Propp is a researcher of Russian fairy tales. Historical roots of fairy tales

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test work in cultural studies

Analysis of the book by V.Ya. Propp “Historical roots of a fairy tale” (chapters 1-2)

Performed:

Checked:

Moscow, 2010

Biography

PROPP, VLADIMIR YAKOVLEVICH(1895–1970), Russian folklorist, one of the founders of modern text theory. Born April 17 (29), 1895 in St. Petersburg. In 1914–1918 he studied Russian and German philology at Petrograd University, and subsequently taught German at universities in Leningrad. Since 1932 - teacher, since 1938 professor at Leningrad State University, successively in the departments of Romance-Germanic philology, folklore and, until 1969, Russian literature. Propp died in Leningrad on August 22, 1970.

One of Propp’s first publications (after several articles) was a small book, The Morphology of a Fairy Tale, published in Leningrad in 1928, which was met with sympathy, but in the next three decades was known only to a narrow circle of specialists. Subsequently, Propp continued his research within the walls of Leningrad State University; Thanks to the books The Historical Roots of a Fairy Tale (1946) and the Russian Heroic Epic (1955, 2nd ed. 1958), he gained a reputation as a venerable folklorist. In 1958, an English translation of Morphology of a Fairy Tale was published in the United States, followed by American reprints and translations into many other languages. Propp's early work became a world-class scientific bestseller, and in the USSR in 1969, more than forty years after the first publication and just before the death of the scientist, the second Russian edition of the Morphology of Fairy Tales appeared, which almost immediately became almost the same bibliographic rarity as the first (up to reissues of the 1990s).

The exceptional resonance caused by the publications of Morphology of the Fairy Tale in the West, and its subsequent enormous influence, were due to the new context in which this book found itself at the turn of the 1950s–1960s: the widespread dissemination of structural-semiotic (see STRUCTURALISM) methods and the appearance of an early version generative grammar. Propp, in the late 1920s, proposed a relatively small set of deep functions that define the seemingly infinite variety of narrative structures of fairy tales, as well as a formal apparatus for generating these surface structures. More than three decades later, all this, on the one hand, turned out to be consonant with the ideas of early generative grammar, and on the other, demonstrated the applicability of such methods to structures of a higher level than the sentence. It is not surprising that Propp’s work became one of the most important starting points for the formation of text theory and narrative analysis in the 1960s and attracted the attention not only of specialists in folklore, semiotics and literary criticism, such as C. Lévi-Strauss, A. Greimas (1917– 1992) or S. Bremont, but also a wide range of linguists, and somewhat later, in the 1970s, also specialists in discourse theory, artificial intelligence and cognitive science - D. Rumelhart and others (see DISCOURSE). References to Propp (sometimes as part of polemics with them) became mandatory in their works, and in the 1970s, many domestic linguists first learned about the scientist by reading foreign publications.

The world fame of the Morphology of Fairy Tales forced us to take a different look at the later and far from structuralist works of Propp, whose creative legacy, including articles, is now considered as a single whole and published with this in mind.

Bibliography

Propp V. Ya. “Historical roots of a fairy tale” - L. Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1986 - 364 p.
Propp V. Ya. “Folklore and reality” - M.: Nauka, 1989. - 233s.

Historical roots of fairy tales

The main problem in the assigned work

The book is one whole, and one topic smoothly flows into another. And each topic presented is fully revealed by the author. There are also detailed premises. The main problem posed in this work is to expand the scope of study and find the historical basis that brought the fairy tale to life and find out the sources of the fairy tale in historical reality.

In fairy tales there is no precise reminder of any particular stage of culture: here various historical cycles and cultural styles mix and collide with each other. Only patterns of behavior that could exist in many cultural cycles and at different historical moments have been preserved here.

The fairy tale is so rich and varied that it is impossible to study the entire phenomenon of the fairy tale in its entirety and among all peoples. Therefore, the material must be limited, and we will limit it to fairy tales.

Terminology

Chapter 1

"Magic Tales"- these are special fairy tales that can be called magical.

"Morphologies of fairy tales" - in this book, Propp identified the fairy tale genre quite accurately; the author divides fairy tales into type and complexity of the plot

Genesis-(Greek)origin, emergence, (be)birth.

"Historical past" - the study comes down to determining under what social system individual motives and the entire tale were created .

"Build" - the concept is very general.The study comes down to determining under what social system the individual motives and the entire fairy tale were created. Fairy tales can be compared not with the clan system, but with the institution of the clan system.

Exogamy- the prohibition of marriage relations between members of a kinship (clan, phratry) or local (for example, community) collective, which existed both in the era of the primitive communal system and at a later time. Numerous theories of the origin of exogamy are combined mainly into 3 main groups, which suggest that the transition to exogamy is due to:

1) the need to avoid harmful consequences from marriages between blood relatives (L. G. Morgan and others);

2) the desire to expand social contacts and establish relationships with other groups (E. Taylor, A. M. Zolotarev, C. Levi-Strauss);

3) the need to establish social peace in the team, since sexual relations and the conflicts accompanying them were taken outside its boundaries (S. P. Tolstov, Yu. I. Semenov).

"Rethinking»- convenient in the sense that it indicates the process of change that has taken place; the fact of rethinking proves that some changes have occurred in the life of the people, and these changes entail a change in motive. These changes must in any individual case be shown and explained.

« Prerequisites"-it is necessary to decipher the concept of the historical past, to determine what exactly from this past is necessary to explain the fairy tale.

"Motives of a fairy tale"- are explained by the fact that they reflect the institutions that once existed, but there are motives that are not directly related to any institutions, and so not everything is explained by the presence of certain institutions.

"Rite" - a set of conditional, traditional actions, devoid of immediate practical expediency, but serving as a symbol of certain social relations, a form of their visual expression and consolidation. Some religions use rituals to consolidate certain religious ideas in the minds of believers and strengthen faith in almighty forces.

"Folklore"- This is a type of collective verbal activity that is carried out orally. The main categories of folklore are collectivity, traditionality, formulaicity, variability, the presence of a performer, and syncretism. Folklore is divided into two groups - ritual and non-ritual.

"Myth"-( Greek) Myth here will be understood as a story about deities or divine beings in whose reality people believe. The point here is about faith not as a psychological factor, but as a historical one.

"Pedantry"-(from Italian pedare, to educate) is a phenomenon that occurs in various areas of life, but most often accompanies scholarship and pedagogical activity.

"Semantics"-(French and Greek. denoting) in the broad sense of the word, the analysis of the relationship between linguistic expressions and the world, real or imaginary.

"Genetics"-(Greek: coming from someone)study of the origin of phenomena.Genetics precedes history; it paves the way for history.

Chapter 2

"Absences" - a special mood, a mood of epic calm, this calm is only an artistic shell, contrasting with the internal passionate and tragic, comic-realistic dynamics.

"Frizer"-about the isolation of kings (a phenomenon of early statehood, the king or leader is credited with magical power over nature, the sky, rain, people, livestock, and the well-being of the people depends on his well-being).

"Insulation"- royal children in the fairy tale (in the fairy tale all types of prohibitions that once surrounded the royal family were preserved: the prohibition of light, sight, food, contact with the earth, communication with people).

"The Girl's Conclusion"-(this fear leads to the fact that menstruating girls are subjected to imprisonment in order to protect them from dangers, a ban on cutting hair, which was considered the seat of the soul and magical power, but the ban on cutting hair is not stated directly anywhere in the fairy tale, nevertheless, the long hair of the imprisoned princess - a frequently occurring feature that gives special attractiveness);

"Trouble and opposition" - the main form of the plot, from which a plot is created, the forms of which are varied, they cannot be considered together.

« Equipment for the hero on the road"(the movement is never outlined in detail, it is always mentioned in only two or three words, but first of all we must know where the hero ends up on his path);

Each researcher proceeds from some prerequisites that he has before he starts work.

The history of the study of the fairy tale has been outlined more than once, and we do not need to list the works. But if we ask ourselves why there are still no completely solid and universally accepted results, we will see that this often happens precisely because the authors proceed from false premises.

For us, this implies that we need to carefully check our premises before starting the study.

"Fairy tales" - Propp's first premise

In fairy tales, Propp identifies a special line of plots that underlies other fairy tales. The tale begins with damage and the desire to have something, then the hero is sent from home to meet an assistant who will help find the object of the search. What follows is a duel, a return and a chase; on the way home the hero is again tested. But later the hero again arrives in the kingdom and gets married. This scheme allows us to consider all fairy tales with the same plot; the variety of fairy tales is given by the many characters.

The first premise is that among fairy tales there is a special category of fairy tales, usually called fairy tales. These tales can be isolated from others and studied independently. The very fact of isolation may raise doubts. Isn't the principle of connection in which we must study phenomena violated here? However, in the end, all the phenomena of the world are interconnected, meanwhile, science always distinguishes the phenomena that are subject to its study from among other phenomena. It's all about where and how the border is drawn.

The emergence of a fairy tale is not connected with the production basis on which it began to be written down from the beginning of the 19th century. This leads us to the next premise, which for now is formulated in a very general form: the fairy tale must be compared with the historical reality of the past and its roots must be sought in it.This premise contains the concept of “historical past”. The concept of “historical past” leads us to the fact that the fairy tale has preserved traces of disappeared forms of social life. For example, the fairy tale contains different forms of marriage than now.

We, therefore, need to decipher the concept of the historical past, determine what exactly from this past is necessary to explain the fairy tale.

If a fairy tale is considered as a product that arose on a production basis, then it becomes clear what forms are reflected in it. But in the study of the sources of the tale there will be no advance from the object or technology. The study comes down to determining under what social system the individual motives and the entire fairy tale were created.The concept of "build" -the study comes down to determining under what social system individual motives and the entire tale were created. The premise is that the fairy tale has preserved traces of vanished forms of social life, that these remains need to be studied, and that such study will reveal the sources of many of the fairy tale's motifs.Many motifs in the tale, however, are explained by the fact that they reflect institutions that once existed, but there are motifs that are not directly related to any institutions. Therefore, this area is not enough as a material for comparison. Not everything is explained by the presence of certain institutions.

Description of work

PROPP, VLADIMIR YAKOVLEVICH (1895–1970), Russian folklorist, one of the founders of modern text theory. Born April 17 (29), 1895 in St. Petersburg. In 1914–1918 he studied Russian and German philology at Petrograd University, and subsequently taught German at universities in Leningrad. Since 1932 - teacher, since 1938 professor at Leningrad State University, successively in the departments of Romance-Germanic philology, folklore and, until 1969, Russian literature. Propp died in Leningrad on August 22, 1970.

Historical roots of fairy tales

Introduction

Under fairy tales Propp V.Ya. understands those fairy tales whose structure he studied in “Morphology of Fairy Tales.”

Here we will study that genre of fairy tale that begins with the infliction of some damage or harm, or with the desire to have something and develops through the sending of grief from home, a meeting with the donor, giving him a magical gift. Often, having already returned home, the brothers throw him into the abyss. Subsequently, he arrives again, is tested through difficult tasks and becomes king and marries in his kingdom. This is a short schematic summary of the composition.

Among fairy tales there is a special category - magical. They form part of folklore. Studying the structure of fairy tales shows the close relationship of these tales with each other. For us, fairy tales are something whole; all their plots are interconnected and conditioned.

Fairy tale and image

The fairy tale has a connection with the area of cults and religion. Fantastic images were initially reflected only in the mysterious forces of nature, now acquiring social attributes and now becoming representatives of historical forces.

The fairy tale has preserved traces of many rituals and customs. For example, the fairy tale tells that a girl buries the bones of a cow in the garden and waters them with water. The simplest case is the complete coincidence of ritual and custom with a fairy tale.

Fairy tale and myth

Myth and fairy tale differ not in form, but in their social function.

A fairy tale and a myth (especially the MFA of pre-class peoples) can sometimes coincide so completely with each other that in ethnography and folklore studies such myths are often called fairy tales. The beginning

From the very first words of the tale - “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state”... the listener is immediately seized by a special mood, a mood of epic calm.

Isolation of the royal children in a fairy tale

The royal children are kept in complete darkness (“They built her a prison”). The prohibition of light here is completely clear. In Georgian and Mingrelian fairy tales, the princess is called mzeфunaqav. This term can have two meanings: “not seen by the sun” and “not seen by the sun.” Closely related to this ban on light is the ban on seeing anyone.

The girl's conclusion:

· Prohibition of cutting hair

· A girl's imprisonment is usually followed by her marriage

· The motif of imprisonment of girls and women was widely used in novelistic literature

Trouble and opposition

Out of adversity and opposition a plot is created. Any trouble is the main application form. The course of action requires that the hero somehow learn about this misfortune.

Space in a fairy tale plays a dual role. On the one hand, it is in a fairy tale. On the other hand, it seems to be completely absent. All development takes place at stops and they are designed in great detail.

Types of Yaga

Yaga is a very difficult character to analyze. Her image is made up of a number of details. These details, put together from different fairy tales, sometimes do not correspond to each other, do not combine, do not merge into a single image. Basically the fairy tale knows 3 different forms of Yaga.

The entire course of development of the tale, and especially the beginning, shows that Yaga has some kind of connection with the kingdom of the dead.

propp fairy tale magic cult

The forest is Yagi's permanent accessory. Moreover, even in those fairy tales where there is no Yaga (“Kosoruchka”), the hero or heroine certainly ends up in the forest.

The forest is dense, dark, mysterious, somewhat conventional, not entirely believable. The connection between the rite of passage and the forest is so strong and constant that it is also true in reverse.

The forest in fairy tales generally plays the role of a delaying barrier. The forest into which the hero finds himself is impenetrable. This is a kind of thing that catches aliens. This function of the fairy-tale forest is clear in another motif - in the throwing of a comb, which turns into a forest and detains the pursuer. Here the forest detains not the pursuer, but the stranger, the stranger. You can't go through the forest. We see that the hero receives a horse from Yaga, on which he flies through the forest.

A hut on chicken legs

The hut in women's fairy tales has some features. The girl, before going to Yaga, goes to see her aunt, who warns her about what she will see in the hut and how to behave.

In American hunting myths you can see that in order to get into a hut, you need to know the names of its parts. There, the hut retained clearer traces of zoomorphism, and sometimes an animal appears instead of the hut.

To get into the hut, the hero must know the word. There are materials that show that he must know the name ("Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves").

The forest is the initial indispensable condition of the ritual, and subsequently the transition to another world. The fairy tale is the last link of this development.

“Give me something to drink and feed”

A constant, typical feature of Yaga: “she feeds and treats the hero.” The hero refuses to speak until he is fed. Food has a special meaning here.

"Mistress of the Forest"

The peculiarity of Yaga’s image is her sharp feminine physiology. She is always a husbandless old woman.

"Yaga Problems"

Along with testing the magical power of the deceased, ideas about testing his virtue began to appear. Testing the magical power of the deceased and transferring an assistant to him for further travel through the kingdom of the dead turned into a test and reward of virtue. This is how the function of setting tasks arose.

“Exile and children taken into the forest”

When the decisive moment came, the children, one way or another, went into the forest to a scary and mysterious creature. For a folklorist, three forms are known: taking children away by their parents, staging the abduction of children into the forest, and sending the boy into the forest on his own without the participation of his parents.

If children were taken away, it was always done by the father or brother. The mother couldn't, because... the very place where the ritual was performed was forbidden to women.

In fairy tales, taking children into the forest is always a hostile act, although in the future things turn out very well for the exile or the one taken away.

"Stolen Children"

The creature that abducted children was Lamia. The creatures that came from the forest were disguised as animals or birds, imitating them and imitating them. The sound of rattles was heard in the forest, everyone ran away in horror.

"Severed Finger"

This is a type of self-harm. In a fairy tale, the hero, often in a hut, loses his finger, namely the little finger of his left hand. Losing a finger often occurs in the following situations:

· In Yaga and similar creatures. The finger is cut off to find out if the boy is fat enough.

· The dashing one-eyed man. Here the running hero sticks his finger to some object.

· In the house of robbers. The victim's finger is cut off because of the ring.

"Signs of Death"

This throws light on the motive of the hero or heroine being sent into the forest to die, and it is necessary to show the signs of the completed death - bloody clothes, a cut out eye, liver, heart, bloody weapon.

"Yaga Furnace"

The burning, frying, and cooking of initiates can be traced already at the earliest stages of the initiation rite known to us. Burning, roasting, roasting in all these cases leads to the greatest good, i.e. to those abilities that are needed by a full member of clan society.

"Magic Gift"

With the help of a gift, a goal is achieved. This gift is some object (Ring, ball) or animal (horse). We see how closely the image of Yaga is connected with initiation rites. The guardian assistant was associated with the totem of time.

"Travesty"

The person performing the ceremony was a woman. Yaga and the forest teacher in the fairy tale represent a mutual equivalent. Both burn or boil children in a cauldron. But when the yaga does this or unsuccessfully wants to do this, it causes a desperate struggle. If a forest teacher does this, the student acquires omniscience. But the yaga is also a beneficent creature. In some cases, we see that men dressed as women played the role. According to other evidence, all members of the unions had a common mother, an old woman. In female nature one can see a reflection of matriarchal relationships.

With the existence of an initiation rite, this process should have already ended: the rite is a condition for admission into the male union. The leader of the ceremony was dressed as a woman. Hence the connection with gods and heroes dressed as women (Hercules, Achilles), to the hermaphrodization of gods and heroes.

The departure of children into the forest was a departure to death. That is why the forest appears both as Yaga’s home and as the entrance to hell. With the advent of agricultural religion, the entire “forest” religion turns into pure evil spirits: the great magician turns into an evil sorcerer. That way of life that destroyed the ritual and its creators and bearers: the witch who burns children is herself burned by the storyteller, the bearer of the epic fairy tale tradition.

Under the way of life that replaced it and turned the sacred and terrible into a half-heroic, half-comic grotesque.

Big house and small hut

In the fairy tale there is a direct return home from the forest hut. Usually children or girls. The hero does not always meet a “big house” on his way, but often he himself builds (or encounters) a hut and remains to live in it for a long time.

Brothers range from 2 to 12, but there are also 25 and 30.

Set table

The hero sees here a different presentation of food than what he is used to.

Robbers

These are brothers. Robbery is the prerogative of the newly initiated, namely the young hero.

Distribution of duties.

This brotherhood has its own very primitive organization. It has an elder who is chosen.

Sister

A dynamic start with the appearance of a girl in this fraternity. In men's houses there are always girls who served their brothers. She lives in a special room at home. Her treatment is chivalrous. Group marriage tended to become individual marriage. Marriage sought to become individual, and children played a major role in this endeavor.

Birth of a child

· Treatment of children varies

Beauty in the coffin

Everything that was done in the men's house was a secret for the women. Temporary death is a characteristic feature of the rite of passage.

Unwashed

The hero is often dirty, smeared with soot. He makes an alliance with the devil and is forbidden to wash himself. For this, the devil gives him untold wealth, after which the hero marries.

Forbidden closet

The motif of the forbidden closet goes back to the “big houses” complex. There was a forbidden room in which there was an animal carved from wood. The closet can be in the “big house”, in the house of robbers, in the parental home, in the next world.

Grateful animals

Combined characters (assistants). A fairy tale knows no compassion. If the hero releases the animal, then he does it not out of compassion, but on the basis of an agreement.

Magic gifts

Assistant

Helper is an expression of strength and ability. All assistants represent one group of characters.

Transformed Hero

The transformed hero in a fairy tale can be considered a helper as a personified ability of the hero.

Transfers the hero to another kingdom. The motif of feeding the eagle is created based on an existing event. There is a close connection between the eagle and the shaman.

winged horse

The horse did not appear to replace forest animals, but in completely new economic functions. The horse dresses in the form of a bird. The horse and the eagle are the hero’s only assistants.

Claws, hair, skins, teeth.

Many magical objects were parts of an animal’s body: skins, hairs, teeth. Upon initiation, young men received power over animals.

Items that summon spirits.

Representing force as an invisible being is a further step towards creating the concept of force. This creates the concept of rings and other objects from which a spirit can be summoned.

Living and dead water

“Alive and dead” are the same as strong and weak. A raven flying away with two bubbles brings exactly this water. A dead man trying to get to another world uses only water. A living person who wants to get there also uses only one water. A person who has set foot on the path of death and wants to return to life uses both types.

Crossing

An emphasized, convex, bright moment of the hero’s spatial movement.

Crossing as a hero.

In a fairy tale, the hero, in order to cross to another kingdom or back, sometimes turns into an animal.

· The bird is knitted with the sea

· This is an image of freedom, peace, pride

In Rome, when emperors died, an eagle was released to carry the soul of the ruler to heaven. In Christianity, in the image of winged angels carrying away the soul, we have the last remnants of this faith.

With the death of totemism, the forms change. All crossing methods have one new origin. They reflect the idea of the deceased’s journey to the afterlife. Even such forms as a ladder, a tree and a belt reveal their original animal form when compared.

Serpent Form

· Motif of snake fighting

· He is sometimes assimilated into the appearance of the hero and is represented by a horseman. The horse stumbles under the serpent.

Connection with the mountains

The snake lives in the mountains. Such a location does not prevent him from being a sea monster at the same time. Sometimes he lives on the mountains, but when the hero approaches him, he comes out of the water.

Snake Snatcher

He kidnaps women with lightning speed and unexpectedly.

Ritual absorption and coughing up

Fight => chase => attempt to swallow the hero

· The hero finds diamonds in the snake’s stomach or head,

· The girl in the fairy tale is placed in a glass coffin.

· The crunch of the mountain in which the snake lives.

· The princess sits on a glass tower.

The center of gravity of heroism shifts from absorption to killing. With the advent of cattle breeding and agriculture, this process ends.

Myths

In Greek myth, there is no kidnapping of a girl by a dragon. This idea could live among the people without being attested in Greek literature, through which we know the myth.

Functionally, he is close to the snake of our fairy tale. He has 3 dog heads, poisonous resin drips from his mouth, and he has a snake tail with which he stings

The fairy tale reflects all stages of development, starting from the more ancient ones, like acquiring knowledge of a bird’s language through a snake, and transitional ones, like carrying a fish in the stomach to foreign lands.

Far away.

Everything connected with the distant state can take on a golden color (golden palace). Pig - golden bristles, duck - golden feathers, golden-horned deer, golden-tailed deer, golden-maned and golden-tailed horse, etc.

3 kingdoms

A fairy tale about how the hero on his way finds himself in the kingdom of copper, silver and gold. Copper and silver are the passing stages, gold is the arrival stage.

There is no uniformity. There is diversity.

They live in a palace, reminding us of the animal-like inhabitants of the “big house”. In the next world, people are snakes, lions, bears, mice. Those. animals in the totemic sense.

Sometimes the princess is depicted as a hero, a warrior; she is skilled in shooting and running, rides a horse, and enmity towards the groom can take the form of open competition with the hero.

2 types of bride:

· One is freed by the hero from the snake, he is her savior. This is the type of meek bride.

· Another was taken by force. She is kidnapped or taken against her will by a cunning man who has solved her problems and mysteries.

· The hero is shown that he must search, go there and return or die.

· Get the golden branch

Palace, garden, bridge. The task itself of building a palace is incomprehensible. The motif of the golden palace, from the thirtieth kingdom, and the golden one are one and the same palace. The garden is mysterious and beautiful. A bridge is a barrier, an obstacle.

Bathhouse test

The task is to sit in a hot bath. This challenge may involve a food challenge.

Competitions

Usually before the wedding

· On the strength and dexterity of the hero

· Running, shooting

The wedding night

Often this is where the fairy tale ends. Sometimes all the villagers mysteriously die on the first night. Fear of the wedding night is fear of the not yet established power of the Tsar-Maiden.

Fairy tale as a whole

Development proceeds through layering, replacement, reinterpretation, and on the other hand, through new formation.

Fairy tale as a genre

The plot and composition of a fairy tale are determined by the tribal system at that stage of its development. The tale has passed on from earlier eras

Folklore, and in particular fairy tales, is not only uniform, but despite its uniformity it is extremely rich and diverse.

Historical roots of fairy tales

Introduction

Under fairy tales Propp V.Ya. understands those fairy tales whose structure he studied in “Morphology of Fairy Tales.”

Fairy tale and image

Fairy tale and myth

Myth and fairy tale differ not in form, but in their social function.

From the very first words of the tale - “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state”... the listener is immediately seized by a special mood, a mood of epic calm.

Isolation of the royal children in a fairy tale

The girl's conclusion:

· Prohibition of cutting hair

· A girl's imprisonment is usually followed by her marriage

· The motif of imprisonment of girls and women was widely used in novelistic literature

Trouble and opposition

Out of adversity and opposition a plot is created. Any trouble is the main application form. The course of action requires that the hero somehow learn about this misfortune.

Types of Yaga

The entire course of development of the tale, and especially the beginning, shows that Yaga has some kind of connection with the kingdom of the dead.

propp fairy tale magic cult

The forest is Yagi's permanent accessory. Moreover, even in those fairy tales where there is no Yaga (“Kosoruchka”), the hero or heroine certainly ends up in the forest.

A hut on chicken legs

The hut in women's fairy tales has some features. The girl, before going to Yaga, goes to see her aunt, who warns her about what she will see in the hut and how to behave.

To get into the hut, the hero must know the word. There are materials that show that he must know the name ("Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves").

The forest is the initial indispensable condition of the ritual, and subsequently the transition to another world. The fairy tale is the last link of this development.

“Give me something to drink and feed”

A constant, typical feature of Yaga: “she feeds and treats the hero.” The hero refuses to speak until he is fed. Food has a special meaning here.

"Mistress of the Forest"

The peculiarity of Yaga’s image is her sharp feminine physiology. She is always a husbandless old woman.

"Yaga Problems"

“Exile and children taken into the forest”

If children were taken away, it was always done by the father or brother. The mother couldn't, because... the very place where the ritual was performed was forbidden to women.

In fairy tales, taking children into the forest is always a hostile act, although in the future things turn out very well for the exile or the one taken away.

"Stolen Children"

"Severed Finger"

This is a type of self-harm. In a fairy tale, the hero, often in a hut, loses his finger, namely the little finger of his left hand. Losing a finger often occurs in the following situations:

· In Yaga and similar creatures. The finger is cut off to find out if the boy is fat enough.

· The dashing one-eyed man. Here the running hero sticks his finger to some object.

· In the house of robbers. The victim's finger is cut off because of the ring.

"Signs of Death"

"Yaga Furnace"

"Magic Gift"

"Travesty"

Under the way of life that replaced it and turned the sacred and terrible into a half-heroic, half-comic grotesque.

Big house and small hut

Brothers range from 2 to 12, but there are also 25 and 30.

Set table

The hero sees here a different presentation of food than what he is used to.

Robbers

These are brothers. Robbery is the prerogative of the newly initiated, namely the young hero.

Distribution of duties.

This brotherhood has its own very primitive organization. It has an elder who is chosen.

Sister

Birth of a child

· Treatment of children varies

Beauty in the coffin

Everything that was done in the men's house was a secret for the women. Temporary death is a characteristic feature of the rite of passage.

Annotation

For the first time, the famous dilogy about a fairy tale is published as a single work (as intended by the author). Extensive commentary articles, a bibliography, a name index, and an index of characters turn the book into a textbook and reference book on fairy tales, and the unusually wide coverage of humanitarian material, the depth of its mastery and an intelligible style of presentation have long ago introduced its constituent works into the global cultural fund of a modern educated person.

Vladimir Propp

Preface

Chapter I. Background

1. Main question

2. Importance of premises

3. Highlighting fairy tales

4. A fairy tale as a phenomenon of a superstructural nature

5. Fairy tale and social institutions of the past

6. Fairy tale and ritual

7. Direct correspondence between fairy tale and ritual

8. Rethinking the ritual with a fairy tale

9. Conversion rite

10. Fairy tale and myth

11. Fairy tale and primitive thinking

12. Genetics and history

13. Method and material

14. Fairy tale and post-fairy tale formations

15. Prospects

Chapter II. The beginning

I. Children in prison

1. Absenteeism

3. Frazer on the isolation of kings

4. Isolation of the royal children in the fairy tale

5. The girl's conclusion...

6. Motivation for the conclusion

II. Trouble and opposition

9. Equipment for the hero's journey

Chapter III. Mysterious forest

1. Further composition of the tale

2. Types of Yagi

3. Rite of Passage

5. Hut on chicken legs

6. Fu, fu, fu

7. Gave me something to drink and feed

8. Bone leg

9. Yaga's blindness

10. Mistress of the Forest

11. Yaga tasks

12. Sleep test

13. Children expelled and taken to the forest

14. Kidnapped children

16. Bila-bila

17. Madness

18. Severed Palace

19. Signs of death

20. Temporary death

21. Chopped and revived

22. Yagi oven

23. Tricky Science

24. Magic gift

25. Yaga - mother-in-law

26. Travesty

27. Conclusion

Chapter IV. Big house

I. Forest Brotherhood

1. House in the forest

2. Big house and small hut

3. Set table

5 Hunters

6. Robbers

7. Distribution of responsibilities

8. "Sister"

9. Birth of a child

10. Beauty in the coffin

11. Cupid and Psyche

12. Wife at her husband's wedding

13. Unwashed

14. Dunno

15. Bald and covered with a sheath

16. Husband at his wife's wedding

19. Conclusion

II. Afterlife donors

20. Dead father

21. Dead mother

22. The Grateful Dead

23. Death's Head

24. Conclusion

III. Donor-helpers

25. Grateful animals

26. Copper Forehead

27. Ransomed captives, debtors, etc.

Chapter V. Magical gifts

I. Magic Helper

1. Assistants

2. Transformed Hero

4. Winged horse

5. Feeding the horse

6. Grave horse

7. Rejected and exchanged horse

8. Horse in the basement

9. Horse suit

10. Fiery nature of the horse

11. Horse and stars

12. Horse and water

13. Some other helpers

14. Development of ideas about the assistant

II. Magic item

15. Item and assistant

16. Claws, hair, skins, teeth

17. Items-tools

18. Items that summon spirits

19. Flint

20. Stick

21. Items that give eternal abundance

22. Living and dead, weak and weak water...

23. Dolls

24. Conclusion

Chapter VI. Crossing

1. Crossing as a compositional element

2. Crossing in the form of an animal

3. Sewing into the skin

5. On horseback

6. On the ship

7. On wood

8. By stairs or belts

9. Help from a counselor

10. Conclusion

Chapter VII. By the river of fire

I. The snake in the fairy tale

1. The form of a serpent

2. Connection with water in a fairy tale

3. Connection with the mountains

4. Snake Snatcher

5. Snake Extortion

6. The serpent is the guardian of borders

7. Serpent-devourer

8. Danger of sleep

9. The Original Enemy

11. Literature about the snake

12. Prevalence of snake fighting

II. Serpent-devourer

13. Ritual absorption and coughing up

14. The meaning and basis of this ritual

15. Bird tongue

16. Diamonds

17. Absorber-transporter

18. Fighting fish as the first stage of snake fighting

19. Traces of absorption in late cases of snake fighting

20. Conclusion

III. Hero in a Barrel

21. Carrier boat

IV. Snake Snatcher

22. Form of a serpent

23. Death the Snatcher

24. Introducing an erotic moment

25. Abduction in myths

V. Water Serpent

26. Water nature of the snake

27. Extortion of the snake

VI. The Serpent and the Kingdom of the Dead

29. Serpent Guardian

30. Kerber

31. Transfer of the serpent to heaven

32. The guard role of the heavenly serpent; Yakuts

33. Serpent in Egypt

34. Psychostasia

35. Connection of the serpent with birth

36. The death of the serpent from the serpent

Chapter VIII. Far away

I. The Thirtieth Kingdom in a fairy tale

1. Locality

2. Connection with the sun

4. Three Kingdoms

5. Theriomorphism of the thirtieth kingdom

II. That light

6. Early forms of the other world

7. Pasture and pushing mountains

8. Crystal

9. Land of abundance

10. Solar kingdom

11. Antiquity

Chapter IX. The Bride

I. Seal of the princess

1. Two types of princess

2. Branding a hero

II. Difficult tasks

A. Situation

3. Difficult tasks

4. National cry

5. Tasks in response to matchmaking

6. The tasks of the escaped and newly found princess

7. The tasks of the princess kidnapped by false heroes

8. Vodyanoy’s tasks

9. Tasks of the teacher-sorcerer

10. Hostile father-in-law

11. Tasks given to the old king

12. Search tasks

13. Palace, garden, bridge

14. Bathhouse test

15. Food challenge

16. Competitions

17. Hide and seek

18. Find out what you are looking for

19. Wedding night

20. Preliminary conclusions

III. A Hero's Reign

21. Frazer on the change of kings

22. Succession to the throne in a fairy tale

23. Old age

24. Oracles

25. The killing of the king in a fairy tale

26. False Hero

27. Rope Bridge

28. Boiling milk

29. Conclusions

IV. Magical escape

30. Escape in a fairy tale

31. Escape with throwing a comb, etc.

32. Escape with transformations

33. Transforming snakes into wells, apple trees, etc.

34. Flight and pursuit with successive transformations

35. Decisive obstacle

Chapter X. The tale as a whole

1. Unity of a fairy tale

2. Fairy tale as a genre.

112
Chapter I. BACKGROUND 113
I. Main question. 113
2. The significance of the premises. 113
3. Identification of fairy tales. 114
4. A fairy tale as a phenomenon of a superstructural nature. 116
5. Fairy tale and social institutions of the past.118
6. Fairy tale and ritual.119
7. Direct correspondence between fairy tale and ritual. 120
8. Rethinking the ritual with a fairy tale. 120
9. Conversion rite. 121
10. Fairy tale and myth. 123
11. Fairy tale and primitive thinking. 127
12.Genetics and history. 128
13.Method and material. 129
14. Fairy tale and post-fairy tale formations. 130
15.Prospects. 130
Chapter II. TIE 132
I. Children in prison 132 1. Absence. 132
2.3 restrictions associated with absence.133
3. Frazer on the isolation of kings.133
4. Isolation of the royal children in the fairy tale.134
5.The conclusion of the girl.136
6.Motivation for the conclusion. 138
7.Results.140
II. Trouble and opposition 141
8.Trouble.141
9.Equipping the hero on the road. 142
Chapter III. MYSTERIOUS FOREST 146
1. Further composition of the tale. Getting a magic remedy. 146
2.Types of yati. 147
3.Rite of Passage.147
4.Forest.151
5. Hut on chicken legs. 152
6.Fu, fu, fu.158
7. Gave me something to drink and feed. 160
8.Bone leg.163
9. Blindness of Yaga.165
10. Mistress of the forest. 168
11. Yaga tasks. 172
12.Sleep test.173
13.Children expelled and taken into the forest. 175
14. Kidnapped children.178
15.Resale.178
16.Bila-bila.180
17.Madness.182
18. Severed finger. 183
19.3 signs of death. 184
20. Temporary death. 185
21.Chopped and revived. 186
22. Yagi oven. 190
23. Tricky science. 194
24. Magic gift. 197
25. Yaga - mother-in-law. 198
26. Travesty.199
27.3 conclusion. 202
Chapter IV. BIG HOUSE 203
I.Forest Brotherhood 203 1.House in the Forest.203
2. Big house and small hut.207
Z. Set table.208
4.Brothers.208
5.Hunters.209
6.Robbers.209
7.Distribution of responsibilities.210
8."Sister".211
9. Birth of a child. 215
10.Beauty in the coffin.216
11.Cupid and Psyche.219
12.Wife at her husband's wedding.221
13. Unwashed.223
14. Dunno.225
15. Bald and covered with a sheath.226
16. Husband at his wife’s wedding.228
17.3prohibition of boasting.229
18.3closet closet. 230
19.3 conclusion.234
II. Afterlife donors 235 20. Deceased father.235
21.Dead mother.239
22.Grateful Dead.239
23.Death's head.240
24.3 conclusion.241
III. Donor-helpers 243 25. Grateful animals. 243
26.Copper Forehead.246
27. Ransomed captives, debtors, etc. 252
Chapter V. MAGICAL GIFTS 253
I.Magic assistant 253 1.Helpers.253
2. Transformed hero.254
Z. Orel.254
4. Winged horse.257
5.Feeding the horse.258
6.Grave horse.259
7. Rejected and exchanged knight.260
8.Horse in the basement .261
9. Horse suit.262
10.Fiery nature of the horse.263
11.Horse and stars.266
12.Horse and water.266
13.Some other assistants.267
14.Development of ideas about the assistant 271
II.Magic item 277
15.Item and assistant 277
16. Claws, hair, skins, teeth.278
17.Items-tools.279
18.Items that summon spirits.281
19.Flint.281
20.Wand.282
21.Items that give eternal abundance.282
22. Living and dead, weak and strong water.283
23.Pupae.285 24.3conclusion.286
Chapter VI. CROSSING 287
1.Crossing as a compositional element.287 2.Crossing in the form of an animal.287
Z. Sewing into skin.288
4.Bird.292
5.On horseback.294
6.On the ship.295
7. On wood.296
8.By stairs or straps.297
9.With the help of a counselor.298
10. Conclusion. 298
Chapter VII. BY THE RIVER OF FIRE 299
I. The snake in the fairy tale 299 1. The appearance of the snake. 299
2.Connection with water in a fairy tale.300
Z. Connection with the mountains.300
4.3mei-kidnapper.301
5. Extortion of the snake.301
6. Serpent - guardian of borders.302
7.3mei-absorber.302
8.Danger of sleep.303
9.Original opponent .303
10.Fight.304
11. Literature about the snake. 305
12. Prevalence of snake fighting. 306
II. Snake-devourer 307
13.0 ritual absorption and coughing up. 307
14. The meaning and basis of this ritual.309
15.Bird tongue. 311
16.Diamonds.313
17. Absorbent-transporter.314
18. Fighting fish as the first stage of snake fighting. 316
19. Traces of absorption in late cases of snake fighting. 322
20.3 conclusion.324
III.Hero in a barrel 324 21. Carrier boat. 324 IV. Snake-stealer 327
22.The Form of a Serpent.327 23.Death the Thief.329
511
24.Introducing an erotic moment.332
25.Abduction in myths.333
V.Water Serpent 334
26. Water nature of the snake.334
27. Extortion of the snake .339
28.Myths.342
VI. The Serpent and the Kingdom of the Dead 344
29. Guardian serpent. 344
30.Kerber.345
31. Transfer of the serpent to heaven. 346
32. The guard role of the heavenly serpent; Yakuts.349
33.Serpent in Egypt.351
34.Psychostasis.353
35. Connection of the serpent with birth.354
36. The death of the serpent from the serpent.356
37.3 conclusion. 358
Chapter VIII. FAR NINE EARTHS 360
I. The Thirtieth Kingdom in a fairy tale 360 1. Locality. 360
2.Connection with the sun.362
3.Gold.363
4.Three kingdoms. 364
5. Theriomorphism of the thirtieth kingdom.365
II.That light 366
6.Early forms of the other world.366
7. Mouth and pushing mountains.367
8.Crystal.368
9. Land of abundance.369
10. Solar kingdom. 371
11. Antiquity. 374
Chapter IX. BRIDE 376
I. Seal of the princess 376 1. Two types of princess. 376 2. Branding of a hero. 377
II.Hard problems 381 3.Hard problems 381
4. National cry 381
5. Tasks in response to matchmaking. 382
6. The tasks of the fleeing and newly found princess.382
7.3 tasks of the princess kidnapped by false heroes.383
8. Problems of Vodyanoy.383
9.Tasks of the teacher-sorcerer. 384
10. Hostile father-in-law. 385
11. 407
III.The accession of a hero 408
21. Frazer on the change of kings.408
22.Succession to the throne in a fairy tale.410
23. Old age.411
24.Oracles.411
25. The killing of the king in a fairy tale.413
26. False hero.415
27.Rope bridge.415
28. Boiling milk.416
29.3 conclusion. 417
IV.Magical escape 418
30. Escape in a fairy tale.418
31. Escape with throwing a scallop, etc. 419
32. Escape with transformations.420
33. Transformation of snakes into wells, apple trees, etc. 422
34. Escape and pursuit with successive transformations.422
35. Decisive obstacle. 426
Chapter X