Russian Fairy Tales Essay Research Paper Due

Russian Fairy Tales Essay, Research Paper

Due: December 1, 1997

Russian Fairy Tales

Fairy tales, myths and folklore are all types of literature that teach us about the history and the culture of other countries. Hundreds of fairy tales have been published around the world including works by Hans Christan Andersen, Charles Dickens and John Ruskin. A lot can be learned about the traditions and values of people through fairy tales. The Russian fairy tales teach us the characteristics of the Russian people for hundreds of years. .According to Alexander Afenasiev the proper folk tale has a true Russian basis while personal traits and beliefs have been added as ornamentation. ( Forney, pg. 1)

Russian fairy tales usually give animals human traits, features and characteristics. For example, in the story .Little Sister Fox and Brother Wolf,. an old man is on his way home from fishing and finds a fox which he thinks is dead. He puts the fox in his bag. The fox eats his fish and causes a lot of problems on the man.s way home. The story ends with the fox tricking everyone, getting the best food and a nice place to sleep. This story reminds me of the cartoons children watch on TV like Yogi Bear where he gets away with tricking everyone to get their picnic basket or Woody Woodpecker who gets away with all his tricks.

Fairy tales tell stories about familes and other groups of people. They are suposed to teach morals and what happens if you act right or wrong. Fairy tales educate people on being fair and caring for others. They also warn people on the conswquences of doing evil things. My paper will demonstrate how some of the Russian Fairy tales are used to illustrate these charateristics.

Russian fairly tales tell about the importance of families. .In the Daughter and the Stepmother. a wicked stepmother convinces her husband to put their daughter in the woods. She is kind to a little mouse who helped her win a cartful of great things. When the father returned and saw all the things the girl had sent his other daughter who was cruel to the mouse so she was eaten by a bear.

Ghost stories were also popular Russia. The Russian peasants believed that a persons spirit either remained in the casket or above their former home. This belief has been shown in many Russian fairy tales like the findler in Hell.

Russian fairy tales also emphasize certain numbers which are sacred and symbolic. The number three appears again and again in these tales because it stands for the Holy Trinity.

Russian fairy tales also involve witches and wizards and other mystical characters like kings and princes. Most wizards and witches make pacts with evil spirits which allows them to have strange powers. Of all the witches in Russian fairy tales Baba Yaga is the most famous one who has been in hundreds of Russian stories.

Baba Yaga is sort of a Russian equivalent of the fairy godmother and Freddie Krueger all rolled up into one. Baba Yaga has become one of the most known characters in Russian folk tales. She is believed to have a horrifying appearance. She is aged, ugly and looks like a skeleton and sometimes is called Baba-Yaga Bony Leg. Her nose is long and her teeth are sharp. .She lives in a small hut in the forest and for transportation she flies around on a mortar at high speed across the forest floor by steering the pestle with her right hand and sweeping away all traces with her broom in her left hand. ( Vilenskya, pg. 3)

Baba Yaga is believed to be connected to the dead for many reasons. Her hut is built deep in the forest on chicken bones and she has a white picket fence covered with skulls. In all Baba Yaga legends she offers all the heroes something to drink. While treating a guest to food she usually gives them special, magical foods or drinks intended for the dead.

Baba Yaga is usually thought of as being a cruel witch like character but there are really two Baba Yadas, a good one and a bad one. There have been many folk stories about both the good Baba Yaga and the bad Baba Yaga; a few include .Lubacheva., .The Feather of Bright Finist the Falcon., and .Vassilissan Golden Tress., the .Bareheaded Beauty..

In the first story there was a man whose wife died and left him with a young daughter named Lubachka. Her father loved her but traveled a lot so he remarried hoping she would be Lubacka.s second mom. Whenever the father was around the stepmother she was nice but mistreated Lubachka when he was gone. One day she ordered Lubachka to go into the woods and go to her stepmother.s sister.s house to get a special needle. On the way Lubachka stopped at her real aunt.s house who told her that she was being sent to see Baba Yaga a horrible witch who ate children. Her aunt gave her a red ribbon, a bottle of sunflower oil, a loaf of bread and a piece of ham.

When she got to the house she saw an old hag weaving a loom. Baba Yaga smiles and tells her to wait while her cat watches Lubachk and the maid prepared a bath. Lubachk bribed the maid to put the fire out by giving her a kerchief. She bribed the cat with her aunt.s ham, and used Baba Yaga.s magical comb and blanket to escape. As she ran away she threw the bread to the dogs and as she arrived at the gate it swung shut but she oiled it with the sunflower oil and it opened. Then the trees tried to grab her so she tied them together with her Aunt.s ri