did it dwell beside thehearths of the common people, utterly ignored by their superiors insocial rank. Then came a period during which the cultured worldrecognized its existence, but accorded to it no higher rank than thatallotted to "nursery stories" and "old