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Slavic Wonder Tales: An Overview

1986; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/chq.0.0182

1553-1201

Paula Kiska,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

Slavic Wonder Tales:An Overview Paula Kiska (bio) Once upon a time a very long time ago on a very cold day in a very far-off kingdom, a certain young peasant lad went into the forest to look for wood. There had been a hard freeze, the pines up to the very tops were covered with hoar frost. Such days are well known to country boys. However, this poor lad was soon chilled to the bone. So he wanted to get a fire going in order to warm himself. He began to rake up snow to find wood. Soon the snow was up to his waist. Yet he kept on until suddenly he struck something. Being extremely curious, he just had to keep on working. And he dug up-what do you think?-a golden chest. How happy that country lad was-he knew that in that chest lay his wealth. 'Let's see!' he thought. 'There must be a key. But where is it? If this is a chest, there has to be a key.' And after digging some more, the young lad found the key. He began opening the chest. But we must wait a little. We must look bit by bit to see what was in the chest. Oh, what a find! The young lad forgot about being cold. He quite forgot all his troubles. So what was in the box? Well, open this little book . . . . 28Zolotoi Larets 1) That is the preface to a collection of skazki, the folk and fairy tales of the Slavic peoples, and truly these tales are a treasure chest. All of us cherish our favorite stories; to us they are irreplaceable. Even more is this statement true in the Soviet Union, where the heavy hand of censorship is [End Page 123] ubiquitous-on children's literature and adult literature alike. For the most part, however, the russkie volshebnie skazki-that is, the Slavic tales involving magical moments and supernatural characters-have escaped the censor. They tell of wise men and fools; of princes and of beggars; of sly, clever tricksters and impossibly brave heroes; of the household spirits like the Domovoi and the Bannik who were fond of confounding the luckless or the lazy; of the ethereal ghost-like maidens called Rusalki who lured the unwary to a watery death; of a frog who is really a princess under an enchanted spell; of the gorgeous-plumed firebirds; of the many wise and beautiful Vasilisas; of the fortunate possessors of wonder-working rings. Among these strange and often delightful characters there is, instead of Sinbad, the intrepid sailor Sadko, one of whose numerous adventures is that of his marriage, celebrated at the bottom of the ocean. The painting of this remarkable occasion hangs in the Russian Museum in Leningrad, a work in oils by the famed Russian artist Ilya Repin (1844-1930). Also a frequent character in the old tales is Koschéy, the cruel demon, called the deathless because his death was inside a duck which was inside a hare which was inside a coffer which was buried under an oak that stood on an island far off in the distant sea. Or it is said that his soul was hidden on the head of a pin within a very very tiny fish at the very very bottom of the very very deepest sea (Zolotie Ruki 12). And because she appears in so many tales, Baba Yagá deserves special mention. In most stories she is a bony-legged, snaggle-toothed, long-nosed cannibalistic witch who lives deep in a forest in a hut which stands on chicken legs, and the chicken legs can move the hut around at her command. Yet in other skazki she appears as a helpful old hag, ugly to be sure, but willing to give advice that will save the virtuous heroines and heroes. That the skazki were prevalent in ancient Russia is a fact beyond argument. Although their existence in print came later than similar European narrations, these old-world Slavic tales are among the richest in all Europe. "Not only do they reflect closely the color and the way of life of the...