Who wrote the Tale of Tsar Saltan? “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”: what inspired Pushkin? Folklore and literary sources of the plot

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is a Russian poet and prose writer of the first half of the 19th century. Author of “The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his glorious and mighty hero Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the beautiful Princess Swan.” The tale was written in 1831. Subsequently, it was filmed many times, and also staged on stage in the form of opera and ballet.

The tale is written in the poetic genre.

Pushkin created this fairy tale based on folk work“Knee-deep in gold, elbow-deep in silver,” which has an absolutely identical plot, but is completely different characters and a slightly different ending. The poet diluted and supplemented the plot at his own discretion. For example, the character Swan Princess is missing from the original folk tale. Pushkin created the image of the princess himself, using the images of Vasilisa the Wise and Sophia the Wise as prototypes. Also, a new character was the matchmaker Babarikha, who until that moment had not been mentioned in any fairy tales or works.

Fairy tale theme

The main characters of the work:

• Tsar Saltan;
• Prince Guidon - son of Saltan;
• the Swan Princess, whom Guidon saves from an attack by a black kite; she, in gratitude, helps Guidon with everything.

The fairy tale begins with a story about three sisters. They all dream of being the wives of Tsar Saltan and becoming queens. Saltan chooses the sister who dreams of giving birth to a hero for the “father-tsar”. Soon the queen gives birth to a baby, while the king is at war at this time. The older sisters are jealous of the happy sister and decide to upset her fate by sending the king a fraudulent letter, which says that “the queen gave birth to either a son or a daughter that night; not a mouse, not a frog, but an unknown animal.” The angry king orders the queen and the baby to be locked in a barrel and thrown into the sea.

This is how the story about Prince Guidon begins. During the time spent in the barrel, the prince grows up and becomes a strong and strong hero. Then they, together with the queen, are washed ashore on the island, where they meet the Swan Princess, who at first pretends to be a white swan and only at the end does Guidon learn that the Swan is the beautiful princess.

From the moment the prince and queen find themselves on the island, unimaginable, vivid, fabulous events begin to happen there. Tsar Saltan learns about them, who, after intrigues and intrigues on the part of the queen’s envious sisters, finally comes to that wonderful island and recognizes his son in Guidon, and his wife in the queen. A fairy tale with a happy ending, the king and queen forgive the sisters, after which a feast is described for the whole world.

“What a delight these fairy tales are! - Pushkin exclaimed - “Everyone is a poem.” And he not only exclaimed, but also wrote an entire cycle, which we today call “Pushkin’s Fairy Tales.”

And one of the pearls not only of this cycle, but of Pushkin’s entire poetic heritage is “The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his glorious and mighty son Guidon Saltanovich, and of the beautiful Swan Princess.” Where did our inspiration come from? great poet, creating this work in which folklore motives intricately intertwined with his own author's imagination?

Plot

“The Tale of Tsar Saltan” was written by Pushkin in 1831. It is believed that he drew the plot from fairy tales told by his nanny Arina Rodionovna. Indeed, Arina Rodionova (exactly so, since the family called the nanny by her patronymic, Rodionovna) - a serf of the Hannibal family, came from the northern Russian lands, which preserved many ancient stories and names in their folklore. According to some reports, she was of Izhorian origin. But even if so, it is not too important, since she apparently felt Russian. It was the nanny’s speech, her fairy tales and jokes that became for Pushkin an inexhaustible well of Russian national poetry. It was she who told Alexander Sergeevich fairy tales“Knee-deep in gold, elbow-deep in silver”, “Singing tree, living water and the Talking Bird,” as well as “The Tale of the Three Princesses, Sisters.” The names here are given from collections of Russian fairy tales made by Afanasyev and Onchukov. And, of course, we don’t know what Arina Rodionovna called these stories. In these tales, Pushkin gleaned the main motifs of the future masterpiece: a conversation between three sisters overheard by the tsar, the birth of a wonderful baby, a slander of envious women, as a result of which the queen and her child are thrown into the water in a barrel, the wonderful wonders of a distant sea island, 30 knights guarding this island and etc. However, Pushkin’s sources are not limited to Russian folklore alone. The story of a slandered mother and wonderful children is very popular and is found in fairy tales all over the world. Often these motifs received literary treatment. Thus, Pushkin was, of course, familiar with the fairy tale of the French Baroness d'Aunois "The Princess of Belle-Etoile", which tells about a wonderful maiden with a star, as well as with the "Tale of the Lawyer" from "The Canterbury Tales", which talks about the slandered the emperor's daughter, sent in a boat to the will of the waves.

Names

There are few proper names in the fairy tale. These are Saltan, Gvidon, Princess Swan and matchmaker Babarikha. Pushkin simply calls the remaining characters a queen, a weaver, a cook, etc. What is the origin of the names?

Saltan is, obviously, the popular “Tsar Sultan”, a character well known to the Russian people since the times of endless wars with the Turks. Everyone knew that somewhere far away there was a powerful kingdom ruled by “Tsar Saltan.”

Guidon is a name borrowed from the popular print cycle “About Beauvais the Prince,” which is a reworking of the European chivalric novel. Guidon in this cycle is the name of Bova's father. Apparently, Guidon is a derivative of the Italian name Guido. Experts see in this pair “Saltan - Guidon” an opposition “East - West”.

The Swan Princess is entirely a child of Pushkin's author's imagination. In none of the versions of the fairy tales about the slandered wife and her wonderful child is there a word about a beautiful werewolf maiden. Apparently, the image of the Swan Princess was born under the influence of such characters as Vasilisa the Wise or Sophia the Wise and the French princess Belle Etoile.

Baba Babarikha. This character was taken by the poet, probably from Russian conspiracies, in which there is a certain Babarikha, “who sits on a stone on the blue sea, holds a hardened frying pan to burn and scorch ailments.”

Geography

“The Kingdom of the Glorious Saltan” does not have any geographical reference. But the island on which the queen and prince Gvidon find themselves has a name - Buyan. And regarding its origin, experts have several versions.

Firstly, Buyan Island has common features with a wonderful kingdom located somewhere overseas, which is found in the folklore of almost all European peoples.

Secondly, Buyan Island is sometimes associated with the Solovetsky Islands. The fact is that the famous Solovetsky Monastery did not appear on the island overnight, of course, but rather quickly. And, according to researchers, it became the cause of considerable surprise for sailors. They swam and swam past a deserted island, and suddenly they saw on it “ New town with a palace, with golden-domed churches, with towers and gardens.”

And finally, the most popular version connects the folklore island of Buyan with the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. There, on Rügen, on Cape Arkona, in ancient times there was a sanctuary of the Slavic pagan deity Sventovit (Svyatovit). Rügen was inhabited by Slavs, and this skeleton was probably an important spiritual, sacred center of the Slavic world. There were also chalk stones in abundance on Rügen, hence, apparently, the image of the Alatyr stone in folk beliefs. Many conspiracies begin with the words: “On the Okiyan sea, on the island of Buyan there is a white-flammable stone Alatyr...”. Pushkin, of course, heard from his nanny fairy tales and conspiracies in which Buyan Island was mentioned.

“The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his son, the glorious and mighty hero Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the beautiful Swan Princess” (shortened version of the title - "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" ) - a fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1831, and first published the following year in a collection of poems.

The tale is dedicated to the story of the marriage of Tsar Saltan and the birth of his son, Prince Guidon, who, thanks to the machinations of his aunts, ends up in desert island, meets the sorceress there - Princess Swan, with her help he becomes a powerful ruler and reunites with his father.

Plot

Talking among themselves, three sisters at a spinning wheel dream about what each of them would do if she suddenly became a queen. The first of them promises to arrange a feast for the whole world, the second promises to weave linens, and the third promises to give birth to a hero “for the father-king.” At this moment, Tsar Saltan himself enters the little room, who had previously overheard the sisters’ conversation under the window. He offered marriage to the third of them, and to the other two jobs as weavers and cooks in the palace.

When the king is fighting in distant lands, the queen gives birth to a son - Tsarevich Guidon. However, out of envy, the sisters write to him that she gave birth to an “unknown little animal” and, although the king orders him to wait until he returns, hiding behind a forged letter with an order, they throw the mother and newborn into the sea inside a barrel. The barrel is carried to a desert island, and Guidon emerges from it as an adult young man. To feed his mother, he makes a bow and arrow and goes to the sea to hunt. There he saves a white swan from a kite, and she promises to thank him. A city appears on an empty island, and Guidon becomes its ruler. (lines 1-222).

Merchants sail past the island. Upon arrival in Saltan's kingdom, they tell him about the wonderful city and invite him on behalf of Prince Guidon to visit. The prince himself, having turned (with the help of a swan) into a mosquito, sails with the merchants to his father and listens to this conversation. But one of the envious sisters, the cook, tells Saltan about a new wonder of the world: a singing squirrel that lives under a spruce tree and gnaws nuts with emeralds and golden shells. Having heard about the new miracle, the king refuses to go to Guidon. For this, the mosquito stings the cook in the right eye. Guidon tells the swans about the squirrel, and she moves it to his city. The prince builds a crystal house for the squirrel.

The next time, the merchants tell Saltan about the squirrel and convey a new invitation from Guidon. The prince, in the form of a fly, listens to this conversation. The Weaver tells about 33 heroes emerging from the sea, led by uncle Chernomor. Saltan, having heard about the new miracle, again refuses the trip, for which the fly stings the weaver in the left eye. Prince Guidon tells the swans about 33 heroes, and they appear on the island.

And again the merchants tell Saltan about miracles and convey a new invitation. Guidon, in the form of a bumblebee, eavesdrops. The matchmaker, Babarikha, talks about a princess who eclipses “the light of God during the day,” with a moon under her braid and a burning star in her forehead. Saltan, having heard about the new miracle, refuses the trip for the third time. For this, the bumblebee stings Babarikha on the nose, taking pity on her eyes. (lines 223-738).

After returning, Guidon tells the swans about the beautiful princess and says that he wants to marry her. She again fulfills Guidon’s wish, because the princess with the star on her forehead is herself. As a result, Tsar Saltan sets off on a journey to Buyan Island. Upon arrival, he recognizes his wife in the queen, and his son and daughter-in-law in the young prince and princess. To celebrate, he forgives his evil sisters and his in-laws. A merry feast is arranged for the whole world, and everyone lives happily and richly (lines 739-1004).

• Bilibin's illustrations

This is a short schematic entry, which is most likely a summary of a literary, probably Western European source (as evidenced by such details as “oracle”, “rook”, “storm”, declaration of war, etc.). It is difficult to understand this sketchy entry due to the confusion in the characters. (Azadovsky comments: “A king who dies childless is undoubtedly the king of the country to which the exiled queen and her son arrived; “The princess gives birth to a son” is a new wife; the second time “princess” is referred to as the king’s first wife, and “queen” - mother of the prince."

Chisinau entry

The king has no children. He listens to the three sisters: if I were a queen, I would [build a palace] every day, etc.... If I were a queen, I would start... The wedding is the next day. Envy of the first wife; war, king at war; [the princess gives birth to a son], messenger etc. The king dies childless. Oracle, storm, rook. They elect him king - he rules in glory - a ship is sailing - Saltan is talking about a new sovereign. Saltan wants to send ambassadors, the princess sends her trusted messenger, who slanders. The king declares war, the queen recognizes him from the tower

The following brief recording of the tale was made by Pushkin in 1824-1825, during his stay in Mikhailovskoye. This entry supposedly dates back to the nanny Arina Rodionovna and is among the entries known under the code name “ Fairy tales of Arina Rodionovna».

Abstract of 1824

“A certain king planned to get married, but did not find anyone to his liking. He once overheard a conversation between three sisters. The eldest boasted that she would feed the state with one grain, the second that she would clothe her with one piece of cloth, the third that she would give birth to 33 sons in the first year. The king married the youngest, and from the first night she conceived.

The king left to fight. His stepmother, jealous of her daughter-in-law, decided to destroy her. After three months, the queen successfully gave birth to 33 boys, and 34 were miraculously born - knee-deep silver legs, gold arms up to the elbows, a star on her forehead, a month in the veil; They sent to inform the king about this. The stepmother detained the messenger on the way, made him drunk, and replaced the letter, in which she wrote that the queen was not a mouse, not a frog - an unknown animal. The king was very saddened, but with the same messenger he ordered to wait for his arrival for permission. The stepmother again changed the order and wrote an order to prepare two barrels: one for 33 princes, and the other for the queen with her wonderful son - and throw them into the sea. And so it was done.

The queen and the prince swam for a long time in a tarred barrel, and finally the sea threw them onto the land. The son noticed this. “My mother, bless me so that the hoops fall apart and we come out into the light.” - “God bless you, child.” - The hoops burst, they went out onto the island. The son chose a place and, with the blessing of his mother, suddenly built a city and began to live and rule in it. A ship is passing by. The prince stopped the shipmen, examined their pass and, learning that they were going to Sultan Sultanovich, the Turkish sovereign, turned into a fly and flew after them. The stepmother wants to catch him, but he doesn’t give in. The shipbuilding guests tell the king about the new state and about the wonderful youth - silver legs and so on. “Oh,” says the king, “I’ll go and see this miracle.” “What a miracle,” says the stepmother, “what a miracle: there is an oak tree by the seaside Lukomoriya, and on that oak tree there are golden chains, and on those chains a cat walks: it goes up - it tells fairy tales, it goes down - it sings songs.” - The prince flew home and, with his mother’s blessing, moved a wonderful oak tree in front of the palace.

New ship. Same thing again. The Sultan has the same conversation. The king wants to go again. “What kind of miracle is this,” says the stepmother again, “this is what a miracle: beyond the sea there is a mountain, and on the mountain there are two hogs, the hogs are squabbling, and gold and silver are falling between them,” and so on. Third ship and so on. Also. “What a miracle, here’s a miracle: 30 youths emerge from the sea exactly equal in voice and hair, face and height, and they emerge from the sea for only one hour.”

The princess grieves about the rest of her children. The prince, with her blessing, undertakes to find them. “You, mother, pour your milk, you knead 30 flat cakes.” - He goes to the sea, the sea shook, and 30 young men came out and an old man with them. And the prince hid and left one flatbread, and one of them ate it. “Oh, brothers,” he says, “until now we didn’t know mother’s milk, but now we know.” - The old man drove them into the sea. The next day they went out again, and they all ate the cake, and they knew their brother. On the third day they left without the old man, and the prince brought all his brothers to his mother. The fourth ship. The same. The stepmother has nothing more to do. Tsar Sultan goes to the island, recognizes his wife and children and returns home with them, and the stepmother dies.”

Initially, in 1828, when writing a fairy tale, Pushkin may have wanted to alternate poetry with prose, but later abandoned this idea. The original edition of the beginning dates back to this year (14 lines of poetry and a prose continuation). (Although there is a version that the prose fragment is material for further work. As a result, the fairy tale is written in trochaic tetrameter with paired rhyme (see below).

Recorded in 1828

[Three maidens by the window]
Spinning late at night
If I were a queen
One girl says
Then there is only one for the whole people
I would weave canvases -
If I were a queen
Her sister says<трица>
That would be for the whole world
I have prepared a feast -
If I were a queen
The third girl said
I am for Father Tsar
I would give birth to a hero.

As soon as they had time to utter these words, the door [of the room] opened - and the king entered without a report - the king had the habit of walking around the city late and eavesdropping on the speeches of his subjects. With a pleasant smile, he approached his younger sister, took her hand and said: Be a queen and give me a prince; then turning to the eldest and middle, he said: you be a weaver at my court, and you a cook. With this word, without allowing them to come to their senses, the king whistled twice; the courtyard was filled with soldiers and courtiers and the silver carriage drove up to the very porch, the king sat in it with new queen, and brother-in-law<иц>ordered to be taken to the palace - they were put in carts and everyone galloped off.

The tale was completed in the summer-autumn of 1831, when Pushkin lived in Tsarskoye Selo at the dacha of A. Kitaeva. During this period, he was in constant communication with Zhukovsky, with whom he entered into competition, working on the same “Russian folk” material. Zhukovsky suggested that everyone write a poetic adaptation of a folk tale. He then worked on the tales of the Sleeping Princess and Tsar Berendey, and Pushkin composed “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Balda”.

Several manuscripts have survived. The fairy tale was rewritten (according to the note in the autograph "PBL" No. 27) on August 29, 1831. A draft revision of lines 725-728 was probably made in mid-September. And the clerk's copy of the tale was slightly revised by Pletnev and Pushkin after Nicholas I read it in September - December 1831.

Publication

The fairy tale was first published by Pushkin in the collection “Poems of A. Pushkin” (Part III, 1832, pp. 130-181).

Some changes, probably of a censorial nature, were introduced into the text of the first edition of 1832. They are sometimes restored in modern editions - from reading the clerk's copy with amendments by the author and Pletnev in the censored manuscript.

An interesting remark at the end of the 1st edition: “Correction. IN The Tale of Tsar Saltan and so on. instead of the word Okiyan mistakenly printed everywhere Ocean"(that is, during printing, the fabulousness of this okiyan was mistakenly eliminated).

There was no separate publication of this tale during his lifetime.

Characteristics of the text

Perhaps at first Pushkin wanted to alternate poetry and prose, but in the end the tale was written in trochaic tetrameter with paired rhyme: in those days, “imitations” of folk poetry were often written in this way.

As Pushkin scholars note, in this tale “he takes a new approach to the problem of poetic form for conveying “folk tales.” If “The Groom” (1825) was written in the form of a ballad verse, then “Saltan” was written in trochaic tetrameter with adjacent rhymes - alternating male and female; a size that has since become firmly established in literary practice for the transmission of works of this kind.”

The poem contains 996 lines and is divided typographically into 27 separate parts of unequal length (from 8 to 96 lines each).

The structure of the tale “is distinguished by its extreme genre saturation. “Tsar Saltan” is a doubly fairy tale, and this duality acts as the main structure-forming principle: two folklore plots are merged, two versions of one of these plots are combined, characters are doubled, functions are paired, parallel motivations are introduced, realities are duplicated. In “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” two fairy-tale plots that exist separately in folklore seem to be superimposed on each other: one is about an innocently persecuted wife, the other is about a maiden who contributes to the victory of her betrothed. Pushkin's fairy tale tells how Tsar Saltan lost and then found his wife and son, and how young Guidon met the swan princess, his betrothed. The result is not just a sum - each of the heroes became happy both “horizontally” (the king, despite the machinations of ill-wishers, finds his wife again, Prince Guidon finds his princess), and “vertically” (father and son find each other, the king and the queen finds a daughter-in-law). Joy multiplies with joy." The principle of doubling, used in constructing the plot as a whole, also applies to the construction of individual images - the actions of the heroes (for example, the messenger), mentions of the squirrel, etc.

Folklore and literary sources of the plot

The long title of the tale imitates the titles of popular popular narratives common in the 18th century, perhaps most notably “The Tale of the Brave, Glorious and Mighty Knight and Bogatyr Bove.”

“The Tale of Tsar Saltan” is a free adaptation of a folk tale “ "(see below), which is believed to have been written down by Pushkin in various options(see above). The poet did not follow any of them exactly; he freely changed and supplemented the plot, while maintaining folk character content. Bondi writes that Pushkin freed the fairy tale “from plot confusion (the result of damage to the text in oral transmission), from crude non-artistic details introduced by storytellers.” They also notice the influence of the fairy tale “ " (see below). The first Russian publications of both types of fairy tale plots used date back to the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The most interesting options are in the collections of E. N. Onchukov (“Northern Tales” No. 5) and M. Azadovsky (“Tales of the Verkhnelensky Territory”, No. 2). Some of the recorded texts reflect, in turn, the storytellers' familiarity with the text of Pushkin's fairy tale. The lubok text of this tale is also known, and the lubok “ The Tale of the Three Princesses and Sisters"was very popular already in early XIX century. There is no doubt that Pushkin read printed texts of folk and book fairy tales - a small collection of them was preserved in his library, and there is a mention that among them was the fairy tale “”, which has the same plot.

Bondi points out that Pushkin used the traditional theme in folk tales of the fate of a slandered wife and the successful resolution of this fate. The second theme introduced into the fairy tale by Pushkin himself is folk image an ideal, happy maritime state. In addition, “the theme of a baby wandering through the waves, in a basket, chest, box is one of the most widespread themes in folklore, including Russian. These wanderings are a metaphor for the “afterlife” wanderings of the setting sun across to the other world". Another researcher writes that the poet combines the motifs of fairy tales about a slandered wife (wonderful son) and about a wise (things) maiden. For structure and doubling of plots, see above.

As Pushkin scholars point out, the poet adheres very closely to the oral tradition, and only proper names (Saltan, Guidon) taken from other sources.

Legs up to the knees in gold, arms up to the elbows in silver

Russian folktale " Legs up to the knees in gold, arms up to the elbows in silver"recorded by Alexander Afanasyev in 5 versions. In general, versions of the plot about wonderful children on European languages there are many, there are also Indian, Turkish, African and recorded from American Indians. “Russian variants - 78, Ukrainian - 23, Belarusian - 30. The plot is often found in collections of fairy tales non-Slavic peoples USSR in variants close to the East Slavic ones." The fairy tale “” is similar to them.

4 entries of Afanasyev's fairy tale

In the first of these options, the sisters replace the first and second baby, who have a wonderful appearance (“the sun is in the forehead, and on the back of the head there is a month, on the sides there are stars”) with a kitten and a puppy, and only the third child ends up with the mother. Moreover, the queen’s eyes are gouged out, and her husband, whose name is Ivan Tsarevich, marries his older sister. The child also grows with amazing speed, but he performs miracles, including returning his mother’s sight, by saying “by pike command" The boy carries his brothers magically to the island, and they live wonderfully. Passers-by, poor elders, tell their father about wonderful young men, he gallops off to visit them, reunites with his family, and new wife(the treacherous sister) is rolled into a barrel and thrown into the sea.

In another version, the spouses are called Ivan Tsarevich and Martha the Princess (she is also the daughter of the king), she gives birth to three wonderful sons (“knee-deep in gold, elbow-deep in silver”), but the villain in the fairy tale is Baba Yaga, who pretends to be a midwife and replaces children with puppies, taking the boys to her place. The next time the queen gives birth to six sons at once, and manages to hide one from Baba Yaga. The husband throws the mother with the hidden baby into the sea in a barrel; on the wonderful island everything is arranged according to their wishes. The poor elders tell their father-prince about a wonderful island and a young man with golden legs, he wants to go to visit him. However, Baba Yaga says that she has many such youths living with her, there is no need to go for such a one. Having learned about this, the queen guesses that these are her sons, and younger son takes them from Baba Yaga's dungeon. Having heard from the beggars that nine wonderful young men now live on the island, the father goes there and the family is reunited.

In the third version, the heroine is the youngest daughter of King Dodon, Marya, who promises to give birth to sons (“knee-deep in silver, but the elbow in gold, a red sun in her forehead, a bright moon on the back of her head”). Twice she gives birth to three sons, her sister replaces them with puppies and throws them on a distant island. For the third time, the queen manages to hide the only boy, but she and her son are thrown into the sea in a barrel. The barrel lands on that very island and the mother is reunited with her sons. After this, the family goes to the father and tells how he was deceived.

In the fourth version, three babies born in a row (“knee-deep in silver, chest-deep in gold, the moon is bright on the forehead, stars are frequent on the sides”), with the help of a midwife, the sister turns into doves and releases them into an open field. The fourth child is born without any miraculous signs, and for this the king, whose name is Ivan the Prince, puts his wife and child in a barrel. They find themselves on an island, where wonderful objects (a purse, a flint, a flint, an ax and a club) help them build a city. Merchants passing by tell their father about the wonderful island, but his sister distracts him with the story that somewhere there is “a mill - it grinds itself, it blows itself and throws dust a hundred miles away, near the mill there is a golden pillar, a golden cage hangs on it, and it walks around to that pillar is a learned cat: he goes down and sings songs, he goes up and tells fairy tales.” Thanks to wonderful helpers, it appears on the island. The merchants tell their father about a new miracle, but his sister distracts him with the story that somewhere there is a “golden pine tree, birds of paradise sit on it and sing royal songs.” The prince, arriving in the form of a fly, stings his sister on the nose. Then the story repeats itself: the king is distracted by the story that somewhere there are “three dear brothers - knee-deep in silver, chest-deep in gold, a bright moon on the forehead, stars on the sides,” and the insidious sister-storyteller does not know that these are the older nephews she kidnapped. The prince in the form of a mosquito bites his aunt on the nose. He finds the brothers, takes them to his island, then the merchants tell the king about them, and eventually the family is reunited. (The version was written after the publication of Pushkin’s fairy tale and bears traces of its influence, and not vice versa).

Singing tree, living water and talking bird

Fairy tale " Singing tree, living water and talking bird"(Aarne-Thompson No. 707) was recorded by Afanasyev in two versions. “The motif of imprisoning the slandered royal wife in a chapel (imprisonment in a tower, walling up in a wall) has a correspondence in Western, and in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian versions. Just like the version of “Wonderful Children” that is especially characteristic of East Slavic folklore - “Knee-deep in gold...”, the version (variety) “The Singing Tree and the Talking Bird” developed on the basis of the East Slavic fairy-tale tradition, enriched with original details.”

2 entries by Afanasyev

In the first version, the king overhears the conversation of three sisters and marries the youngest. The sisters replace the queen's three consecutively born children (two boys and a girl) with puppies, and release them into a pond in a box. The husband makes the queen sit on the porch to beg, having changed his mind about executing her. The children are raised by the royal gardener. The brothers, growing up, go, provoked by a certain old woman, to look for a talking bird, a singing tree and living water for their sister, and die (“If blood appears on the knife, then I won’t be alive!”). The sister goes to look for them and revives them. They plant a wonderful tree in the garden, then the king comes to visit them, the family is reunited, including the queen.

In the second version, the “guilty” queen is imprisoned in a stone pillar, and the children (“two sons - arms up to the elbows in gold, legs up to the knees in silver, a moon in the back of the head, and a red sun in the forehead, and one daughter, who will smile - will fall pink flowers, and when he cries, it’s expensive pearls”) is brought up by the general. The brothers are looking for living water, dead water and a talking bird for their sister. Then everything happens the same as in the first version, with the exception that the king arrives at the house of his children to marry a girl, a famous beauty, and the talking bird tells him that this is his daughter.

The same tale was published in the collection of Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederic Crane (see The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird.

The Green Bird and the Princess of Belle Etoile

This story about the “slandered mother” and “wonderful children” is extremely common all over the world, and in similar to the two Russian versions described above.

The oldest recorded European texts are Italian. The tale dates back to 1550-1553 "Lovely green bird» ( "L'Augel Belverde") Straparola's collection “Pleasant Nights” (night IV, tale 3), which played a significant role in the dissemination of tales about wonderful children in Western Europe until the 18th century.

The Tale of Straparola

The king overhears a conversation between three sisters: one boasts of quenching the thirst of the entire court with one glass of wine, the other of weaving shirts for the entire court, the third of giving birth to three wonderful children (two boys and one girl with golden braids, a pearl necklace on her neck and a star on her forehead) . The king marries the youngest. In the absence of the king, she gives birth, but envious sisters replace the children with puppies. The king orders his wife to be imprisoned and the children thrown into the river. Abandoned children are rescued by a miller. Having matured, they find out that the miller is not their father, go to the capital, get three miracles - dancing water, a singing apple and a green bird-soothsayer. While searching for these objects, misadventures await them - turning into stones, etc., but their sister saves them. The green bird she captured later reveals the whole truth to the king.

Motives from the fairy tale Straparola are used in the courtly fairy tale of the collection "Tales of Fairies" ("Contes de fées") Baroness d'Aunois about the Princess Belle Etoile 1688 ( "Princess Beautiful Star"), Where the main character becomes a daughter with a wonderful star, and also in Carlo Gozzi’s play “ Green bird"(1765). In France, folk tales about this bird are known under names like "L'oiseau de vérité", "L'oiseau qui dit tout."

A translation was published in French in 1712 "A Thousand and One Nights", made by Gallan, which contained a similar tale "The story of two sisters who were jealous of the younger one" (« Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette"). At the same time, there is no such text in the Arabic original, although some Asian analogues have been found for it. Thanks to this French “translation”, the fairy tale about wonderful children was published many times and became well known in Europe.

The motif of imprisoning heroes in a barrel appears in another Straparola fairy tale - “ Pietro is a fool"(night III, tale 1), as well as in the same type " Peruonto" - one of the fairy tales " Pentameron"(1634) Giambattista Basile (Peruonto, I-3).

Pushkin, according to researchers, was undoubtedly aware of the tales of Baroness d’Aunois and “ Thousand and one nights", and the text of the prose entry of 1828 is very close to the last of them.

The Canterbury Tales

The story is also believed to be reminiscent of Part 2 "The Man of Law's Tale" from " The Canterbury Tales"(1387) by Chaucer. Pushkin could only know it in a French translation.

Constanza, the daughter of the Emperor of Rome, becomes the wife of the Syrian Sultan, who agrees to convert to Christianity for the sake of this marriage. At the wedding feast, the Sultan's mother kills the entire Roman embassy and her own son, as well as all the recently baptized courtiers. Constance is left alive, but is sent into an empty boat at the behest of the waves. As a result, her ship lands at a castle in Northumberland, which is run by a butler and his wife, who give her shelter. A certain knight burns with passion for Constanza, but since she refuses him, he kills the butler’s wife and puts a knife in Constanza’s hands. The owner of the castle, King Allah, administers justice, and when the knight swears his innocence, he is struck by God's wrath. Alla is baptized and marries the beautiful Constance, although his mother Donegilda is against it. When Constance gives birth to her son Mauritius, the mother-in-law drugs the messenger and replaces the letter, saying that the queen has given birth to a monster. The king orders them to wait until he returns, but the mother-in-law again drugs the messenger, and in a forged letter orders Constanza and the child to be placed in that same boat. The returning king investigates, tortures the messenger and executes the mother. The boat with Constance and the child, meanwhile, is found by a Roman senator who takes her to her homeland (and the senator’s wife is her aunt, but does not recognize her niece). Alla arrives in Rome to repent, the senator takes him to a feast with a young boy, whose resemblance strikes Alla. The couple find each other and reconcile, then Constanza reveals herself to her father, the Roman emperor. Moreover, all the miracles in the story are accomplished through prayer.

The borrowing of this plot directly from Chaucer was proven in the work of E. Anichkova. She writes that Pushkin wrote his fairy tale based on his acquaintance with the works of Russian and foreign folklore (Caucasian, Tatar), where there are many plots very similar to Chaucer’s story of the lawyer, but that, having read it even before his own work was completed , Pushkin allegedly “recognized in it the plot of his fairy tale and completed it, bringing it closer to the English version of the story about Constance.”

However, Anichkova’s work provoked negative criticism from M.K. Azadovsky and R.M. Volkov, who denied direct borrowing of the plot from Chaucer, but noted the similarity of certain passages of Pushkin’s fairy tale with him.

Character Sources

Saltan and Guidon

Pushkin adheres very closely to the oral tradition, and only proper names ( Saltan, Guidon) taken from other sources. The Tsar already appears in the preparatory records of 1822 and 1824 Saltan: there is a theory that this is the “Syrian Sultan” - the first husband of Chaucer’s heroine.

The name of another hero of Pushkin's fairy tale - Guidon- the author borrowed from the popular print series about Beauvais the Prince, which was a Russian interpretation of the French chivalric novel. Bova's father is called Gvidon there. In these same popular prints, Bova’s opponent, the father of the hero Lukaper, also appears - Saltan, Sometimes Saltan Saltanovich(as in the fairy tale recorded by Pushkin). Italian name"Guido" - cf. French guide - means “leader”, “leader”. “Pushkin could not help but pay attention to the meaning of this name, especially since in popular prints about Bova, as in French novel, the contrast between the “Western” Guidon and the “Eastern” Saltan is of significant importance.”

Swan Princess

By saving the girl, Pushkin enriched the above-described plot of a slandered mother and a wonderful son - this detail is not found in any folklore or author's versions of this tale.

Although in folk tales the story owes its happy ending to a bird - it is a magical and sometimes green talking bird, and not a werewolf sorceress. The Swan Princess - in full author's image. He “absorbed, on the one hand, the features of the Russian Vasilisa the Wise, and on the other, Sophia the Wise (the images, however, go back to the same archetype).” “The Swan Princess not only has the divine or magical wisdom of the organizer of the world (Proverbs 8-9), she also has ordinary worldly wisdom, an incredible motif for folklore.”

Pushkin could have taken the theme of “Swans” from the collection of Kirsha Danilov, well known to him - in the epic about the hero Potyk there are the lines:

And I saw a white swan,
Through the feather she was all gold,
And her head is covered with red gold
And seated with pitched pearls (...)
And just about to release the red-hot arrow -
The white swan will tell him,
Avdotyushka Likhovidevna:
“And you, Potok Mikhailo Ivanovich,
Don't shoot me, white swan,
I’ll be of use to you at some point.”
She went out onto a steep bank,
The soul turned into a red maiden

In her appearance, Pushkin conveyed some of the features of a wonderful boy from a fairy tale he wrote down (“the moon shines under the scythe, and a star is burning in his forehead”) or the heroine from the fairy tale of Baroness d’Aunois. In addition, he made her the sister of 33 sea heroes, who in the tale are the brothers of the hero (see below). Communication with sea ​​elements can also be seen in the fact that in Russian folk tales Vasilisa the Wise is the daughter of the sea king.

“The Maiden with a Golden Star in her Forehead” is a favorite image of Western European folklore, which is also found among the Brothers Grimm. The fact that there is some influence from a Western source is evidenced by the fact that in the draft Pushkin uses the word “sorceress” in relation to her.

Thirty-three heroes

33 heroes appear in the second summary of the folk tale, recorded by Pushkin, possibly from Arina Rodionovna. However, there they are the siblings of the main character, the prince, are kept under the supervision of a nameless man, and only after tasting their mother’s milk (mixed in bread) do they remember their kinship.

Babarikha

The weaver and the cook are present in many fairy tales of this typology, but Babarikha appears only in Pushkin. He took it from folklore: Babarikha is a pagan character in Russian conspiracies, who has some sunny traits. “Babarikha holds a “hot, red-hot frying pan,” which does not burn her body, does not take her.” Azadovsky points out that Pushkin took this name from the collection of Kirsha Danilov, well known to him, from a humorous song about a fool: “ You are a good woman, / Baba-Babarikha, / Mother Lukerya / Sister Chernava!”.

Her punishment was a bitten nose, because she turned up her nose and stuck it in someone else’s business. The weaver and the cook were crooked, “In the Russian language, the word “crooked” not only means one-eyed, but is also contrasted with the word “straight,” just as truth is crooked; this opposition is archetypal. If blindness in myth is a ghost of wisdom (Themis has a blindfold over her eyes so that she does not pay attention to the external, vain), good vision is a sign of intelligence, then one-eyedness is a sign of cunning and predation (one-eyed pirates, Cyclops, Dashing are also one-eyed).” .

It is unclear what exactly her relationship with Guidon is, although he regrets “the eyes of his grandmother.” Perhaps she is the mother of Tsar Saltan, then she is the matchmaker of the queen’s two sisters.

Squirrel

In the folk versions of the tale, the miracles that appear on the island are completely different. The motif of a squirrel gnawing golden nuts with emerald kernels is completely alien to Russian folklore; the source of its appearance is not clear.

In oral editions, there is usually a mention of a cat telling tales or singing songs: this detail is in Pushkin’s recording, but he used it for the “Prologue” to “

ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”

Fairytale opera ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov was written by him on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of A.S. Pushkin and, according to the composer himself, was one of his favorite musical works. He himself admitted in letters to friends that he was overcome by pride and admiration for his own creativity.

Brief summary of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "" and many interesting facts Read about this work on our page.

Summary of “Tales of Tsar Saltan”

The plot of the tale begins in the city of Tmutarakan. The king, passing under the windows of the hut, accidentally heard the conversation of three sisters and became very interested. Most of all, he liked the speech of his younger sister and her desire to give birth to a hero. He immediately invited the girls to live in the palace, and named the third sister his wife. But as often happens in fairy tales, the other two girls decided to take revenge out of envy. As soon as the tsar left for war, they wrote him a letter in which they reported that the empress had given birth to an “unknown little animal.” Of course, such unexpected news greatly upset the sovereign. Through the efforts of the sisters, young Militrisa and her newborn son Guidon were immediately imprisoned in a barrel and released into the open sea.

When the waves washed a large barrel to the shore of Buyan Island, the prisoners were finally able to be free. Guidon, who had noticeably matured, immediately made a bow and went in search of prey. Suddenly he heard the cry of the Swan Princess, who was being chased by the evil Kite. Guidon defeated the insidious villain, and in gratitude for this, Swan promised to repay the young man with good.

Early in the morning Militrisa and Guidon saw that thick fog dissipated and, as if by magic, the wonderful city of Ledenets appeared. The residents began to warmly welcome their dear guests and asked Guidon to reign in their wonderful city. However, the young man is not happy, because all this time he does not stop thinking about his father and is very sad, hoping to at least someday be able to see him. The Swan Princess promised to help him in this matter. Thanks to her magical power Guidon was able to turn into a bumblebee and went on a ship to Tmutarakan to meet Father Saltan. There, from rich merchants, he learned about unusual miracles: a squirrel singing songs, sea knights, and also a beautiful princess. Returning to Buyan Island, Guidon again turned to the Swan Princess for help. And in this case, she was able to help him by introducing him to the squirrel and the brave knights with Chernomor. When Guidon asked to help him find the beautiful princess, the Swan-bird revealed her main secret. It turned out that she is this beautiful princess! Now nothing could interfere with the happiness of the lovers, and Militris joyfully blessed them.

At this time, Saltan’s ship arrived on the island along with the king and his entire retinue. The long-awaited guests entered Guidon’s luxurious palace and became acquainted with unknown wonders. The surprised Saltan immediately asked to introduce him to the queen and, to his great joy, recognized in her his beloved wife Militrisa, and in Guidon his son, whom he no longer hoped to ever meet. The insidious traitorous sisters immediately began to beg for mercy, fearing that severe punishment awaited them, but Tsar Saltan forgave them.

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Interesting Facts

• When conductor V. Safonov received the score from the composer for review in order to perform " music pictures", then immediately sent him a telegram. In the message, he admitted that he had been reading this work all night, while admiring the genius of the author. (We are talking about the mastery of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration)
• It is noteworthy that in the opera the composer used a genuine lullaby, and he himself Rimsky-Korsakov admitted that it was once sung to him and his children.This is a lullaby for baby Guidon.
• Music critic Vasily Yastrebtsev called “Saltan” the Russian “Siegfried”.
• This performance continues the line that originates in the works “” and “ Sadko " This is the theme of the sea and marine images.

• The composer actively participated in the process of staging the opera and he managed to convince the director to exclude mechanical dolls on stage in the roles of the squirrel and bumblebee. As a result, these roles were assigned to children at the insistence of Rimsky-Korsakov.
• The legendary and popular "Flight of the Bumblebee" from the third act became business card both the composer himself and many virtuoso performers who happily perform it as an encore.
• Do you know that Rimsky-Korsakov for his operas uses fairy tales came up with his own special mode, which is called diminished? With the help of such new paint, the composer emphasized mysterious and fantastic images in his works.
• The author himself called his score a “guide to tricks” due to its unusual orchestration
• At the premiere show, the role of the Princess was performed by singer Nadezhda Zabela, the wife of artist Mikhail Vrubel, who designed the scenery for the play.

Popular numbers

Aria of the Swan Princess from Act II - listen

Three miracles (Squirrel, 33 heroes, Swan) - listen

Flight of the Bumblebee - listen

History of creation

The opera is based on “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A. Pushkin, the libretto was written by V. I. Belsky. It is noteworthy that it was this librettist who was the composer’s regular author after opera "Sadko" .

There is information that the maestro submitted the idea of ​​writing a fairy-tale opera based on this plot famous critic V. Stasov. Already in the winter of 1898 Rimsky-Korsakov actively began to develop the script, the next year he took up music. Thus, in the fall of 1899 the opera was written in full, and at the beginning of 1900 the score was completed. While working on the play, there was constant correspondence between the author and Belsky and they discussed everything important points concerning opera. Thus, Rimsky-Korsakov was forced to reject some of Belsky’s proposals, for example, the proposal to add realism to Guidon due to his desire to take his own life if he did not find the beautiful Princess anywhere. Belsky also proposed showing Guidon the child using exaggerated childish intonations. But Rimsky-Korsakov greeted some of the librettist’s ideas with enthusiasm - the planned dramatic plan, the emphasis on the appearance of a magical city on the stage. By the way, it was this scene that created a real sensation during the premiere, partly thanks to Vrubel, who designed the scenery.

It is noteworthy that the composer intended the opera to be as close as possible to the original source, but at the same time it contains a number of significant differences. Rimsky-Korsakov deliberately enhanced the beautiful image of the Swan Princess and maximized the satirical line in the images of Saltan, Babarikha and her sisters, ridiculing their vices. The performance is replete folk life, festive festivities and buffoons.

Productions

The opera premiered in Moscow in 1900 at the Mamontov Private Opera. The performance was very enthusiastically received by the public. Even the composer himself notes in his autobiographical book that “Saltan” was staged well. Vrubel designed the costumes and sets. The part of Militrisa was performed by E. Tsvetkova, the Swan by N. Zabela, and Saltan by Mutin. Conductor - M. Ippolitov-Ivanov.

After a successful premiere, the opera was brilliantly staged on the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1902, the audience of the St. Petersburg Conservatory was able to appreciate the composer’s work; in 1906, the premiere took place in Opera House Zimina.

It is curious that the play was staged on the main stages of the imperial theaters only in 1913 (Bolshoi) and 1915 ( Mariinskii Opera House). IN Soviet time theater scenes different cities delighted the public with a fairy-tale opera. In addition, the play was successfully staged in Barcelona, ​​Brussels, Milan, Sofia and Paris and many other European cities.

Among modern productions, it is worth noting the 1997 performance staged on the stage of the Moscow Musical Theater. The director this time was A. Titel. The opera was also successfully staged at the Mariinsky Theater (2005), the Moscow Children's Theater musical theater them. Natalia Sats and the Rostov Musical Theater (2008). An interesting version was presented to the public in November 2016 at the Samara Musical Theater. Modern technical means were actively used in this performance. Viewers were able to see the bright pictures of the opera - the appearance of a magical city, the fairy-tale Swan Princess, the scene of the Kite's attack - in 3D format.

The opera "" is, first of all, a fairy tale, a real, kind one, where good necessarily defeats evil. This work is perfect for family viewing and will appeal to everyone without exception. This beautiful performance has everything: a wedding, love, a feast for the whole world and extraordinarily beautiful, heartfelt, colorful, bright, colorful music. Rimsky-Korsakov . It is no coincidence that the composer himself valued this work very highly. We invite you to appreciate and watch right now the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” in its original production and excellent quality.

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”

Who among us in childhood did not read the amazing melodious fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin. One of them - . The tale was written in 1831 and a year later appeared in the public press.

In a letter to his brother in November 1824, Pushkin wrote:

“...In the evening I listen to fairy tales - and thereby compensate for the shortcomings of my damned upbringing. What a delight these tales are! Each one is a poem!”

Analyzing “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, we see that it was written in the genre literary fairy tale, since it has an author. TO genre features fairy tales include the following.

1. The presence of magic
2. Adventures of heroes (swimming in a barrel, transformations, flying overseas to the kingdom of Saltan);
3. Outside help. First, Prince Guidon helps the princess, and then Princess Swan helps him.
4. The episodes are repeated 3 times. Triplicity is generally characteristic of Russian fairy tales;
5. Victory of good over evil.

The fairy tale begins with three young girls sitting in a small room, spinning and dreaming, as all girls dream, of a handsome prince. In their dreams, the girls expressed their abilities. But it so happened that the king overheard their conversation. Seeing the youngest, who said that she would bear him a son, he chose her as his wife, and took the other two sisters to the palace. One as a weaver, and the other as a cook. This part of the narrative in the composition serves as the beginning.

Those girls who did not become the king's wives were terribly jealous of their sister and decided to slander her. After the wedding, the king immediately left for war. And the young queen was bearing a prince. And when the time came for the birth of the baby, the sisters and another of their accomplices, the matchmaker Babarikha, slandered the young queen, writing to him that she had given birth to an “unknown little animal.” They changed the letters twice. And as a result, the boyars in the palace received an order, written by envious accomplices, to throw the queen and the baby into the sea. This part of the tale is the basis of the conflict, signifying evil.

What follows is the magic. Fate looked after the young queen. By the power of their mother's prayer they were thrown onto the island. The baby grew by leaps and bounds and finally, he was able to squeeze the bottom out of the barrel in which they were thrown.

While searching for game, he witnessed a kite attacking a white swan. He shot the kite and thereby freed Swan from death. She told him that the prince had killed the sorcerer and promised to thank him.

The swan kept her word. She gave him a small principality with monasteries, churches, and subordinates, an amazing squirrel that gnawed nuts with golden shells and emerald kernels, and forced her brothers to serve the prince.

And then she herself married Prince Guidon.

The envious sisters hoped, each in the depths of their souls, that the king would pay attention to one of them, and therefore interfered with the desire of Tsar Saltan to visit the miracle island. But when the merchants told about the beautiful Swan Princess, and even more so, conveyed the invitation of Prince Guidon and the reproach that the king did not keep his word, he decided not to listen to anyone anymore and ordered the ships to be equipped to set off on a journey. On the amazing island he met his wife, the queen, and his son. To celebrate, he forgave the envious women, sending them home. So good defeated evil, and justice triumphed.

What the work has in common with the composition of a fairy tale is the threefold repetition of the plot, which is characteristic of folk tales. Pushkin used pictorial art in creating his work. vernacular. And I tried to avoid borrowing. He was proud that he used only one borrowed word in his work - fleet.

The work contains fairy-tale heroes(The Swan Princess, Chernomor, a sorcerer hiding under the guise of a kite). From folk tradition The name of the island - Buyan - was borrowed. The language of the poems is full of epithets (in blue, bitter, tight onion, green).