Fairy tales are distinguished from others by the special nature of their fiction. Supernatural forces are always at work in them - sometimes good, sometimes evil. They work miracles: they raise people from the dead, they turn a person into an animal or a bird. There are also terrible monsters: Koschey the immortal, Baba Yaga, the fiery serpent, and wonderful objects: a flying carpet, an invisible hat, walking boots.
People began to create fairy tales, just like tales about animals, in ancient times. He could not explain many natural phenomena and could not control them. Since the origin of the phenomena was not clear, people attributed them to supernatural power. There were beliefs in witches and sorcerers who could work miracles by knowing spell words. These same magical powers(only maybe in a different form) is also in fairy tales. The people in those distant times believed in magical things and objects: a ring, an ax, a belt, a scarf, a mirror, an apple.
And how many fairy tales are based on belief in the magical power of words!
Later people many phenomena were realized, the connection between the fairy tale and ritual magic was lost. At the same time, people's poetic imagination grew. There was a lot I wanted to be able to do, but the real possibilities did not allow me to do it. The dream found scope in fairy tales. Man dreamed of subjugating the forces of nature, building beautiful palaces, moving quickly, living long, and always being well-fed.
A. M. Gorky speaks of the fantasy of fairy tales in the following way: “There is nothing in the world that cannot be instructive - there are no fairy tales that do not contain the material of “didactics”, teaching. What is most instructive in fairy tales is “fiction” - the amazing ability of our thoughts to look far ahead of the fact...”
A. M. Gorky’s idea about the creative basis of fairy tales was repeatedly emphasized by many Soviet folklore researchers. “Fairy tales,” writes V.P. Anikin, “are a kind of ideological, aesthetic and ethical code of the people; moral and aesthetic concepts and ideas of the working people, their aspirations and expectations are embodied here. Fairy-tale fiction reflects the features of the people who created it. The joyful and bright fiction reflects the people’s faith in victory over the black forces of death, destruction, and faith in social justice.”
In books to read in I-III grades such magical folk tales as “The Snow Maiden”, “Geese-Swans”, “Seven Simeons”, “Everyone Got His Own”, “The Wonderful Apple Tree”, “The Bird Kahka” and some others are presented.
Fairy tales also include “The Tale of the Goldfish” by A. S. Pushkin and “Hot Stone” by A. P. Gaidar.
In each of these tales, the heroes resort to the help of objects or living beings that have unusual, magical power. In the fairy tale “Geese and Swans”, such helpers for the girl Masha were the stove, the apple tree and the milk river - the banks of jelly. The birch bark horn of Simeon the Younger, the golden arrow of Simeon the shooter, and Simeon the grain grower could, in one hour, have unusual properties. sea sand plow, sow rye, harvest and bake bread for the whole journey (fairy tale “Seven Simeons”). As soon as the old lady clapped her hands, two chests full of precious stones. “The old woman waved her hand, the Apple tree moved, shook off the roots from the ground and went to fetch the shepherd.” And the old man from the fairy tale “Everyone Got His Own” only had to say a few words to the poor woman so that she would spend the whole day measuring the canvas that came from nowhere.
The specificity of fairy tales, as noted above, is that unusual transformations take place in them, implausible forces act, etc. Therefore, when analyzing such fairy tales, only clarification of the direction of magical forces will be specific (who they help and why, how this characterizes fairy tale heroes, etc.). Otherwise, the analysis of the tale will be carried out in the same way as the analysis of the story.
A special place among this group of fairy tales is occupied by A. Gaidar’s fairy tale “Hot Stone”. The fairy tale is interesting for its clearly expressed social orientation. This is a new, our, Soviet fairy tale. Its content is close to the story. Only the episode with the stone is fabulous.
The fairy tale brings up a complex philosophical question for discussion: what is the meaning of life, what is a person’s happiness? Representatives of two generations: the older one, who fought for the establishment of Soviet power in our country, and the very young one, who is just starting to study at school, present the answer to this difficult question to the reader. The author gives each of them the opportunity to speak; and not only speak out, but also prove your approach in practice. To do this, the author creates a fairy-tale situation: break the stone and you can start life over again. Indeed, this is only possible in a fairy tale. Starting to live again means (as in any matter) that life did not give a person anything good, he was unable to live it with dignity, there were many mistakes and the main thing was not found. What is the main thing? What constitutes the core of a real, worthy human life? This brings together two questions, equally important and at the same time very close, interacting with each other. The author gives the answer to them by the very development of the plot, by the old man’s story about his life, by revealing his understanding of happiness.
Example modern fairy tale with a pronounced social orientation is “The Tale of Three Letters” by Yu. Fuchik and B. Silov. When analyzing this type of fairy tale, the focus should be on revealing its real basis and idea. The analysis of such a tale comes as close as possible to the analysis of a story. Great place is devoted to clarifying specific events and the attitude of the actors towards them. “The ship is sinking! People are calling for help!” - this is the main event that forms the thematic basis of the fairy tale. A rich man, a large stockbroker, a carpenter, a mechanic, a chimney sweep and other representatives of poor, ordinary people react differently to a distress signal. The rich do not care whether the sailors of the Batayava die or not. Ordinary people on the shore are unable to help the sinking ship, although they passionately want to do so. The Soviet ship Kyrgyzstan comes to the rescue. The sailors from the ship "Batayava" were rescued. “And it should always be like this” - the fairy tale ends with these words. Working people will always come to the aid of their comrades - this is the idea of the fairy tale. From the point of view of students’ awareness of this idea, the teacher organizes all work on the fairy tale.
Noticing the tendency to call not only fairy tale/folklore fantasy a fairy tale (which is very close to this genre and the boundaries between them are sometimes blurred), but even modern romance novels, meaning by this concept something that does not exist in real life, I have long wanted to write about fairy tales as a genre.
Additionally, I hope this blog will help those who decide to take part in fairytale competition, which started on November 1, on the mystical and magical Veles Night, which in our country is often replaced by American Halloween (which grew out of Samhain, an ancient Celtic holiday, during which it is believed that the boundaries between worlds disappear, and fairies and elves can come to us, and we - into their magical seeds, or hills). Be that as it may, this is a time of secrets and mysteries, travel between worlds and magic, for which there are no limits. Time for magical stories.
In this post I will try not to copy-paste from different scientific articles and I’ll try to convey everything in my own words, in a simple way. Therefore, those who expect something scientific and schematic, with conclusions and theses (there were reproaches of this kind last time, I had to clean up the comments) may be disappointed. I offer a conversation and do not intend to lecture anyone or tell anyone how to write to you. All this is a personal matter for everyone.
If you are interested in a specific question (there is no time or opportunity to cover everything at once), ask in the comments, I will definitely try to find the answer.
One of the first and main differences between fairy tales and fantasy is the use of certain symbols and archetypes by fairy tales (you can read more about archetypes in Propp in “Morphology of a Fairy Tale” and in Jung in his studies, but I will touch on this topic here), fantasy usually does not uses symbolism and archetypes to the extent that is typical of a fairy tale (or rather, fantasy has its own clichés, but they are somewhat different, unless, of course, this is fairy-tale fantasy, here the line is more difficult to draw). And it is important that the fairy tale does not pretend to be authentic.
The world of a fairy tale is another world, with its own laws and images.
It is also fundamentally wrong to believe that a fairy tale must have a happy ending - on the contrary, before fairy tales were close to gothic and horror, and if you get acquainted with the brothers Grimm or Basile and Perrault in the original (or read our Afanasyev), you will find that the plots familiar from childhood have a completely different development (No one woke up the Sleeping Beauty with a kiss, and she gave birth in a dream, and then the children and she herself were almost eaten by her cannibal mother-in-law, no one saved Little Red Riding Hood, etc.), even Andersen’s fairy tales, which had a strong religious bias, were reworked into Soviet time, and many have not read the original versions.
And yet - a fairy-tale setting does not mean that this is a fairy tale. You can write about Kashchei, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa, but it will be one hundred percent fantasy. And vice versa - you can describe an ordinary city and ordinary children, but it will be just a fairy tale. The main thing is the competent use of archetypes and a certain set of symbols.
In addition, fantasy worlds (classic, especially) are still based on real world, with all its laws and history. Fantasy is a subgenre of fiction, and everything in it is logically justified, the fantastic assumption is also usually explained somehow, magic has its own structure and laws (I am not taking into account some pseudo-fantasy novels with a complete lack of logic, which are generally difficult for me to classify, since the authors write about cliched orcs-elves-witches and use the same type of plot, which is easy to predict).
But in a fairy tale, magic usually does not require explanation (but this does not mean that the author can do whatever he wants, because folklore archetypes have not been canceled, the fairy tale will use them to the fullest, expanding or changing them, but still observing them) .
Fairy tales are different - and good does not necessarily triumph over evil (as in classic fairy tale), as we said above, but any hero will usually receive “what he deserves,” that is, a fairy tale often contains a certain moral (often, but not always, you need to understand that this moral may differ from what we are used to or even contradict it, because before people had a different mentality, and this also needs to be taken into account).
Another mistake is to think that a fairy tale is intended for children. This is not entirely true - it’s just that when the concept of children’s literature appeared, many fairy tales were adapted for them. In Russian folklore, Afanasyev was a collector of fairy tales - he has both not quite decent fairy tales, and very cruel ones (like Perrault, Basile).
In fairy tales, heroes have precise and clear roles - heroes are usually brave and kind, noble, heroines are beautiful and kind, witches-stepmothers are evil, antagonists plot intrigues, good helpers provide support to the hero and help him win, etc. The exception is the so-called “dark” fairy tale, which is similar to dark fantasy, but this is a separate topic. There are a lot of “masks” and archetypes, as well as plot options; later I will expand the article, paying attention to this topic.
A little theory: the basis of a fairy tale is the image of initiation - hence the “other kingdom”, where the hero needs to go to find a bride or acquire fairy-tale values, after which he must return home. The narrative is “taken entirely beyond the boundaries of real life.” Characteristics fairy tale: verbal ornament, sayings, endings, stable formulas (rhythmic prose phrases like “once upon a time”).
Last time there were questions about archetypes. And again a little theory.
Archetype (from the Greek arche beginning + typos image) is a concept introduced by K.G. Jung to designate the original primitive images, universal symbols or motifs that exist in the collective unconscious and appear in the dreams of each of us. They are repeated in the plots of myths and fairy tales different nations, since they were “stored” in the collective unconscious from the first days of humanity. Dragon, hero, sage, mother, treasure are examples of archetypal images. “Hero slaying the dragon”, “struggle between good and evil” are archetypal motifs.
https://www.b17.ru/article/1226/ here is a good article on Jung, written in quite simple language
In fairy tales, there is an image of a sage (wizard, teacher) giving advice to the hero, expressed in a completely different form, this is considered an image of our subconscious, a desire for a dream to come true - while clear instructions are attached (go there, do that), and the archetypes of magical helpers - this is essentially the desire to get everything at once (the image of the Goldfish, which grew out of the Western European fairy tale about the wishing tree, or our Pike in the fairy tale about Emelya).
There is also the archetype of travel between worlds, one of the most beloved by storytellers (and not only in fantasy, this archetype has also begun to be used). The classic hero's journey (Paul Proppu) is a reflection of the rite of rebirth, a journey to the “other world” and return to one’s own world. And fairy tales reflect both the heroes of the “other world” and the real one. But there are still heroes of the border world.
They have the characteristics of a man and an animal, or a man and a dead man. Meeting them is the hero’s transition to another state, to another world. One of bright examples- Baba Yaga. Bayun can also be included there with his terrible songs that can kill, and many other heroes.
The image of a fairy tale magical land, another world - another symbol. For us it’s Nav, in Celtic it’s Hills or the land of fairies (elves), there can be a lot of names for this world. But the main thing is that there are certain conditions that are similar among all peoples. Time moves differently there (in reality, a hundred years may pass and the hero will return, but everyone he knew has died, or he himself may crumble into dust), you cannot eat or drink in this world - you will remain forever, etc. Our ancestors considered the ancient forest to be the Other Side (Butler uses this myth well in her books), so hunters, for example, were not allowed to go to the common table until they washed themselves and proved that they were people. They could be tested with iron, they could be evicted for a week outside the fence, etc. This is all related to this. that people believed in the afterlife and were afraid that it would snatch away a living person.
The fairy-tale/other side is different in all fairy tales, despite the signs that unite it - it can be both evil and good, beautiful and ugly.
And the answer to the archetype and its ubiquity is that in fairy tales the world is magical and world of the dead it's essentially the same thing. One of the most ancient cults among ancient peoples is the cult of worship of the dead. And magical creatures are the souls of the dead (which can be seen in the images of mermaids, etc.). From the eerie custom of some peoples of bringing home the heads of enemies from the battlefield in order to force them to serve and help, for example, such a magical hero as the brownie appeared. In Slavic fairy tales, this is essentially the spirit of an ancestor.
There are a lot more of all kinds of symbols and archetypes (the hero’s journey, going there-I-don’t-know-where, etc.), and I will definitely return to the blog.
What's happened fairy tale?
Let's talk about genre varieties.
The fairy tale genre includes everyday fairy tales (habitual reality, everyday life), fairy tales and fairy tales about animals.
Among the magical ones that interest us, stand out different types plots, but the JOURNEY is the most common among them ("overcoming" something is also often included in this type of plot), a variety of archetypes are played out, and their presence is very important, but the most important thing is that the hero must have some kind of goal . He must strive for something, accomplish something, overcome some obstacles, defeat someone. If the hero doesn’t do any of this, then we just have an attempt at fairy-tale stylization. Often in a fairy tale, the hero violates some kind of prohibition, loses something, and this is what serves as the impetus for the plot to begin. The symbolism of triplicity and the presence of magical helpers are inherent in this particular type of fairy tale, and its main difference from others is the presence of two worlds, ordinary and magical. Most often, the Journey leads the hero to another world; sometimes he is given a difficult task that he must complete. to an ordinary person it will be unrealistic. Everything is always resolved miraculously, with banter and the sarcastic element inherent in everyday fairy tale, there is no and cannot be. Everything is hyperbolic, exaggerated. The composition of a fairy tale is complex - with a beginning, exposition, climax and denouement. Propp identifies seven characters in such tales - antagonist (pest), giver, helper, princess or king, sender, hero, false hero.
That is, magical ones include heroic tales (snake fighting and quests, which became the basis for epic fantasy), archaic tales, tales about heroes who find themselves in the power of demons (the persecuted hero), tales about wonderful spouses, about wonderful objects, about wedding trials (so that the theme of Selection is so popular today, the theme of Brides was born in old fairy tales, and, by the way, some authors play on these fairy-tale plots very successfully).
It turns out that many topics are rooted precisely in folk art, into folklore.
Literature:
Vladimir Propp. Historical roots
We rarely think about what has become the living basis literary creativity. And this was “The Word”. Pronounced, “uttered” in ancient times, it seemed to people as a sign “from above,” a sign of “divine inspiration” that should be kept in memory and passed on to descendants.
Aspiration of this kind was manifested initially in the so-called syncretic form - in cult song and dance, reflecting the relationship of man with the forces of nature that he deified. Gradually, during labor activity people, their mastery of certain natural resources, in such “actions” from still disordered ideas about the surrounding world, a tendency arose for a more harmonious understanding and humanization of its forces - myths were born about gods, although they had supernatural powers, but were very similar in their aspirations and actions to the unknown creators of these legends themselves. But the less in the process of development of society a person’s dependence on outside world, the more often he himself appeared in the epic as an increasingly strong, invincible hero. Usually such a character was the ruler of the earth, the king, because now not only the forces of nature, but also the leaders determined the lives of ordinary people. This is how myths about heroes and heroic epics arose. These myths were first imprinted with the help of drawings on stones, dishes, fabrics, and with the advent of writing - in cuneiform form on clay tablets.
Myth tells about events occurring in space and time. In this narrative, philosophical and religious ideas are expressed in the language of symbols, the inner state of a person is conveyed, and this is the true meaning of the myth. A myth is not a “fiction”, not a “relic” of the past. And a certain primary language of description, in terms of which man, since ancient times, has modeled, classified and interpreted himself, society, and the world.
Even in the early stages of history, people not only cared about maintaining their existence, but also sought to preserve their tribe, their clan. And everything that contributed to the upbringing of a smart, strong, dexterous person became the content of lullabies, nursery rhymes, riddles, fairy tales... life experience, accumulated knowledge about the world around us, wise conclusions from all this from adults in the form of original teachings were presented to children in simple and understandable forms. Folklore testifies to this. Myth is the oldest literary monument[Propp 2010: 48-49].
Scientists believe that myths served as a unique source for the development of scientific ideas, the emergence of philosophy, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theatrical arts. The most ancient fairy tales reveal a plot connection with primitive myths. It is quite obvious that the myth was the predecessor of a fairy tale about a marriage with an enchanted creature, which then shed its animal shell and took on a human form (the plot of the well-known fairy tale “ The Scarlet Flower"), tales about a wonderful wife who gives her chosen one good luck in business, hunting, etc., but leaves him due to the violation of some prohibition ("The Frog Princess"). Popular fairy tales about children who fell into the power of an evil spirit, a monster, a sorcerer and were saved thanks to the resourcefulness of one of them (Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka), tales about the murder of a mighty serpent, a dragon (3 snake Gorynych, Koshchei the Immortal) reproduce the motives of certain rituals of ancient people.
Over time, with the development of human society, children “appropriated” most of these fairy tales, myths, and legends. Perhaps this happened because children's consciousness is somehow closer to those naive and at the same time deeply wise ideas about human nature, about good and evil, which peoples developed during their infancy and in the early stages of their history
In Russian science the term “mythological tales” is often used. It originates from the works of folklorists of the first half of the 19th century, for example from I.P. Sakharov. He was followed by P. A. Bessonov, O. F. Miller, fairy tale collector E. R. Romanov and others who called fairy tales mythological.
What is mythological in Russian fairy tales? Firstly, miracles that occur in fairy tales at the will of characters with magical powers, or at the will of wonderful animals, or with the help of magical objects; secondly, fantastic characters, such as Baba Yaga, Koschey, the many-headed snake; thirdly, the personification of the forces of nature, for example, in the image of Frost, the animation of trees (talking trees); fourthly, anthropomorphism is the endowment of animals human qualities- mind and speech (speaking horse, gray wolf).
But all these are only traces of mythological ideas, since “the formation of the classical form of a fairy tale was completed far beyond the historical boundaries of the primitive communal system, in a much more developed society,” writes E.M. Meletinsky in the article “Myth and Fairy Tale” [Chernousova I.P. 2012: 121].
The question of the direct origin of the fairy tale from myth remains controversial. EAT. Meletinsky believes that there was a transformation of myth into fairy tale. Many folklorists hold this point of view. But it still requires sufficient justification. The only correct opinion is that the mythological worldview provided the basis for the poetic form of the fairy tale, and that the poetic mythology of the fairy tale was created. The elements of mythology listed above, included in the fairy tale, acquired artistic functions.
The important point is that the plots of fairy tales and the miracles they talk about have a basis in life. This is, firstly, a reflection of the characteristics of the work and life of people of the tribal system, their relationship to nature, often their powerlessness before it; secondly, a reflection of the features of the feudal system, primarily early feudalism (the king is the enemy of the hero, the struggle for inheritance, receiving the kingdom and the hand of the princess for victory over evil forces). It is characteristic that capitalist relations are not reflected in fairy tales. Obviously, its development stopped before the formation of the capitalist formation.
The vital basis of fairy tales was the dream of power over nature, which, according to M. Gorky, is so characteristic of them.
In fairy tales, goblins, water goblins, and kikimoras are sometimes encountered. They replaced the real characters in a wonderful story. So, for example, in one of the versions of the fairy tale “Morozko”, instead of the all-powerful master of the winter elements, Frost, a goblin is presented, who gave his stepdaughter everything that a peasant girl could wish for.
Having endowed the sorcerer and witch with supernatural abilities, people, in an effort to protect themselves from the influence of spells and black witchcraft, furnished their everyday life with a variety of magical rituals. Magic is the same sorcery and the same magic, these are rituals associated with faith in a person’s ability to resist supernatural forces and find support and protection from them. Magic wanted to subjugate a person to the will of other people, conquer animals, nature, and also act on imaginary masters, spirits and gods. The birth of magical rituals dates back to primitive times. The appearance of ritual in everyday life became possible due to man’s ignorance of true connections and relationships in the real world. Man depended on nature. His constrained consciousness sought means of protection in the fight against the elements of nature and social ills.
Remnants of ritual magic are accurately reproduced in the content of many fairy tales. There is a closeness of magical fairy-tale action to magical units by indicating the frequent coincidence of objects that formed an integral part of ritual actions with those objects that are endowed with miraculous properties in fairy tales.
The ring in fairy tales is endowed with a wonderful property. The Tale of the Three Kingdoms talks about copper, silver and gold rings, each containing a special kingdom. In the fairy tale about the wonderful shirt, a ring placed on a finger turns the hero into a horse. Wedding ring, thrown from hand to hand, makes twelve young men appear with the words “What do you order?” The hero orders: “Move me from this mountain.” And the good guys carried it through. In all fairy tales, the ax cuts itself. Emelya the Fool says to the axe: “At the behest of the pike, and at my request, come on, axe, chop the wood, and you, logs, put yourself in the sleigh and get tied up!” And the ax got to work.
The scarf in fairy tales has a wonderful property. It is enough to throw it or simply wave it, and a lake and even a sea will form, spreading widely around. “Ivan Tsarevich heard a noise, looked around - his sister was about to catch up; waved his hustochka, and it became deep lake. While the witch swam across the lake, Ivan Tsarevich went far away.”
Water, a frequent accessory of ritual action, works miracle after miracle in fairy tales: it restores sight, gives youth, heals diseases, revives, deprives of strength, and makes the hero stronger than the most terrible monsters. There is also such water that can turn a person into an animal, a bird, but there is also another that returns people to their human form. Speaking about the nature of the miraculous in fairy tales, it is necessary to note the preservation in the later fantastic fiction of fairy tales of some properties coming from magical rituals. These are the wonderful “youthful” apples, which in fairy tales return youth, strength and health to a person. It can be assumed that the penetration of this wonderful object into the magical narrative did not occur without the influence of ritual and magical ideas and concepts that lived among the people. Until the very last pre-revolutionary years, in some Russian villages, wedding custom: the newlyweds ate an apple upon returning from church after the wedding [Rafaeva 2012: 71].
According to the people who performed this ritual, the eaten apple was supposed to ensure fertility and well-being for the new family.
So, the historical roots of fairy tales go back to primitive mythology. Many of their motives are associated with magic, with the belief in supernatural connections with animals - totemism. magical power have words and objects. There are many transformations of all kinds in fairy tales: after all, in mythological consciousness there was no strict boundary between man and nature.
What is the difference between a myth, as such, and a fairy tale?
It is usually believed that the difference lies in the fact that when we listen to a fairy tale, we are aware that it is talking about something unreal and “fabulous,” while a myth is only a naive form of scientific explanation, taken quite seriously. This characteristic shows the difference between a fairy tale and a myth in their mature period; the different attitude in both cases is rightly highlighted. However, it would be a mistake not to notice the genetic closeness of fairy tales and myths - and this has special meaning in order to gain understanding children's world. Myth and fairy tale grow from the same root, mutually influence each other, and their difference is associated with a more definite awareness of the difference between the world of reality and the world of fantasy.
A fairy tale can be compared not only with individual mythological ideas, but also with rituals. The motives for the marriage of a person with a totemic miraculous animal - a creature that has temporarily shed its animal shell - have a ritual-mythological genesis. A wonderful wife brings good luck to her chosen one, but leaves him due to a violation of a prohibition - a taboo ("The Frog Princess"). The plot about a wonderful husband (“Finist - Clear Falcon”) is of the same origin. Such tales reflect not only a taboo, but also the custom of taking a wife from another family - that is why the hero goes for his wife (the heroine for her husband) to distant lands.
A number of fairy-tale motifs and symbols (a lost shoe, baking a ring into a pie, dressing up a bride in a pork casing, etc.) can be explained by ancient marriage customs and rituals and also have ritual-mythological semantics.
A very important role in archaic society was played by the so-called transitional rites, which connected the individual fate of a person with his social group. The main transitional rite is initiation (dedication): a young man who reached maturity moved into a group of adult men and received the right to marry. Initiation involves symbolic temporary death and rebirth in a new capacity. The ritual symbolism of temporary death in fairy tales is often expressed in the motif of swallowing a newcomer and then spitting him out by a monster, visiting another world and obtaining wonderful objects there. The initiates were taken into the forest, where they lived in a hut and were subjected to all kinds of tests, sometimes cruel. The motif of the initiation of a young man is introduced into all mythical ideas, rites, rituals and techniques of the tribe.
The initiation rite was not only reflected in fairy tales, but also became their compositional core. Fairy tales contain both a forest house and a forest teacher, as well as a set of mythological ideas associated with temporary death and visiting the kingdom of the dead. In Russian fairy tales, this is the distant kingdom with its golden or fiery color. The hero must certainly get there. Having demonstrated his magical skills and obtained magical objects, the hero returns to the living in a new capacity: now he has become a mature person.
So, initial goal initiation rite and the fairy tale that goes back to it - a demonstration of the hero’s magical and heroic skills. Gradually, the theme is transformed under the influence of the wedding ceremony: all these skills are needed in order to marry a beautiful princess. Difficult tasks in a fairy tale are almost always presented as wedding trials, the princess bride as a “payment” for a feat (this “payment” is often announced at the very beginning along with the difficult task), happy marriage is a happy ending to the fairy tale. An indispensable condition for the formation of a genre of fairy tales based on fiction is the separation of fairy tales from archaic mythology and ancient rituals. A reliable mythological story had to turn into poetic fiction. This happened gradually, with the disappearance of ancient mythological ideas. As E.M. notes Meletinsky, the transformation of myths themselves into fairy tales was accompanied by a weakening of faith in the truth of mythical events and the development of conscious fiction, the loss of ethnographic concreteness, the replacement of mythical heroes with fictional characters and mythical time with a fabulously indefinite, transfer of attention from space to society.
However, a special impetus was required that would contribute to the transformation of the myth into a fairy tale. Such an impetus was given by the era of the collapse of the clan system. Victims of this process also appeared: socially disadvantaged, innocently persecuted. The fairy tale takes the disadvantaged under protection and makes it its hero: this is an orphaned young man (“Puss in Boots”), a stepdaughter (“Cinderella”, Morozko), orphaned children (“Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”) [Afanasyev 2010: 219].
In addition, during the transition from the clan system to the patriarchal family, the younger brother found himself in the position of socially disadvantaged. The younger brother is impeccable from the point of view of clan morality: he remains in the parents' house as the keeper of the hearth and clan property. He respects elders, honors the cult of ancestors, and protects ancestral principles.
Old mythological stories about magical powers generated by mythological thinking begin to gather around new socially disadvantaged heroes. But now these magical forces come to the defense of the oppressed, help him and establish the dying justice.
Conclusion: Russian folklore could not preserve the ancient stories of this distant time intact. Under the influence of historical circumstances, ritual and magical narratives largely deviated from their original forms. But folk tales have traditionally preserved plots that, although they have changed, have acquired new meaning, however, they owe their original origin to the most ancient eras in the development of folklore.
A fairy tale is a miracle! A wonderful world, familiar from childhood, where good always triumphs over evil. On the pages fairy tale books There live talking animals and dragons, brave heroes and beautiful princesses, good fairies and evil sorcerers. Fairy tales encourage not only to believe in miracles, but also teach kindness, compassion, not giving in to difficulties, listening to parents and not judging others by appearance.
What kind of fairy tales are there?
A fairy tale is a story with fictional characters and a plot that is of an everyday, heroic or magical nature. They are folklore (composed by the people), literary (include features of folk tales, but belong to one author) and author's (written by one specific author). Folklore tales are divided into magical, everyday and about animals.
Folklore
They go a long way before reaching the reader. They are passed down orally from generation to generation until some collector of legends writes them down on paper. It is believed that the heroes of the first stories were the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other natural phenomena, and images of people and animals began to be used later.
Folk tales have a fairly simple structure: a saying, a beginning and an end. The text is easy to read and does not contain complex words. But despite its apparent simplicity, it retains all the richness of the Russian language. Folklore tales are easily understood even by children, which makes them best choice for reading before bed. This will not only prepare the child for sleep, but also unobtrusively teach life values.
The main features of a fairy tale:
- Fairy-tale cliches “Once upon a time,” “In a certain kingdom.”
- Use of proverbs and sayings.
- Obligatory victory of good in the final.
- The tests that the heroes go through are educational and moral in nature.
- The animals saved by the hero help him get out of difficult situations.
Household
The action takes place in Everyday life, not “in the distant kingdom,” but an ordinary city or village. The life of that time, features and habits are described. The heroes are the poor and merchants, spouses, soldiers, servants and masters. The plot is based on ordinary life situations and conflicts that the heroes have to resolve with the help of skill, ingenuity and even cunning.
Everyday fairy tales ridicule human vices: greed, stupidity, ignorance. The main message of such stories is that one should not be afraid of work, not be lazy and confidently overcome obstacles. Treat others kindly, be responsive to the grief of others, do not lie or be stingy. For example, “Porridge from an axe,” “Turnip,” “Seven-year-old daughter.”
About animals
Often the characters are animals. They live and communicate like people, talk and play pranks, quarrel and make peace. There is no clear character among the characters division into positive and negative heroes
. Each of them is endowed with one distinctive feature, which is played out in the plot of the fairy tale. A cunning fox, an angry wolf, a hardworking hare, and a wise owl. Such images are understandable to children and give ideas about intelligence and stupidity, cowardice and courage, greed and kindness.
Magical
What is a fairy tale? This mysterious world, filled with magic and enchantment. Where animals, nature and even objects can speak. The composition is more complex, it includes an introduction, a plot, a central plot, a climax and a denouement. The plot is based on overcoming some difficult situation or return of loss. For example, “Morozko”, “Finist clear falcon”, “Cinderella”.
The world of characters is incredibly diverse. G great heroes have everything positive qualities, that is, such as kindness, generosity, responsiveness, courage. They are opposed by evil, greedy and selfish negative heroes. In the fight against enemies goodies wonderful helpers and magical objects help. The ending is certainly happy. The hero returns home with honors, having overcome all adversity and obstacles.
Literary
Has a specific author, but is closely related to folklore. A literary fairy tale reflects the author's view of the world, his ideas and desires, while folk tales demonstrate generalized values. The writer empathizes with the main characters, expresses sympathy for individual acting persons and openly ridicules negative characters.
Plots are often the basis folk tales.
- the hero’s belonging to the world of magic;
- hostility between adoptive parents and children;
- the hero is helped by nature, living creatures and magical attributes.
To imitate folk tales, the same principles are applied: fairy-tale setting, talking animals, triplicate repetitions and vernacular. The images of the main characters of folk tales are often used: Ivan the Fool, Baba Yaga, Tsar Koschei and others. The author strives for greater detail, the characters and personal qualities of the characters are described in detail, the environment is close to reality and there are always two generations present: the older (parents) and the younger (children).
To striking examples literary fairy tale can be attributed to the work of A. Pushkin “ gold fish", G. Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and C. Perrault's "Puss in Boots".
Whatever the fairy tale, its goal is to teach a child not to despair, to boldly take on tasks, and to respect other people’s opinions. Looking at the bright illustrations, it’s easy to come up with your own plot based on an already familiar story. Even an adult will benefit from breaking away from the usual cycle of days and immersing himself in beautiful world magic.
I hope this blog will help those who decide to take part in a fairytale competition, which started on November 1, on the mystical and magical Veles Night, which in our country is often replaced by American Halloween (which grew out of Samhain, an ancient Celtic holiday, during which it is believed that the boundaries between worlds disappear, and fairies and elves can come to us, and we - into their magical seeds, or hills). Be that as it may, this is a time of secrets and mysteries, travel between worlds and magic, for which there are no limits. Time for magical stories.
Works will be accepted until January 15, 2018, at which point the first qualifying stage will end.
When selecting texts, the following will be taken into account: literacy, fairy-tale stylization, originality of presentation of the topic.
Conditions for accepting works for the competition:
1. You must be registered on the site
2. The size of the tale should not exceed 60,000 characters.
3. The time at which the text is posted does not matter (even if you posted the fairy tale on the site a year ago) - the main thing is that it is presented only on our portal. Works, more than 50% of the text of which are posted on other sites, are not allowed for selection.
4. Maximum correspondence to the genre. Your work should be written in the fairy tale genre or correspond to it as closely as possible (for example, fairy-tale fantasy). Rejected works are not reviewed.
5. Themes of violence, Stockholm syndrome, erotica (slash, etc.) are prohibited; such tales will not be allowed into the competition. Scary tales where there is no relish for cruelty (a striking example is Hauff's tales) are allowed to participate.
6. Simultaneous participation of this work prohibited in other competitions.
7. The fairy tale must be posted in full, allowing access to all site users.
8. Only one work from one author participates in the competition! You can send collections that follow a single theme
Important clarification: the second stage will include best works, but their number is not limited - it can be either three fairy tales or all of them, it will depend on how the participants approached the genre and topic, how literate and readable the works are.
Supporting literature:
Vladimir Propp. Historical roots of the Magic Tale http://www.lib.ru/CULTURE/PROPP/skazki.txt
Vladimir Propp. Morphology of a "magic" fairy tale http://www.lib.ru/CULTURE/PROPP/morfologia.txt
FAIRY TALES AND ARCHETYPES https://www.b17.ru/article/1226/
The fairy tale genre has always attracted writers. Many of us grew up on the magical stories of Pushkin, Andersen, Perrault, Bazhov and many others. I have always wanted to revive the tradition of the literary fairy tale, revive the genre, and give readers as many fairy tale stories as possible.
Noticing the tendency to call not only fairy tale/folklore fantasy a fairy tale (which is very close to this genre and the boundaries between them are often blurred), but even modern
romance novels, meaning by this concept something that does not happen in real life, I have long wanted to write about fairy tales as a genre.
Yes, the concept of a fairy tale as “a story about a better, magical life” is too ingrained among our readers, where the heroine necessarily finds love and happiness, and the surroundings can be anything - be it a modern city or a conventional Middle Ages. Naturally, in these pseudo-fairy tales there are no archetypes, no plots typical of fairy tales, no moralizing. There is only hope for a bright future and conditionally magical scenery, so that the reader can take a break from the worries and troubles of real life, which often does not indulge in joy.
But I still strive to convey information to the reader about the genre, I want them to understand that a fairy tale is not always a bright and easy story for relaxation. A fairy tale is a whole world, and now I will lift the curtain leading into it.
In this article I will try not to copy-paste from various scientific articles and will try to convey everything in my own words, in a simple way. I suggest a conversation, a leisurely conversation around a fire lit in a magical mystical night, and I’m not going to lecture anyone or tell anyone how to write. All this is a personal matter for everyone. And each author decides for himself which genre to choose. But if you decide to follow the tradition of the fairy tale genre, then I hope my recommendations and this article will be useful to you.
So let's step into the shade of the trees magical forest, let's walk along enchanted paths and try to find answers to at least some of your questions. If you don’t have enough information or have questions, then know that I am always open to communication, and in this blog dedicated to the topic of fairy tales, you can ask in more detail, I promise to answer everyone.
First, let's talk about how a fairy tale differs from fantasy., and why you can’t indiscriminately call all fantasy novels fairy tales.
One of the first and main differences between fairy tales and fantasy is the use of certain symbols and archetypes by fairy tales (you can read more about archetypes in Propp in “Morphology of a Fairy Tale” and in Jung in his studies, but I will touch on this topic here, and references to scientific works at the beginning of the article), Fantasy usually does not use symbolism and archetypes to the same extent as is typical for a fairy tale (or rather, fantasy has its own clichés, but they are somewhat different, unless, of course, this is fairy-tale fantasy, here the line is more difficult to draw). And it is important that the fairy tale does not pretend to be authentic. The world of a fairy tale is another world, with its own laws and images. It is also fundamentally wrong to believe that a fairy tale must have a happy ending - on the contrary, before fairy tales were close to gothic and horror, and if you get acquainted with the brothers Grimm or Basile and Perrault in the original (or read our Afanasyev), you will find that the usual childhood stories have a completely different development (no one woke up Sleeping Beauty with a kiss, and she gave birth to children in her sleep, and then the children and she herself were almost eaten by her cannibal mother-in-law, no one saved Little Red Riding Hood, etc.), even Andersen’s fairy tales , which had a strong religious slant, were reworked during the Soviet era, and many of us did not read the original versions.
Signs of a fairy tale and the main mistakes in classifying the genre- a fairy-tale setting does not mean that we have a fairy tale in front of us. You can write about Kashchei, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa, but it will be one hundred percent fantasy. And vice versa - you can describe an ordinary city and ordinary children, but it will be just a fairy tale. The main thing is the competent use of archetypes and a certain set of symbols.
In addition, fantasy worlds (classic, especially) are still based on the real world, with all its laws and history. Fantasy is a subgenre of science fiction, and everything in it is logically justified, the fantastic assumption is also usually explained somehow, magic has its own structure and laws (I am not now taking into account some pseudo-fantasy novels with a complete lack of logic, which are generally difficult for me to classify , since the authors write about cliched orcs-elves-witches and use the same type of plot, which is easy to predict). But in a fairy tale, magic usually does not require explanation (but this does not mean that the author can do whatever he wants, because folklore archetypes have not been canceled, the fairy tale will use them to the fullest, expanding or changing them, but still observing them) .
Fairy tales are different - and good does not necessarily triumph over evil (as in a classic fairy tale), as we said above, but any hero usually gets what he deserves, that is, a fairy tale often contains a certain moral (often, but not always, you need to understand that This morality may differ from what we are used to or even contradict it, because before people had a different mentality, and this also needs to be taken into account).
Another mistake is to think that a fairy tale is intended for children.. This is not entirely true - it’s just that when the concept of children’s literature appeared, many fairy tales were adapted for them. In Russian folklore, Afanasyev was a collector of fairy tales - he also has fairy tales that are not quite decent, and there are also very cruel ones (like Perrault, Basile, Andersen).
In fairy tales, heroes have precise and clear roles- heroes are usually brave and kind, noble, heroines are beautiful and kind, witches-stepmothers are evil, antagonists plot intrigues, good assistants provide support to the hero and help him win, etc. The exception is the so-called “dark” fairy tale, which is similar to dark fantasy, but this is a separate topic and does not belong to the classics (it has now become especially popular - this is scary tales Gaiman, and Angela Carter - "The Bloody Chamber", and Margo Lannagan - "Lacquer Pieces").
There are a lot of “masks” and archetypes, as well as variations of plots, but very often (even among different nations) they intersect and have common roots.
So, what is a fairytale archetype? Archetype (from the Greek arche beginning + typos image) is a concept introduced by K.G. Jung to designate the original primitive images, universal symbols or motifs that exist in the collective unconscious and appear in the dreams of each of us. They are repeated in the plots of myths and fairy tales of different peoples, since they have been “stored” in the collective unconscious since the first days of humanity. Dragon, hero, sage, mother, treasure are examples of archetypal images. “The hero slaying the dragon”, “the struggle between good and evil” are also archetypal motifs. here is a good article on Jung, written in quite simple language.
What are the most common archetypes in fairy tales? In fairy tales, there is an image of a sage (wizard, teacher) giving advice to the hero, it is expressed in a completely different form, this is considered an image of our subconscious, the desire to fulfill a dream - with clear instructions attached (go there, do that), and the archetypes of magical helpers is, in essence, the desire to get everything at once (the image of the Goldfish, which grew out of the Western European fairy tale about the wishing tree, or our Pike in the fairy tale about Emelya). There is also the archetype of travel between worlds, one of the most beloved by storytellers (and not only in fantasy, this archetype has also begun to be used). The classic hero's journey (according to Propp) is a reflection of the rite of rebirth, a journey to the “other world” and return to one’s own world. And fairy tales reflect both the heroes of the “other world” and the real one. But there are still heroes of the border world. They have the characteristics of a man and an animal, or a man and a dead man. Meeting them is the hero’s transition to another state, to another world. One of the striking examples is Baba Yaga. Bayun can also be included there with his terrible songs that can kill, and many other heroes. The image of a fairy-tale magical country, another world is another symbol. For us it’s Nav, in Celtic it’s Hills or the land of fairies (elves), there can be a lot of names for this world. But the main thing is that there are certain conditions that are similar among all peoples. Time moves differently there (in reality, a hundred years may pass and the hero will return, but everyone he knew has died, or maybe he himself will crumble into dust), you cannot eat or drink in this world - you will remain forever, etc. Our ancestors considered the ancient forest to be the Other Side (Elizabeth Dvoretskaya uses this myth well in her books), so hunters, for example, were not allowed to go to the common table until they washed themselves and proved that they were people. They could be tested with iron, they could be evicted for a week outside the fence, etc. All this is due to the fact that people believed in the afterlife and were afraid that it would snatch away a living person. The fairy-tale/other side is different in all fairy tales, despite the signs that unite it - it can be evil and good, beautiful and ugly. And the answer to the archetype and its ubiquity is that in fairy tales the world of magic and the world of the dead are, in fact, one and the same.
One of the most ancient cults among ancient peoples is the cult of worship of the dead.. And magical creatures are the souls of the dead (which can be seen in the images of mermaids, etc.). From the eerie custom of some peoples of bringing home the heads of enemies from the battlefield in order to force them to serve and help, for example, such a magical hero as the brownie appeared. In Slavic fairy tales, this is, in fact, the spirit of an ancestor. There are many more all kinds of symbols and archetypes (the hero’s journey, a trip to there-I-don’t-know-where, etc.), you can read more about this in Propp.
What is a fairy tale?
Let's talk about genre varieties. The fairy tale genre includes everyday fairy tales (habitual reality, everyday life), fairy tales and fairy tales about animals.
A little theory: the basis of a fairy tale is the image of initiation - hence the “other kingdom”, where the hero needs to go to find a bride or acquire fairy-tale values, after which he must return home. The narrative is “taken entirely beyond the boundaries of real life.”
Characteristic features of a fairy tale: verbal ornament, sayings, endings, stable formulas (rhythmic prose phrases like “once upon a time”). In the fairy tales that interest us, different types of plots are distinguished, but JOURNEY is the most common among them (“overcoming” something is also often included in this type of plot), the archetypes are played out in a variety of ways, and their presence is very important, but the most important thing is the hero must have some kind of goal. He must strive for something, accomplish something, overcome some obstacles, defeat someone. If the hero doesn’t do any of this, then we just have an attempt at fairy-tale stylization. Often in a fairy tale, the hero violates some kind of prohibition, loses something, and this is what serves as the impetus for the plot to begin.
The symbolism of triplicity and the presence of magical helpers are inherent in this particular type of fairy tale, and its main difference from others is the presence of two worlds, ordinary and magical. Most often, the Journey takes the hero to another world; sometimes he is given a difficult task that would be impossible for an ordinary person to complete. Everything is always resolved miraculously; the banter and sarcastic element inherent in everyday fairy tales are not and cannot be here. Everything is hyperbolic, exaggerated. The composition of a fairy tale is complex - with a beginning, exposition, climax and denouement.
Propp identifies seven characters in such tales - antagonist (pest), giver, helper, princess or king, sender, hero, false hero.
That is, magical ones include heroic tales (snake fighting and quests, which became the basis for epic fantasy), archaic tales, tales about heroes who find themselves in the power of demons (the persecuted hero), tales about wonderful spouses, about wonderful objects, about wedding trials (so that the theme of Selection, so popular today, and the theme of Brides were born in old fairy tales, and, by the way, some authors very successfully play on these fairy-tale plots).
It turns out that many themes are rooted precisely in folk art, in folklore.
15.12 article changed, slightly expanded, I hope the information was useful, over time I will return to this topic