Folklore of the Eastern Slavs. Sociocultural regional studies

Let us remember the system that I spoke about, that Slavic mythology consists of three levels - higher, middle and lower. The highest level is the pantheon of gods established by Prince Vladimir in 980, the middle level is the gods of the Slavic tribe, seasonal gods (Kostroma, Yarila) and abstract gods (Krivda, Pravda, Dolya). The average gods are either new or disappear. Some believe that there were no such gods in Slavic mythology, in particular there was no god Rod (as the founder of the Slavic family). But at that stage there was no writing, then Slavic myths were not written down. On the contrary, Christians fought against myths. The most important thing is that this mythology remained in artistic creativity, remained as an ideological and aesthetic design of views. This needs to be taken seriously, because after the adoption of Christianity, the Slavs allegedly developed dual faith. And this dual faith lasted for almost a millennium, when in the end they abandoned all faith. Mythology is not yet faith. It is difficult to say how much the Slavs believed in their Perun. What they believed in was the lower gods. Superstition remained a powerful layer in the consciousness of not only the peasantry, but also all groups of the population. But superstition is not faith. I advise you to read the encyclopedia “Slavic Mythology” (M., 1995) - from this book I took articles by V.V. Ivanov and his co-author V. Toporov. There is also a good article by N.I., a researcher of Slavism in general. Tolstoy on ritual belief and superstition .

Today I will briefly talk about oral folk art, which has survived for a millennium and which is drying up, but to some extent still lives. Oral folk art is also connected with mythology, this is also part of the religious ritual. One of the largest researchers of Slavic oral folk art A.N. Veselovsky (1838–1906) wrote about ancient Slavic folklore. And he wrote that this folklore is characterized by syncretism, i.e. lack of differentiation of poetry, magic, rituals, musical verbal rhythm in general, as well as choreographic performance (for example, a round dance in which some words were sung and spoken). It is not known exactly to what extent this was true. Later, Veselovsky established that in the 10th–11th centuries. syncretism disintegrates and ritual poetry comes to the fore, then lyrics and epics. This is also quite speculative. In fact, syncretism is a property not only of Slavic poetry. It is also present in Africa. To some extent, syncretism is a form of religious ritual where there are words, music and choreography. This form of existence of folk art is the most primary, according to Veselovsky. This is the beginning of aesthetic creativity in general. And then there is a disintegration of these syncretic forms into epic, lyrical, as well as fairy tale forms (as in fairy tales and epics). There are many of these stable folklore genres in the Slavic and Old Russian folklore traditions. And they were recorded, of course, late – in the 18th–19th centuries. This is primarily ritual folklore - calendar songs, lyrical, comic, war songs, fairy tales, legends, epics and tales, folk epics, etc.

If we talk in more detail, then we probably need to start with epics. In terms of content, the Russian epic epic has no analogues in ancient European poetry. This is not an epic of the skalds, this is not an epic that celebrates the exploits of Charlemagne in Old French. We have only two cycles - the Kiev cycle and the Novgorod cycle. The Kiev cycle is the famous epics about Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, about Svyatogor, etc. They were recorded in the 19th century. It is difficult to say what actually remains from antiquity. Because there is a lot of Christianization of these epics, but little paganism. The Kiev cycle of epics is very patriotic in spirit and is entirely imbued with the idea of ​​protecting the Russian land, it is imbued with the antithesis of good and evil. There is a clear division into good heroes and evil Gorynych Serpents who attack our land. The struggle between good and evil actually forms the basis of the Kyiv cycle. In general, these epics are short (400–500 verses), but there are epics with more than 1000 verses. Apparently they were very popular among the people. In fact, there is no such evidence in Russian chronicles, but this is evidenced by the fact that they have been preserved in people’s memory.

The Novgorod cycle is of a different kind. It is dedicated primarily to revealing the secret strength, power and secrets of wealth. Novgorod epics are epics about travel, about merchant guests, about feasts, about Slavic prowess, about the generosity of heroes. There is still a Scandinavian influence in the Novgorod cycle. It does not contain such patriotic pathos as in the Kyiv epics. Kyiv epics are epics that take place in Kyiv, and the epics themselves were composed in different places. The Novgorod cycle fully reveals the Russian national character. Sadko - breadth of soul, daring, generosity, interest in mystery, interest in travel (a continental longing for travel that those who live on the seashore do not have). But in fact, the Russian national character is already a literary transformation of the Novgorod cycle. We know the opera “Sadko” - there is a special libretto and music. These are later layers. First, in all oral folk art, certain deep archetypes of the entire Slavic people are presented. And the Russian character itself is an adaptation of the 18th–19th centuries. The heroes are both daring and generous, but unpredictable, which is supposedly characteristic of the Russian people. It was these epics that served as the basis for literary, musical and even symphonic adaptations. There is, for example, a musical theme written in the north, and then developed into a whole symphony. For example, Arensky.

The Russian fairy tale tradition - Russian fairy tales - is considered by many researchers to be the most archaic form in all of Europe. Apparently this is due to the origin of the Slavs. Slavic Russians starting from the end of the 6th century. They were isolated for a long time and retained archaic forms in their work. Especially fairy tales about living and dead water, about the resurrection of a dying hero, fairy tales “go there - I don’t know where,” fairy tales where the boundaries between two worlds are overcome. The territory occupied by Baba Yaga and her hut, connecting two worlds - fairy-tale and real, is such a border. This is a kind of third world - a neutral zone, as it were. There are few such tales in Europe. There is an immediate entrance to another world. In Russian folk tales there is a third world, mediated, between the witchcraft world and the real one. And there is also a middle one, where you can get the key and find out the way to the enchanted world.

Ritual poetry and ritual songs (not only ritual, but also lyrical) - there is no such wealth in the Western European oral tradition. Even if you count primitively, there are more than 3 thousand songs in ancient Russian lyrics. The ritual song is connected with a person’s life, with his destiny. And all his life - from birth to death - a person is accompanied by songs. The second form of ritual song is also very developed - these are calendar folk songs associated with agricultural work. I'm talking about songs that accompany a person through life. There are ritual songs, or rather, there were, dedicated to pregnancy. The person has not yet been born, but the song already exists. They are dedicated to keeping the child alive. And once a person is born, his life is accompanied by a whole cycle of songs. There are songs for children and teenagers. A huge cycle of wedding songs. They begin with matchmaking, then songs of the groom, songs of the bride, then the wedding itself, the marriage song. The end of the wedding is a spree. This cycle is well represented and recorded in different versions and forms in different provinces in the 19th century. Songs accompanying warriors going to battle, both majestic songs, spells, spells, a lot of playful, fortune-telling songs. There are simply lyrical songs about love. I will read you a small fragment of the spell, but this is already a spell transformed by Christianity. And there are probably purely pagan spells. Witchcraft using words is a pagan form of influencing the human psyche. It still exists. Conspiracies against diseases, against enemies, and drying conspiracies were especially powerful with emotional power (there are about a hundred options for how to dry a loved one). In conspiracies about love, there is always an ancient image of fire-flame, which symbolizes love and is supposed to ignite the heart, melt it and inspire “longing melancholy” in the soul. In these conspiracies one can hear real ancient sorcery. Magi are sorcerers. Let me give you an example. Let’s say a guy Ivan fell in love with a girl and went to a sorcerer or an old woman who knows such jokes: “Pain her heart, burn her conscience, endure her ardent blood, ardent flesh. Languish in her thoughts both day and night, and in the dead of midnight, and on a clear noon, and at every hour, and at every minute about me, God’s servant Ivan. Give her, Lord, a fiery game in her heart, in her lungs, in her liver, in her sweat and blood, in her bones, in her veins, in her brain, in her thoughts, in her hearing, in her sight, in her smell, in her touch, in her hair, in her hands. , at the feet. Put melancholy, and dryness, and torment, pity, sadness and care for me, God’s servant Ivan.” The beginning here is usual: “I will stand, blessing myself, and go, crossing myself, from door to door, from gate to gate, into an open field...”. But if there is “crossing,” then there is already the influence of Christianity. But the very idea of ​​the spell is undoubtedly pagan. This kind of spells, spells, incantations can be used in original creativity. Those who write poetry know this well. I will give just one example of the brilliant use of this kind of spell in M. Voloshin’s poem “The Spell on the Russian Earth.” It was written in 1919, during the Civil War, when the state was falling apart, everything was crumbling and blood was oozing everywhere. And here there is an image of reunification, the restoration of the kingdom as a whole:

I'll get up and pray

I'll go cross myself

From door to door,

From gate to gate -

Morning paths

With fiery feet,

In an open field

On a white-flammable stone.

I will stand facing east,

To the west along the ridge,

I'll look around in all four directions:

To the seven seas,

On three oceans

For seventy-seven tribes,

For thirty-three kingdoms -

To the entire Holy Russian land.

Can't hear people

No churches in sight

No white monasteries, -

Rus' lies -

Ruined

Bloodied, scorched.

All over the field -

Wild, great -

The bones are dry, empty,

Dead-yellow.

Cut with a saber,

Marked by a bullet,

The horses are trampled.

The Iron Man walks across the field,

Hit the bones

With an iron rod:

- “On four sides,

From the four winds

Die, Spirit,

Revive the bone!

It's not the flame that's buzzing,

It's not the wind that rustles,

It’s not the rye that rustles, -

Bones rustle

The flesh rustles

Life is heating up...

How bone meets bone,

Like a bone is dressed with flesh,

How the veined flesh is sutured,

How the flesh is gathered by a muscle, -

So - stand up, Rus', rise up,

Come to life, come together, grow together, -

Kingdom to kingdom, tribe to tribe!

A blacksmith forges an ash crown -

Forged hoop:

Kingdom of Russia

Collect, chain, rivet

Firmly and firmly

Tightly;

So that it is the Russian Kingdom

Didn't crumble

Didn't become famous

It didn't spill...

So that we can have it - the Russian Kingdom

They didn’t go on a walk,

They didn’t dance in the dance,

The auction was not terminated,

We didn't speak in words,

There is no boasting in boasting!

So that it is the Russian Kingdom

It was bright - it was shining

The life of the living,

The death of saints

Tormented by the torments.

May my words be strong and molding,

Saltier than salt

Burning flame...

I'll close my words

And I’ll drop the keys into the Sea-Ocean.

As you can see, paganism is alive, folk art is alive. Folklore, it turns out, can be used in wonderful creativity, and even in the most difficult historical situation. To this day, the collection of folk art continues, although there are many pseudo-Russian spells, legends, and fairy tales. This is the tendency to restore paganism. One priest calculated that throughout the former territory of the Soviet Union there are about 7 thousand sects of various kinds, but primarily with a pagan direction. I point this out because paganism never really died.

Calendar poetry is also very developed. It is connected, first of all, with agricultural labor. These are stoneflies when they are preparing for spring sowing, this is a cycle of songs dedicated to summer work, and autumn songs during the harvest. There are also winter songs for when boring times come. They predict the future harvest.

The new topic - “The Beginning of Slavic Writing” - is important for us primarily for the reason that there was a short time (120-150 years) when Slavic unity was based on the basis of a single Slavic writing. But this unity was lost by the end of the 11th century. Those. Slavic writing was on the territory of modern Czech Republic, modern Slovakia, and southern Poland. Let me remind you of the terms that we use in relation to the ancient Slavic languages. The term “Proto-Slavic language” is used only by linguists. As if it existed before the middle of the 1st millennium AD. (beginning unknown), and then split into separate Slavic languages. The concept of “Old Church Slavonic” is the language of the oldest Slavic monuments that have come down to us. These are monuments from the 10th – early 11th centuries. There are very few of these monuments, only 17. And even this figure is controversial. Those. what Cyril and Methodius translated into Old Church Slavonic has not survived at all. And if it was preserved, it was only in copies of other monuments. Further, as a continuation of the Old Church Slavonic language, according to tradition, the Church Slavonic language is considered. This is an ancient Slavic literary language - the language of the Orthodox Church on a Slavic basis. The New and Old Testaments are written in this language. Actually, there was not much difference between Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic - the question is in terminology. The living ancient Russian language is a different concept. There was the language of the church service, but there were living people who spoke their own language. When they received writing, they began to record their conversations. It was like a second language appeared. On the one hand, Church Slavonic, and on the other, Old Russian. According to some concepts, bilingualism in Rus' existed until the 17th century; other scientists object. The Church Slavonic language has been preserved even now - services are conducted in it in our Orthodox churches. You know various trends in this regard, which are still considered heretical. There is an opinion that services should be conducted in modern Russian. Such churches are organized, but they are still heretical. This opinion leads to a split in our church, which is only being reborn.

I have already listed how the Slavs accepted Christianity. Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs. But Christian texts were needed for instruction in the faith. Such texts were in Greek. The Slavs did not understand them. But this problem is not the most important. It was possible to teach the clergy the Greek language. In the West, too, they taught the Christian faith on obscure texts, using Latin texts. All Latin texts are translated from Greek, and some from Hebrew. Famous publicist of the 20th century. Georgy Fedotov was very sad that we adopted Christianity in the Slavic language. We would be much better educated if we were taught religion in Greek. Byzantium, compared to Rome, pursued a more progressive policy - it allowed translations from Greek into other languages. It was allowed to make translations into Slavic languages, but there was no alphabet. And then the Slavic alphabet was created. With the help of the Byzantine church back in the 5th century. translations of the New Testament into Armenian were made. Armenians are pioneers in Christianity. Even before the Roman Empire, in 301, they made Christianity the official religion. This is the first state to make Christianity the state religion. They say that in the 5th century. and some translations of the New Testament were made into Georgian (but this is already more controversial). And into other languages.

In order to create the alphabet, the brothers Constantine and Methodius were sent from Constantinople to Great Moravia (the state that was located on the territory of modern Slovakia, on the Morava River). The date of their arrival is 863. This date is considered the beginning of Slavic writing. Perhaps they invented this alphabet at home, in Constantinople. There is an opinion that they were also Slavs. These were philosophers, great scientists. The Slavic alphabet was created on the basis of the Greek alphabet. Actually we are talking about two alphabets - first the Glagolitic alphabet was invented (a very complex alphabet, it went out of use, but texts on it were preserved) and then the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet came into use after the death of Kirill, but according to tradition it is called the Cyrillic alphabet. Inventing the alphabet was only the beginning of Slavic writing. It was necessary to translate complex texts from Greek into Old Church Slavonic. Cyril and Methodius, with the help of their students, translated the entire New Testament and some fragments from the Old Testament (in particular, the Psalter). They translated, creating a new literary Slavic language. Using a literal translation, word by word. It was a complete tracing. As we read, starting from the first conjunction and so on word by word. It so happened that Church Slavonic and Old Church Slavonic, and thus Russian, are very similar to Greek. Most of all, the Russian language is similar to Greek in syntax. Compound words are also borrowed from Greek. Now this principle of compound words is losing force and fading away. If in the XV and even in the XVII century. 500 words with the word were recorded good (well-being, blessing etc.), now our dictionary records about 75 such words. This principle also exists in the German language. But we copied it from Greek. So, the most important merit of Cyril and Methodius is not so much that the alphabet was invented, but that translations were made and a written language was created. Church sources tell a lot about the life of the great Slavic enlighteners. There is the life of Constantine (died in 869), the life of Methodius (died in 885). There are historical sources. There are enough materials here.

There is one difficult issue related to Slavic writing. Nowadays they talk and write a lot about whether the Slavs had writing before Cyril and Methodius? There are some enthusiasts who believe that there was. In particular, the life of Constantine says that during his passage through Russian land he saw Russian writings. Historians say this is not true. It is difficult to prove anything here. But you can fantasize. About 20 years ago, a young writer Sergei Alekseev wrote a novel called “The Word”. It said that there was ancient Russian writing, and then it was destroyed by Christian priests. The entire plot of the novel is based on the search for sources of ancient Slavic writing before Cyril and Methodius. Pseudo-texts such as the Book of Veles, created in the 20th century, are also used as arguments. They say that it was written in the 5th century. in ancient Slavic language.

I want to say that the struggle for Slavic writing is the spiritual struggle of the Slavic peoples for their native sacred language and for their writing. Before this, there were three sacred languages ​​- Hebrew, Greek and Latin. In these three languages, inscriptions were scrawled on the Cross on which Christ was crucified. But the Bible was translated into Latin only at the end of the 4th century. Blessed Jerome translated both the New Testament and the Old Testament from ancient Greek into Latin at the end of the 4th century. And then, a thousand years later, at the Council of Trent in 1545, Latin books were canonized. Only from this time on did the Latin text become sacred. But our church did not consecrate the Slavic text. The sacred language of the Slavs did not work out. In Church Slavonic, the full text of the Bible - all 77 books - was collected only at the very end of the 15th century. Archbishop Gennady, this is the so-called “Gennady Bible” (1499). The official text in which Lomonosov, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky read the Bible was created under Elizaveta Petrovna in 1751–1756. During this five-year period, this translation was completed, edited and printed. There were big objections to the Russian translation for a very long time; the Bible was translated into Russian for about 40 years. The final date for the translation of the Bible into Russian is 1876.

It was with great difficulty that the Bible was translated into English. The King James Version of 1611 is the most important. Before it there were 5-6 more translations into English. One translator was even burned. Luther translated the Bible into German in the 16th century. In total, the Bible was translated into 1,400 languages, including such exotic languages ​​as the Chukchi language, into the languages ​​of all the peoples of Siberia. Among all these languages, let us not forget the translation into Church Slavonic in 863. This translation actually created for us writing, Church Slavonic, and the literary language, which brought us the benefits of civilization. From here, with the adoption of Christianity and writing, our civilization began - the civilization of Ancient Rus' and Russia. This is the date of the beginning of our civilization.

Most likely, this means the book: Tolstoy N.I. Language and folk culture: Essays on Slavic mythology and ethnolinguistics. M., 1995.

Most likely, we are talking about the works of Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861–1906), who composed musical fantasies on Russian themes of the folk singer, epic storyteller Trofim Grigorievich Ryabinin.

The oral poetic creativity (folklore) of the ancient Slavs must largely be judged tentatively, since its main works have come down to us in the records of modern times (XVIII-XX centuries).

One might think that the folklore of the pagan Slavs was associated primarily with labor rituals and processes. Mythology emerged at a fairly high stage of development of the Slavic peoples and was a complex system of views based on animism and anthropomorphism.

The Slavs apparently did not have a single higher pantheon like the Greek or Roman, but we know evidence of the Pomeranian (on the island of Rügen) pantheon with the god Svyatovid and the Kiev pantheon.

The main gods in it were considered Svarog - the god of sky and fire, Dazhdbog - the sun god, the giver of blessings, Perun - the god of lightning and thunder, and Veles - the patron of the economy and livestock. The Slavs made sacrifices to them. The spirits of nature among the Slavs were anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, or mixed anthropomorphic-zoomorphic in the images of mermaids, divas, samodivas - goblins, water creatures, brownies.

Mythology began to influence the oral poetry of the Slavs and significantly enriched it. Songs, fairy tales and legends began to explain the origin of the world, humans, animals and plants. They featured wonderful, human-speaking animals - a winged horse, a fiery serpent, a prophetic raven, and man was depicted in his relationships with monsters and spirits.

In the preliterate period, the culture of the artistic word of the Slavs was expressed in works of folklore, which reflected social relations, life and ideas of the communal-tribal system.

An important part of folklore was work songs, which often had a magical meaning: they accompanied rituals associated with agricultural work and the change of seasons, as well as with the most important events in a person’s life (birth, marriage, death).

Ritual songs are based on requests to the sun, earth, wind, rivers, plants for help - for the harvest, for the offspring of livestock, for luck in the hunt. The beginnings of drama arose in ritual songs and games.

The most ancient folklore of the Slavs was diverse in genres. Fairy tales, proverbs and riddles were widely used. There were also toponymic legends, tales about the origin of spirits, inspired by both oral tradition and later traditions - biblical and apocryphal. The most ancient chronicles have preserved the echoes of these legends for us.

Apparently, heroic songs also arose early among the Slavic peoples, which reflected the Slavs’ struggle for independence and clashes with other peoples (when moving, for example, to the Balkans). These were songs in praise of heroes, outstanding princes and ancestors. But the heroic epic was still only in its infancy.

The ancient Slavs had musical instruments, to the accompaniment of which they sang songs. South Slavic and West Slavic written sources mention harp, whistles, pipes, and trumpets.

The ancient oral poetry of the Slavs largely influenced the further development of their artistic culture, but it itself also underwent historical changes.

With the formation of states, the adoption of Christianity and the emergence of writing, new elements entered folklore. Songs, fairy tales and especially legends began to combine old pagan mythology and Christian ideas. Christ, the Mother of God, angels, saints appear next to the witches and divas, and events take place not only on earth, but also in heaven or hell.

On the basis of the worship of Veles, the cult of Saint Blaise arose, and Elijah the Prophet took possession of the thunders of Perun. New Year and summer rituals and songs were Christianized. New Year's rituals were attached to the Nativity of Christ, and summer rituals to the Feast of John the Baptist (Ivan Kupala).

The creativity of peasants and townspeople was somewhat influenced by the culture of feudal circles and the church. Among the people, Christian literary legends were reworked and used to expose social injustice. Rhyme and strophic division gradually penetrated into folk poetic works.

The spread of legendary and fairy-tale stories from Byzantine literature, literature of Western European and Middle Eastern countries in the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Croatian lands was of great importance.

Slovenian folk art already in the 9th-10th centuries. mastered not only literary plots, but also poetic forms, for example the ballad, a genre of Romanesque origin. So, in the 10th century. In the Slovenian lands, a ballad with a tragic plot about the beautiful Vida became popular.

A song about her originated in Byzantium in the 7th-8th centuries. and then through Italy it came to the Slovenians. This ballad tells how an Arab merchant lured the beautiful Vida onto his ship, promising her medicine for a sick child, and then sold her into slavery. But gradually the songs became stronger in terms of motives reflecting reality and social relations (ballads “The Imaginary Dead”, “The Young Groom”).

Songs about a girl’s meeting with overseas knights and the fight against the “infidels” were popular, which was obviously a reflection of the Crusades. The songs also contain traces of anti-feudal satire.

A new and important phenomenon of Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian folk art in the XII-XIV centuries. there was the emergence and development of epic songs. This process went through two stages: first, songs of everyday content arose, reflecting the uniqueness of social relations and life of early feudal society; almost simultaneously with them, heroic songs also emerged.

Subsequently, with the creation and strengthening of the state, with the beginning of the struggle against Byzantium and the Turks, youth heroic songs began to be created and gradually took first place in the epic. They were created by folk singers shortly after the events sung in them.

The South Slavic epic was created with the creative cooperation of all Balkan Slavs, as well as with the participation of individual non-Slavic peoples. The epic songs of the South Slavs are characterized by common plots, which are based on the events of the struggle with neighboring peoples, common heroes, common means of expression and forms of verse (the so-called decasyllable). At the same time, the epic of each nation has its own distinctive features.

The Serbo-Croatian epic is historical at its core. Despite the presence of anachronisms, fantasy and hyperbolization, the texts that have reached us also contain historically correct information. The songs reflected the features of early feudal relations, the political system and culture of that time. In one of the songs Stefan Dusan says:

I curbed the obstinate commander,

Subjected them to our royal power.

The songs express thoughts about the need to maintain state unity and the attention of feudal lords to the people. Stefan Dečanski, dying, bequeaths to his son: “Take care of the people as you do your own head.”

The songs vividly depict feudal life, the relationship between the prince and his squads, campaigns, battles and duels, and military competitions.

The earliest songs, the so-called Dokosovo cycle, are dedicated to the events of the reign of the Serbian princely (from 1159) and then royal (from 1217) Nemanjić dynasty. They have a religious overtones and talk about the “holy deeds” and “righteous life” of the Serbian rulers, many of whom were canonized by the church as saints: the songs condemn feudal strife and civil strife.

Many songs are dedicated to Sava, the founder of the Serbian church. These earliest songs are a valuable cultural monument. They provide a vivid artistic summary of the destinies of their native land, are distinguished by great content of plots and images, and remarkable mastery of the poetic word.

Unlike the folklore of the Eastern and Southern Slavs, the Western Slavs - Czechs, Slovaks and Poles, apparently did not have a heroic epic in such developed forms. However, certain circumstances suggest that heroic songs probably also existed among the Western Slavs. Historical songs were widespread among the Czechs and Poles, and the predecessor of this genre is usually the heroic epic.

In a number of genres of Czech and Polish folklore, especially in fairy tales, one can find plots and motifs typical of other peoples’ heroic epics (combat-duel, getting a bride): certain Western Slavic historical figures became heroes of South Slavic heroic songs, such as Vladislav Varnenchik.

In the historical chronicles of Poland and the Czech Republic (Gall Anonymous, Kozma of Prague, etc.) there are plots and motifs, apparently of epic origin (legends about Libusz, Krak, about the sword of Boleslav the Bold, about the siege of cities). Historiographer Kozma Prazhsky and others testify that they drew some materials from folk legends.

The formation of a feudal state, the idea of ​​the unity of Polish lands and patriotic goals in the fight against foreign invaders determined the popularity of historical legends, the appeal to them by chroniclers, thanks to whom these legends are known to us.

Gall Anonymous indicated that he used the stories of old people; Abbot Peter, the author of the “Book of Henryk” (XIII century), named the peasant Kwerik, nicknamed Kika, who knew many legends about the past of the Polish land, which were used by the author of this book.

Finally, these legends themselves are recorded or retold in the chronicles, for example, about Krak, the legendary ruler of Poland, who is considered the founder of Krakow. He freed his people from a cannibal monster who lived in a hole. Although this motif is international, it has a clear Polish connotation.

Krak dies in the fight with his brothers, but the throne is inherited by his daughter Wanda. The legend about her tells how the German ruler, captivated by her beauty, tried to persuade her to marry with gifts and requests. Having failed to achieve his goal, he started a war against her. From the shame of defeat, he commits suicide, throwing himself on his sword and cursing his compatriots for succumbing to female charms (“Greater Polish Chronicle”).

The winner Wanda, not wanting to marry a foreigner, rushes into the Vistula. The legend about Wanda was one of the most popular among the people. Both its patriotic meaning and the romantic nature of the plot played a role in this. Dynastic legends also include legends about Popel and Piast.

Popel, the Prince of Gniezno, according to legend, died in a tower in Kruszwice, where he was killed by mice; a similar motif is common in medieval literature and folklore. Piast, the founder of the Polish royal dynasty, according to legend, was a peasant charioteer.

The chronicles mention songs in praise of princes and kings, songs about victories, chronicler Vincent Kadlubek talks about “heroic” songs. The “Greater Poland Chronicle” retells the legend about the knight Walter and the beautiful Helgund, which indicates the penetration of the German epic into Poland.

The story about Walter (Valgezh the Udal) from the Popel family tells how he brought the beautiful Helgunda from France, whose heart he won by singing and playing the lute.

On the way to Poland, Walter killed the German prince who was in love with her. Arriving in Poland, he imprisoned Wieslaw, who was plotting against him. But when Walter went on a two-year campaign, Helgunda freed Wieslaw and fled with him to his castle.

Walter, upon returning from the campaign, was put in prison. He was saved by his sister Wieslawa, who brought him a sword, and Walter took revenge on Helgunda and Wieslawa by cutting them into pieces. Literary historians suggest that the legend about Walter and Helgund goes back to the poem about Walter of Aquitaine, which was brought to Poland by the Shpilmans, participants in the Crusades.

However, in Polish folklore there were tales that were original works in plot, type of characters and form.

Chronicles and other sources attest to the existence of songs about historical heroes and events. These are songs about the funeral of Boleslav the Bold, songs about Casimir the Renovator, about Boleslav Crooked-mouth, about the latter’s battle with the Pomeranians, songs from the time of Boleslav Crooked-mouth about the attack of the Tatars, songs about the battle of the Poles with the Galician prince Vladimir, songs about Polish knights who fought the pagan Prussians. The report of a 15th century chronicler is extremely valuable.

Jan Dlugosz about the songs about the battle of Zavikhost (1205): “the glades sang of this victory [...] in various kinds of songs that we hear to this day.”

The chronicler noted the emergence of songs shortly after the historical event. At the same time, historical ballads, or thoughts, began to appear. An example would be the thought of Ludgard, the wife of Prince Przemysław II, who ordered her to be strangled in Poznań Castle because of her infertility.

Dlugosz notes that even then a “song in Polish” was composed about this. Thus, Polish folklore is characterized not by heroic songs such as epics and South Slavic youth songs, but by historical legends and historical songs.

History of world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984.

The folk art of the Eastern Slavs represents a huge and special field of study. Within the framework of the general course, we can touch only on its most basic phenomena. The variety of forms of folk art of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and the high artistic perfection of many of their works are such that only a few other peoples of the Soviet Union can compete with them in this regard.

Oral folk art (folklore, folk literature) of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians reveals a complex combination of old, traditional and new forms. Previous folklorists considered oral folk art exclusively as a monument of antiquity, believing that in the modern era, starting with the penetration of capitalism into the countryside, it is doomed to decline and disappearance. But Soviet folklorists have established that this is not true: folk art does not dry out even today; moreover, in the Soviet era, some traditional genres of folklore are revived, imbued with new content, and completely new ones are developed. “Folklore,” says one of the prominent Soviet folklorists, Yu. M. Sokolov, “is an echo of the past, but at the same time the loud voice of the present.”

The traditional genres of East Slavic folklore include: ritual songs, lyrical songs, folk theater, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings and riddles, epic poetry - epics and historical songs, spiritual poems.

Ritual songs are perhaps the oldest type of folk poetry. They accompanied various rituals from the calendar cycle, from Christmas to stubble. Together with these rituals, they arose in a distant era on the basis of the spontaneously materialistic labor attitude of the farmer to the natural environment, but they were also colored by magical ideas. Other ritual songs were associated with family rituals - these are wedding songs, funeral lamentations (lamentations, lamentations); Of the latter, the northern ones are especially interesting. Currently, this ritual poetry, with few exceptions, is a thing of the past.

Lyrical folk poetry is extremely diverse. It is dominated by sad motives generated by the difficult lot of the working people in the past. Love and family songs are distinguished, then songs about conscription and soldiering, about serfdom, burlatsky, coachman, prison, comic-satirical and others. In addition to songs of peasant origin, from the 18th century. Factory worker poetry also began to emerge, which, however, retained close ties with village poetry.

Folk theater was once quite widespread. Among the Eastern Slavs this is mainly a puppet theater,
known in several forms. Among the Russians, the most famous theater is “Petrushki” (puppets worn and moved on the fingers); the main character of the performances is Petrushka, a brave, resourceful, witty hero who enters into a fight with a merchant, a policeman, a doctor and overcomes everyone; in this image the spontaneous protest of the people against social oppression found expression. Ukrainians and Belarusians were better known for another type of theater - the “nativity scene”, where dolls moved through slits in the floor of the stage; The content of the performances were partly church subjects, partly everyday satirical scenes. The third type of theater is “rayok” among the Russians: these are different pictures that were shown to the audience by rewinding between two rollers, and the raeshnik gave humorous rhyming explanations.

Much less widespread was the theater of live actors. Only a few plays of this folk theater are known, which arose around the 18th century: these are “Tsar Maximilian”, “The Boat”, “The Naked Master”, etc.

In the old days in Rus' there were wandering professional actors - the so-called buffoons. But the government and the church persecuted them for satirical speeches against those in power, and already in the 18th century. The buffoons are gone.

The fabulous epic of the Eastern Slavs is extremely rich. It is customary to divide folk tales into types: tales about animals, fairy tales, fairy tales, legends, everyday tales, fairy tales, anecdotes, fairy tales and short stories. Fairy tales with an element of the miraculous are generally more ancient. But the opinion of previous researchers, especially supporters of the mythological school, is erroneous, that at the heart of every fairy tale, and above all, is a myth or religious idea. Soviet folklorists and ethnographers came to the conclusion that the fairy-tale creativity of the people from the very beginning existed independently of religious and mythological ideas, although, of course, there was mutual crossing of both. It is noted that (P. G. Bogatyrev), images of fairy tales among the Eastern Slavs - such as Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, the Firebird - are not found at all in folk beliefs (i.e., the people do not believe in their existence) and, on the contrary, objects of popular belief - goblin, water goblin, brownie, etc. - almost never appear in fairy tales. Fairy tales of everyday content are associated with social themes, often have a satirical overtones and contain almost no elements of fantasy: here there are stories about a priest and his worker (a priest is always depicted with negative traits), about a stupid gentleman and lady, about a soldier, etc. In these In fairy tales, people captured their hostility towards the exploiters and sympathy for the disadvantaged.

Proverbs and sayings are extremely numerous. They also express folk wisdom, popular ideas about morality, and a critical attitude towards the exploitative system. It is known how widely classics of literature used and continue to use folk proverbs, and how often politicians use them in their speeches.

One of the most specific types of Russian folklore is the heroic epic, the so-called epics. Unlike other types of folklore, their distribution is limited: they are preserved almost exclusively in the north - in the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Arkhangelsk, Vologda regions, Pechora, and in some places in Siberia. But by their origin, epics are associated with the ancient centers of Rus' - mainly with Kiev, Novgorod, and less with Moscow. They were created, according to most experts, between the 12th and 17th centuries. Soviet folklorists have established that epics, like other types of folk poetry, are not half-forgotten fragments of antiquity, but still live a full-blooded life, change, and are even enriched with new details. However, the main content of the epics is the exploits of ancient heroes. Of these, the most beloved is the peasant hero Ilya Muromets, next to him stand Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, Volga Svyatoslavich, Mikula Selyaninovich and others. These are the heroes of the Kyiv cycle. Sadko and Vasily Buslaevich especially stand out from the Novgorod cycle. The word “epics” is not popular; it was introduced by folklorists, the first of whom was I. I. Sakharov. People often call these works “antiques.” They are performed by special specialists - “storytellers”, talented singers with enormous memory, because you have to remember thousands of lines of text in a row. The most famous Storytellers are the Ryabinin family, the Kryukov family (Marfa Kryukova, who died in 1954, was an order bearer and a member of the Union of Soviet Writers). Epic poems are sung, and their motifs are often heard in works of Russian classical music.

“Historical songs” are close to epics. They are dedicated to historical figures - Ivan the Terrible, Stepan Razin, Pugachev, etc., and convey historical events more closely. They are usually shorter in size.

Ukrainians also have historical songs. But a special genre of folk historical poetry, the so-called “thoughts,” gained great importance among them. In terms of content, most of the thoughts are devoted to historical events, the struggle of the Ukrainian people with the Tatars, Turks, Poles; but there are also thoughts of everyday content. A characteristic feature of thoughts is the presence in them, along with purely folk art, of elements of bookish and intellectual writing. Dumas were usually sung by blind lyricists, kobza players, and bandura players.

Spiritual poetry is an obsolete form of folk poetry. In the Middle Ages, they reflected the sentiments of dissatisfied sections of the population who adhered to various “heresies”; but subsequently this “heretical” spirit of theirs disappeared. Spiritual poems were sung by various wanderers, blind beggars, and pilgrims who stayed near monasteries. It was a type of religious propaganda that stupefied the consciousness of the people.

But the bulk of the works of traditional East Slavic folklore are of great ideological value. V.I. Lenin treated them with interest. Having familiarized himself with the records of Russian folklore texts, he once said to one of his interlocutors: “What interesting material... I quickly looked through all these books and see that, obviously, there are not enough hands or desire to generalize all this, to look at all this from a socio-political angle . After all, this material could be used to write an excellent study about the aspirations and expectations of the people. Look... in Onchukov’s fairy tales, which I leafed through, there are wonderful places here. This is what our literary historians should pay attention to. This is genuine folk art, so necessary and important for the study of folk psychology in our days."

To modern people, folklore images seem fabulous, fantastic and unreal, and the actions of the heroes are mysterious. This is understandable: after all, when talking about folklore, we are talking about a different level of thinking, about a different representation by a person of the world around him, the roots of which go back to the mythological past.

The word folklore literally translated from English means folk wisdom. This is poetry created by the people and existing among the masses, in which they reflect their work activities, social and everyday life, knowledge of life, nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, the richest world of thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness.

The Slavs created a huge oral literature (wise proverbs and cunning riddles, fairy tales, funny and sad ritual songs, solemn epics chanted to the sound of strings), which became the Dignity and Mind of the people. She established and strengthened his moral character, was his historical memory, the festive clothes of his soul and filled with deep content his entire measured life, flowing according to the customs and rituals associated with his work, nature and the veneration of his fathers and grandfathers.

Unfortunately, too little is devoted to the study of folklore in literature and music lessons in the school curriculum. In this regard, through the integration of subjects, we tried to show the areas of contact between academic disciplines, and through their organic connection, give students an idea of ​​the unity of the world around us. An example of the implementation of integrated tasks is the summary of the lesson “In the world of Slavic folklore” for 6th grade students of a secondary school.

Target:

Show the importance of Slavic folklore in the life of the people;

Tasks:

· education of moral and aesthetic feelings: love for the Motherland, pride in the achievements of domestic musical art, respect for the history and spiritual traditions of Russia;

· formation of the foundations of musical culture through emotionally active perception;

· development of artistic taste, interest in musical art and musical activity;

· implementation of one’s own creative ideas in various types of musical activities (singing and interpretation, musical-plastic movement and improvisation);

· formation of integrity of perception and understanding of the world around us through interdisciplinary connections of literature and music lessons.

Equipment: multimedia equipment, presentation, sound files, folk costumes.

Lesson progress:

Music sounds (Vladimir horns playing)

Literature teacher:

We are entering the amazing and beautiful, mysterious world of folk wisdom - the world of folklore. It contains a fairy tale and a song, a riddle and a proverb... Here they play, sing, tell and listen... Here you can learn a lot, think about a lot, understand a lot...

In ancient times, when people did not yet know how to write, they passed on their knowledge about life to each other, playing games, performing rituals, singing songs...

Each nation had its own songs, rituals, games - its own folklore.

· Question for students:

We have already heard the word “folklore” several times. What does this word “folklore” mean? (Folklore - folk wisdom, folk art.)

We want to learn as much as possible about Russian folklore - the folklore of our ancestors. These were strong, beautiful, kind people. They were attentive to nature, noticed its every movement, and by signs they knew how to properly manage a household.

The life of Russian people has always consisted of a series of everyday life and holidays. Everyday life is a time filled with work and worries. A distinctive feature of everyday life was the routine of domestic existence, moderation in food, simple, comfortable clothing, calm and benevolent relationships, and the isolation of the family world.

A holiday is opposed to everyday life - a time of rest, fun and joy. The alternation of everyday life and holidays was considered a necessary component of the normal course of life, and failures could even lead to the destruction of the world.

There were many holidays a year. They arose in different historical eras.

The most ancient holidays were those associated with the agricultural calendar. They were called calendar or annual holidays, since they lasted throughout the year, ending in late autumn with the completion of the harvest.

The main ones were those that were associated with the four most important natural and astronomical phenomena: the winter and summer solstices, the spring and autumn equinoxes.

Along with the ancient pagan agricultural holidays, there were many holidays of the Orthodox Church in Russian life. They began to be established from the end of the 10th century in Rus' with the adoption of Christianity.

Music teacher:

The most revered by the people were the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity, and Easter.

Among the holidays dating back to the ancient agricultural tradition, Maslenitsa was revered.

Each holiday had its own program, verbal formulas, and songs marked by tradition. The program of holidays also included the performance of rituals and customs of the annual cycle associated with the economic activities of the Russian farmer.

· Question for students:

What does “rite”, “ritual songs” mean?

(Ritual- a set of actions established by custom, in which some religious ideas or everyday traditions of the people are embodied.

Ritual songs- these are songs that were performed during a variety of rituals and were an important component and a necessary part of them).

Music teacher:

Ritual songs are a special musical world. If there are Russian fairy tales, epics, and proverbs, then calling ritual songs Russian is not correct. Their name is SLAVIC ritual songs. This is due to the fact that the baptism of Rus' occurred only in the 10th century, and rituals dedicated to a good harvest, timely rain, and warm sun existed before that. And the territory of Rus' at that time was completely different from what it is now. An analysis of ritual songs from different parts of our country, as well as Ukraine and Belarus, showed the similarity of language and modal and intonation basis.

Ritual songs are closely related to pagan rituals; the main melodic turns and modal basis remain from previous pagan times. Since some pagan deities and rituals were placed in parallel with Christian saints (Perun - Ilya, Velos (Volos) - Vlasiy, Yarilo - Yuri, George), it is quite obvious that the musical basis of such cult pagan songs later influenced the Slavic early Christian cult melos. In particular, the melodies of many chants and chants are intonationally close to the simplest types of church singing of ancient Rus'.

· Question for students:

What types of ritual songs do you know? (calendar, family and church)

Literature teacher:

The attitude of Russians towards the holiday was extremely serious.

“We work all day for the holiday.” “At least pawn everything and celebrate Maslenitsa.” “Life without a holiday is like food without bread,” the peasants liked to say.)

Russian people believed that any holiday requires respect.

Autumn holidays of the Russian peasant agricultural calendar

dedicated to summing up the results of the working year. In other words, it is a harvest festival.

Music teacher:

Among them are the holidays associated with the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Students tell the story of the origin of the Intercession holiday.

Music teacher:

In the popular consciousness, the Most Holy Theotokos is a loving Mother for all people, Defender, Comforter, Intercessor. Her image is closely connected with the image of the “mother of the damp earth-nurse”, her native land and, ultimately, with the image of the Motherland. The church hymns “To the Virgin Mary” performed by the brothers from the Valaam Monastery and “To Your Most Holy Image” are performed by the children’s choir of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos (Novosibirsk). Students analyze musical fragments and make comparative analyses.

An interesting feature of the autumn rituals was that they did not coincide with the usual calendar. Autumn rituals began already in August from the beginning of the harvest. Each ritual had its own intonation feature, its own special scale, which was very different from the scale of songs dedicated to other seasons. Many ritual songs are in the nature of chants, chants, built on 3-4 notes and, according to people, have magical powers. The simplest form went to autumn ritual songs. People worked hard, they were tired and they wanted peace and rest. Sometimes autumn ritual songs were called PITY. But they were not always sad.

Students show a dramatization:

Women reapers gathered in the field near the unharvested strip. The eldest, the most respected of the reapers, twisted and twisted the stems of plants so that they touched the ground, in the form of a rope or a wreath, tying them with colored ribbons. The girls dance in a circle and say:

The field is for you to plow,

It’s easy for us!

This year gave birth, and don’t forget next year!

Performing the autumn ritual song “Don’t Scold Autumn.”

(Children with ears of corn read by role)

We stung, we stung,

They stung and reaped, -

We reap the young

Golden sickles,

Niva debt,

Stand wide;

They stung for a month,

The sickles were broken,

Haven't been to the region

We didn't see any people.

And he said rye grain,

Standing in an open field,

Standing in an open field:

I don’t want it, but rye grain,

Yes, stand in the field, yes, stand in the field.

I don’t want it, but rye rye

Yes, standing in the field - waving an ear of corn!

But I want rye grain,

Tie into a bun,

Cuddle into a song

And for me, and rye grain,

Tied into a bun,

They chose rye from me

The decorated last sheaf was carried with songs to the village, where a festive meal was prepared: pies, porridge.

Literature teacher:

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the date of which coincided with the day of the autumnal equinox, was timed to coincide with Osenin (from the word canopy, the place where hay was stored) - the meeting of autumn. Women gathered early in the morning and went out to the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds to meet “Mother Osenina.” This holiday is characterized by hospitality, the visiting of relatives, especially newlyweds, to the parents of the young woman. On these days they sang songs, danced in circles, and held games.

Performance of the song-game “Autumn”

Music teacher:

The topic of Slavic folklore is still relevant today. Many modern composers use quotes from folk ritual music in their works. Sometimes there are works written in a very unexpected style.

Listening to the song “Ovsen” by the group “Nevid”.

At the end of the lesson, after summing up the results, the girls bring out apples, pears, and bagels on a platter and distribute them to students and guests.

The image of the cuckoo in Slavic folklore

A. V. Nikitina Cultural studies Absent

This publication is a study of Russian folklore. The author of the work addresses the topic of zoo- and ornithomorphic symbolism. The subject of specific analysis was the image of the cuckoo, which was subjected to such in-depth study for the first time. The book uses both folklore and ethnographic materials, as a result of which the text was structured according to a functional principle: the first part examines the functions of the cuckoo's messenger and fortune-telling (about marriage, life span), and the second – the function of werewolf.

Deciphering the special zoological code of the cuckoo will provide the key to understanding controversial issues in the formation of ethical and aesthetic criteria inherent in ethnic consciousness. The book is intended for culturologists, teachers, students and everyone interested in folklore issues.

Ethel Voynich Foreign adventures Gadfly

Ethel Lilian Voynich (1864–1960) - English writer, daughter of the prominent English scientist and professor of mathematics George Boole. Having married V.M. Voynich, a Polish writer and revolutionary who moved to England, Voynich found herself among the radical Russian and Polish emigration.

In 1887–1889 lived in Russia, from 1920 - in New York. She acted as a translator of Russian literature and poems by T. Shevchenko into English. Voynich’s best work is the revolutionary novel “The Gadfly” (1897), which became one of the favorite books of young people in Russia.

Other Voynich novels are “Jack Raymond” (1901), “Olivia Latham” (1904), “Interrupted Friendship” (1910, in Russian translation “The Gadfly in Exile”, 1926), “Take Off Your Shoes” (1945) – retain the same rebellious spirit, but are much less popular. Voynich also wrote works on Slavic folklore and music.

She is the author of several musical compositions. This volume publishes the novel “The Gadfly,” dedicated to the liberation struggle of the Italian people in the 30s and 40s. XIX century against Austrian rule. Its main character, Arthur Burton, nicknamed the Gadfly, is a man of strong and integral feelings.

He passionately loves life, but despite this, he goes to his death, because an idea is more valuable to him than life.

Linguistic tasks

B.Y. Norman Educational literature Absent

The manual includes more than 1,200 original linguistic problems based on material primarily from Russian, as well as Western European (English, German, French, Spanish) and foreign Slavic languages. Particular attention is paid to the “speech environment” of a person: colloquial speech, folklore, fiction, etc.

n. Many tasks are entertaining. The presented tasks are grouped into the following seven sections: “The nature of language. Language as a system of signs”, “Functioning of language in society”, “Phonetics and phonology”, “Lexicology”, “Grammar”, “Typological and genealogical classification of languages”, “Writing, spelling, punctuation”.

For students, graduate students, teachers of philological faculties of universities and pedagogical institutes.

Skomoroshins

Collection Russian classics Absent

Humor and satire have occupied a significant place in the life of Russian people at all times: skomoroshins, the Petrushka Theater, bear fun, rayok, folk satirical performances, anecdotes, boring fairy tales - all these folklore works have entertained both old and young for centuries.

Outstanding researchers of folk art have preserved examples of it, thanks to which we have the opportunity to get acquainted with them. The book contains works of satirical folklore, as well as riddles, refrains and tales about the characters of Slavic mythology - brownies, goblins, kikimoras, recorded in the 19th century by such famous folklorists as A.

Afanasyev, S. Maksimov, A. Gilferding, and others.

Space and time in language and culture

Team of authors Cultural studies

The book is devoted to two key categories of language and culture and continues a series of publications developing the problems of the symbolic language of the traditional culture of the Slavs: see “The Concept of Movement in Language and Culture” (1996), “The Sounding and Silent World. Semiotics of sound and speech in the traditional culture of the Slavs" (1999), "Feature space of culture" (2002), "Category of kinship in language and culture" (2009).

Most of the articles in this and previous editions belong to the authors of the ethnolinguistic dictionary “Slavic Antiquities”, created according to the plan and under the general editorship of N. I. Tolstoy (T. 1. 1995; T. 2. 1999; T. 3. 2004; T. 4 . 2009; T. 5. In print). Methods of conceptualizing space and time are discussed in this book on the material of different Slavic languages ​​and cultural traditions and different genres of folk culture - rituals and customs (wedding, funeral and memorial complex, customs associated with the birth of a child, magical operations with calendar time, time regulations of weaving , folk demonology), folklore texts (lamentations, fairy tales, “small” genres of folklore, etc.

The book is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of academician Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy (1923–1996), one of the outstanding representatives of Slavic science of the second half of the 20th century. Articles by domestic and foreign authors are thematically related to one area of ​​N.’s activity.

I. Tolstoy, namely with Slavic ethnolinguistics - a discipline created by him in the 70s and studying language and traditional spiritual culture in their inextricable connection. The collection consists of four sections. The first examines traditional ideas related to folk cosmology and demonology, folk botany, as well as the semantics and symbolism of calendar and family rituals, everyday practices, clothing items, etc.

The second section includes articles on mythology and folklore, on the history, structure and symbolism of individual texts and genres (conspiracies, legends, funeral laments). The third section combines articles on the semantics and cultural functions of vocabulary (somatic, mythological, everyday) and ritual terminology (wedding, calendar).

The fourth section publishes excerpts from the field notes of N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie and part of his correspondence with Slavists from different countries. The collection is addressed to both specialists and a wide range of readers interested in the traditional spiritual culture of the Slavic peoples.

Included in the golden fund of Russian philology, the book has not been reprinted in Russia since 1861 and has long become a rarity. It will still find its reader, not only among humanities specialists or as a textbook in higher educational institutions, but also among all those who are passionate about ancient Russian literature, writing, language and folklore.

The appendix contains articles by A. I. Sobolevsky, A. A. Shakhmatov and I. N. Zhdanov from the collection “Four speeches about F. I. Buslaev” (St. Petersburg, 1898), dedicated to the memory of the scientist.

Scourge of God. God's Sign (collection)

Ivan Kondratyev 19th century literature Russia is sovereign

Ivan Kuzmich Kondratyev (real patronymic Kazimirovich; 1849–1904) - poet, prose writer, playwright. Born in the village. Kolovichi of Vileika district in a peasant family. He published his poems, stories, and novels in “Russkaya Gazeta”, “News of the Day”, in the magazines “Moscow Review”, “Sputnik”, “Russia” and many others.

Joke plays, dramas from folk life, historical stories, and poems were published in separate publications in Moscow. The song folklore includes the romance “These eyes are dark nights” and other songs and romances by Kondratiev. It is assumed that he owns the original text of the Russian folk song “On the wild steppes of Transbaikalia”.

This volume presents two works by Kondratieff. The novel “The Scourge of God” shows events from the history of the ancient Slavs. The writer offers a non-trivial look at the history of the Huns and the personality of their leader Attila. In the novel, the Huns are shown as one of the branches of the Slavic tribe of the Wends.

The author does not build new historical theories, but only gives a fictional reconstruction of the events of the distant past based on conclusions borrowed from the writings of some Western medieval historians who accepted the Slavs and Huns as one people. The story “God's Sign” takes the reader to the 19th century, during the Patriotic War with Napoleon.