Fairy tales shape the thinking, fantasy and worldview of many generations. Fairy tales not only entertained us as children, but the actions of the heroes of Russian fairy tales taught us to distinguish between good and evil, to be brave and to act justly.
At the same time, fairy tales reflect different beliefs, views and ideas of the people at different times. During its development, the fairy tale changed significantly, and its functions also changed. If it was initially used for a magical incantatory purpose (to summon good luck in a hunt, to protect oneself from enemies or to ensure victory in battle), then over time, having lost its ritual meaning, the tale acquired an aesthetic, educational or entertaining character.
Fairy-tale characters also remained conventional. They are types, not individuals, which means they are described in general terms, often idealized, exalted, and exaggerated. The main images here are always antagonistic: one embodies the good, the beautiful; the other is evil forces. Hence their characteristics - actions, actions, intentions, language. According to their functions, the heroes of Russian fairy tales are conventionally divided into do-gooders, evil-doers and the disadvantaged.
The largest group of fairy-tale folk epics consists of magical, fantastic tales. An explanation of many motives and characteristics of fairy-tale heroes can only be found in comparison with ancient rituals, elements of the socio-religious way of life of the Proto-Slavs and ancient Eurasians. Let's try to analyze some of the most famous characters in Russian fairy tales.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is a character from Slavic mythology and folklore. Usually an ugly old woman, endowed with magical power and magical items. Often a witch, sorceress. Most often she is a negative character (she lures children and good fellows into her hut on chicken legs to eat), but sometimes she acts as the hero’s assistant. According to folklore specialist Vladimir Propp, three types of Baba Yaga can be distinguished in fairy tales: the giver (gives the main character a fairy-tale horse), the kidnapper of children and the warrior (she fights with the main character “to the death”).
In modern ideas, Baba Yaga is the mistress of the forest and guardian of the borders of the “other world” (far away kingdom). That's why she has a bone leg - to stand in the world of the dead. In many fairy tales, Baba Yaga heats the bathhouse and vaporizes the hero, performing the ritual of ablution. Then he feeds him, that is, he performs a funeral feast with him. And the female image of Baba Yaga itself is associated, according to researchers, with matriarchal ideas about the structure of the social world.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Water
In Slavic mythology - a spirit that lives in water, the owner of water, the embodiment of the element of water as a negative and dangerous principle. He appears before us in the form of an obese old man, goggle-eyed, with a fish tail. He has a huge beard and mustache, sometimes fish-like features, webbed paws and a horn on his head. Lives in whirlpools and whirlpools, but especially loves water mills. Therefore, the millers cajoled them in every possible way, and also buried a live black rooster or other security attributes under the log where the door to the mill would be. Vodyanoy is often associated with the king of the sea.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Firebird
A fairytale bird is usually the target of a search for a fairy tale hero. The feathers of the firebird glow and amaze with beauty. Lives in the Garden of Eden, in a golden cage. He eats golden apples, heals the sick with his singing and restores sight to the blind. At a deep mythological level, he is the personification of fire, light and sun. Therefore, every year in the fall the Firebird dies and is reborn in the spring. At the cross-cultural level, it has an analogue - the Phoenix bird, reborn from the ashes.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Dragon
A fire-breathing dragon with several heads, the personification of evil in fairy tales and epics. He usually lives in the mountains, near a fiery river and guards the “Kalinov Bridge”, through which one enters the kingdom of the dead. The number of heads of the Serpent-Gorynych is usually three (3, 6, 9 or 12). In fairy tales, the element of fire is usually associated with the serpent. The Serpent-Gorynych kidnaps girls (often princesses) to feast on them. After this, the main characters come to him for a duel, first killing his viper cubs.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Ivan the Fool
A very popular image in mythology, which, when solving problems, is guided by its own, non-standard solutions, often contrary to common sense, but bringing success. The designation “fool” is interpreted in different ways. Some researchers consider this a talisman against the evil eye. According to another version, Ivan is called a fool, since usually in fairy tales he is the third son, who is not entitled to a share of the parental inheritance (hence the ability to think outside the box, find a way out difficult situations). Etymologically, the image of Ivan the Fool is connected with the image of a priest, because he can sing and play various instruments, and also speaks in riddles. At the end of the fairy tales, Ivan the Fool receives wealth and a princess as his wife.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Cat Baiyun
A huge man-eating cat with in a magical voice. On the one hand, he charms and lulls travelers with his tales, on the other, his tales can heal. The word “bayun” itself means “talker, storyteller.” In fairy tales, Cat Bayun sits on a high pillar far away in the thirtieth kingdom or in a lifeless forest where there are no animals. In one of the fairy tales, he lives with Baba Yaga.
Catching the Cat Bayun is usually a test for the main character, who catches him wearing an iron cap and iron gloves. But the captured Cat Bayun then serves at the royal court, healing the sick with his stories.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Kolobok
A fairy-tale character in the form of spherical wheat bread, who runs away from grandparents, from various animals, but in the end is eaten by a fox. This character clearly personifies the reverent attitude of the Slavic people towards bread, and its sacred meaning. Namely, the round shape of the Kolobok, which also rolls, which refers us to the cult of the sun.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Koschey (Kashchei) the Immortal
An evil sorcerer whose death is hidden in several nested magical animals and objects. “On the sea, on the ocean, there is an island, on that island there is an oak tree, under the oak tree there is a chest buried, in the chest there is a hare, in the hare there is a duck, in the duck there is an egg, in the egg there is the death of Koshchei.” Often kidnaps the main character's fiancee. In appearance - a thin (Koschei - from the word “bone”) tall old man or a living skeleton. Sometimes on a talking and flying horse. A powerful sorcerer, which also allows us to call priests his prototypes.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Goblin
The master spirit of the forest in Slavic mythology. Its appearance can be different, even the opposite breeds in different fairy tales- sometimes he is small, sometimes a giant, sometimes an anthropomorphic creature, sometimes he has an animal appearance. In any case, its nature is otherworldly. People's attitude towards him is also ambivalent. On the one hand, they are afraid of him, he can make a person get lost, sometimes he plays pranks, and he can punish for inappropriate behavior in his domain. At the same time, it is the Leshy who protects the forest, on which human life largely depends.
Heroes of Russian fairy tales. Miracle Yudo
A character in folk tales and epics, and even pre-Slavic mythology. The positive or negative nature of the character is not clearly indicated, as well as his gender - in different eras he was both feminine and masculine and in between. Miracle Yudo is a character so ancient that researchers find it difficult to link him to any phenomenon.
It could be a sea animal, a mythical serpent, a dragon. And in the author’s fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov (1834) there is the Miracle Yudo Fish-Whale - a fish-island.
From myself - the article is amazing, written easily, subtly and with humor.
Article taken from the LJ blog http://tsimbal.livejournal.com/86494.html#cutid1
tsimbal's journal
The idea that girls, playing fairy tales as children and admiring their favorite heroines, unconsciously mold a role model after them is not new. In fact, only the lazy have not traveled through it, but at the same time, it has not been completely exhausted. I decided to put in my two cents. Everything written below is the result of observations and IMHO. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thoughts came to someone’s mind before. EC
So, role models.
Cinderella
The most popular model of all time, so popular that it is successfully played by girls, boys, adults, and world literature, coupled with cinema. Breaks down into two submodels that can coexist both together and separately
Option 1: “All my problems will be solved by a rich/noble husband and Kind fairy»
These Cinderellas grow up in the belief that they are born for heights, and in order to shine, they lack the very little thing - the one who, in fact, will provide them with “the sky in diamonds.” They are “driven” by a successful marriage (well, not necessarily a marriage) and solving problems in one fell swoop in the style of “a prince will come and solve everything.” Cinderellas are often distinguished by their gullibility, but at the same time they very rarely get into really unpleasant situations - they are lucky. As a rule, they do not forget that equipment also matters, and therefore, before conquering the prince, they need to shake the “good fairy” (usually parents, but there are options) into a decent outfit.
Most of them, by the way, get along well in life - they are charmingly naive, look with devotedly loving eyes, and are ready to be second, or even third fiddle. Cinderellas rarely make a career; they simply don’t need it. Their career is marriage, and it only fails for those who have great financial claims to life. They usually do their part of the “work” - the house, the family, the children - impeccably, in any case, their husbands don’t have to complain about them. Cinderellas are indulgent wives; they forgive everything except global financial disasters and divorce. But even in this case, Cinderella does not lose heart. There will always be enough men around her to rely on.
Option 2: “I’ll be good and get a prince”
Cinderellas of this type have a much more difficult life in life, although they are just as gentle, charming and flexible. Firstly, because it is always difficult to be good, and secondly, because failure to receive the reward promised by the fairy tale is quite annoying and even leads to internal conflicts. “I try and try - but finally there is no prince, no fairy, no carriage, no beautiful dress on the horizon! There are only stepmothers who strive to use.” But this is a deeply internal monologue, and anyone can be in the role of “stepmother”: the readiness of such Cinderellas to serve is relaxing, and everyone who is not too lazy begins to use them. Often Cinderella quietly cries into her pillow, promises herself to be courageous - and again runs to get coffee for a colleague, helps her neighbor clean, borrows money, already weakly believing that someday she will be rewarded for this. The prince in such a situation will be the one who will simply pull her out of this swamp, appreciate her and respond “good for good.” But such a scenario, alas, is rare: most often such Cinderellas attract excellent scum, although... And a good person can turn into God knows what with such corrupting forgiveness. Some good fairy can also straighten Cinderella’s brains. In youth, a good and wiser and older friend is enough. Only a fairy psychologist will help Cinderella at thirty.
Both types of Cinderella have one thing in common: a happy marriage is our FSE. A career is not for them, one doesn’t need it, the other will always be passed over for promotions. But, in an amicable way, “a good wife” is already a career, huh?
Snow White
Despite the external similarity of fairy tales, Cinderella and Snow White are simply polar heroines. They both put their trust in the prince, but Snow White is the master of her own life. Happy marriage is one of her priorities, the prince will come after her - she knows it. But for now you need to live in this world, establishing relationships with everyone, from animals to the evil stepmother. The Disney cartoon is simply a treasure trove of the heroine's character. Remember how she organized all the forest animals to clean the gnomes' house? And how did she unobtrusively build gnomes, turning from a guest to the mistress of their house? Snow White learns to unobtrusively control those around her from childhood. She is friendly and friendly, happy to help - but a little later you will discover that it is you who are mainly helping her. Snow White is incredibly friendly, but at the same time she will easily part with her surroundings when the Prince appears on the horizon. By the way, about the latter: Snowless almost always knows who she wants to marry, and is in no hurry if the desired option is not available. “Unsuitable” people, even if they are brilliant and immensely rich, are registered as “dwarfs”. “Dwarf” is a male friend who will not be disappointed. Never. But the “gnome” can count on everything else: support, a smile, tea and cake and help. As well as the fact that he will be the one to carry furniture in a snow-white house, fix her computer and wiring. While waiting for the prince, Snow White makes a good career. They are born organizers, and can manage any team in the same way - easily and unobtrusively. Natural practicality will not allow Snow White to make a career in science or in some “male” fields. Ideas and abstract concepts are not her element. Although it's clean women's groups Snow Whites are not favored - their charm works much better on men. If you become Snow White's prince, then you are lucky. They are good wives, and, unlike Cinderellas, “in any weather.” There is only one drawback - one way or another, by washing or rolling, Snow White will arrange it so that she will make all the important family decisions. Unobtrusively, with gentle persistence. You may not even notice it. And if you are not “that kind of man,” don’t worry. This means that you are her prince, and you will be in best case scenario, gnome.
Little Red Riding Hood
If your daughter’s favorite heroine is Little Red Riding Hood, then I sympathize with you in advance. Caps have a magnetic talent for getting into trouble, especially of an erotic nature. They easily go to visit random acquaintances and go with their girlfriends to an unknown “dacha”. They trustfully give money to crooks and return at night in a short skirt. The cap is a magnet for scoundrels. She is trusting, talkative and, as a rule, pretty. In the family, Shapochka is a child who runs around somewhere on his own, not spoiled by unnecessary care. At first impression, it’s a pity for the Cap, but if you take a closer look, it turns out that part of the Caps likes a “risky” life and they cannot imagine themselves without it. One of my friends, Shapochka, was always getting involved in some kind of epic, either with the cops or with bandits. Her stories looked like the plots of bad action movies: if I hadn’t seen her in this gop company, I wouldn’t have believed it in my life. “You can’t imagine how exciting it is when your man plays cards for you.” I had no idea. Another Little Cap boasted that she had so impressed her companion on the train that they got off halfway in the middle of the road in some city, rented a hotel room and spent a luxurious night. In the morning, the companion disappeared, and she didn’t know how to get home now (he didn’t rob her, she just didn’t have the money for another ticket). The Beanie epics sound like nonsense, but what's funny is that it's usually the truth, slightly embellished by a vivid imagination. Alas, the age of risky adventures is short-lived for the Caps. They grow up early and often, after thirty, all the turbulent youth is already on their faces. But by this time they had lived 5-10 lives of calmer ordinary women. Caps, alas, are a risk group in terms of alcohol and drugs (they are drawn to any pool).
Sometimes the Savior, that same woodcutter, may be next to the Riding Hood. If the hat has not yet mastered the path of adventure, it can be “domesticated.” If not, then sooner or later she will still start to get into something. “Beanies” over thirty, by the way, sometimes get along well in life: they have a wealth of life experience and excellent knowledge of men. She is a kind mother, but usually has no time for children. And most importantly: you will never get bored with them!
Let's throw away the lisp of Andersen's fairy tale and honestly admit: Gerda is a tank girl. “I see the goal - I see no obstacles” - this is about her. Calm determination, incredible perseverance. Her “Kai” can be anything - a career, science, a man... Gerda will get it - you can be sure. She is attractive and knows how to force someone to help herself. Different from Snow White, not in a roundabout way, but directly. He has no doubt that he is right. If it is necessary for the sake of the goal, we will do it. Gerdas, as a rule, are serious girls - and their goals are also serious. If the target turns out to be a man, you can sympathize with him and envy him in equal measure. Gerda will do everything for him - walk to Lapland, defeat the Snow Queen, rob robbers, open the door to the royal chambers with her foot... BUT. By and large, she is not interested in the opinion of “Kai” himself, whether he needs Gerda. He got it. It is impossible to fight off Gerda, who is sure that you are the Kai of her life. And sooner or later you will realize that Gerda is a great option. She will be a wife and mother rolled into one. She will help you make a career, earn money, give birth and raise children, not forgetting that you are her main child. She won’t let you decide anything on your own – and unlike Snow White, she will voice it honestly. To be fair, Gerdas are rarely attracted to independent men. Their Kai is a typical “son” who is quite happy with this.
Little robber
Tomboy. He plays with the boys, wants to belong among them, and sometimes treats him down. As a rule, she grew up in a family where either they managed without men, or dad flew in the empyrean, and mom carried the house, work and did not forget to instill in her daughter the opinion that all men are parasites. Another option is that dad left altogether, rarely met with the child, but left a good impression of himself. In both cases, the Little Robber grows up in the belief that you can’t rely on men, you can disassemble a Kalashnikov assault rifle and fix the electricity yourself, and whether it’s worth wasting time chasing men is generally a question...
With age, it turns out that it is worth it, since the Little Robbers are desperately amorous people. Moreover, with all their brightness and often temperament, they fall in love... yes, yes, yes, if not with princes, then with boys from “good families” who are inclined to fly in the empyrean. Novels are often stormy, but they end differently, because... The chosen one's relatives take the Little Robber with hostility. The robber - sincere, impetuous, with a kind heart - does not know how to make the right impression. Cinderella, taken from the slums, will be helped out by her shining eyes and the ability to smile silently. The robber will definitely blurt out something provocative, dress in something incomprehensible, and draw attention to herself in the most unusual way. It’s easy for her to be passionate, but she doesn’t know how to be feminine at all and often suffers because of this (but she doesn’t admit it, she’s a “nurser”). But it’s never boring with the Robber. She is sentimental, emotional, often changes decisions made, but she is a devoted and reliable comrade. Of course, there will never be perfect order in her house. She grew up in a cave, and understands comfort in her own way. But you won’t be doing minor repairs or fixing plumbing in the house either. You will be allowed to be in the “empyrean”.
Malvina
"Good girl." The right girl “from a good family.” As a rule, she is an excellent student, an activist and the pride of the school. As a child, she was taught how to behave, and Malvina perceives “a step to the right, a step to the left” as an attempt to escape. Therefore, she often tries to stress those around her with these rules and because of this she is considered particularly boring. Malvina is, as a rule, a beautiful girl - at least she knows how to present herself. There are enough boys of her circle next to her, but... Malvinas like hooligans. With unwashed hands, climbing through the window, flouting the rules. Secretly she envies them, obviously she is trying to re-educate them. He naively believes that “with a good woman, a man can become a man” and at least not blow his nose on the tablecloth in her presence. Often, after such attempts at re-education, ideal women with small children from someone unknown... Having been burned by a bully, Malvina often rushes into the arms of some sad Pierrot, whose lonely face used to make her sick. But for her this is not an option: she is not one of those who will drag the family cart and Pierrot through life. More often, a reliable older companion appears next to her, or simply a good person who is able to appreciate her. Malvina – good hostess and mother, she is neat and smart. If the bully does not bring dissonance into her life, she even makes a good career - often as a teacher or engineer.
Mary Poppins
If you have ever encountered a young lady who knows everything and is ready to provide you with a bunch of valuable advice on any occasion, you know what a miracle Mary Poppins is. She is perfection. She decided so herself. She can do everything the best way: even boil eggs and wash a mop. You are doing it wrong, but she will teach you how to do it right now. Mary loves to teach and give advice. They only love to talk about how wonderful they are. She has everything best - the best husband, prodigies - children, a successful career, a hairdresser-stylist from an acquaintance and inexpensively... But if you take a closer look, you will find that Mary’s career is often the position of the eldest of three secretaries, her hairstyle was relevant ten years ago , and the husband... He may work three jobs, but in his place you would do the same - because... Being around Mary for a long time is much more difficult. The worst test is having Mary as a mother-in-law, daughter-in-law or sister-in-law. This can only be endured by living in another city. To be fair: Mary really tries to make everything as good as possible. Often, in many areas she is truly a specialist - although perhaps not as much as she thinks. She is fit, elegant, plays sports and leads healthy image life. For her, an invented scheme of life is the only possible one, it is a shield with which she closes herself off from reality. Therefore, when it turns out that her husband is leaving and her daughter is pregnant at the age of 14, for Mary it is a disaster and the collapse of the world. But this happens quite rarely. Usually, Marys find flexible companions and successfully build others around them throughout their lives.
Goldilocks
Goldilocks is a beauty with a spirit. Often, from a good or rich family. Since childhood, she knows how good it is to be beautiful, how nice it is when men hover around and all issues are resolved by themselves. She considers her beauty and other talents as capital for her life, and therefore cherishes and cherishes it in every possible way. If Cinderella is ready to woo the prince herself, then Goldilocks is used to being wooed. Rudeness and charm are not enough here; the enterprise requires a long siege and often considerable funds. In addition, Goldilocks will casually constantly test you to see how you will behave in a given situation, whether you can be relied upon and whether you are who you say you are. If necessary, she will even make inquiries.
Goldilocks takes great care of herself, she looks like top level” and wants her companion to understand this - then he will have to pay for all these “little things”. But she is the ideal girl for a party of any importance, the same “queen at a party and a courtesan in bed,” and often a good hostess at the same time.
Goldilocks can expect two pitfalls in relationships. First, she quickly discovers that her date sees her not as a person, but as a trophy and an investment (and Goldilocks is offended by this). Secondly, sometimes a wonderful object suddenly abandons Goldilocks for the much less spectacular Cinderella, or even someone generally nondescript, carried away by sincerity and real feelings... Goldilocks herself has a difficult time with feelings (beyond those required by the role) - she is either too practical for this or raised to keep them to herself. A nuance: pursuing Goldilocks is much more interesting than actually living with her. She will be able to create beauty and comfort, but not maintain an atmosphere of warmth and trust. Therefore, Goldilocks either marry much older men or change husbands every few years.
Alice in Wonderland
Alice from childhood unusual child paying attention to things that others don't care about. She is not bored alone, she plays her own games, often creating a whole world around herself. Sometimes she is considered stupid - because she thinks slowly, does not always reason logically, and mathematics is not her element at all. Alice doesn't fit well in groups; she's a loner and a dreamer. However, in his youth, he willingly gets involved in all sorts of parties, role-playing games, hikes, etc. She is not part of the team, but rather an observer, she is INTERESTED. For the sake of her interest, she will go where neither the brave Little Robber nor the risky Riding Hood would dare to go. And what is typical is that Alice will get out of the situation alive, unharmed and without loss.
Alice makes an ambivalent impression on the boys. If she is pretty, then her strangeness will be considered mysterious, and admirers will fight for the right to walk her home. Alice of ordinary appearance will have a more difficult time - such people are usually considered eccentrics, although they are not particularly bullied. They are not liked in the team at work, because Alice is always outside the group - she only plays her own games. Alices are creative people, they draw and embroider, write poems and stories. But all this is very impractical; Alice will never learn to make money from her talents. Of the men, Alice is best suited either to an “eccentric” of her type, or to one who will be sympathetic to her very non-trivial view of the world, work, life, home comfort and raising children. An excellent, but somewhat exaggerated variation on the Alice theme is Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.
The Snow Queen is always a little less of a child than the others. In childhood, she is often withdrawn, reserved, sometimes giving the impression of indifference (less often, but it happens the other way around: she is sociable, but clearly keeps her distance). The Queen has a clear practical mind, she is purposeful and persistent. Of all the fairy-tale heroines, the Snow Queen has the best chance of making a successful career - she is a businesswoman from birth. Often “strict but fair,” but there are also variations. He builds his life in such a way as to depend on anyone as little as possible; he prefers something more concrete to emotional obligations. She knows how to make an impression - even with average external data, you cannot deny her majesty. True, those around the Queen are more afraid than loved. It is difficult to appease her with smiles or charm. If your boss is the Queen, then the work will have to be done efficiently and on time. Loves compliments, but takes them for granted.
Relationships with men develop differently. The Queen prefers respectable, accomplished, reliable men - but for them she is too authoritarian. In addition, Queens are often not temperamental; sex is a minor matter for them. Therefore, Queens are often unmarried, which, in general, does not surprise their relatives and friends.
But the Snow Queen has friends. Not too close: and she is not one of those who would cry into her vest, and it would not occur to her acquaintances to sob on her shoulder. But she recognizes friendship as company and mutual assistance, as well as friendship based on interests. With age, one sometimes begins to suffer from loneliness, but all attempts to start a family in adulthood are doomed to failure. She loves to command too much, and besides, she cannot stand strangers in her house. If you fell in love with the Snow Queen, you can only sympathize. Don't try to melt it. This woman does not hide a warm heart under the ice - she is made of ice.
Mermaid
A kind, good, but shy girl. Loves to read, especially stories about unhappy love. If others are touched by the ending “and they lived happily ever after,” then the Little Mermaid prefers to cry over stories “well, in general, everyone died,” although, of course, her strong point is “she loved him.” more life, but didn’t tell him about it.” Being a Little Mermaid is a real punishment, which can only be understood by those who know firsthand what complexes are. But Little Mermaids can also be different - active, sociable - with friends. But with boys, for some reason, the tongue is taken away and becomes numb, not only at 10, 15, but also at 30 years old. Moreover, Little Mermaids usually fall in love with the wrong men - married men, boyfriends of girlfriends, guys who see her only as a friend... The Little Mermaid seems to diligently avoid men with whom something might work out. Subconsciously she likes to be the heroine of a great romantic tragedy, but consciously... Who likes to cry into her pillow at the age of 27 from hopeless love?
Sometimes Little Mermaids get married, not to their prince, but to the “octopus next door.” But after a while, even the most insensitive husband discovers that he is only being used, and a photo of some classmate of Vanya is carried in his wallet and kissed every evening. At the same time, the fact that Vanya has long been bald and dangerously pot-bellied, and her husband is still fine, does not matter. But more often the Little Mermaid is left alone, having rejected many excellent options.
The funny thing is that happiness is much more possible than she realizes. The “Prince” may like the Little Mermaid, but her unapproachable appearance, emphasized friendliness and complete lack of coquetry on her part lead him to think that “there is nothing to catch here.” Unfortunately, it is useless to set the minds of the Little Mermaids. Insight comes to them, but often after forty, when it is already difficult to change the existing life.
Thumbelina
Thumbelina is a meek, harmless at first glance, creature who is subjected to repression from all sides for no reason. It is she who has problems with her classmates and teachers, it is the neighboring girls who are intriguing against her, she was beaten in a competition and was fired from her job for no reason... At the first moment you are imbued with sympathy for this fragile, persecuted creature (regardless of its size, although Thumbelina usually really fragile). You give her tea, listen to her sorrows and offer help. But a month or two passes, and the situation does not change; in the new place, Thumbelina has the same problems. Either she attracts problems to herself like a magnet, or some of them are the fruit of her wild imagination.
In fact, both are true. Thumbelina really quite often irritate others - with excessive emotionality and melancholy, talking about their disasters and unwillingness to learn from their mistakes. Just as Little Red Riding Hood will end up in the most dangerous one of all the companies, so Thumbelina will choose the one where she will be 100% screwed out of all the jobs. She is not only gullible, but also hears only what she wants. Therefore, at work, the usual “well done” will immediately be seen as “the salary is about to be increased” (and then there will be tears, because, having daydreamed, Thumbelina spent money in the hope of a promotion, but it did not happen - intrigue!)
The same problems can happen with men. Thumbelina is very feminine and sensitive and can interpret any immodest look addressed to her as “he harassed me.” Often she herself does not know what she wants and can fool her suitors not consciously (which other fairy-tale heroines are masters of), but due to changes in feelings and moods. Oddly enough, the best companion for her is a strong, powerful man who will take little account of her opinion and will perceive her... as Thumbelina, a fragile flower girl, a charming but decorative creature.
Scheherazade
Thin little thing. From childhood he learns that in order to succeed in life you need to be able to “walk by your ears”, and if necessary, then listen carefully. Scheherazade loves both, and usually knows when to stop. In a women's company she will shine herself; in a man's company, if necessary, she will let the man shine, providing him with the necessary background. Scheherazade is a born actress, and an actress in real life – she never overacts. Another difference between her and fairy-tale and other heroines endowed with a vivid imagination: Scheherazade enjoys the process, but does not forget about the result. She is temperamental, but with a head on her shoulders and a sense of humor, although quite soft. Scheherazade – Eastern woman, even if she is a Nordic blonde. She believes that it is at least stupid for a woman to waste her energy on a career and making money - there is a man nearby for this. Worthy man. “Sons”, unrecognized geniuses and other “also options” are not her style - rather, her husband will be older and more respectable, but it is he who will provide her with, if not a fairy tale, then peace and comfort. In return, he will receive an almost ideal companion, except that... Scheherazade does not believe in “fidelity in bed” of men, does not expect this from them, but she herself can be fleetingly carried away on the side. True, she never gets caught, and if something happens, she brilliantly gets out of any problematic situation.
The most pleasant thing about Scheherazade is that she is not aggressive; she prefers to act gently, although persistently. She is often “on her own mind,” although you can’t tell by her behavior. Usually Scheherazade is a girl from a family with Eastern roots, it doesn’t matter - Caucasian, Muslim, Jewish. Or - from a family with a strong patriarchal bias. It would never occur to her to command a man, to make fun of him, or to demonstrate her intellectual or other superiority. Moreover, we are talking not only about “our own” - about any man. Therefore, Scheherazade enjoys constant success among men. She doesn't even have to be beautiful - given her talents, it doesn't really matter.
Anidag is perhaps the most unpleasant of fairy tale heroines. However, no - the most dangerous. She can be sweet, charming, and endearing, but it’s quite difficult to get rid of the feeling of danger nearby. Anidag is a girl to whom either her parents or life explained that she can only achieve success by walking over corpses. No other way. Anidag is purposeful and ambitious, and often not lazy at the same time. If necessary, she can work hard, although her real element is intrigue. “A couple of dozen pathetic corpses will only decorate my triumphal chariot” - this is her credo. But she will not go ahead, but will rather act with poison - flattery and slander. Her compliments smell of insincerity a mile away, but not everyone notices it right away. Anidag is a bright and impressive woman, she can and loves to please. As a rule, there are no complexes - if necessary, bed and other talents will be actively used in the name of the success of her “business”. He behaves slightly flirtatiously with men, with the right women- can portray a sincere friend, with superiors - a fighter for the cause of the company. It seems natural to itself, but in reality it slightly overacts. Those who do fall under Anidag’s charm may be quite surprised to learn what nasty things she says about them and what gossip she spreads behind their back. In order to get your dose of poison, you don’t need much - often, Anidag can “drown” just like that - as a “dress rehearsal” before the real war. To be fair: Anidag is not a sadist. All her machinations are not for pleasure, but for success. Moreover, she is often convinced that all successful people do this.
Anidag, as a rule, achieve success in life, but not what they dreamed of, and often this success is fragile. Unfortunately for them, the Earth is round, the “corpses” have acquaintances, relatives and colleagues, and after some time there are few people left who do not know about the “talents” of the irreplaceable worker. Such people are more often used than promoted - because no one dares to trust them. The exception is when, in addition to his bastard nature, Anidag has real talent. But this rarely happens.
Family life Anidag is more diverse than happy. Although it is not a problem for her to play the game “queen at a party, courtesan in bed” in front of her husband (especially the right husband), if the husband is not an idiot and not much older, he is tired of the lack of sincerity in the relationship. Living with a bitch for a long time is difficult, so husbands change periodically. Anidag often does not like children and does not have children at all. And sometimes, on the contrary, he loves them, but tries to instill in them his values.
In honor of Miranda, who would have made a wonderful Madame de Merteuil, I am posting two more female types. They are not fairy tales - I haven’t found any suitable fairy tale heroines. But they are good enough to come to your attention. EC
Marquise de Merteuil
The creature is infrequent, its poisonousness is comparable to that of a spectacled snake. The Marquise is an intriguer to the core, an intriguer out of love for intrigue and... out of envy. Not very beautiful (but not faded!), but a smart and attentive girl. Not without ability, but with a lack of obvious talent. Since childhood, the Marquise craves not so much attention as influence. She is one of those people who is INTERESTED in coming up with some nasty two-move move (Marquises disdain one-move even in kindergarten) and see “what will happen.” This is her hobby. It is the Marquise who can “pawn” a class that has run away from lessons or girls who went to “smear” someone at night. But, God forbid, not herself: she will find a performer, playing on either his stupidity or his honesty. She is INTERESTED - how she will get the class, and what will happen to the unfortunate “performer” later. In her youth, the Marquise’s ability to break up the romances of her “friends” is almost limitless, while her friends are unlikely to quickly guess whose hands it was.
The Marquise is not amorous (to some extent, this is her tragedy - she CANNOT experience strong feelings, and she is not always able to demonstrate them), but she is curious, and she may have plenty of lovers - partly for the sake of power , interest, mastering new technology. Unlike Anidag, Marquise does not need a career. She needs a place where she can see, control and reach the largest number of people.
To be fair: the Marquise herself is a rare bird. I personally met her twice in my life. There are much more pseudo-Marquises - women who seem to themselves to be arch-intrigues. This is a parody of the heroines of the books “How to Be a Bitch” and “10 Ways to Walk Over Corpses.” Pseudo-marquises are also dangerous (they can do no less nasty things than the original), but they are more complacent, and therefore more noticeable. Pseudo-Marquises do not hesitate to do the dirty work (gossip, rumors) themselves - but, unlike Anidag, not for the sake of a career, but for entertainment. It is easier to neutralize them by exposing their intriguing “bitchness” to those around them. True, not through a public scandal - Pseudo, unlike the real Marquise, is not afraid of exposure, and underestimates his power.
The cheapest thing to do is stay away from the Marquise herself. If “happiness” is already in the team, send her false information about you, preferably unverifiable, and through several different sources. Do not play her games and do not try to “pinch” the marquise on her territory. Remember a simple truth: no matter what schmuck splashes you with dirt, you won’t explain to everyone passing by why you are covered in slop. Therefore, the further, the better.
In their personal lives, Marquises are rarely happy. Their talent for destruction will not make the family happier, will not keep the man, will not add warmth to the relationship. There are often no children, or you can sincerely feel sorry for them. But Marquises look great into old age - they take great care of the façade.
Angelique, Marchioness of the Angels
It is difficult to find a romantic Heroine in fairy tales, this is the territory women's novels. And Angelica feels like a Woman almost from birth. To listen to her, even in the nursery, loving babies half vying with each other offered her bottles of milk and the best potty... Her first romantic dramas played out in kindergarten, and she still remembers the color of the eyes and shorts of her first gentleman, and is nostalgic when she hears the song “A little girl asks a little boy a question...” By the end of elementary school, books can be written about her romantic hobbies - and these are not vulgar “cuddling”, but real dramas - with kisses, promises to “be together forever,” and even fights with rivals ...
You can listen to all this performed by Angelica endlessly, but if you manage to look at her next “unearthly love” from the outside, you will be quite surprised (especially if the gentleman dying of love for her, according to Angelica, starts making eyes at you right in front of her ).
Angelica’s problem (or maybe happiness) is that nature has endowed her with an extremely vivid imagination, capable of perceiving any wink as “he was harassing me.” Angelica creates the outline of her novel herself, weaving a man into it, investing her romance and temperament. At first, being Angelica's lover is just a fairy tale. She is passionate, gentle, and all she needs is love! (Seriously! Angeliques are pretty selfless). Give Goldilocks orchids and a restaurant - you can pamper Angelica with snowdrops and a picnic on the beach, and you will get a much more passionate, and most importantly, sincere lover. Another thing is that over time, the ardor and dramatic character of Angelica begins to tire her gentlemen. She might be thrown into the pool new love boredom - established relationships seem insipid to her.
Because of this, Angeliques are either not married at all or change husbands like gloves. More often than not, it’s the former, since Angelique doesn’t have the persistence to bring her Prince to the altar. She is too open, too impulsive, too actively begins to fit a man into her life - all this frightens candidates for husbands.
Angelica usually does not have a career. She is hardworking, knows how to work, but this is not her area of interest. Most often, she is smart enough not to create romantic drama in the office. He takes care of himself, but is not particularly well-groomed. More often - because she considers herself beautiful in any form and in any clothing (and without competition - without). She raises her children (and they sometimes appear) herself, with typical female inconsistency: she either pampers her or builds her up. He loves theater and romantic books, and in his youth (and often throughout his life) he always writes poetry. The housewife is very average - she can only cook 2-3 signature dishes, the mess can be considered "creative disorder". She is careless in finances (buying a delicacy with her last money, and then eating bread for a week - that’s about her). But she is an optimist and a great friend - if you don’t forget that Angelica’s first, second and third places are men. Friends, children, work and money come later.
A huge warm river flows in the ocean. It's called the Gulf Stream. It flows and warms the whole world. If it were not for the Gulf Stream, the Earth would become like a house without a brownie - cold and uncomfortable. Our life would become just as cold and uncomfortable without the Fairy Tale, which flows like a huge warm river through the ocean called Life.
Someone convinced us that we ourselves invent fairy tales in order to someday “make a fairy tale come true.” Why not let it be as if the Fairy Tale invented us, so that we could return to it later? They swam in the “were”, like Ivan the Fool in spring water and boiling milk, and returned from there as Ivan Tsarevichs and Elena the Beautiful - to the Fairy Tale.
And so that we don’t forget our historical fairy-tale homeland, it flows through our entire lives, reminding us:
“Don’t be timid,” he says, “guys. I'm near. Just a little bit, I'll help. There you are Living water, here is Dead, there Gray wolf and a flying carpet... The main thing is, don’t believe the Serpent Gorynych, but don’t forget where Koshcheev’s death is, so that if there’s any trouble with your Princess, they’ll know how to get to Buyan Island.”
A fairy tale, they say, is “a lie and a hint in it...” There is no hint in a fairy tale. It says everything directly, without hints: this one is the Tsarevich, this one is Baba Yaga, that one is the Leshy...
The warm river of Fairy Tales flows, flows into the ocean called Life, and mixes with it so much that it is difficult to separate them. Is it necessary to divide?
FAIRY-TALE HEROES
ALESHA POPOVICH
Originally from Rostov. Judging by his nickname, he was born into a religious family, which did not prevent him from becoming a professional military man - one of the three heroes. My father's name was Levon, so Alyosha's patronymic is Levontievich.
Unfortunately, Alexey Levontevich Popovich did not have a childhood. According to the recollections of contemporaries, as soon as he was born and saw that he was going to be swaddled and placed in a cradle, Alyosha demanded that he “not be swaddled in swaddling clothes, but given chain mail.” Putting on chain mail, the newborn asked his mother for a blessing, a horse and a saber. Having said goodbye to his parents, he went to work.
Kind, sympathetic and a little naive, Alyosha cut off many enemy heads with his sword. He began his military career with a journey from Rostov to Kyiv, on the way where he defeated a terrible monster named Tugarin.
This Tugarin, having met the hero, behaved defiantly and began to threaten him with violence (smother him with smoke, fry him and eat him). But the monster miscalculated. The young hero defeated Tugarin, cut him with a saber and scattered him across an open field.
Arriving in the former capital of Ancient Rus', Alyosha Popovich entered the service of Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko (Krasno Solnyshko is not a patronymic or surname, but a nickname) and became friends with other heroes (see Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich).
Alyosha Popovich limped and possessed magic. He could transform into birds and animals. In adulthood, he married the beautiful Elena, whom he himself called Elenushka, and others called Elena the Beautiful.
ALICE
A typically English, well-mannered girl from the fairy tales of the writer Lewis Carroll. A little boring, but it even decorates her. One day, chasing the Rabbit (see Hare), she climbed into his hole, which turned out to be a bottomless well leading to Wonderland. Then Alice climbed into the mirror and found herself in Through the Looking Glass. The result was two fairy tales about Alice: in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. In both tales, she travels through old games - chess and cards.
ALADDIN
The poor Arab youth from the fairy tales “1001 Nights”. He took out a magic lamp from an enchanted cave, inside of which was the Genie (see Genie). This Genie obediently followed all Aladdin's orders and, in the end, helped him successfully marry an oriental beauty princess (see Princess).
But one should not think that Aladdin himself did nothing to earn the love of the beautiful princess Budur. He probably would have gotten along just fine without the Genie, because he was a handsome, brave and cheerful young man. But it so happened that the Evil Wizard became Aladdin's enemy. Therefore, without the Genie, Aladdin would have had a hard time.
AU
Uncle Au is a modern lonely Finnish ghost, described by the writer Hannu Mäkele, and appeared in Russia thanks to the writer Eduard Uspensky.
There is a brief description of him in the fairy tale:
"He can handle the engine,
He'll steal a truck
A cross between a devil and a lift operator -
Modern forester."
Uncle Au is a colorful and charming personality. He lives in the forest, is also Leshy (see Leshy), experiments, growing an “eternally hungry tree”, fights with the “Box Factory”, which decided to cut down his entire Finnish protected forest into boxes. Of course, a lone ghost could never cope with an entire factory. It’s good that he had friends - children and animals.
WOMAN
In fairy tales he always lives with Grandfather (“Once upon a time there were Grandfather and Baba…”). Often a grumpy, wayward woman with a bad character. He always strives to send his Grandfather somewhere. Either to the very blue sea to catch fish, then to the dark forest for firewood, then to the fair for a cow, and once in winter she even forced Grandfather to sculpt the Snow Maiden in the cold.
In her poor hut, most often there are no pickles. She is stingy, stupid and curious. This is usually used by various passers-by, wanderers and especially soldiers who come to visit her from time to time. They tell her all sorts of fairy tales and stories, forcing her to put the food in the cellar on the table. A striking example- the story of the Soldier (see Soldier), who, in front of the surprised Baba’s eyes, cooked soup from an ax and from her grandmother’s products.
However, to be fair, it must be noted; being in a good mood, Baba can sometimes, at the request of Grandfather, scrape the bottom of the barrel, place it in the barns and bake a Kolobok. She often helps her husband pull the turnip and beat the golden egg from under the Ryaba Hen (see Ryaba Hen). True, she does the latter poorly. Nevertheless, when “Grandfather and Baba live in a fairy tale,” the fairy tale itself turns out to be more fun. If in a fairy tale Baba lives without Grandfather, and even in the forest, she is almost certainly a witch. At best - Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga).
BABA YAGA
The character is not a fairy tale at all, but a real one. It was (and maybe still is) found in taiga areas. There, in the swamps, a very tasty berry grows - cloudberries. Himself Pinery called Yag. It was by the name of the boron and especially the berries that she picked that they called the lonely grandmother - a hermit, and maybe even a healer, Baba Yaga. However, there are many other versions of the origin of her name.
Baba Yaga made decoctions, dried herbs, and knew all sorts of ancient spells against the evil eye, against damage, and against toothache. Therefore, of course, she did not enjoy much popular love. Quite the contrary. She took advantage of great popular fear. People were afraid of her. For his secretive, unsociable character. For witchcraft and incomprehensible knowledge. But love is love, fear is fear, and many people needed Baba Yaga’s help from time to time. Either the cow will get sick, then her teeth will ache, then there will be a drought, then a flood, or some other misfortune. Who will help? It is known that you need to go to Baba Yaga in the forest. Into a hut on chicken legs. By the way, this hut is also, I think, not fictional, but real. Hunters in the taiga built (and are still building) houses on poles, and more often on tall, felled stumps. No windows, no doors. And they put their loot there so that the forest animals would not steal it. Where did the old hermit get her house from? She won't build it herself. So she lived in such a hunting barn. These barns were low. You can sleep there, but you can’t stand upright. That’s why Baba Yaga slept “nose to the ceiling.” Grandmother had one joy - communicating with interesting people: either Ivashka would drop by, then Alyonushka would get lost in the forest, or Koschey would come to the light.
Pinocchio
Wooden boy from a fairy tale by Alexei Tolstoy. Son of Papa Carlo (see Papa Carlo). Self-confident, ignorant, but kind and brave hero. Perhaps in the future he will become a good actor or even a chief director puppet theater. No wonder he managed to gather and rally around himself a whole group of like-minded actors (Malvina, Pierrot, the dog Artemon, etc.), who coped with the theater director Karabas Barabas. In fairy tales, this is the first (and, it seems, the only case of reflection of the eternal struggle in theaters between actors and administration).
VASILISA THE WISE
The best, fairy-tale bride, and then the wife of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich). He can do everything (see Frog): sow and grow a field of rye in one night, build a palace from pure wax or gold (in the same short time), deceive the Sea King (see Sea king), turn into a dove or a duck. Nobody knows who she is, where she comes from, only every Ivan Tsarevich dreams of his Vasilisa the Wise.
WOLF
Without the Gray Wolf, there would be three times fewer fairy tales, which means life would be three times more boring. Although wolves live in packs, fairy wolf always alone. He behaves the same way as the Bear (see Bear) - unpredictably. Either he will eat Little Red Riding Hood and Grandmother, or he will help Ivan Tsarevich or Helen the Wise.
The Gray Wolf is always a loner in fairy tales. Moreover, in every fairy tale he is special. Sometimes stupid, sometimes smart, sometimes kind, sometimes evil, sometimes greedy, sometimes generous. True, angry, greedy and stupid - more often. The Gray Wolf in fairy tales can turn into a “good fellow”, “red maiden”, “clear falcon”. Sometimes it suddenly “hits the ground,” and now - instead of the Wolf, a hero’s horse is already standing in front of the hero. In the most scary fairy tales Evil sorcerers turn into wolves and scour the open fields in search of prey.
On the other hand, why be surprised: there are all sorts of people.
CROW
The bird, frankly speaking, is ominous on the one hand, and prophetic on the other. Because he lives as long as we never dreamed of - 300 years. Over the years, she has seen, experienced, and changed her mind. Gained a wealth of life experience. As a result, she began to play a variety of roles in fairy tales.
On the one hand, she is with Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga) circling over the hut, guarding the captives. On the other hand, it can fly for living and dead water to revive Ivan Tsarevich. Controversial bird.
In Polish folk tales it is said that when the devil (see devil) made a Wolf (see Wolf) from wood, then from the remains of the tree he constructed a Crow. It is interesting that in Russian fairy tales the Crow sometimes serves the Wolf.
In fairy tales, the crow guards treasures. At the same time, she is famous as a well-known thief, greedy for everything shiny - gold, silver, precious stones. Contradictions in Raven are a dime a dozen! Her wisdom is as well known as her stupidity. And not only fairy tales, but even fables and anecdotes are written about her laziness and sluggishness.
WITCH
A distant relative of Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga), but much more harmful. Baba Yaga is somehow simpler, more understandable, more popular. She doesn’t pretend to be anyone, as a rule, she remains herself. She is easy to identify: a long hooked nose, old age, a bone leg, a creaking voice, a mortar, a broom, etc. The witch always disguises herself. You think she is a simple peasant woman, or a modest girl from a large family, or even from a wealthy, noble family. And it turns out that she is a Witch.
In order for us to distinguish a witch, fairy tales are told and written. If it were not for fairy tales, there would be many more witches.
Judging by the fact that almost all nations of the world have tales about witches, we can conclude that witches are everywhere: in Germany, and in England, and in Denmark, and in America, and in China, and in Australia, and even here in Russia. Moreover, a Chinese or German witch is not much different from a Russian one.
Except with the tongue.
All witches gather annually for their meetings. This happens on Bald Mountain on Walpurgis Night (it usually happens on May 1st of every year). At these meetings there is also another devilry.
In ancient uncivilized times, in order to distinguish a witch from a decent girl, they did this; The suspect was thrown into the hole. If she drowns immediately, then she is not a witch; if she floats, she is a witch. Nowadays, such an examination is no longer carried out, as new, more scientific methods have appeared.
GIANT
A person of great stature and, as a rule, a small mind (there is some mathematical pattern observed here. (See Thumb Boy. The exception is Uncle Styopa). According to ancient legends, the Giants (aka Titans) were the first earthlings who took an active part in the creation of the world: they built mountains, created lakes using dams, and dug the beds of future rivers. In connection with this generally useful activity, the giants became very proud, as a result of which they were punished by God - they died during the Flood.
Some individuals have survived, as evidenced by numerous tales of the peoples of the world. The surviving giants are different bad character and criminal tendencies. They are often cannibals. Sometimes there are two, three or more heads. There are rumors that the remains of giants are found in ancient mounds, and their bones are successfully used by traditional healers to treat fever.
You cannot defeat a giant in a fair fight. Usually people cope with them with the help of intelligence and cunning. So Odysseus dealt with the Cyclops Polyphemus, Puss in Boots and Thumb with the Ogre (see Thumb, Ogre), and Jack (see Jack) killed so many giants that he lost count..
WINNIE THE POOH
Apparently a bear cub. Loves jam, honey and everything tasty. A character in the books of the English writer Alan Alexander Milne, who in 1927 bought a gift from a store for the first birthday of his son, Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin himself named the bear Edward. But over time, Edward became Winnie the Pooh. "Weenie" - because that was the name of the black bear from the London Zoo, who let Christopher Robin near him, and "Pooh" - because it was the nickname of the swan from Sussex. Our domestic “Winnie the Pooh” differs from the English one in the voice of the artist Evgeny Leonov and the words of the children's writer Boris Zakhoder.
VRUNGEL
Konstantin Bonifatievich, fabulous sea captain. The hero of Viktor Nekrasov’s book “The Adventures of Captain Vrungel.” He is best known for his participation in the round-the-world race on the yacht “Trouble,” which he won together with his chief mate named Lom. Thanks to his exceptional truthfulness, Vrungel has always enjoyed love and respect among readers. The peak of its popularity came in the 1980s (immediately after the release of the multi-part animated film). Unlike Baron von Munchausen (see Munchausen), Captain Vrungel comes from a simple, non-noble family. However, this did not prevent him from eventually becoming as truthful and brave as his German predecessor.
GVIDON SALTANOVICH
Prince. Son of Tsar Saltan (see Saltan). As a child, he and his mother, at the behest of their aunts, were put in a barrel, which was tarred and thrown into the blue sea. Luckily the wind drove her to desert island Buyanu. By that time, Guidon had already grown in a barrel and matured.
Having been released with his mother, the young man found himself on a deserted shore. Here he saved the Swan Princess from imminent death, who turned out to be a good sorceress (see Good Witch). The swan built a kingdom for Saltan, where he and his mother began to rule. The kingdom was very good, in it the sorceress created many miracles (read “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A.S. Pushkin). Over time, the Swan Princess turned into a beauty and became the wife of Guidon Saltanovich.
Guidon is a good son, loving husband, good king (see King). He many times invited his father to visit his kingdom, who made a tragic mistake - he believed the slander of evil aunts. Finally, Tsar Saltan arrived on Buyan Island. Then his eyes finally opened and he learned about the treachery of his relatives. As punishment, he sent them all home, and he himself stayed to live on Buyan with his wife, son and the Swan Princess.
DWARF
Lives in forests and mountains. Often in large colonies. It can be evil and good. But kind - more often. The main occupation is geological and mining work. Dwarves work underground, mining ore and various precious stones.
Gnomes are very small, approximately the size of Thumb Thumb. The character is unbalanced. They easily move from joy to grief, from love to hate. It is best not to irritate or upset gnomes. This can be judged from the tale of Nils' travels with wild geese. This boy once laughed at the Dwarf’s small stature and paid dearly for it. The dwarf became so furious that he cast a terrible spell on him, as a result of which Nils himself became just as small. And he had to travel with wild geese in search of this Dwarf, and then, in order to break the spell, fulfill his almost impossible whims.
So it’s better to do what Snow White did when she found herself in the forest with the seven dwarfs (read the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm). She cleaned their house, cooked dinner, sang songs. And in the evenings she told fairy tales. The dwarves doted on her. So they lived in perfect harmony.
GOODWIN
The Wizard of the Emerald City (read the story by Nikolai Volkov) is the Great and Terrible, but in fact he is an ordinary American magician. Once in a fairy-tale city, with the help of several circus tricks, he convinced all the surrounding residents and evil sorceresses that he was the most powerful Sorcerer. Having thus conducted a fabulous election campaign, he became the head of the city, which he called Emerald. The city got this name because the “Wizard” ordered all residents to wear green glasses without taking them off. The same glasses were given free of charge to all visitors. So he would have lived happily ever after, if not for a fellow countrywoman from Kansas - the girl Ellie, who was carried to the Magic Land by one of the hurricanes (Next, read the fairy tale itself).
SWAN GEESE
A flock of swans flying over the village carried away on their wings a little boy who was playing on the grass under his window. The swan geese were in the service of Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga), so they carried the boy to the hut on chicken legs. It must be said that Geese-Swans have long gained a bad reputation for themselves. “There was a lot of mischief and little children were stolen.”
Interestingly, this was not observed with swans alone. Usually swans were beautiful enchanted princesses, whom princes later married. But in the pack they somehow deteriorated, became aggressive and went into the service of evil spirits. (The exception is “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christian Andersen).
The geese-swans handed over the kidnapped children to Baba Yaga, after which they carried out aerial guard duty near the hut. Such service was necessary for Baba Yaga, since she herself was absent-minded and inattentive.
This time, too, I didn’t keep track of the boy. His older sister, chasing the swan geese, managed to kidnap her brother. The swan geese, of course, immediately flew after her, but nothing worked out for them, since the sister and brother hid in a stove standing alone on the road.
Most likely, the geese-swans did not get anything from Baba Yaga for this, because she herself was to blame for everything.
GRANDFATHER
(See Baba). As a rule, he always lives with Baba. Sometimes in a village near a forest or field, sometimes “near the very blue sea,” sometimes in “the distant kingdom, the thirtieth state.” He is flexible, hard-working, and sometimes achieves an unprecedented harvest, which, however, he then does not know what to do with (read “Turnip”). So in fairy tales it happened that the grandfather either has no children at all, or three of them at once. He likes to send them somewhere far away for marriage or other happiness. He also loves simple peasant food: porridge with milk, kolobok (see Kolobok), rejuvenating apples, etc.
Grandfather is a man, although elderly, but cheerful. He treats Baba condescendingly, does not like to argue with her, and is sometimes afraid.
FATHER FROST
Currently, he is a kind, simple-minded (a little silly, but that suits him) grandfather, who comes to the children on New Year’s Eve to put a gift for them under the Christmas tree. He carries all the gifts in a big beautiful bag. He wears a red (sometimes blue) fur coat with a white collar. Wears felt boots and a hat. His nose and cheeks are always red. Most likely due to frost.
A character from many fairy tales. Perhaps the most long-awaited (they wait for it all year long) for all children. But he didn’t become like that right away, but over time.
Several thousand years ago he was the most terrible villain in the world. Worse than Koschey. They scared not only children, but also adults. And it happened just under New Year when the day is shortest and the night is longest (“winter solstice”). During this solstice Slavic peoples Antiquities usually performed the Kolyada ritual, and the ancient Romans - the “Invincible Sun” holiday. According to ancient legends, this period seemed to our ancestors as the time of the Great Battle for the Light and the Sun.
This battle was fought by Belobog and Chernobog (according to other versions - Perun and Karachun). Legends depict Karachun as a gray-bearded old man pursuing Gromovnitsa, Perun’s wife.
Karachun turns into a bear and with a pack of wolves, personifying severe winter snowstorms, tries to find Gromovnitsa, who is supposed to give birth to the Sun of the New Year - Kolyada. (The word “kolyada” comes from the ancient Slavic “kolo”, that is, a circle that has always served as a graphic image of the Sun). This same Karachun was once our Grandfather Frost.
Santa Claus, as you all know, usually appears at midnight - the most traditional time of rampant evil spirits. At the same time, mummers began to walk around in the images of bears, wolves, goats, etc.
From time immemorial frost has been a dangerous enemy for the merchant, the artisan and the peasant. This is how people used to say Frost on Christmas Eve:
Moroz, Moroz Vasilievich! Go eat some food! I'll break your head with a flail,
I'll cut out your eyes with a broom!
Judging by this verdict, the relationship between our ancestors and Grandfather Frost can hardly be called friendly. They imagined him as a little old man with a long white beard and a staff in his hand. He ran through the fields, knocking with his staff and thereby causing bitter frosts. They tried to appease and tame this Santa Claus. In winter, they often fed him: they threw delicious bread balls out the window “for Frost”, brought out a spoonful of sweet jelly, and at the same time they said: “Frost, Frost!” Come eat some jelly! Frost, Frost! Don’t hit our oats!”
Grandfather Frost ate sweet jelly and gradually became kinder. So the evil old man turned into the kind Grandfather Frost. And he did the right thing, because now he is loved.
JACK
(See Ivan the Fool). He differs from our Ivan the Fool only in that no one ever called him a fool. On the contrary, they immediately said that Jack was dexterous and smart. Lives in fabulous England. The main occupation is the slayer of giants (see Giant). Jack defeated his first giant, Kormoren, in early childhood. It was a voracious, hairy monster that stole everything from the surrounding villages. At a time, Kormoren carried away a dozen bulls, and strung hundreds of sheep and pigs on his belt.
Being business person, Jack officially signed his first ever contract to destroy a giant with the Cornwall County Council. The reward for the work was all the stolen treasures of the giant, stored in his cave. (Here we observe another difference from Ivan the Fool, who never entered into contracts with anyone).
Jack completed the first job quickly, literally burying the unlucky giant in a skillfully disguised hole. That's how it began work activity, which he completed many years later, killing about a dozen giants of various sizes.
Jack's activities useful for the kingdom were highly appreciated by the English government. From King Arthur he received a knighthood and the daughter of an influential duke as his wife.
GENIE
Thanks to the famous animated series about Aladdin (see Aladdin), modern young man, who is intelligent enough to believe fairy tales, has a completely distorted idea of the image of the Genie. They began to imagine him as a kind of friendly shirt-guy with the smile of a Texas cowboy.
I must inform you that this is a misconception. The real Genie, who has been sealed in a bottle for thousands of years, is far from being a Disney hero.
If the reader has ever seen parents open a bottle of warm Champagne, he can imagine how the Genie, who has been sitting in it for a thousand years, flies out of such a bottle.
He destroys, sweeps away everything in his path and woe to anyone who happens to be nearby at that moment. Unless, of course, a special spell was cast on the Genie, according to which he must serve the person who released him (as happened with Aladdin). So don't be in a hurry to let the Genie out of the bottle. First, think about the consequences and read the fairy tales “1001 Nights”. This is the best instruction for dealing with Jinns.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, the incident that happened to the pioneer Volka from Leonid Lagin’s fairy tale “Old Man Khotabych”. But to be honest, I doubt the veracity of these events. Firstly, Volka found a bottle with a Genie not in the sea or ocean, or even on the Arabian Peninsula, but in the Moscow River, where Genies cannot be found. They don't survive. And secondly, Hotabych was a very good-natured old man, if he was a Genie, then he was wrong...
Much more correct was his brother, whom Hotabych and Volka caught while traveling by sea. This one is definitely a Genie - evil and harmful. Can quickly build a palace and destroy it even faster. So don’t look for magic lamps or bottles with Genies in caves and ponds. Rely only on yourself and your parents. Because every person is his own best Genie.
THE GOOD WIZARD
Very beautiful woman in a star cap, a cloak and with a magic wand in his hands. Fulfills all the wishes of the good heroes of fairy tales and punishes the evil ones.
NIKITICH
Great Russian hero. Second in importance after Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) and first before Alyosha Popovich (see Alyosha Popovich). Dobrynya Nikitich always reconciled Ilya Muromets with Alyosha Popovich. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have the Three Heroes.
By origin, Dobrynya Nikitich was from a princely family, a hereditary military man. Dobrynya comes from the city of Ryazan. The hero’s upbringing was carried out by his mother, Amelfa Timofeevna, because his father, Nikita Romanovich, died when Dobrynya was not even born. The mother gave her son a good education. He “learned to read and write”, and of course studied music. Of course, there was no piano then. Therefore, he played the first scales on the harp. He also sang wonderfully and played chess. In future heroic affairs, all this was very useful to him, and Dobrynya more than once remembered his mother with a kind word.
Most of all, Dobrynya Nikitich loved to fight with various snakes. He did not like snakes themselves and, as the authors of encyclopedic dictionaries rightly write: “The fight against the snake tribe began early for him, when “young Dobrynyushka Mikitinets began to ride on a good horse in an open field... to trample small snakes.” Finally, Dobrynya got tired of trampling the little snakes. This is not a heroic thing, he decided, and went to the Puchai River to fight the main Serpent - Gorynych (see Serpent Gorynych).
Dobrynya drove up to the river and saw: port-washing girls were working on the shore, heroic and peasant ports were being washed. They saw Dobrynya Nikitich and began to dissuade him from fighting the Serpent. Whether they were so attracted to Dobrynya, or whether they had already become accustomed to the Serpent Gorynych, we don’t know.
Dobrynya Nikitich did not listen - he dived into the river and swam. As soon as he reached the middle of the river, the Serpent Gorynych flies out of nowhere and dives straight at the defenseless hero. Breathes fire on him, showers him with fiery sparks. Unless it bombs. The hero was not at a loss and dived, but emerged on the other side of the river. Dobrynya came ashore and “crushed the Serpent with the cap of the Greek land.” He fell on the damp ground and began to ask for forgiveness. Dobrynya was a good hero. He forgave Zmey Gorynych for the first time, but as time has shown, it was in vain. The serpent Gorynych, having taken his feet away from Dobrynya, immediately took up his old ways. Flying over Kiev, he kidnapped Vladimir’s beloved niece Red Sun, Zabava Putyatishna. The hero had to fight the Serpent again.
Dobrynya Nikitich was a relative of Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko. And when the prince ordered him and his brother Putyata (the father of the liberated Zabava) to go and punish the inhabitants of Novgorod, who did not want to be baptized, but stubbornly worshiped the gods pagan mythology. Dobrynya obeyed. Together with Putyatya, they baptized all the surviving residents of Novgorod. Since then, a humorous proverb has developed among the people: “Putyata baptizes with a sword, but Dobrynya baptizes with fire.”
During his life, Dobrynya Nikitich won many great victories. He was not afraid to enter into battle even with Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga). Why Yaga! Dobrynya Nikitich entered into battle with Marina Ignatievna, a witch known throughout the area, a “sorceress”, “poisoner”, “root worker”, a sorceress who knew how to turn a person into an animal.
Here is how it was; One day Dobrynya Nikitich came into Marinkin Lane. Approaching her house, he suddenly sees Snake Tugarin and Marinka kissing through the window. Here the heroic heart trembled, and he shot an arrow straight through the window. The snake Tugarin died on the spot, and Marinka began to offer herself to Dobrynya Nikitich as a wife. He, of course, did not agree. Why does he need such a wife? Marina Ignatievna got angry and turned the hero into a “bay auroch” - that is, into horned bull. This is where the fairy tale would have ended if Dobrynya’s mother had not helped out. Amelfa Timofeevna saw what Marina Ignatievna did to her son and came to the rescue. She immediately cast a spell on her son, made her a man, and turned Marinka into a “water-carrying mare.” So she has been carrying water ever since.
Dobrynya Nikitich married a very good girl - Nastasya Nikulishna. All his life he loved her very much. One day, while going to work in an open field, Dobrynya ordered his wife to wait for him for exactly 12 years, and if he was late, to marry whoever she wanted. The main thing is not for Alyosha Popovich.
Time passed, the hero was delayed and the time had come for Nastasya to get married again. She, of course, really didn't want this. But then, out of nowhere, the hero Alyosha Popovich appeared and began to strongly insist that she become his wife. Nastasya had to agree. And then, during the wedding, Dobrynya Nikitich returned from work from the open field. To avoid being recognized, he dressed up as a buffoon and began singing songs and playing the harp (that’s where his music lessons came in handy!).
Nastasya Nikulishna recognized her husband from the songs. Dobrynya Nikitich was very offended by Alyosha Popovich and decided to fight him tooth and nail. And he would probably have killed if not for Ilya Muromets, who reconciled them.
Alyosha Popovich asked for forgiveness, and the three heroes remained good friends.
GOOD AND EVIL
The most important thing is why everything happens in fairy tales and in life. Twin brothers waging a universal battle.
DR. AIBOLIT
Actually, his name is Doctor Dolittle. There are twelve books for children written English writer Hugh Lofting. They are called "Dolittle" and tell about the adventures of one extraordinary gentleman who understood the language of animals. But what does the name Doolittle tell us? Only that he is a foreigner.
Therefore, the writer Korney Chukovsky, based on the tales of Doctor Dolittle, created his own fairy-tale hero and called him the name Aibolit, which we understand.
This is the kindest doctor in the world. And the most fearless. A kind of hero (see Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich). Despite the fact that in appearance he does not at all look like a hero (instead of chain mail there is a doctor’s robe, instead of a helmet there is a white cap, glasses on his nose, and in his hands a bag with medicines) Doctor Aibolit always performs real feats.
BOWNIE
In fairy tales, the creature is kind, but with character. He loves to be treated humanely. I have a sweet tooth. He especially respects jelly. Ready to eat it day and night. Especially at night, because it leads a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle. Domovoy got his name from the place where he was born, lived and worked - Dom. True, Domovoy’s life and work mainly takes place behind the stove. From here he keeps order: so that mice and owners do not misbehave, so that the house is cozy and warm. From time to time, Domovoy himself likes to misbehave: rearrange things from place to place, knock on doors and windows.
He looks different: sometimes he will appear in the guise of the owner of the house - you can’t tell the difference, sometimes he will appear as a gray-haired old man with a face completely overgrown with hair, or even pretend to be a broom or a cat.
Irritable. If he slightly misses him, he will knock over everything in the house, break glass, turn over pots, and it’s good if he doesn’t start a fire. Most likely, it shows his character (Domovoy’s wife (see Kikimora) is a strict, grumpy and unfair woman. Therefore, having received a portion of abuse from his wife, he takes it out on the household. They will endure everything, they will not go against Domovoy).
When the owners move from one house to another, they ask Domovoy to come to them. They bow to him, treat him in a special way, beg him: let’s go, the breadwinner to new house! There is a Russian stove ready for you, and jelly, and a new bathhouse with a swimming pool. They ask for a long time until he agrees. Because a house without a Domovoy is not a home, but a misunderstanding.
THE DRAGON
(see Serpent Gorynych). Found in China, England, France, Germany, and America. In Russia, apparently for climatic reasons, we don’t have them. There are only Snakes Gorynych (see Snake Gorynych), which tolerate cold winters better. Our lack of dragons should not upset you, because the Serpent Gorynychi is no worse.
The dragon has many heads, spits out smoke and flame, flies, swims, walks (sometimes crawls). Unlike the Serpent Gorynych, in fairy tales he sometimes plays noble roles - he carries knights on himself, enters into battle with witches, and, from time to time, turns into either a noble prince or a disenchanted princess.
This does not happen with our Serpent Gorynych. He is a confirmed villain. If the appearance of the Serpent Gorynych has not yet been well studied, the Dragon has been described and sketched many times; This fairy-tale hero is not devoid of beauty and grace. Its members are harmonious, proportionate, its scales burn brightly with gold and silver, its wings cover half the sky. Outwardly, it resembles a greatly enlarged lizard (see Lizard) with wings.
Due to the fact that the claws, heart, teeth and other parts of the Dragon's body in ancient times were considered lucky talismans, medicines and luxury goods, the number of dragons on earth has decreased. Dragons remain only in fairy tales, where the hunt for them is strictly controlled by kings and wizards.
Thumbelina
A very small and beautiful girl. Not even a girl, but a fairy who was born in a flower. Then she traveled a lot - by water, by air, by land. I even visited underground, in the hole of an elderly gray mouse. She really wanted to marry her to the wealthy Mole. But, fortunately, everything worked out.
UNCLE STEPA
A successful variety of Giant (see Giant). Unlike other giants, he goes to work every day and brings benefits to people. He successfully worked as a policeman, sailor, pilot, and mastered several blue-collar professions. Uncle Styopa was invented by the poet Sergei Mikhalkov.
UNCLE FEDOR
A very independent boy. He can even cook soup. Something like Uncle Styopa. Not by height, of course, but by nickname and independence.
Loves nature and animals. With money found in the treasure, he founded Agriculture in the village of Prostokvashino. His farm is managed by Kot Matroskin (Kot took his surname due to his great love for the sea). Dog Sharik also works here (from ordinary dogs, not from purebred ones), who in his free time is engaged in photo-hunting; Half the day he runs to take a picture of the Hare, and the other half to give him the photo card.
Uncle Fyodor's economy is prosperous and progressive. Therefore, there is hope that over time Uncle Fyodor will become a real farmer, the breadwinner of the family - mom and dad. Over time, in addition to his mother and father, Uncle Fyodor had many other relatives - uncles and aunts, about whom the writer Eduard Uspensky also wrote books.
FIREBIRD
In illustrated fairy tale books it always looks a lot like a peacock, but in reality it has nothing to do with a peacock. And it looks completely different. They say that in pagan religions the Firebird meant “a gift from God,” and those who find the Firebird’s feather are not afraid of any misfortunes. Catching the Firebird, or at least finding its feather, is everyone’s cherished dream.
Some people succeed.
HARE
(Aka Cowardly Bunny Gray, aka Oblique) The most cowardly, defenseless and resourceful hero of fairy tales. Eat interesting legend about the emergence of the Hare on earth.
They say that God, getting carried away, sculpted his ears too large, and when he began to sculpt his heart, he saw that there was not enough clay. But for God, as we know, there are no insoluble problems. He tore off the hare's tail (leaving a stub) and fashioned a heart from it. That's why the Hare's heart turned out to be small and cowardly.
A fairy-tale world without the Hare would be boring. This is the kind of prey that always eludes any hunter: Fox, Wolf, Bear (see Fox, Wolf, Bear). The hare is a kind of fairy-tale Kolobok (see Kolobok), - he left everyone, defeated everyone - not with strength, but with his mind, or even weakness (There is nothing strange in this, weakness is also a weapon).
For example, the sly Fox kicked the Hare out of his hut. Where should he go? She goes and cries. This is where helpers appear. He doesn't live alone in the forest. Another thing is that not everyone can outwit the Fox. But there was a Rooster (see Rooster), who restored justice and kicked the red cheat out of the hare’s house. That's why he and the Rooster are to restore justice in fairy tales.
On the other hand, the Hare is not such a weakling as is commonly thought of. For example, in the cartoons and books of the writer Alexander Kurlyandsky (“Well, just wait!”), although the Hare runs from the Wolf, it is in such a way that one feels sorry not for the game, but for the Wolf himself.
In short, the Hare is a very good fairy-tale character. And our distant ancestors understood this. It is not for nothing that according to ancient Slavic customs, eating hare meat was not accepted.
DRAGON
A cross between a lizard, a bat and a flamethrower. A flying snake with several heads. Serpent Gorynych’s father is a real Mountain! That’s why his middle name is Gorynych. The number of heads of the Serpent Gorynych depends on his age. The smallest one has three heads, the older Gorynych has six, the mature one has nine, and the elderly one has twelve. Amphibian; Can fly, swim, dive, walk on the ground. He lives in holes and caves, where he hides his wealth, which he cannot spend. Because when they see him, they immediately give everything away for free.
In his holes he hides beautiful princesses, whom he steals while flying over different kingdoms and cities. He especially fell in love with the Kyiv princesses.
Not everything is clear about these thefts of brides and princesses. The main thing is why he so easily manages to steal another bride while flying over the city. The fact is that the approach of the Serpent Gorynych, as is known, is accompanied by noise, thunder and rain. But for some reason, it is at this time that the princesses strive to go out for a walk, and as a result they fall into the clutches of a terrible monster.
The Serpent Gorynych usually dies at the hands of Ivan Tsarevich, or Dobrynya Nikitich, who do not kill him right away, but first give him time to reform. But Zmey Gorynych has never corrected himself, so the second meeting with the heroes always becomes his last.
After the death of the Serpent Gorynych, the winner frees the captives, captives and even the heroes whom the villain holds in the dungeon. And then destroys (usually tramples) all the baby snakes. But, apparently, he does this last work hastily, because the Gorynych Snakes also appear in other fairy tales.
CINDERELLA
A sweet, hard-working, kind girl who met a real Prince at a ball (see Prince), fell in love with him and eventually became a Princess (see Princess). I wish the same for all of you.
IVAN-BYKOVICH
Most often - the half-brother of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich). He is distinguished by intelligence, courage and great physical strength. Ivan Bykovich usually doesn’t have a dad, his mom is Korova.
IVAN IS A FOOL
(Aka Ivanushka - the fool) My favorite folk hero. Usually the youngest in the family. Kind, lazy and lucky. Loves animals, fish, firebirds and horse riding. He often rides either on the Gray Wolf, or on the Little Humpbacked Horse, or on Sivka-Burka, or even just on the stove. At the end of fairy tales, he most often becomes a king and marries Helen the Beautiful or Vasilisa the Wise. But before getting married, he goes through many tests. First of all, poverty, because he is usually born into a poor large family (rarely in a royal family), lies on the stove and catches flies. Ivan the Fool really doesn’t have enough stars in the sky: there are only toadstools instead good mushrooms he picks up in the forest, then he feeds his father’s lunch to his shadow so that he will leave him alone, then he salts the river, then he puts hats on the pots so that they don’t freeze... But all the stupid things that Ivan the Fool does a little later begin to serve him well. No wonder they say: “luck is for fools.”
And he receives Sivka the Burka, the prophetic kaurka, and the Treasure Sword, and the wonderful pipe, and the Unsmey Princess, and half a kingdom in addition. And all because he is not greedy and lucky. And he’s also a master at playing the pipe, singing songs, and asking (and solving) riddles. How can such a Firebird not catch, the Princess not make her laugh!
And at the end of the fairy tale, he bathes in spring water and boiling milk, then jumps out of these cauldrons good fellow, - the spitting image of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich).
IVAN THE PEASANT SON
His name contains his entire biography. From a simple peasant family. Strong, almost like Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets). Clever, almost like Dobrynya Nikitich (see Dobrynya Nikitich), naive, almost like Alyosha Popovich (see Alyosha Popovich), a hero, almost like all fairy-tale heroes.
IVANA.
Real heroes of Russian folk tales. Among them there is simply Ivanushka or Ivashka, there are Ivan the Bogatyr, Ivan the peasant’s son, Ivan the soldier’s son, Ivan the living son, Ivan the naked, Ivan the Pea, Ivan the Beschastny, Ivan Bykovich, Ivan the Mare’s son, Ivan the Cow’s son, Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Ivan Korolevich, Ivashka Zapechnik, Ivashka White Shirt, Ivashka Medvedko and many others.
All of them are united by heroic strength, a heroic fairy-tale fate and a difficult work history.
IVAN TSAREVICH
(He is Ivan Korolevich). Unlike Ivan the Fool, from the very beginning the Tsar’s son and the Tsar’s throne are already guaranteed to him even without marrying the Tsar’s daughter. This circumstance prevented its widespread popularity in the last century. Others were more honored: Ivan the Peasant's Son, Ivan the Naked, Ivan the Soldier's Son, Ivan the Unhappy, Ivan who does not remember his kinship, and simply Ivan the Fool.
Despite this circumstance, Ivan Tsarevich may be the most chief Ivan Russian folk tales. Here he has only one competitor - Ivan the Fool. Moreover, sometimes it’s not a competitor at all, because there are fairy tales where Ivan Tsarevich and Ivan the Fool are one and the same person. It’s just that at first he is Ivan the Fool, and in the end he is Ivan Tsarevich.
What he has in common with Ivan the Fool is that they are both younger children - Ivan the Third. Both have no plans for inheritance, and both have to rely only on themselves.
For example, if a beautiful bride, queen or princess comes from a kingdom neighboring Ivan Tsarevich, you can rest assured that Ivan Tsarevich will go to rescue them. Together with him, his older brothers, who do not like Ivan Tsarevich, will first go on the journey. They reach some deep well or underground cave where Zmey Gorynych usually hides his brides, and they begin to argue about who will go down there first. Guess who gets the lot? That's right - to Ivan Tsarevich.
He goes down, defeats Gorynych, frees the beautiful captive (and sometimes as many as three beauties) and shouts from the bottom of the well to the brothers to raise the girls. The brothers raise the first princess and immediately fall in love with her. And having fallen in love, they immediately begin to fight with each other. Then they pick up the second one and also fight, because the second princess is even more beautiful. Can you imagine how offensive it is to be the first!?
Further more. When the third Princess is taken out of the well, we already understand for sure that things will be bad for Ivan Tsarevich. And we are not mistaken. Because, having seen her, the brothers forget about the first two and about their third, youngest.
They don’t just forget, but decide to destroy him: First they lift him almost to the frame of the well, and then they cut the rope. And Ivan Tsarevich falls from a great height. Anyone else in his place would have crashed. But Ivan is strong. Doesn't break. Moreover, he finds three eggs in the lair of the Serpent Gorynych. Not simple ones, but copper, silver and gold. Three kingdoms are rolled up in those eggs. Then the eagle lifts him up, he catches up with his brothers. They make peace, but at night Ivan Tsarevich is killed. They chop into pieces. It’s good that the Gray Wolf appears and takes out living and dead water. Without them, both the fairy tale and Ivan Tsarevich would have ended. Ivan Tsarevich comes to life, goes to his Far Far Away Kingdom, deals with his brothers, marries the beautiful Princess and becomes the real Ivan Tsarevich. Not the third, but the only one.
ILYA MUROMETS
Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was born into a peasant family in the village of Karacharovo, in the Muromsky district of the Vladimir region. The most important Russian hero. The life path of Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was glorious and difficult.
For thirty years he sat on the stove in his Karacharovo, as he was born “without arms, without legs.” And he would have sat like that all his life without accomplishing a single feat, but a happy accident helped. One day, when his parents (father Ivan Timofeevich, mother Efrosinia Yakovlevna) went to work, two cripples knocked on the door of the Murom residents. Ilya answered them that his parents were not at home, and he himself was just as crippled as they were, even worse, because he could not get up from the stove. The cripples probably didn't hear him, so they knocked again. A real miracle happened here. Ilya Muromets suddenly stood up for the first time in thirty years and went to open the gate.
In those distant times, guests often came with their own food and drink. This time too, the cripples, entering the Murom residents’ yard, treated Ilya to a glass of honey drink. Having drained the glass and washed it down with spring water, Ilya Muromets felt unprecedented strength in himself and went into the field to help his parents.
After this, Ilya mounted a heroic horse and rode to Kyiv. In those days, all the heroes went to Kyiv to serve in the heroic squad of Prince Vladimir Red Sun. This squad was truly elite, princely. And serving there was not only interesting, but also an honor.
Having driven quite a bit from his village, Ilya Ivanovich found himself in the neighboring village of Devyatidubye. This village enjoyed a bad reputation among the Karacharovskys. Here, on nine oak trees, a large family of Nightingale the Robbers settled (see Nightingale the Robber). The most terrible thing was the head of the family, who sat on nine oak trees at once and waited for rare passers-by.
But neither the nightingale's whistle, nor the snake's thorn, nor the animal's roar frightened the hero. Only his horse was a little frightened, which was then very ashamed in front of its owner. Ilya Muromets shot a red-hot arrow into the right eye of Nightingale the Robber. He immediately crooked and fell from the oak tree.
The Robber's wife, Nightingale began to ask the hero to let her husband go, but Muromets did not believe her. And so that the Solovyov Robber family would no longer destroy the surrounding heroes, he “cut off all the Nightingale’s children.”
Having accomplished his first feat, Ilya tied the Robber to the saddle and rode to Kyiv. Along the way, Ilya Ivanovich did many more good deeds: he cleared the city of Chernigov from the enemy “great force” and built several pedestrian bridges across the Smorodina River for local residents.
Having finally arrived in the capital city of Kyiv, Ilya Muromets showed Vladimir the Red Sun his trophy - the Nightingale the Robber. He, of course, immediately whistled, which greatly frightened the prince and his guests. Then the hero killed the villain, and the frightened Vladimir made Ilya Muromets his most important hero.
And on time. Because in Kyiv, out of nowhere, a filthy Idol appeared. Everyone, of course, was scared. Only Ilya Muromets was not afraid and went to fight. But then he made a mistake. As soon as they started to fight with the Idol, Ilya sees that he forgot his damask club somewhere. And without her, Idolishche cannot be defeated. In annoyance, Muromets took off his fur “hat of Greek land” from his head (either his hat was from Greece, or there was soil from Greece in it - the epic is silent about this) and slammed it about the filthy Idol! This is where the end came for him.
Ilya Muromets provided great assistance to the defense of Kyiv from the invasion of the Golden Horde. Having once met with their leader Tsar Kalina, the hero first asked him to withdraw his troops from Kyiv in an amicable way. In response, the invader “spit in Ilya’s clear eyes.”
This was his fatal mistake. Ilya Muromets grabbed the enemy by the legs “and began to wave: wherever he waved, there were streets, and wherever he turned, there were alleys.” He waved at Kalin, waved, and then “hit him on a flammable stone and smashed it into crumbs.” Tsar Kalin turned out to be strong. He collected everything that was left of him and fled from near Kyiv along with the army.
And crumbs of flammable stone are probably still lying somewhere in Kyiv. And Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was a traveler. On his heroic horse he traveled all over Ancient Rus', visited India, Turkey, Mongolia and even Karelia.
Ilya Muromets was a real hero and a good friend. He was friends with Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich (see related articles). He had a very good wife, whom he affectionately called “Baba Zlatygorka” and three children: Sokolnik, Sokolnichek and Podsokolnichek.
At the end of his life, Ilya Muromets found a treasure, which he gave to Vladimir the Red Sun for all the people. ABOUT future fate Nothing is known about this treasure. Having given away the treasure, Ilya Ivanovich went into the Kyiv caves, where he became completely petrified and remains in this state to this day.
CARLSON
Invented Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren. Not a wizard, not a man and not a beast. Lives on the roof, eats jam and plays around. Like any spoiled person he flies, because he has a propeller behind him. In general, a completely useless person, even somewhat unpedagogical. On the other hand, Malysh feels very bad without Carlson.
Judge for yourself, what kind of Kid is this who doesn’t have his own Carlson?
KIKIMORA
A type of evil spirit. Brownie's wife (see Brownie). If it is at least somehow possible to come to an agreement with Domovoy, then it is impossible to find a common language with the home Kikimora. Grumpy, harmful and useless in the household. My favorite pastime is to scare small children and confuse everything. She can't stand all men, including her husband. Loves darkness and dampness. Found in the cellar, sometimes in a faulty refrigerator.
The wild variety of Kikimora lives in fabulous swamps, for which it received the nickname Swamp. Here she waits for good fellows, whom she drowns in the quagmire with special pleasure. He often communicates with Leshiy, Baba Yaga and Koshchei the Immortal (see related articles).
KLEPA
A completely modern girl, a sorceress. I think she was born in France. And this is noticeable in her wonderful dress, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. In his free time from miracles, he loves to travel: across time, space, science, cities, planets, countries... There are no places that Klepa has not visited. N. Dubinina wrote about some of her adventures in the book “Once Upon a Time, Klepa...”. The book is interesting, with pictures. Unlike other fairy-tale heroes - Pinocchio, Aibolit, Baba Yaga, etc. (see relevant articles), Klepa has her own children's magazine of the same name).
KOLOBOK
Some kind of nonsense: a loaf is not a loaf, a pie is not a pie, something like a dry bun without raisins, but everyone wants to eat it. First, Grandfather, who asked Baba (see Grandfather and Baba) to scrape the bottom of the barrel and scrape up flour for Kolobok. Then the Hare (see Hare), then the Wolf (see Wolf), then the Bear (see Bear). He sang a song to everyone and rolled away from everyone. Then the Fox (see Fox) outwitted him and ate him.
The most mysterious hero of Russian folk tales, because he doesn’t do anything special, but everyone loves him. This Kolobok has done no good or harm to anyone, but everyone pities him.
QUEEN
The queen is different. She is usually the wife of the King (see King), but sometimes she is lonely. If the Queen is lonely, then she is most likely an evil sorceress who commits many evil deeds. A striking example is The Snow Queen (read “The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen”). If the Queen is the second wife of the King, then she will be his stepmother to the royal children (see Stepmother).
In the best case, she is a kind, smart wife; in the past she could be Alyonushka (see Alyonushka) or the Princess (see Princess).
The Queen is unhappy in her personal life. The husband-king either dies early, or, due to the slander of those close to him, drives her out of the kingdom along with his heir (heiress). But that’s what a fairy tale is for, so that in the end everything ends well; she either marries again, or the King realizes what injustice he has committed and asks her for forgiveness.
QUEEN ELISH
A variety of Prince (see Prince). A real fairy-tale groom and hero. For the sake of his beloved, he performs various heroic deeds: he fights with giants, snakes and other evil spirits, searches for his betrothed at the end of the world, kisses her “on the sugar lips,” and then be sure to marry her and make her his Queen (see Queen).
KING
(see King). Many fairy tales begin with the words: “Once upon a time there was a King...” So without fairy tale kings, we would not have many good fairy tales.
Fairy tale kings are different: there are stupid ones, there are smart ones, there are evil ones, there are also kind ones. Evil kings in fairy tales end badly. They either die an unnatural death, or they are overthrown from their thrones, and good kings sit in their place. As for the good kings, they have various troubles at the beginning of the tale, but in the end everything ends well
The King often has a princess daughter (see Princess), or a prince son, and sometimes even three sons. Then the younger one is necessarily either a fool or a prince. In both cases, the king's son marries the princess at the end of the tale, and the King gets a beautiful daughter-in-law.
Often the King has a wife - the Queen (see Queen). Depending on what kind of King and Queen his fairy-tale life develops.
PUSS IN BOOTS
If you ever inherit a Cat, be kind and affectionate to him. Feed him, give him water, change the litter, read fairy tales out loud to him. Over time, your Cat will grow up and appreciate your care. Perhaps he will make you Marquis of Carabas and marry you to the princess. Perhaps he will make you just a good person (not a marquis) and marry you to a simple, good girl, who will become a princess in any case.
It may also happen that even without the help of the Cat you yourself will successfully marry (or get married). But even in this case, the Cat will not bother you.
KOSCHEI THE DEATHLESS
The name “Koshchey” translated from Turkic means “prisoner”. Whose prisoner he was is unknown. Apparently your own. Despite his surname, the Immortal inevitably dies at the end of fairy tales, making him in fact the most mortal of all fairy-tale heroes.
He usually carefully hides his death in a needle, a needle in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a pike, a pike in a hare, a hare in a chest, a chest under the roots of an oak tree, an oak tree stands on the island of Buyan, an island “on the blue sea” , on okiyane.”
Koschey's appearance is the most repulsive. I don’t even want to describe it. The character is harmful. Constantly strives to steal the king's daughter. Either Elena the Beautiful, or Vasilisa the Wise. He steals to get married. But he never lives to see the wedding because he keeps telling his brides about the location of his death. The brides immediately report this to their savior heroes, and all that remains is for them to get to the reserved oak tree.
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
“Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Little Red Riding Hood...” This is how the fairy tale of the French writer Charles Perrault begins, which he wrote more than 300 years ago for... adults (However, as well as “Cinderella”, “Puss in Boots”, “Tom Thumb” and others). The girl was called “Little Red Riding Hood” because she wore her bright red cap all the time and never took it off. Even at home. Even visiting grandma. She really loved this hat. Then Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother were eaten by the evil Wolf (see Wolf). And if it weren’t for the hunters, she would have sat in her red cap in the wolf’s belly all her life. But everything ended well.
CROCODILE GENA
Cheburashka's best friend (see Cheburashka). As a child and teenager, he worked at the zoo as a crocodile. And in his free time from work he helped build the House of Friendship. When the house was built, he successfully went into business (read “The Business of Crocodile Gena” by E. Uspensky).
CHICKEN RHOBA
A kind, useful poultry. Grandfather and Baba's favorite (see Grandfather and Baba). Lives in a hut and, in gratitude for the care, lays many large, fresh eggs. One day she decided to especially thank her household and laid not an ordinary egg, but a golden one. This was a mistake, because neither Grandfather nor Baba knew what to do with this egg. Out of habit, they began to beat him.
The golden egg was strong and did not break. A mouse ran past (there were mice in the house), and its tail inadvertently touched a golden egg, which fell and broke. This upset the old people very much, and they cried like children.
The Smart Hen realized that the golden egg was no longer needed by the old people and promised them to lay an ordinary egg. Not golden, but simple. Grandfather and Baba calmed down, began to live well, and make good money.
Goblin
(Not to be confused with forester). If a forester is a profession, then a Leshy is a destiny. Lives in fairy forest and does dirty tricks, unlike the forester, who brings only benefit. Of all the goblins I know, only one managed to use his powers for the benefit of society. This is Uncle Au (see Au). All the rest, as they rightly write in learned books: “a collection of evil spirits and the embodiment of the forest, as a part of space hostile to humans.”
Dressed poorly and warmly - in animal skin, which he buttons from left to right and wears all year round. His shoes are also always worn backwards. The left shoe is on the right foot, and the right shoe is on the left. Growth is variable. Sometimes below the grass, sometimes above the trees. Whenever required.
Friend of Kikimora (see Kikimora). Just like her, she loves children. He especially likes to lead them astray and into the thicket. Cheerful. He laughs inappropriately and inappropriately, scaring hares, birds and mushroom pickers. Can turn into a bush, dry tree, stump.
In fairy tales, good fellows usually circle through the forest, preventing them from reaching the red maidens languishing in Baba Yaga’s hut or the hole of the Serpent Gorynych (see Baba Yaga, Serpent Gorynych). But good fellows are not children. You don't mess around with them. So Leshy has to shamefully flee from them into the thicket.
What Leshy eats and what he thinks about in his free time is unknown to anyone, and no one is interested in it.
So they say: “Well, go to Leshy.”
FOX
The most cunning, insidious and eloquent animal living in the vastness of folk tales. Lives by deception and for the sake of deception. He constantly steals the Rooster (see Rooster), eats Kolobok (see Kolobok), and drives the Hare out of the bast hut (see Hare). She even deceives her close but stupid relative - the Wolf (see Wolf). Despite these negative qualities, Fox (nicknames: Redhead, Rogue, Sister, Kuma, etc.) is distinguished by beauty and femininity.
Ogre
Most unpleasant fairy tale type. Lives alone, in a dense forest. It feeds poorly and irregularly, mainly on lost travelers, boys and girls. He is a giant in stature (see Giant). Just like Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga) is a good cook. Simple-minded. It's not difficult to carry it out. Puss in Boots (see Puss in Boots), for example, deceived him, taking advantage of the Ogre's passion for transformations.
It is best to run away from him when he falls asleep or goes hunting. There is another proven method (read “Little Thumb”).
FROG
In all the fairy tales, she is a good housewife - “she bakes cabbage pies, very fatty and tasty” both in the mansion and in the mansion of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich), and at the same time she sews wonderful shirts and elegant dresses. Everyone likes a frog, but it’s just too scary and unpleasant to the touch.
But as soon as she takes off her frog skin, a beauty is immediately in front of us (see Princess). She dances like a swan princess, helps her husband in everything, in short, she’s smart.
Only one day Ivan Tsarevich was in a hurry, burned her skin in the stove, and for this he had to get ready for the journey again and help his wife out. In fairy tales, the Frog is loved. Here she is always, if not held in high esteem, then certainly not offended. But in life they treat her differently. They are afraid and disdainful. They say that it can put the evil eye on a person, and cause rain, and a storm, and, they say, it is poisonous and is associated with evil spirits.
And they also say that frogs originated from people who drowned in the Great Flood. There is another version that they originated from Egyptian soldiers - the “Pharaoh’s army”, which drove the Jews out of Egypt. This same army was so carried away by the process of expulsion that it did not notice how it entered the sea. And since the Pharaoh’s army was not a sea army, but a land one, and did not know how to swim, everything sank at once.
Popular rumor says that someday everything will change, and frogs will become people again.
LITTLE MUCK
The hero of an oriental fairy tale by the German writer Wilhelm Hauff. He was born in the city of Nika, and his full name was Mukra. He was small, and his father was a respectable man and completely uneducated. One day he fell from somewhere, was badly hurt and died, leaving sixteen-year-old Muk in poverty and ignorance. He went wherever his eyes led him, and in one city he finally ended up in the service of a lonely witch (see Witch), who had many cats and dogs. After living with her for some time, he ran away because the owner’s cats had become completely insolent and behaved differently.
As a reward, Muk took from the Witch magic running shoes and a cane that could look for treasures. With all this goods, he came to the neighboring kingdom and got a job as a royal walker. (In those days there were no couriers or courier trains, so all urgent news was carried by fast walkers).
One day, due to an evil slander from the courtiers, little Muk was captured and accused of theft. To avoid death, he had to give the King (see King) both the magic shoes and the cane. Poor and small, Muk came to the forest where the figs grew. (I must inform you that there are countries where figs tend to grow on trees). These figs were sweet, and Muk ate them. After which he grew long ears and a nose. Muk looked into the lake, saw himself and realized that it was all over. Finally, he swallowed a few more figs from another tree and... suddenly he saw that everything had fallen into place - both his ears and his nose. Then he picked up figs (or, in other words, figs) and went to the King. There Muk fed the King figs and he immediately grew long donkey ears. The king was frightened and returned little Muk's shoes and cane. But little Muk never gave him the ear-shrinking fig. But he just showed it from afar and left.
Many years have passed since then. Little Muk became old and returned to his hometown. There he lives, surrounded by the respect of his neighbors.
BOY-S THING
The youngest and smallest of all his brothers. He is as tall as his little finger. Despite such a significant drawback, he was the most savvy: he overheard his parents talking at night about how they were not able to feed so many children at once and were going to take him and his brothers into the forest to be torn to pieces by wild animals.
Therefore, Little Thumb immediately took white pebbles into his pocket, and when in the morning the unfortunate father, shedding tears, led his children into the dark forest, he slowly threw the pebbles onto the road.
Then, when the children ended up in the Ogre's house (see Ogre), Little Thumb also deceived him and led the brothers home safe and sound through the stones. The parents had long since repented of what they had done and were very happy when their children returned. They never did such stupid things again. Moreover, Thumb, when he grew up, was probably able to provide for their entire large family.
MOWGL
Forest Indian boy from Rudyard Kipling's fairy tale. Once in the jungle he (Mowgli) was stolen by a Tiger. But the circumstances were such that he could not eat it right away, which he later regretted for the rest of his life. But it was already too late. Mowgli was picked up by a wolf pack and made a real man out of him.
In the jungle, Mowgli had many friends - the bear Baloo, the panther Bagheera, the boa constrictor Kaa and other forest inhabitants. He didn’t like monkeys because they were humanoid and made faces all the time. Mowgli also did not like the tiger Shere Khan, who always did nasty things to him.
Finally, Mowgli found the right remedy for Shere Khan - “red flower” - so local residents the jungle was called fire.
Time passed, Mowgli became an adult and finally it was time for him to get married. He said goodbye to his friends and went to the village, where he found his bride, and at the same time his mother.
STEPMOTHER
The evil, nasty wife of a kind and spineless father. She usually has one or even two daughters of her own. Just like herself. If the Stepmother has several daughters, then she tries unsuccessfully to marry them off one by one to the Prince (see Prince). If there is only one daughter, then she forces her stepdaughter to jump into a deep well for a bucket, or in the very cold winter she drives her out to get snowdrops.
If the Stepmother has no one but a weak-willed husband, then she tries with all her might to destroy her stepdaughter, takes her into a dense forest, and then poisons her with liquid apples.
But she can't do anything. The princes don’t like her lazy daughters, the magic mirror tells the whole truth, despite her unpleasant face, but the stepdaughter always marries Korolevich Elisha (see Korolevich Elisha), or, in extreme cases, receives a good dowry from Moroz Ivanovich (see Grandfather Frost).
BEAR
The hero of many fairy tales, folk and non-folk - ordinary. In some ways, the Bear is also a hero. Strong, human-like. The Bear's feet and fingers are human, he washes himself like a human, sometimes walks on his hind legs, understands when you talk to him, dances, and sucks his paw. So in the dark he could easily be mistaken for a person. Even guard dogs often confuse him and bark in the same way as at a passerby.
The ancients believed that if you remove the skin from a bear, then inside it looks exactly the same as a person without clothes. (This is easy to check. You need to put on a fur coat and look in the mirror).
In fairy tales, as in life, the Bear is completely unpredictable. That's why they don't like to meet him. It's not clear what to expect from him. Either he will eat you, or he will simply bring you to his forest hut (in fairy tales, the Bear is often in a hut, but in life - in a den) and feed you with what God sent. It all depends on the Bear's mood.
The bear in the forest knows the goblin, Baba Yaga (see Leshiy, Baba Yaga), often serves them, and on the other hand, he can help: tear out an oak tree by the roots so that Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich) can bring out the chest with Koshchey’s death got it.
Like every person, the Bear has a name. We often call him Mikhailo Ivanovich or Mikhailo Potapych. Those who know him better simply call him Potapych, or simply Misha.
SEA KING
The same as the devil (look devil) only underwater, sea. In fairy tales, he first pretends to help the main character get out of a hopeless situation (and really, he does), but then demands for this that either the hero himself or his son come down to him for the service. sea bottom. The hero goes down to the Sea King and becomes his prisoner. It’s also good that the king often has a beautiful daughter named Vasilisa the Wise (see Vasilisa the Wise). She falls in love with the hero and helps him escape. True, together with herself.
The sea king gives chase to the young ones, but cannot catch up with them. A similar story happened to a Novgorod merchant named Sadko. He played the harp very well. Almost like Dobrynya Nikitich (see Dobrynya Nikitich). And the Sea King liked his game so much that he decided to lure Sadko to himself. And then an opportunity arose: Sadko rashly bet with other merchants that he would catch “golden feather fish” (a type of freshwater goldfish) in Lake Ilmen. And he made a big bet. Here the Sea King helped him. In his kingdom of these golden-finned fish (see Fish) he has as much as his heart desires.
And when Sadko set off on merchant ships by sea, the Sea King reminded him of his favor. The merchant had to go to the bottom along with the harp. He comes to the royal chambers and begins to fulfill his duty by playing the harp. The sea king rejoiced, sang, danced... The sea, of course, became agitated, a storm arose, the ships began to sink in such numbers that they did not have time to dodge them at the bottom.
Sadko sees that things are bad. He took it and broke the strings.
“That’s it,” he says, “I didn’t take any spare ones.” There will be no more music.
Then the Sea King decided to marry his captive guest to his daughter, a sea maiden. The wedding took place here.
Well, then, you yourself know what happened. Sadko returned home, saw that his ships had sailed with rich goods, and he began to live and live and make good money.
MUNCHHAUSEN was an ordinary honest German baron who lived more than 200 years ago. His name was Baron von Karl-Friedrich-Hieronymus-Munchausen. Participant in the Russian-Turkish War (1735-1739). After the end of the war, Munchausen was demobilized and settled on his estate near the city of Hanover. Here he loved to collect fun companies and talk about their military exploits and travels around Russia.
One day the German writer Rudolf-Erich Raspe heard these stories. He laughed when he heard them, and then immediately emigrated to England. Here he wrote and published a book entitled “Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of His Wonderful Travels and Campaigns in Russia.” Although Raspe added quite a lot to the stories of Munchausen, he did not put his name under this work.
A few years later, this book fell into the hands of another German writer - the poet Gottfried-August Burger. He also decided to add a little to her different stories. And he not only composed it, but also published it under a new title: “The Amazing Travels of Baron von Munchausen on Water and on Land. Hiking and fun adventures, as he usually talked about them over a bottle of wine with his friends.”
This is how the stories of Baron von Munchausen, the most truthful man in the world, appeared, which I highly recommend reading. Who knows, maybe after this there will be another book about Munchausen - yours.
Dunno
The most attractive shorty from Sunny City. A kind of Ivan the Fool (see Ivan the Fool), only very small - smaller than Thumb Boy (see Thumb Boy). The writer Nikolai Nosov came up with fairy tales about Dunno and his friends. Despite the fact that there were a lot of other short people living in Sunny City, Dunno is loved the most. He is the most naughty, curious, stubborn and cocky. If Dunno had attended school, he would have been a complete loser. But, fortunately for the teachers, he did not study at school, but was self-taught. He himself learned to write poetry, drive a car, fly in a hot air balloon and control a magic wand.
All this worked out badly for him, but ended well. Despite the fact that Dunno - literary hero, they love him like a national
NIKITA KOZHEMYAKA
This story started out scary. I won’t retell it, everything is written in the fairy tale itself: “A serpent appeared near Kyiv, he took considerable taxes from the people: from each yard there was a red wench. He will take the girl and eat her. It was the turn of the king’s daughter to go to that serpent. The snake grabbed the princess and dragged her to his den, but did not eat her: she was a beauty, so he took her as his wife. The snake will fly off to its business, and will cover the princess with logs so that she won’t leave.”
And so, as usual, the princess, covered with logs, sits in the snake’s den and writes a letter to her parents. (Her letters were delivered by a dog who loved the princess very much and was devoted to her). The letter contained a request: to find at least some hero, so that he would be stronger than the snake. They didn't know what to answer.
And Zmey Gorynych (see Zmey Gorynych), it must be said, was the same talker as Koschey the Immortal (see Koschey the Immortal). He once let slip to his wife that only Nikita Kozhemyaka was stronger than him. The wife immediately reported this to her father, who immediately found the hero.
Nikita was from an ordinary family. A simple leather worker. The skins were crushed into sheepskin coats, hats and shoes. And when he saw that the Tsar himself had come to his workshop, he became afraid. Nikita was not afraid of anyone. Only the king. As soon as he saw him, Kozhemyaka’s hands began to tremble and he tore 12 skins at once. He was so strong.
And when I broke it off, I was very upset. The leathers were good, dear. In frustration, he refused to help the king. But he did not get angry, but gathered five thousand children and ordered them to ask for Princess Nikita Kozhemyaka. At this point Nikita could not refuse and even shed tears. Then the hero wiped his tears, took 300 pounds of hemp (that’s 4800 kilograms - almost five tons!), tied himself with this hemp, and then tarred it for strength.
When Zmey Gorynych saw Nikita tied with hemp, he realized that the end had come for him. He harnessed Kozhemyak Gorynych to a plow (it also weighed about five tons) and began to plow the land on it. From “Kyiv to the Sea of Austria.” He plowed, and then in this sea he drowned the snake.
Nikita Kozhemyaka did not take a penny from the tsar for his feat and did not even marry the princess (see Tsarevna).
PAPA CARLO
A simple street organ grinder, best friend carpenter Giuseppe and father Pinocchio (see Pinocchio). He made his naughty son from an ordinary log and tried to educate him. This turned out to be not so simple, because it is very difficult, being a poor organ grinder, to educate yesterday's log. However, the kindness, dedication and love of the father for his son eventually bore fruit. The son, having gone through a great school of life, became a wooden artist. This result allows us to assert that a genuine teacher is capable of raising a real person out of anything.
ROOSTER
A wonderful bird in all respects. The most beautiful in our latitudes: “golden comb, oil beard, silk beard...” Somehow connected with the Sun. It crows both before sunrise and before sunset. Therefore, apparently, all fairy-tale evil spirits really dislike roosters.
If the Rooster gets into trouble, they will definitely help him out. And he himself is a faithful friend and helper. His main enemy is the Fox (see Fox). The cheat invents any way to eat him. Sometimes it is very close to the goal. But never before in fairy tales has the Fox succeeded in this.
Moreover, the Rooster often manages to deceive the Fox and restore violated justice. All this allows us to talk about the Rooster as our national fairy-tale hero.
The Rooster's character is violent, cocky, restless. His name, as a rule, is Petya. Why not Vasya or Boris Gavrilovich is unknown. In any case, he only responds to Petya. This means that his middle name is Petrovich. So - Pyotr Petrovich. Roosters don't have surnames.
In some fairy tales, the Rooster is at odds with the autocracy. In Pushkin's fairy tale about the Golden Cockerel, he pecked at the crown of King Dodon and thereby became the cause of his untimely death. About the Rooster's attitude towards other authorities and species government structure nothing is known.
In Russia, roosters have always been treated with respect. They even called them “master” and cooked delicious cabbage soup from them. A good rooster protects the house from disease and evil spirits. If a rooster crows on the threshold of a house, expect guests. If you crow at the wrong time, wait for news.
PRINCE
Son of the King (see King), groom of the future princess (see Princess). Kind, beautiful, strong and fair. But one should not assume that the Prince must necessarily be of royal blood. This was the opinion of one Princess, who drove the Swineherd away and then bitterly repented. Because it turned out that the real Prince was disguised as the Swineherd.
So if you are a real Princess, and your groom is the best in the world, then he is your Prince, or someday he will become one.
PRINCESS
There are two types: good and bad. The Good Princess is a kind, sympathetic, brave girl. Most often - the former Cinderella (see Cinderella). The bad one is the opposite: capricious, wayward, lazy. (More often than not, he is the future Stepmother (see Stepmother). The heroine of hundreds of fairy tales. If it were not for the princess in fairy tales, there would be no one to look for, free, protect, no one to help, no one to marry. So the Princess is in some way the most important fairy-tale heroine.
PROSPERO
Heroic personality. Professional revolutionary from Yuri Olesha’s fairy tale “Three Fat Men”. As a result of the first failed uprising against the government of three fat men who terribly oppressed the people, he ended up behind bars in the basement where the government zoo was located. From there he was rescued by a simple circus girl named Suok and another revolutionary - also a professional circus performer - gymnast Tibul.
After his release, Prospero still made a revolution and drove out the three fat men. What happened next is unknown, probably everyone began to live happily and no one else was overthrown.
FISH
In fairy tales it reaches fantastic proportions. One whale fish is worth something. The whole island! Yes, the island, the whole earth, according to some fabulous information, rests on three pillars. They say that it used to stand on even four, but one died of old age, which is why the Great Flood happened. However, this information is often refuted by other, more plausible information, which claims that the earth is not installed on three whales, but on only two fish lying crosswise.
Large fish sometimes swallow ships in fairy tales. They do the same with some fairy-tale characters. But a hero cannot be swallowed with impunity. Once in the fish's belly, he behaves like a sports fisherman: he makes a fire and cooks fish soup. The fish, of course, immediately develops terrible heartburn, and, for the purpose of self-medication, it releases what it has eaten (Usually this happens just off its native shores).
Fairytale fish love to swallow various rings and other jewelry that Princesses and Queens lose (see Princess, Queen). After this, they are immediately fished out by poor fishermen who catch fish for the royal table. So if you ever dine in the royal palace, please eat fish very carefully.
In addition to the above-mentioned fish species, in fairy tales you can find Ruff Ershovich (an extremely prickly, ruffly and inedible creature), a Pike, known for its talkativeness and magical qualities, a Goldfish that fulfills all desires, as well as: the magical Sturgeon, the stupid Carp, the ominous Eel, the fussy Herring and many others inhabiting the deep-sea fairy-tale world.
SALTAN
Some people confuse Tsar Saltan with the Turkish Saltan Saltanovich. This error occurs because they are namesakes. But there is nothing else in common between them. Because Tsar Saltan is a simple fairy-tale king who married a peasant girl who, as promised, bore him a hero (see Guidon). Saltan Saltanovich is an ordinary villain, whom Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) shot with a bow. And it serves him right. Because after that everyone began to live happily.
SEVEN SEEDS
(They are also the Seven Simeons)
This is a very interesting fairy tale hero. The interesting thing about him is that he is not alone, but there are seven of them - the Semenov brothers. Each individual is neither this nor that. And together - fairy-tale heroes.
They were born in the village “to the same guy” - all good fellows are better than young ones. But the problem is that everyone is lazy. They didn't do anything. The father suffered with them, suffered, and then took them to the service of the Tsar (see Tsar). The king, of course, was happy at first. Seven heroes have arrived! And when he realized who the man had brought him, it was already too late. There was no trace of him.
He began to think about what to do with the lazy Seeds. I thought and thought and came up with an idea. He sent them to kidnap a princess from a neighboring overseas kingdom in order to marry her later. Semyon boarded the ship and sailed away. They sailed, kidnapped the princess and returned safely. Only the princess is on the way a little bit left hand was wounded because she “suddenly turned into a white swan” and tried to fly away. But nothing worked out for her, because among the Semenovs there was one very accurate shooter. He shot the princess in the left wing.
The King of the Seven Seeds thanked them for their service and rewarded them. But the princess never married the king. Because he was very old. She chose the eldest Semyon as his wife, who personally kidnapped her from the overseas kingdom. And the Tsar was not the least bit offended by them, he was even delighted and once again rewarded Semenov. These are the heroes.
SISTER ALENUSHKA
Very good girl. He suffers a lot. Sometimes he comes from a peasant family, sometimes from a royal family. She usually has a naughty younger brother, Ivanushka. Her parents die immediately at the very beginning of the fairy tale, but for some reason she does not become a queen. Probably too small, and the children have to go in all four directions. On the way, a misfortune occurs: Ivanushka, not listening to Alyonushka, drinks from a puddle and turns into a little goat. In this position they are found by one unmarried Tsar (see Tsar). He immediately falls in love and marries Alyonushka. And so all three of them would live happily: husband, wife and little goat, but then a Witch appears out of nowhere (see Witch). Most likely, she herself wants to marry the Tsar, so she spoils Alyonushka. She withers and withers before our eyes.
And then this witch, disguised as a healer (this is a doctor who treats with traditional folk remedies), comes to her and promises to cure her. The Witch brought Alyonushka to the sea, tied a stone around her neck and threw her into the water. That's all the treatment.
The Witch herself turned into Alyonushka and went to the royal chambers. But everything ended well; The little goat eventually led the Tsar to the sea, Alyonushka surfaced, the Tsar took the stone from her neck and took her to the royal palace. And the evil witch was burned at the stake. “After that, the Tsar, the Queen and the Little Goat began to live and prosper and make good things.”
BLUE BEARD
Unpleasant personality. I don’t even want to write about him. But, as a warning to frivolous girls, it is necessary. “Bluebeard” is the nickname of a person whose name no one knows and no one wants to know. A notorious scoundrel, a criminal, a rich French nobleman of a heroic physique. He didn’t give alms to anyone, didn’t go to church, lived alone in a castle called Bluebeard’s Castle. He was friends only with his dogs - three Great Danes, huge and strong, like bulls. He regularly went hunting in the forest on a huge black horse. He was married seven times. In short, a villain!
Returning from another hunt, he picked up a girl on the road who had gone out for a walk at the wrong time. At the castle, Beard announced to her that she would now be his eighth wife. At this point, the villain’s courtship ended, and difficult family life began for the girl.
One day Bluebeard Once again went away to hunt for three months. Before leaving, he gave his wife seven keys (the lock was large), instructing her not to unlock anything with the seventh key. This act revealed the entire insidious essence of Bluebeard. If he really didn’t want his wife to unlock the seventh room, he would never have given her this key. But he understood that his wife would be tormented by curiosity. And since Bluebeard was a real tormentor of his wives, he gave her this key.
I gave it and was not mistaken. The wife suffered, suffered and... opened the seventh door. Horror gripped the unfortunate woman at the sight of her seven dead predecessors. Even a child knows what happens next. She dropped the key, which was stained with blood, then the villain husband arrived and, seeing that his wife knew his terrible secret, began to sharpen a knife on her.
Luckily, two of her brothers arrived in time. For an hour they fought with their criminal brother-in-law and finally killed him. Since then, this girl completely got rid of curiosity and began to live happily.
SNOW MAIDEN
Granddaughter of Father Frost (see Father Frost). Helps grandfather give gifts to children. Nothing is known about her parents. Probably an orphan. Unlike her grandfather, she is very smart and resourceful. He knows a lot of games, riddles, and poems about the New Year. He is friends with good forest dwellers: squirrels, hedgehogs, bunnies, etc.).
As a result, all the machinations of Father Frost's enemies (Wolf, Fox, Baba Yaga, Leshy, etc.) always fail.
SOLDIER
Brave, cheerful and resourceful hero. In fairy tales he often appears when returning home after 25 years of service. So he is already an old man. However, at the end of the fairy tale, sometimes he marries a good girl, whom he rescued from trouble: from the devil or from the Serpent Gorynych (look, the devil, the Serpent Gorynych).
A soldier likes to go to some village to the stingiest Baba (see Baba) to eat and relax. He succeeds because the Soldier is an experienced man. Either he will cook soup from an ax, or he will make such riddles that even the Serpent Gorynych cannot guess them, not to mention Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga).
THE NIGHTINGALE THE ROBBER
Countryman of Ilya Muromets (the village of Devyatidubye was located next to the village of Karacharovo). In fairy tales, he lives with his entire family (his wife Nightingale and their children, the Nightingales) on nine oak trees, where he whistles and robbers. It whistles so loudly and piercingly that not a single hero can withstand such a whistle. Only Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) was able to defeat the Nightingale the Robber.
Therefore, it is clear that for real heroes, a keen ear for music sometimes only gets in the way.
THREE PIGLETS
Heroes of English folk tales. Actually, only the third Little Pig was the hero of them, because the first two, unfortunately, were eaten by the Wolf (see Wolf). He ate it, because the story of how all the piglets gathered together in the stone house of the third, unfortunately, was the invention of the wonderful American animator Walt Disney and the no less wonderful Russian writer Sergei Mikhalkov.
In fact, both pigs, who built houses from straw and brushwood, fell victim to their carelessness. But the outcome of this drama was terrible for the Wolf himself. Having devoured two suckling piglets, he headed to the stone house of the third. It was a real pig fortress, so the Wolf decided to take it by cunning. He tried several times to lure Piglet out of the house. But he turned out to be smarter, and the Wolf had no choice but to go on the assault. The assault was carried out through a chimney, from where the gray robber fell exactly into the place specified by the third Little Pig - into a boiling cauldron.
Now listen to what really happened to the Wolf: “... The Piglet instantly closed the lid of the cauldron and did not remove it until the Wolf was cooked. Then he ate it for dinner and lived happily, and still lives like that.”
QUEEN
(see Queen). The character depends on what kind of Tsar she has (see Tsar). If he is an independent man, a real just autocrat, then the Queen is usually kind, submissive and patient. If soft and lazy, she becomes cruel, angry and narcissistic.
A good and fair Queen is not uncommon, but she is not the main fairy-tale character. The main ones are her son, daughter, husband or adviser. If the Queen is evil, then she immediately turns out to be the main character of the fairy tale. Nobody loves her, but she loves herself very much.
At the end of the fairy tale, the good Queen triumphs along with justice and the main characters, and the bad one is roughly punished. After her punishment, someone's merry wedding is usually held.
TSAR
(see King) Lives either in “a certain kingdom in a certain state” or in “The Far Away Kingdom, the Thirtieth State.” The figure is complex and contradictory. On the one hand, he is a kind family man, good husband and father, a brave warrior. On the other hand, he may behave frivolously or be too trusting. He will rashly promise, for example, to the Sea King or the devil (see Sea King, devil) “what he doesn’t know at home” (usually his newborn son or daughter), and then the children have to fight an entire fairy tale with evil spirits. Or another example, the Tsar will believe the slander against his wife and drive her and her young child out of the kingdom. Yes, it’s good if he just drives you away, otherwise he will order you to be tarred in a barrel and thrown into the sea, or tied to a tree in the thicket of the forest to be eaten by wolves.
In old age, one often becomes inclined to solve the simplest everyday issues in the most fabulous way; For example, in order to marry his three sons, he tells them to shoot arrows in different directions. It’s good that in fairy tales the arrows fly where they need to go: to the boyar’s daughter, to the merchant’s daughter, to the Frog Princess (see Frog). What if the brothers missed?
The Tsar is not much different from the King. Usually he is the hero of Russian fairy tales (read “Russian folk tales”), and the King is the hero of foreign ones (read “Fairy Tales of the Peoples of the World”). Although sometimes (very rarely) it happens that the King (or Prince) lives in our fairy tale and it doesn’t even occur to him that he is a foreigner.
The king is one of the main fairy-tale figures. What kind of fairy tale will be depends on his behavior - scary or funny, happy or sad. However, this is not only in fairy tales, it is like this everywhere.
CHEBURASHKA
You may be surprised, but the first Cheburashka was perhaps even your grandmother, when she was still very little. This happened a long time ago. It was winter, in Moscow. Future author Cheburashki - writer Eduard Uspensky once saw a girl of about three years old in the yard who was walking with her mother. The girl was wearing a long shaggy fur coat, bought for growing up. She kept stumbling and falling in this huge fur coat. And her mother kept raising her and saying: “Oh, you, Cheburashka...” The writer liked this word and he called his fairy-tale hero with it.
Since then, this “beast unknown to science” appeared, which, according to the author, came to us in a box of oranges. Since oranges in those days were brought primarily to Moscow, Cheburashka settled here. At first his housing situation was poor, and he lived in a pay phone booth, where he met Gena the Crocodile.
Later, having settled down a little, he and his friends built the House of Friendship and began to live and live well and make good money...
CRAP
In one word – “unclean”. Lives in the underworld, deep underground. There he, along with his workmates, tortures sinners who behaved incorrectly in life.
It looks unpleasant: all in black fur, with horns, a tail and smells of sulfur. The spitting image of a black goat if it stands on its hind legs. Only a goat doesn’t have wings, but a fairy tale devil does. The little black ones are also unpleasant. Just like the Wolf and the Bear (see Wolf, Bear) can turn into a person. And also a pig, a snake, a dog and a black cat.
If the devil turns into a man, then for some reason he prefers to be a miller or a blacksmith. He probably knows these professions well.
Most often, the devil appears in fairy tales after 12 at night and disappears at dawn, having heard the rooster crow. From time to time, however, it is daytime.
Meeting him does not bode well. But if he meets in a fairy tale with a Soldier or Balda, then his case is bad. They’ll deceive you, they’ll rob you dry, they’ll get their way, and it’s good if they let you go right away. Otherwise, the devil will have to serve and help them faithfully throughout the fairy tale. He is friends with other devils, goblins, brownies, the Sea King and Baba Yaga (see The Sea King and Baba Yaga).
And he has no more friends and cannot have any more.
LIZARD
It can be an enchanted princess, a witch or the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (see Queen). It cannot be argued that a lizard necessarily belongs to evil spirits. In fairy tales, sometimes quite worthy people and wizards turn into lizards. By her appearance you can distinguish who turned into her. If the Lizard is green, it is a girl or a woman; if it is gray, it is a boy or a man.
If the Lizard does not burn in fire, then it is a salamander; if it burns, it is a witch. The bite of a fairy lizard is poisonous and even fatal. As they say in scientific books, a person bitten by a lizard cannot be cured until “he hears the roar of a donkey, until he counts a whole measure of millet grain by grain, until he finds nine white mares and nine sisters and drinks milk from nine sisters.” You understand that while he does all this, he will definitely die.
If not from a bite, then from overwork. Therefore, lizards, especially fairy ones, need to be protected.
A folk tale is a message from our ancestors, passed down from time immemorial. Through magical stories We receive sacred information about morality and spirituality, traditions and culture. The heroes of Russian folk tales are very colorful. They live in a world full of wonders and dangers. There is a battle between light and dark forces, as a result of which good and justice always win.
Ivan the Fool
The main character of Russian fairy tales is a seeker. He sets out on a difficult journey to get a magical object or a bride, and to deal with the monster. In this case, the character may initially occupy a low social position. As a rule, this is a peasant son, the most youngest child in family.
By the way, the word “fool” in ancient times did not have a negative meaning. Since the 14th century, it has served as a talismanic name, often given to the youngest son. He did not receive any inheritance from his parents. Older brothers in fairy tales are successful and practical. Ivan spends time on the stove, since he is not interested in living conditions. He does not seek money or fame, and patiently endures the ridicule of others.
However, it is Ivan the Fool who is ultimately lucky. He is unpredictable, capable of solving non-standard riddles, and defeats the enemy with cunning. The hero is characterized by mercy and kindness. He helps out those in trouble, releases the pike, for which he is awarded magical help. Having overcome all obstacles, Ivan the Fool marries the Tsar's daughter and becomes rich. Behind unsightly clothes hides the image of a sage serving good and wary of falsehood.
Bogatyr
This hero was borrowed from epics. He is handsome, brave, noble. It often grows “by leaps and bounds.” Possesses enormous power, is able to saddle a heroic horse. There are many stories where a character fights a monster, dies, and then is resurrected.
The names of the heroes of Russian fairy tales can be different. We meet Ilya Muromets, Bova Korolevich, Alyosha Popovich, Nikita Kozhemyaka and other characters. Ivan Tsarevich can also be classified in this category. He enters into battle with the Serpent Gorynych or Koshchei, saddles Sivka-Burka, protects the weak, and rescues the princess.
It is significant that the hero sometimes makes mistakes (responds rudely to the grandmother he meets, burns the skin of a frog). Subsequently, he has to repent of this, ask for forgiveness, and correct the situation. By the end of the tale, he gains wisdom, finds the princess and receives half the kingdom as a reward for his exploits.
Wonder Bride
By the end of the story, an intelligent and beautiful girl becomes the wife of a fairy-tale hero. In Russian folk tales we meet Vasilisa the Wise, Marya Morevna, and Elena the Beautiful. They embody the popular idea of a woman standing guard over her family.
The heroines are distinguished by their resourcefulness and intelligence. Thanks to their help, the hero solves ingenious riddles and defeats the enemy. Often a beautiful princess is subject to the forces of nature; she is able to turn into an animal (swan, frog) and create real miracles. The heroine uses powerful forces for the benefit of her lover.
There is also an image of a meek stepdaughter in fairy tales, who achieves success thanks to her hard work and kindness. Common qualities for all positive female images are loyalty, purity of aspirations and readiness to help.
Which hero of Russian fairy tales is the most beloved and popular among children and adults? The first place rightfully belongs to Baba Yaga. This is a very controversial character with a terrifying appearance, a hooked nose and a bone leg. In ancient times, “Baba” was the name given to the mother, the eldest woman in the family. "Yaga" may be related to the Old Russian words "yagat" ("to shout loudly, swear") or "yagaya" ("sick, angry").
An old witch lives in the forest, on the border between our world and the other world. Her hut on chicken legs is surrounded by a fence made of human bones. Grandmother flies on a mortar, makes friends with evil spirits, kidnaps children and keeps many magical objects from uninvited guests. According to scientists, it is associated with the kingdom of the dead. This is indicated by the loose hair that was unbraided for women before burial, the bone leg, and also the house. The Slavs made wooden huts for the dead, which they placed on stumps in the forest.
In Rus' they always respected their ancestors and turned to them for advice. That’s why good fellows come to Baba Yaga, and she tests them. To those who pass the test, the witch gives a hint, points the way to Koshchei, gives a magic ball, as well as a towel, comb and other wonders. Baba Yaga doesn’t eat children either, but she puts them in the oven and spends them ancient rite"overbaking". In Rus' it was believed that in this way a child could be healed of an illness.
Koschey
The name of this fairy-tale hero of Russian fairy tales could come from the Turkic “koschey”, which translates as “slave”. The character was chained and kept prisoner for three hundred years. He himself also likes to kidnap beautiful girls and hide them in prison. According to another version, the name comes from the Slavic “kostit” (to scold, to harm) or “bone”. Koschey is often depicted as a skinny old man, more like a skeleton.
He is a very powerful sorcerer, lives far from other people and owns countless treasures. The death of the hero is in a needle, which is securely hidden in objects and animals nested inside each other like a nesting doll. The prototype of Koshchei may be the winter deity Karachun, who was born from a golden egg. It covered the earth with ice and brought death with it, forcing our ancestors to move to warmer areas. In other myths, Koshchei was the name of the son of Chernobog. The latter could control time and commanded the army of the underworld.
This is one of the most ancient images. The hero of Russian fairy tales differs from foreign dragons by having several heads. Usually their number is a multiple of three. The creature can fly, breathes fire and abducts people. It lives in caves, where it hides captives and treasures. Often appears in front of a positive hero after emerging from the water. The nickname “Gorynych” is associated either with the character’s habitat (mountain) or with the verb “to burn.”
The image of the terrible Serpent is borrowed from ancient myths about the dragon who guards the entrance to the underworld. To become a man, a teenager had to defeat him, i.e. accomplish a feat, and then enter the world of the dead and return back as an adult. According to another version, the Serpent Gorynych is a collective image of the steppe nomads who attacked Rus' in huge hordes. At the same time, they used fire shells that burned wooden cities.
Forces of nature
In ancient times, people personified the Sun, Wind, Moon, Thunder, Rain and other phenomena on which their lives depended. They often became heroes of Russian fairy tales, married princesses, and helped good heroes. There are also anthropomorphic rulers of certain elements: Moroz Ivanovich, goblin, water one. They can play both positive and negative characters.
Nature is depicted as spiritual. The well-being of people largely depends on her actions. Thus, Morozko rewards the meek, hardworking daughter of an old man, whom her stepmother ordered to abandon in the forest, with gold and a fur coat. At the same time, her selfish stepsister dies from his spell. The Slavs worshiped the forces of nature and at the same time were wary of them, tried to appease them with the help of sacrifices, and made requests.
Grateful animals
In fairy tales we meet a talking wolf, a magical horse and cow, a goldfish, and a pike that grants wishes. And also a bear, hare, hedgehog, raven, eagle, etc. They all understand human speech and have unusual abilities. The hero helps them out of trouble, gives them life, and in return they help defeat the enemy.
Traces of totemism are clearly visible here. The Slavs believed that each genus descended from a specific animal. After death, the soul of a person moves into the beast and vice versa. For example, in the fairy tale "Burenushka" the soul of a deceased mother is reborn in the form of a cow to help her orphaned daughter. Such an animal could not be killed, because it became a relative and protected from harm. Sometimes the heroes of a fairy tale can themselves turn into an animal or a bird.
Firebird
Many are trying to get it goodies fairy tales The wonderful bird dazzles the eyes like the golden sun and lives for stone wall in rich lands. Freely floating in the sky, it is a symbol of the heavenly body, which bestows luck, abundance, and creative power. This is a representative of another world, who often turns into a kidnapper. The firebird steals rejuvenating apples that bestow beauty and immortality.
Only those who are pure in soul, believe in the dream and are closely connected with their deceased ancestors can catch it. Usually this is the youngest son, who had to take care of his old parents and spent a lot of time near the family hearth.
Thus, the heroes of Russian fairy tales teach us to respect our ancestors, listen to our hearts, overcome fear, pursue our dreams despite mistakes, and always help those asking for help. And then the divine radiance of the magical firebird will fall on a person, transforming him and bestowing happiness.
Boyan is an epic poet and singer in East Slavic mythology.
Brownie
They say that the brownie still lives in every village hut, but not everyone knows about it. They call him grandfather, master, neighbor, housekeeper, demon-housekeeper, but this is all he - the keeper of the hearth, the invisible assistant of the owners.
The brownie sees every little thing, tirelessly cares and worries so that everything is in order and ready: he will help the hard worker, correct his mistake; he enjoys the offspring of domestic animals and birds; he does not tolerate unnecessary expenses and is angry with them - in a word, the brownie is inclined to work, thrifty and prudent. If he likes the housing, then he serves this family, as if he went into bondage to her.
For this loyalty, in other places they call him that: he has killed him.
But he willingly helps the lazy and careless to run their farms, torments people to the point that he crushes them almost to death at night or throws them out of their beds. However, it is not difficult to make peace with an angry brownie: you just have to put snuff under the stove, which he is a big fan of, or give any gift: a multi-colored rag, a crust of bread... If the owners love their neighbor, if they live in harmony with him, then they will never want to part with it, even when moving to a new house: they will scratch under the threshold, collect the garbage in a dustpan - and sprinkle it in the new hut, without noticing how the “owner” is moving with this garbage to a new place of residence. Just remember to bring him a pot of porridge for his housewarming and say with all possible respect: “Grandfather Brownie, come home. Come live with us!”
Rarely can a person boast that he has seen a brownie. To do this, you need to put on a horse collar on Easter night, cover yourself with a harrow, the teeth on yourself, and sit between the horses the whole night. If you're lucky, you'll see an old man - small, like a stump, all covered with gray hair (even his palms are hairy), gray with age and dust. Sometimes, in order to divert prying eyes from himself, he will take on the appearance of the owner of the house - well, he’s the spitting image! In general, the brownie loves to wear his master's clothes, but he always manages to put them back in place as soon as the person needs things.
Before the plague, fire and war, the brownies leave the village and howl in the pastures. If there is a big unexpected disaster, grandfather announces its approach, ordering the dogs to dig holes in the yard and howl throughout the village...
Kikimora
Kikimora, shishimora - in East Slavic mythology, the evil spirit of the house, a small woman - invisible (sometimes considered the wife of a brownie). At night, she disturbs small children, confuses the yarn (she herself likes to spin or weave lace - the sounds of K. spinning in the house portend trouble): the owners may escape from the house; hostile to men. May harm domestic animals, particularly chickens. In its main attributes (connection with yarn, damp places, darkness) Kikimora is similar to mokusha, an evil spirit that continues the image of the Slavic goddess Mokoshi. The name “Kikimora” - compound word. the second part of which is the ancient name of the female character Mara, Mora.
Kikimora is a character best known mainly in the Russian North. Appears in the form of a small, hunched, ugly old woman, dressed in rags, sloppy and eccentric. Her appearance in a house or in outbuildings (on a threshing floor, barn or bathhouse) was considered an evil omen. It was believed that she settled in houses. built on an “unclean” place (on the boundary or where the suicide was buried). There is a well-known tale that in a newly built house there was a Kikimora, which none of the residents saw, but a voice was constantly heard demanding that the household members who sat down to dinner clear the table: she threw pillows at the disobedient ones and frightened them at night until then. until the whole family left the house (Vyatka province).
Bannik
Bannik, bainik, baennik, bainushko, etc., Belarusian. laznik - among Russians and Belarusians the spirit is the inhabitant of the bathhouse. Lives behind the heater or under the shelf. It can be invisible (according to some beliefs, it has an invisible cap) or appears in the form of a man with long hair, a naked old man, covered with dirt and leaves from brooms, a dog, a cat, white hare etc. There is a belief that BANNIK appears in the bathhouse for the first time after a woman in labor has been there. It is believed that BANNIK washes himself in the bathhouse and he should be left with water, soap and a broom, otherwise he will splash boiling water, throw hot stones, and cause fumes. When entering the bathhouse, it was customary to say: “Baptized on the shelf, unbaptized from the shelf” (Smolensk province).
Anchutka
Anchutka is one of the most ancient names for the devil, the demon. Anchutkas come in bathhouses and field ones. Like any evil spirits, they instantly respond to the mention of their name. It’s better to keep quiet about them, otherwise this heelless, fingerless man will be right there. The heelless one is anchoot because one day a wolf chased him and bit off his heel.
Bath anchutkas are shaggy, bald, scare people with their moans, and darken their minds. But they are very good at changing their appearance - just like the rest of the undead. Field sprouts are very tiny and more peaceful. They live in every plant and are called according to their habitat: potato, hemp, flax, oat, wheat, roznik, etc.
However, they say that the water also has its own anchutka - an assistant to the waterman or swamper. He is unusually ferocious and nasty. If a swimmer suddenly has a cramp, he should know that it is a water anchutka who has grabbed his leg and wants to drag him to the bottom. That is why, since ancient times, every swimmer has been advised to have a pin with him: after all, evil spirits are deathly afraid of iron.
Goblin
Leshy, forester, leshak, forester, forester, forester - the spirit of the forest in Slavic mythology. The goblin lives in every forest, especially loves spruce trees. Dressed like a man - a red sash, the left side of the caftan is usually wrapped behind the right side, and not vice versa, as everyone wears. The shoes are mixed up: the right shoe is on the left foot, the left shoe is on the right. The goblin's eyes are green and burn like coals.
No matter how carefully he hides his unclean origin, he fails to do this: if you look at him through the horse’s right ear, the goblin has a bluish tint, because his blood is blue. His eyebrows and eyelashes are not visible, he has corny ears (no right ear), and the hair on his head is combed to the left.
A goblin can become a stump and a hummock, turn into an animal and a bird, he turns into a bear and a grouse, a hare, and anyone, even a plant, because he is not only the spirit of the forest, but also its essence: he is overgrown with moss, sniffles as if the forest is noisy, It not only shows itself as spruce, but also spreads like moss and grass. The goblin differs from other spirits by special properties inherent to him alone: if he walks through the forest, then the height is equal to the tallest trees. But at the same time, going out for walks, fun and jokes on the forest edges, he walks there like a small blade of grass, below the grass, freely hiding under any berry leaf. But, in fact, he rarely goes out to the meadows, strictly observing the rights of his neighbor, called the field worker, or field worker. The goblin also does not enter villages, so as not to quarrel with brownies and buffaloes, especially in those villages where completely black roosters crow, “two-eyed” dogs (with spots above the eyes in the form of second eyes) and three-haired cats live near the huts.
But in the forest, the goblin is a full-fledged and unlimited master: all animals and birds are under his jurisdiction and obey him unrequitedly. Hares are especially subordinate to him. He has them as complete serfs, at least he even has the power to lose them at cards to the neighboring goblin. Squirrel herds are not exempt from the same dependence, and if they, migrating in countless hordes and forgetting all fear of man, run into big cities, and jump across rooftops, fall into chimneys and even jump out of windows, then the matter is clear: that means , a whole team of goblin played a game of chance and the defeated side drove the loss into the possessions of the lucky opponent.
Swamp kikimora
Kikimora - Evil, swamp spirit in Slavic mythology. A close friend of the goblin is the swamp kikimora. Lives in a swamp. He likes to dress up in furs made from mosses and weaves forest and swamp plants into his hair. But she rarely appears to people, because she prefers to be invisible and only shouts from the swamp in a loud voice. A little woman steals small children, drags unwary travelers into a quagmire, where she can torture them to death.
Mermaid
In Slavic mythology, mermaids are a type of mischievous evil spirits. They were drowned women, girls who died near a pond, or people swimming at inopportune times. Mermaids were sometimes identified with “mavkas” - from the Old Slavonic “nav”, dead man) - children who died without baptism or by strangled mothers.
The eyes of such mermaids glow with green fire. By their nature, they are nasty and evil creatures, they grab bathing people by the legs, pull them under the water, or lure them from the shore, wrap their arms around them and drown them. There was a belief that a mermaid's laughter could cause death (this makes them look like Irish banshees).
Some beliefs called mermaids the lower spirits of nature (for example, good “beregins”), who have nothing in common with drowned people and willingly save drowning people.
Swampwomen
Bolotnitsa (omutnitsa, shovel) is a drowned maiden living in a swamp. Her black hair is spread over her bare shoulders and decorated with sedge and forget-me-nots. Disheveled and unkempt, pale-faced with green eyes, always naked and ready to lure people to her only in order to tickle them to death without any particular guilt and drown them in the quagmire. Swampwomen can send crushing storms, torrential rains, and destructive hail to the fields; steal threads, canvases and linens from women who have fallen asleep without prayer.
Brodnitsa
Maidens - Beauties with long hair, guardians of fords. They live with beavers in quiet pools, mend and guard fords paved with brushwood. Before an enemy attack, wanderers imperceptibly destroy the ford, directing the enemy into a swamp or pool.
Dashingly one-eyed
Spirit of evil, failure, symbol of grief. There is no certainty about Likh’s appearance - he is either a one-eyed giant or a tall, thin woman with one eye in the middle of his forehead. Dashing is often compared to the Cyclopes, although apart from one eye and tall stature, they have nothing in common.
The saying has reached our time: “Don’t wake up Dashing while it’s quiet.” In a literal and allegorical sense, Likho meant trouble - it became attached to a person, sat on his neck (in some legends, the unfortunate person tried to drown Likho by throwing himself into the water, and drowned himself) and prevented him from living.
Likh, however, could be gotten rid of - deceived, driven away by force of will, or, as is occasionally mentioned, given to another person along with some gift. According to very dark superstitions, Likho could come and devour you.
Ghoul
Ghouls are lower spirits, demonological creatures. The “Tale of Idols” talks about the ancient veneration of ghouls by the Slavs. In popular belief, these are evil, harmful spirits. Ghouls (like vampires) suck blood from people and animals. They were identified with the dead, emerging from their graves at night, lying in wait and killing people and livestock. author of the encyclopedia Alexandrova Anastasia
By folk beliefs, ghouls became people who died an “unnatural death” - violently killed, drunkards, suicides, etc., as well as sorcerers. It was believed that the earth does not accept such dead people and therefore they are forced to wander around the world and cause harm to the living. Such dead people were buried outside the cemetery and away from housing. Such a grave was considered a dangerous and unclean place; it should be avoided, and if you had to pass by, you should throw some object on it: a chip, a stick, a stone, or just a handful of earth. In order for the ghoul not to leave the grave, he had to be “calmed” - the corpse had to be dug out of the grave and pierced with an aspen stake.
And so that the deceased, who did not live out his “life,” did not turn into a ghoul, his knee tendons were cut so that he could not walk. Sometimes coals were sprinkled on the grave of a supposed ghoul or a pot of burning coals was placed.
On a special day of obedience to the dead Eastern Slavs Semik was considered. On this day, they also commemorated all untimely deceased relatives: unbaptized children, girls who died before marriage. In addition, in Semik they took special measures against pawned dead people who, according to legend, were capable of causing harm to a person. Aspen stakes or sharp metal objects were driven into their graves.
In Semik, burials were held for those who, for one reason or another, remained unburied. A common grave was dug for them and buried with a prayer service and funeral service. It was believed that otherwise the pawned dead could take revenge on the living, sending various disasters to them: drought, storm, thunderstorm or crop failure
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga (Yaga-Yaginishna, Yagibikha, Yagishna) is the oldest character in Slavic mythology.
Baba Yaga is a more dangerous creature, possessing much greater power than some witch. Most often, she lives in a dense forest, which has long instilled fear in people, since it was perceived as the border between the world of the dead and the living. It’s not for nothing that her hut is surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls, and in many fairy tales Baba Yaga feeds on human flesh, and she herself is called the “bone leg.”
Just like Koschey the Immortal (kosch - bone), she belongs to two worlds at once: the world of the living and world of the dead. Hence its almost limitless possibilities.
In fairy tales she acts in three incarnations. Yaga the hero possesses a treasure sword and fights with the heroes on equal terms. The abductor yaga steals children, sometimes throwing them, already dead, onto the roof of their home, but most often taking them to her hut on chicken legs, or into an open field, or underground. From this strange hut, children, and adults too, escape by outwitting Yagibishna. And finally, Yaga the Giver warmly greets the hero or heroine, treats him deliciously, soars in the bathhouse, gives useful advice, presents a horse or rich gifts, for example, a magic ball leading to a wonderful goal, etc.
This old sorceress does not walk, but travels around the world in an iron mortar (that is, a scooter chariot), and when she walks, she forces the mortar to run faster, striking it with an iron club or pestle. And so that, for reasons known to her, no traces are visible, they are swept behind her by special ones, attached to the mortar with a broom and broom. She is served by frogs, black cats, including Cat Bayun, crows and snakes: all creatures in which both threat and wisdom coexist
Koschey the Immortal (Kashchei)
One of the well-known Old Slavonic negative characters, usually represented as a thin, skeletal old man with a repulsive appearance. Aggressive, vengeful, greedy and stingy. It is difficult to say whether he was a personification of the external enemies of the Slavs, an evil spirit, a powerful wizard, or a unique variety of undead.
It is undeniable that Koschey possessed very strong magic, avoided people and often engaged in the favorite activity of all villains in the world - kidnapping girls.
Dragon
Serpent Gorynych - in Russian epics and fairy tales, a representative of the evil principle, a dragon with 3, 6, 9 or 12 heads. Associated with fire and water, flies across the sky, but at the same time correlates with the bottom - with a river, a hole, a cave, where he has hidden wealth, a kidnapped princess
Indrik is a beast
Indrik the Beast - in Russian legends “the father of all animals”, a character in the Dove Book. Indrik is a distorted name of the god Indra (the variants “foreigner”, “inrok” can cause an association with a unicorn, but INDRIK is described with two, not one horn). INDRIK was attributed the properties of other fantastic images of the medieval book tradition - the king of the waters, the opponents of the snake and crocodile - “onudr” (otter) and ichneumon, the fabulous fish “endrop”.
According to Russian folklore, Indrik is an underground beast, “walks through the underground like the sun in the sky”; he is endowed with the traits of the owner of the water element, sources and treasures. I. acts as an opponent of the serpent.
Alkonost
Alkonost is a wonderful bird, a resident of Iria - the Slavic paradise.
Her face is feminine, her body is birdlike, and her voice is sweet, like love itself. Hearing Alkonost's singing with delight can forget everything in the world, but there is no harm from her to people, unlike her friend the bird Sirin. Alkonost lays eggs “at the edge of the sea”, but does not hatch them, but immerses them in the depths of the sea. At this time, the weather remains calm for seven days until the chicks hatch.
Iriy, irye, vyriy, vyrey - a mythical country located on the warm sea in the west or southwest of the earth, where birds and snakes winter.
Gamayun
Bird Gamayun - messenger Slavic gods, their herald. She sings divine hymns to people and proclaims the future to those who agree to listen to the secret.
In the ancient “Book, verb Kosmography,” the map depicts a round plain of earth, washed on all sides by a river-ocean. On the eastern side is marked “the island of Macarius, the first under the very east of the sun, near the blessed paradise; That’s why it’s so popular that the birds of paradise Gamayun and Phoenix fly into this island and smell wonderful.” When Gamayun flies, a deadly storm emanates from the solar east.
Gamayun knows everything in the world about the origin of earth and sky, gods and heroes, people and monsters, animals and birds. According to ancient belief, the cry of the bird Gamayun foretells happiness.
A. Remizov. Gamayun
One hunter tracked down a strange bird with the head of a beautiful maiden on the shore of a lake. She sat on a branch and held a scroll with writing in her claws. It read: “You will go through the whole world by untruth, but you will not turn back!”
The hunter crept closer and was about to pull the bowstring when the bird maiden turned her head and said:
How dare you, pathetic mortal, raise weapons against me, the prophetic bird Gamayun!
She looked into the hunter's eyes, and he immediately fell asleep. And in a dream he dreamed that he saved two sisters - Truth and Untruth - from an angry boar. When asked what he wanted as a reward, the hunter answered:
I want to see the whole wide world. From edge to edge.
“This is impossible,” said Pravda. - The light is immense. In foreign lands, sooner or later you will be killed or enslaved. Your wish is impossible.
“It’s possible,” her sister objected. - But for this you must become my slave. And henceforth live a lie: lie, deceive, deceive.
The hunter agreed. Many years later. Having seen the whole world, he returned to his native land. But no one recognized him or recognized him: it turns out that his entire native village fell into the open ground, and in this place a deep lake appeared.
The hunter walked for a long time along the shore of this lake, grieving over his losses. And suddenly I noticed on a branch that same scroll with ancient writings. It read: “You will go through the whole world by untruth, but you will not turn back!”
This is how the prophecy of the things of the bird Gamayun came true.
Sirin
Sirin is one of the birds of paradise, even its very name is consonant with the name of paradise: Iriy.
However, these are by no means the bright Alkonost and Gamayun.
Sirin is a dark bird, a dark force, a messenger of the ruler of the underworld. From head to waist Sirin is a woman of incomparable beauty, and from the waist she is a bird. Whoever listens to her voice forgets about everything in the world, but is soon doomed to troubles and misfortunes, or even dies, and there is no strength to force him not to listen to Sirin’s voice. And this voice is true bliss!
Firebird
Firebird - in Slavic mythology, a fiery bird the size of a peacock. Her feathers glow blue, and her armpits glow crimson. author of the encyclopedia Alexandrova Anastasia
You can easily get burned on its plumage. The fallen feather retains the properties of the Firebird plumage for a long time. It glows and gives warmth. And when the feather goes out, it turns into gold. The Firebird guards a fern flower.
