Usually in fairy tales the hare is weak, helpless and weak-willed. The hare is an unsolved character of world folklore

Is it possible to talk about a hare as a cowardly animal?

Cowardice is, rather, human trait character. But animal psychology is a relatively young science, and people tend to attribute to animals what is characteristic of themselves.

How does a hare behave in natural conditions? In order not to get caught in the teeth of a predator, the hare hides, and if the predator does find it, it suddenly takes off and runs. A person who hides from danger may be considered cowardly. An alternative behavior is to meet the danger face to face, “in combat.” These stereotypes can also be discussed and their history can be found out.

But from the point of view of nature, the behavior of a hare is extremely rational. He knows how to camouflage himself well - that's why he hides. And so, by the way, it ensures the survival of its offspring. He runs very fast over short distances, so it makes sense for him to run for his life. Many herbivores behave this way. For example, fallow deer, deer. Remember the cycle of fairy tales by Felix Salten about the fawn Bambi. There, hares and deer are on good terms. They consider each other “their own”. Of course, this is a fairy tale, and it ideologizes these relationships: they say, deer and hares are “friends” because neither one nor the other kills anyone.

But in general, a real hare is not such a small and weak animal. The length of his body is 60-70 cm. And if he stands on his hind legs, then his “height” can reach 80 cm. This does not take into account the length of his ears. He has on the front and hind legs has claws, and in some cases it is capable of repelling a predator. If the hare is standing, it will kick with its front paws. If he falls over on his back, he will kick with his hind legs, which are much stronger than his front ones. He can even rip open a fox's belly. Therefore, the fox does not always decide to attack the hare.

The common idea that a hare “constantly trembles with fear” is associated with the peculiarities of its sense of smell. Hares have a very acute sense of smell, and they constantly sniff the air to see if a predator has appeared nearby, or if there is suitable food nearby. When a hare sniffs, he moves his nose very quickly, and this also causes his upper lip to move. From the outside it may look like the hare is trembling.

Another “popular” misconception concerns hare “squint.” A hare's eyes are located not like a person's, but on opposite sides of the head. And the hare looks differently: a person has a field of vision different eyes intersect, and in the brain there is single image. But a hare’s fields of vision do not intersect. Each eye “sees its own thing.” Horses, sheep, cows, goats, mice, squirrels and many other animals view the world in exactly the same way. They too could be considered “oblique”. In fact, they often say about a horse that it “crosses its eye.”

In general, the hare, like any other animal, is an incredibly interesting creature. Well, the fact that, while reading fairy tales, children sympathize with the hare and feel sorry for him, is good. Perhaps someday they will see a living hare and be very surprised - it will be so different from the fairy-tale hare. But it is useful to be surprised.

The hare in Russian folk tales represents positive hero, but is depicted in two ways. In some stories, this is a victim, a weak and helpless hero who is afraid of everything. In others, he appears as a clever cunning man who, despite fear, is capable of brave deeds.

The hare in Russian folk tales

Why is the hare credited with cowardice and agility in fairy tales?

The hare in nature eats cabbage, tree bark and root vegetables. He is absolutely harmless as long as nothing threatens him. But for predatory animals it is a real delicacy, so the hare once again resorts to camouflage and running. From the fact that its basic defensive reactions- to hide and run away, he was considered cowardly. But people’s opinion dissipated over time when they saw how the animal could fend for itself in an inevitable fight with a predator. When confronted, it can hit the attacker hard with its hind legs and even rip open the attacker's belly with its strong nails. Most likely, for this reason, the image of the hare in fairy tales changed over time when the stereotypes faded away.

He was endowed with cunning and dexterity by hunters who, from their own experience of catching an animal, know how skillfully it can confuse its tracks and hide.

Nickname of a hare in fairy tales

The hare in fairy tales is always called with tenderness, in a diminutive form - Bunny, Bunny, Bunny, focusing on the cuteness and harmlessness of the character. The only rougher nickname that can be found in folk narratives is Oblique. There are several explanations for its occurrence:

• Firstly, due to the peculiarities of the location of the eyes and its range of vision. Because of this, he always turns his head to look at the person he meets with his peripheral vision.
• Secondly, the hare constantly confuses its tracks, moving in different directions so as not to be tracked by predators. This is a deliberate maneuver, not just a failure to move straight.

False nickname Little Bunny is also quite easy to explain. His trembling is associated with constant muscle tension. This, as well as constant sniffing, is necessary to quickly react to danger. That is, in essence, he is not afraid, he is simply in constant readiness. And, nevertheless, if he senses danger, he will immediately run away. Which in human behavior would be considered cowardice.

But running is truly one of the strengths animal, especially at short distances. Therefore, it is not for nothing that in fairy tales they gave him another nickname - Runner Bunny.

The image of a hare in folk tales

Some fairy tales about hares suggest a story about the animal. They explain why his lip is split and his fur coat changes (For example, “Snow and the Hare”). And others show human relationships in this image, where by animal they mean a kind, but cowardly and defenseless person.

• "Little Bunny"- demonstrates the cowardice, fight against fear and savvy of this animal;
• "Hare and Bear"- shows the character’s kindness, his altruism, ability to keep his word, responsibility. Here they are positive traits, which prevail over fearfulness.
• "Bragging Hare"- in this fairy tale, the hero’s courage is manifested when necessary to help others.
• "The Fox and the Hare"- the traditional role of the victim, the defenseless poor fellow, whose kindness is taken advantage of by negative characters.

Fairy tales in which the hare is cunning and brave are mostly authored. But the work was in the spirit to the common people and became part of folklore.

About the fairy tale

Russian folk tale "The Hare"

When there was no Internet, and cartoons were shown in certain time, parents taught their children to read Russian folk tales. Thanks to them, mothers and fathers developed their children’s imagination, told them “what is bad and what is good,” tried to reveal hidden meaning, which is always present in the content of any Russian book.

Nowadays, there are very few families who introduce their children to Russians folk tales. But for those who are still familiar with them, we’ll tell you a little about the traditions of Russian folk tales.

Traditions associated with Russian folk tales

Reading a simple fairy tale“Turnip” and you don’t think about the fact that it contains a rich meaning! It turns out that at that time in Rus', it was the turnip that was the main food product. And in order for the fruit to bear fruit, it had to be planted only by a man who performed a special ceremony - he had to go out to the arable land only at moonlit night, without pants and shoes, only in one undershirt. It was believed that this was how a marriage alliance with the land was concluded.

Now let’s take the fairy tale “Zayushkina’s Hut”, where only the cockerel was able to drive the fox out of the hare’s house. Why? Yes, because they used to think that it was roosters who could drive away evil spirits and various misfortunes. For this reason, amulets were installed on the roofs of Russian huts.

What does Russian teach us? folk tale“Hare”, the description of which is below?

Description of the tale

Once upon a time there lived a man who had neither family nor money. And then one day he went for a walk across the field, where he saw a hare under a bush. Instead of catching him and taking him home, he began to dream:

“Now I’ll bring the new pet home, feed it, and then sell it. With the money I earn I will buy a pig, which will help me earn double more money- She will bring me twelve piglets. These pigs will grow up and bring me even more money. I will chop all the pigs, sell their meat and with the money I earn I can get a wife and children - Vanka and Vaska. The sons will help with the housework, and I will command them.”

The man became so lost in dreams that he screamed loudly about his sons. The hare got scared and ran away. And the man was left without a farm, a home and a new family.

This fairy tale says that it is not harmful to dream, but in order to make your desires come true, you need to do something about it. The man had to immediately grab the hare and carry it home. Then he might have been able to get rich. And so, he just chatted in vain and did nothing. If such a situation happens to you, then don’t dream, but get down to business right away.

Read the Russian folk tale “The Hare” online for free and without registration.

The poor man was walking along clean field, saw a hare under a bush, was delighted and said:

- That’s when I’ll live in a house! I’ll take this hare, kill it with a whip and sell it for four altyns. With that money I will buy a pig. She will bring me twelve little pigs. The piglets will grow up and produce twelve more. I'll kill everyone, I'll save up a barn of meat. I’ll sell the meat, and with the money I’ll start a house and get married myself. My wife will give birth to two sons for me: Vaska and Vanka. The children will start plowing the arable land, and I will sit under the window and restore order: “Hey you guys, I’ll shout, Vaska and Vanka! Don’t push people too hard at work, you didn’t live in poverty yourself!” The man shouted so loudly that the hare got scared and ran away, and the house with all its wealth, wife and children disappeared.

Hare - in many ways unsolved character world folklore. In Russian fairy tales, he is often a defenseless character who has a rather modest mythological rank. (Although, beliefs with a negative sign remained: it was believed that a hare crossing the road like a black cat signifies trouble.)

This is not the case in the legends of other peoples, where the hare sometimes acts as a cosmos-creating creature. In the beliefs of the North American Iroquois, he creates a world out of water; in the legends of another Indian tribe - the Winnebago - he competes with the sun and catches it in a snare. Among Eurasian peoples, on the contrary, the hare is associated with the moon.

*** The symbolism of the sun and moon has turned into the mythologies of “gold” and “silver” in world folklore. In the popular worldview, they, as a rule, were coupled, coexisting as part of some integral unity. Thus, numerous cosmic heroes and heroines of Russian fairy tales, whose legs are “knee-deep in gold, arms in silver up to the elbow,” symbolize precisely such symbolized solar and lunar symbolism. Perhaps, in the distant Hyperborean past, the bearers of these qualities were ordinary solar-lunar deities.

The pagan Lithuanians even had a hare god until the introduction of Christianity, which is mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle. We also cannot discount the fact that the hare is the only character in oral folk art to which the name of the Russian people itself was transferred: we're talking about about the brown hare.

In Russian folklore image The hare also retained vague memories of even more distant times - the Hyperborean. Thus, the innocent children's rhyme, which many probably know, originally contained a vital ideological meaning.

- The gray [or white] hare, where did it run?

- Into the green forest...

- What were you doing there?

- Lyko tore...

- Where did you put it?

- Under the deck...

- Who stole it?

- Rodion *...

- Get out!...

*** Rodion is both an understandable and an incomprehensible name. Although it is included in the Christian calendar, its origin is clearly non-Christian and pre-Christian. In the Slavic pagan pantheon there was both the god Rod and the goddesses of the woman in labor - the patroness of women in labor and newborn babies. An attempt to derive Russian from the Greek rodon - “rose” is acceptable only if a single lexical and semantic source of both concepts is recognized.

However, in more archaic versions of this children's rhyme, recorded by folklorists back in the 19th century, it is often not “gray hare”, but “Hare-Moon”! What does this mean? Here's what: this mythology, identifying the hare and the month (moon), is contained in the most ancient layers of culture different nations peace. According to archaic cosmogonic ideas, spots on the moon represent a hare, which God revived after self-immolation. According to the Vedic-Hindu tradition, this primal god and ruler of the Vedic pantheon is Indra. Observing the laws of hospitality, the hare, in order to feed the divine thunderer who came to him, prepared a roast from himself. God Indra appreciated the act of self-sacrifice and placed the hare on the lunar disk. That’s why one of the names of the moon in Sanskrit is “shashanka,” that is, “having the sign of a hare.”

The same legends existed in Mongolia and China. Thus, Chinese Taoists said that lunar spots are “a hare that tramples a potion in a mortar to prepare a drink of immortality, and whoever wants to taste the divine drink can go to the moon even now.”

The belief about the “moon” hare was so widespread in China that it became very popular pictorial subject. Even on the robes of high dignitaries and Bogdykhans, a month with a hare sitting under a tree was embroidered in silk.

Moreover, the tree was nothing more than the universal “tree of life”, and symbolized longevity and immortality. This ancient pictorial tradition has been preserved to this day: the scene of preparing the drink of the gods and the lunar hare is depicted on special bread or gingerbread cookies that are baked during the annual lunar holidays (baked products are called “lunniki”). By the way, the culture of Russian and Chinese gingerbread (even to the creation of carved gingerbread boards), apparently, has common source origin.

Buddhism adopted and developed the most ancient Vedic and Taoist beliefs. The legend of the self-immolation of the hare has acquired additional details. A Buddhist parable tells how one day the Lord of the Sky himself came to visit a fox, a monkey and a hare who lived together, disguised as an old man, and asked to feed him. The fox quickly caught a fish, the monkey picked sweet fruits from the tree, and only the hare could not find anything. That's when he threw himself into the oven so that the old man could eat him fried. The old man (and it turned out to be Buddha himself in the form of one of his many incarnations!), touched by such self-sacrifice, took the hare out of the oven and placed it on the moon so that it would forever serve as a symbol of hospitality and mercy.

So this is where it comes from - a Russian counting rhyme with the Moon Hare...

The cosmic functions of the hare and its former power are also visible in the ancient Indo-Aryan collection of fables and parables, known under the Sanskrit name “Panchatantra” (literally “Pentateuch”; almost like in the Old Testament, only about something completely different).

For example, throughout the world and among different nations there is a fairy tale-parable about the Lion, whom the wiser Hare forced to jump into a well in order to deal with his own reflection in the water. Although the earliest surviving written version of the famous literary monument applies no earlier than III century AD*, it is based, without a doubt, on oral histories, which existed in the Aryan environment for many millennia, starting from the Hyperborean era, when the Aryans still lived in the North.

*** "Panchatantra" was translated first into Persian, and then into Arabic called "Kalila and Dimna" (named after the jackals acting in the book). Literal translation the names of these jackals - Straightforward and Evil - served as the basis for subsequent translations into other languages ​​and, in particular, into Greek. Byzantine lists ancient monument under the title "Stephanit and Ikhnilat" received circulation throughout the Orthodox world, including ancient Russian translations, thanks to which the book became one of the favorite readings of our ancestors. The fables of the ancient Aryans were translated into European languages ​​indirectly - through Hebrew translation from Arabic. Many plots of the “Panchatantra” have inspired poets and fabulists over the centuries, and one of them has turned almost into a Russian folk tale: this is the parable about the frog traveler, processed by Vsevolod Garshin (with the difference, however, that in the ancient Indian source it does not work a frog, and a turtle).

This naturally suggests some assumptions and analogies. They specifically relate to the “moon hare” - a mythology included as a fairy tale in the Panchatantra.

The ancient Indian parable about the “moon hare” is quite long. Its essence lies in the fact that the cunning hare Vijaya (which means Winner in Sanskrit) decided to teach a lesson to the elephants who went to the Moon Lake to drink and constantly trampled many hares and destroyed their homes. Vijaya went to the King of the Elephants and announced that he had been sent by the Moon itself and was its authorized representative. The night luminary is offended by the behavior of the elephants and tells them to leave the Moon Lake alone. To prove his omnipotence, the hare asked the King of Elephants to move his trunk along the surface of the lake.

As a result, the water in the lake stirred, the reflected disk of the moon moved back and forth in the disturbed water, and instead of one reflection of the moon, at least a thousand appeared in the waves. The king of the elephants was seriously frightened. As it is further narrated in the Panchatantra:

“And turning to him [the hare], the King of Elephants, with drooping ears and head bowed to the ground, propitiated the blessed Moon with bows and then again said to Vijaya: - “Dear! Fulfill my request and always incline the blessed Moon to my mercy, and I I won't come here again."

One wonders whether such a tale could have appeared long ago before that Why did the Indo-Aryans, in their long and arduous advance from North to South, finally not reach the Hindustan Peninsula (this happened no earlier than the 3rd millennium BC), and finally not settle here? After all, elephants have never been found in the North! How to say - there were no elephants, but there were mammoths! Weren't they the ones that were discussed in the most ancient and original version of the fairy tale?

By the way, in world folklore, many stories of a sexual nature are associated with the hare (which in itself indicates the antiquity of such texts or ritual traditions, for with the adoption of Christianity all pagan freethinking was mercilessly eradicated and cruelly punished). Russian oral is no exception. folk art. This is evidenced by such a girl’s song, in which the totemic hare is called to intercourse:

Zainka, gray one,

Don't walk in the hallway

Don't stomp your foot.

I'll lie with you...

And here is the result:

- Zayushka, who did you sleep with and spend the night with?

- I was sleeping, I was sleeping, my sir,

I slept, I slept, my heart [sic!]

Katyukha has it on her hand,

On Maryukha's breasts,

And Dunka has a widow - all over her stomach...

In Slavic ritual folklore Many wedding and post-wedding songs about the hare are associated with the loss of virginity by the bride. Folklorists have scrupulously collected, systematized and generalized quite a variety of “hare” erotic themes and symbols. Particularly popular in Rus' was the obscene tale, written down in many versions, about the participation of a hare (though mostly as a passive observer) in a mating between a bear and a woman. In some areas, it was generally believed that a stork brings newborn babies in the summer, and a hare in the winter.

In this regard, one cannot help but note the indisputable fact that in a number of Russian fairy tales the hare acts as a symbol and personification of the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy. For example, the famous folklore text from the collection " Treasured fairy tales"A.N. Afanasyeva. In the original, the text is so replete with obscenities and obscene language that one simply cannot raise one’s hand to reproduce it. However, most Russian readers (in this particular case, viewers) know it from an episode from Sergei Eisenstein’s film “Alexander Nevsky.” In the film, this tale about the fox and the hare is told to Prince Alexander and other warriors by the chainmail master Ignat just before Battle on the ice. The plot of the parable is that the hare, fleeing from the fox, showed Russian ingenuity and jumped so that the fox got stuck tightly between two birch trees. Having mocked the fox to his heart's content in words, the hare carried out a ritual act of retaliation - “violated her maiden honor” (as it is modestly said in the film and for which in the original fairy tale the people spared neither rich colors nor strong expressions). Thus (if we consider the entire episode from a symbolic point of view) the triumph of patriarchy over matriarchy was demonstrated.

In another famous Russian fairy tale about a fox who drove a hare out of bast hut, also contains an unambiguous hint of the struggle between matriarchy and patriarchy.

Here, the bearer of matriarchal ideology initially wins - the fox. However, her arrogant triumph and confidence in permissiveness are temporary. The hare - the bearer of patriarchal ideology - tries to defend his rights and achieve justice with the help of other (male!) totems - the bull, the wolf and the bear, but to no avail. Only the bearer of the new sun-worshipping ideology - the rooster - was able to turn the situation around in favor of patriarchal values ​​and finally establish the triumph of patriarchy over matriarchy.

Here the traditional female cunning, personified by the fox, is opposed by the patriarchal male brotherhood represented by totems, which ultimately wins.

In Indo-European mythology, the rooster represents the sun. The braid on his shoulder in the archaic worldview was an attribute of time and death. Suffice it to recall the allegorical images of the god Saturn with a scythe on his shoulder, symbolizing time.

Participate: all winners will receive gifts!

* Got an injection
* Sewed on the legs
* Gave me a carrot

2. What is the name of the hare in the program " Good night, kids"?
What is the name of the hare in the program?

* Filya
* Piggy
* Stepashka
* Kesha
* Karkusha

3. Where did Brer Rabbit beg him not to throw it?

* Into the nettle
* Into the thorn bush
* Into the swamp

4. What do hunters call a hare?
What do hunters call a hare?

* Flat-footed
*Curve
* Oblique

5. One of the best warriors of the Watch Squad, an invincible hare, invented by Brian Jakes

* Modi
*Molly
* Moby

6. What happened to the toy hare, which was abandoned by its owner, in Agnia Barto’s poem?

*He got wet
* He was carried away by a crow
*It was stolen

* Olga Zvereva
* Anatoly Papanov
* Klara Rumyanova

8. What was bast made from? hare hut in a fairy tale?
What was the bast hare hut made of in the fairy tale?

* It was wooden
* She was glass
* She was brick

9. This affectionate name called the main character of the fairy tale by Alexei Remizov

* Bunny
* Zainka
* Bunny

10. What color was the bunny from the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest”?

* Belenky
* Gray
* Red-haired

11. Why doesn’t the drummer hare from Valentin Berestov’s poem want to play?

* He doesn't see cabbage
* He doesn't see the carrots
* He doesn't see rutabaga
* He sees a wolf

12. Which one famous poet is there a poem about a hunter saving hares from the spring flood?
Which famous poet has a poem about a hunter saving hares from the spring flood?

* At Alexander Pushkin
* From Mikhail Lermontov
* From Nikolai Nekrasov

13. You can’t catch this bunny without a mirror

* White
* Star
* Sunny

14. What was the name of the hare in Daniil Kharms’ fairy tale “The Fox and the Hare”?

*White ear
* Long legs
* Gray ponytail

15. Oxalis is called...

* Hare cabbage
*Hare potatoes
*Hare sorrel

16. What is the name of the character shown in the picture?
What is the name of the character shown in the picture?

* Baskin-Robbins
* Bugs Bunny
* Roger Rabbit

17. In a poem by Sergei Mikhalkov, a sick hare asked to bring water...

* Hare
* Fox
* Turtle

18. What do hunters call hare babies born in the fall?

* Leafforms
* Deciduous plants
* Leaf winter crops

19. Hare from the cartoon "Carrion" last year's snow"holds in his paws...

*Abacus
* Primus
* Valenki

20. Who was the rabbit from Alexander Milne's fairy tale "The Prince Rabbit"?

* Wizard
* Prince Silvio
*King Nicodemus

21. Who was saved by the boasting hare in the fairy tale of the same name, retold by Alexei Tolstoy?

* Sparrow
* Crow
* Fox

22. Which name is the odd one out on this list?
Which name is the odd one out on this list?

* Ushastik
* Fluffy
* Pot-bellied
* Call
* Jumper

23. The rabbit from Boris Zakhoder’s retelling of “Winnie the Pooh” did not offer the bear that came to visit...

*Honey
* Raspberry jam
* Condensed milk

* Francis Burnett
* Jill Murphy
* Suzanne Clark
* Beatrix Potter

25. What did the hares ride on in Korney Chukovsky’s poem “Cockroach”?
What did the hares ride on from the poem by Korney Chukovsky

* Bike
* Automobile
* Tram

26. Whom did you scare? Brave Bunny in the fairy tale by Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak?

* Wolf
* Fox
* Bear

27. Who kidnapped the bunny, who was not eating well, in the cartoon by Valentin Karavaev?

* Crow
* Wasp
* Owl
* Fly
* Wolf

28. Which hare does not exist in nature?

* White hare
* Brown hare
* Uskok hare
* Sand Hare

29. How did Edward the rabbit's amazing journey begin?
How did the amazing journey of Edward the rabbit begin?

*He fell overboard
* He was dragged away by a cat
* His owner threw him out

30. What color was the rabbit you chased? main character"Alice in Wonderland"?
What color was the rabbit that the main character chased?

* White
* Gray
* Black