Long, Long Tales from the Russian North

Description

This volume of folktales from the Far North of European Russia features seventeen works by five narrators of the Russian tale, all recorded in the twentieth century. The tales, distinguished by their extraordinary length and by the manner in which they were commonly told, appear to have flourished only in the twentieth century and only in Russian Karelia. Although the tales are easily recognized as wondertales, or fairy tales, their treatment of the traditional matter is anything but usual. In these tales one encounters such topics as regicide, matricide, patricide, fratricide, premarital relations between the sexes and more, all related in the typical manner of the Russian folktale. The narrators were not educated beyond a rudimentary level. All were middle-aged or older, and all were men. Crew members of a fishing or hunting vessel plying the White Sea or lumberjacks or trappers in the vast northern forests, they frequently began the narration of a tale in an evening, then broke off at an appropriate moment and continued at a subsequent gathering. Such tales were thus told serially. Given their length, their thematic and narrative complexity, and their stylistic proficiency, one might even refer to them as orally delivered Russian short stories or novellas Contents Preface Technical Note Glossary Introduction Tales Narrated by M. M. Korguev 1. Dawn Lad 2. Elena the Beautiful 3. Island of Gold 4. Ivan Sosnovich 5. Shkip 6. Son of a Bitch 7. The Airplane (How an Airplane in a Room Carried Off the Tsar’s Son) 8. The Peasant’s Son and the Firebird 9. A Prophetic Dream Tales Narrated by P. Ia. Nikonov 10. The Enchanted Tsardom 11. (The Rejuvenating Apples) Tales Narrated by M. O. Dmitriev 12. About a Wife Svetlana 13. Bur-Khreber 14. Your Friend Liubodei Tales Narrated by O. I. Dmitriev 15. About a Mighty Warrior, Tsar Peregar, Who Reeked of Drink Tales Narrated by F. F. Kabrenov 16. About an Enchanted Mill 17. Ivan Tsarevich and Koshchei the Deathless Commentaries to Tales Bibliography A-T-U: SUS Numbers