What does "Russian Siberian fairy tale" mean? Is this a special fairy tale, different from those that existed in the European part of Russia or in the Russian North? Of course not. Any fairy tale has its roots in deep antiquity, in a pre-class society, when nations and nationalities had not yet formed. This is one of the reasons many fairy tales are international.

“To some extent, a fairy tale is a symbol of the unity of peoples. Nations understand each other in their fairy tales, ”wrote the remarkable researcher of the fairy tale V.Ya. Propp. The tale is structurally incredibly stable, it is anonymous, it has no authors. It is a collective product. Folklore has recorded the names of unique storytellers, but not authors.

A fairy tale, like other folklore genres - songs, riddles, proverbs, legends, legends, epics - came to Siberia together with the pioneers and settlers from beyond the Urals. “Going to a new homeland, the settlers took with them, as a treasured heritage of their ancestors, beliefs, fairy tales and songs about epics of the past,” wrote one of the first collectors and researchers of Siberian folklore S.I. Gulyaev. He believed that "beliefs, fairy tales and songs" are common to the entire Russian people "throughout the immeasurable space of the Russian land", "but there are almost more of them in Siberia than in all other places."

These lines refer to 1839, but such a view was not typical for many researchers, ethnographers, fiction writers - researchers who wrote about Siberia. The look at the tradition of oral poetry in Siberia was, rather, directly opposite until the end of the 19th century.

The specifics of the Siberian fairy tale

First of all, it must be said that a fairy tale, especially a magical one, is very difficult to undergo any significant changes. You can read dozens of fairy tales recorded in Siberia, but you still cannot determine either the place or the time of their recording.

Nevertheless, the Russian Siberian fairy tale has certain specific features. These features are determined by the specifics of Siberian life, the economic life of the past. The tale reflects the worldview of its bearers. The very preservation of the fairytale tradition in Siberia, especially in the taiga village, is explained by the presence here of a relatively archaic way of life in the recent past. Lack of roads, almost complete isolation of many settlements from the outside world, hunting life, artisanal work, lack of education, secular book tradition, remoteness from cultural centers - all this contributed to the preservation of traditional folklore in Siberia.

Siberia from the end of the 16th century became a place of exile, this also left an imprint on the fairytale tradition. Many storytellers were exiles, settlers, or vagabonds who paid with a fairy tale for lodging and refreshments. Hence, by the way, one very striking feature of the Siberian fairy tale is the complexity of the composition, the multi-plot nature. The tramp, who wanted to stay with the hosts who had sheltered him longer, had to try to captivate them with a long tale that would not have ended before dinner, would not have ended in one evening, or even two, three or more. The storytellers, who were invited to the artel work especially for the entertainment of the artel workers, did the same. They often combined several plots in one story so that the tale would be told all night or several evenings in a row. The storytellers were especially respected by the artel workers, they were specially allocated a part of the production or proceeds.

The details of local life penetrate into the Siberian fairy tale. Her hero, often a hunter, ends up not in a fairy-tale forest, but in the taiga. He does not come to a hut on chicken legs, but to a hunting winter quarters. In a Siberian fairy tale, there are the names of Siberian rivers, villages, a particular locality, the motive of vagrancy, wandering is typical. In general, the Siberian fairy tale is part of the all-Russian fairytale wealth and belongs to the East Slavic fairytale tradition.

An analysis of some of the plots of the fairy tale will help to better understand on what basis and why such plots arose in the fairy tale tradition. It should be remembered that the tale is included in the system of folklore genres; in isolation, it does not exist by itself. The genres of folklore are interconnected by a multitude of sometimes subtle connections, and it is an important task for a researcher to discover and show them. I have taken one of the aspects of folklore - secret speech and fairy tales associated with it.

Most of the fairy tale plots, especially the fairy tale telling about the “distant kingdom, the thirty-tenth state” and various miracles, are incomprehensible to the reader. Why in the fairy tale it is precisely those, and not other heroes, wonderful assistants who act and why does everything happen in this way and not otherwise? Even the dialogues of the characters sometimes seem too exotic, far-fetched. For example, in the fairy tale "The Rich and the Beggar" it is not clear why the master needs to call the cat "clarity", the fire "redness", the tower "high", and the water "grace":

A beggar came to a rich man to be hired as workers. The rich agreed to take him on condition that he guessed the riddles given to him. Shows the rich beggar a cat and asks:
- What's this? - Cat.- No, it's clarity.
Shows rich on fire and says:
- And what's that? - Fire.- No, it's red.
Indulges in the attic:
- And what's that? - Tower.- No, height.
Indicates water:
- And what's that? - Water.- Grace, you did not guess.
The beggar went from the yard, and the cat followed him. The beggar took it and set fire to her tail. The cat ran back, jumped into the attic, and the house took over. The people came running, and the beggar returned, and he said to the rich:
- Your clarity brought redness to the height, grace will not help - you will not own a house.

Such tales need to be specially investigated, looking for those representations in the real life of the past with which the tale is closely connected. The overwhelming majority of fairy-tale motives find their explanation in the life and ideas about the world of a person of past eras.

The tale "The rich and the beggar" also has its own explanation. There is no doubt that it is associated with the so-called "secret speech." But before talking about this, it is necessary to make one remark. When we want to penetrate into the nature of folklore or ancient literature, for example, trying to understand the origins of a particular plot, image, we must first of all abstract ourselves from all modern ideas about the world. Otherwise, you can come to the wrong conclusions.

A fairy tale is a product of past eras and the worldview of the past. Proceeding from this, it is necessary to "decipher" the tale. Ancient man's ideas about the world were very special. Ancient man even laughed “wrong” and not for the reason we laugh now. And who of us would think that swinging on a swing or rolling down an ice slide has its own secret meaning, something other than a fun festive entertainment?

The life of an ancient man was strictly regulated by a rite, tradition, filled with many different prescriptions and prohibitions. There was, for example, a ban on pronouncing certain names or titles under certain circumstances. Ancient man had a completely different attitude to the word. The word for him was part of what it meant. J. Fraser writes about this in his work "The Golden Branch":

“Primitive man, not being able to distinguish clearly between words and things, as a rule, imagines that the connection between a name and a person or the thing that it denotes is not an arbitrary and ideal association, but real, materially tangible bonds that connected them so closely that it is as easy to exert a magical effect on a person through the name as through hair, nails or other part of his body. Primitive man considers his name to be an essential part of himself and takes proper care of him. "

The name had to be kept secret, it was pronounced only in certain situations. Having learned the name of the enemy, it was possible to harm him through magic and witchcraft: "The natives have no doubt that, having learned their secret names, a foreigner received an opportunity to harm him through magic," writes Frazer. Therefore, many ancient peoples had the custom of giving two names: one real, which was kept in deep secrecy, the second was known to everyone. Witchcraft supposedly worked only when using the real name.

J. Frazer gives an example of how a person convicted of theft was corrected in the Kaffir tribe. To fix a thief, "you just need to shout his name over a boiling cauldron of healing water, cover the cauldron with a lid and leave the thief's name in the water for several days." Moral revival was assured to him.

Another example of magical belief in the word concerns the custom of the Bangal Negroes from the Upper Congo. When a member of this tribe “fishes or comes back from the catch, his name is temporarily banned. Everyone calls the fisherman mwele no matter what his real name is. This is done because the river is replete with spirits, which, having heard the real name of the fisherman, can use it to prevent him from returning with a good catch. Even after the catch has landed on shore, buyers continue to call the fisherman mwele. After all, the spirits - as soon as they hear his real name - will remember him and either settle accounts with him the next day, or spoil the already caught fish so much that he will help out a little for it. Therefore, the fisherman has the right to receive a large fine from anyone who calls him by name, or to force this frivolous chatterbox to buy all the catch at a high price in order to restore good luck in the fishery. "

Such ideas were characteristic, obviously, for all ancient peoples. They were afraid to pronounce not only the names of people, but in general any names of creatures and objects with which the corresponding representations were associated. In particular, prohibitions on pronouncing the names of animals, fish, and birds were widespread. These prohibitions were explained by man's anthropomorphic ideas about nature.

Comparison is at the heart of human cognition. Knowing the world, a person compares objects, phenomena, identifies common and distinctive features. The first idea of ​​a person is an idea of ​​oneself, awareness of oneself. If people can move, speak, understand, hear, see, then in the same way they can hear, see, understand fish, and birds, and animals, and trees - all nature, space. Man revives the world around him. Anthropomorphism - assimilation of the surrounding world to man - is a necessary step in the development of mankind, in the development of his ideas about the world around him.

Anthropomorphic representations and the verbal prohibitions that arose on their basis among the East Slavic peoples were also recorded. Russian traveler and explorer of the 18th century. S.P. Krasheninnikov in his book "Description of the Land of Kamchatka" (1755) reports on the remains of an ancient secret speech among Russian hunters. S.P. Krasheninnikov writes that the elder in the sable trade “orders”, “to hunt in truth, they would not hide anything about themselves ... also so that, according to the custom of their ancestors, the crow, snake and cat should not be called by direct names, but called riding, thin and baked. Industrialists say that in previous years, in the trades, many more things were called strange names, for example: a church - with an open-top, a woman - with a husk or white-headed, a girl - a simple one, a horse - long-tailed, a cow - a roar, a sheep - thin-legged, a pig - low-looking, a rooster - barefoot. " The industrialists considered the sable a smart beast and, if the ban was violated, they believed that it would harm and would not be caught again. For violation of the ban, they were punished.

The question of verbal prohibitions among hunters was analyzed by D.K. Zelenin in his work "Taboo of words among the peoples of Eastern Europe and North Asia" (1929-1930). He considers that the basis for the prohibitions of hunters and fishermen is “first of all, the confidence of the primitive hunter that animals and game that understand the human language hear at very great distances - they hear not only everything that the hunter says in the forest on the hunt, but often what he says at home when he is going fishing.

Learning from the conversations of the hunter his plans, the animals flee, as a result of which the hunt becomes unsuccessful. To prevent such unpleasant consequences, the hunter first of all avoids pronouncing the names of animals ... So it became forbidden for hunting the proper names of game animals.

It is not surprising that the church is mentioned as a forbidden word among Russian hunters. Until recently, the Eastern Slavs retained many pagan ideas dating back to pre-Christian history, pre-class society. Pagan beliefs coexisted with Christian ones until modern times, but not peacefully and harmlessly, but rather antagonistically. Widespread persecution of traditional folk holidays, games, amusements, etc. by the Russian Church is known. This did not pass without a trace for folk art, including fairy tales. Demonological pagan creatures oppose Christian characters in folklore - this is the result of the struggle of the Russian church with popular beliefs. “Mountain father,” A.A. Misyurev about the beliefs of the miners of the Urals, - is the antipode of the Orthodox God and the worst enemy of church rites. " “I am the same person as everyone else, only there is no cross on me, my mother cursed me,” writes D.K. Zelenin.

After the adoption of Christianity, mermaids, for example, began to be thought of as girls who died unbaptized; the images of the goblin, the brownie, the devil, the demon often acquire similar features - a kind of general demonological image is formed. Christ never laughs, in medieval Moscow there was even a ban on laughter, and in stories, laughter is a sign of evil spirits. The mermaid kills people with laughter, tickling. Laughter is a sign of a devil, devil. With shrieks and laughter, creatures born from the devil's relationship with a mortal woman disappear from the eyes. There are a lot of interesting couplings here that need to be specifically investigated.

Naturally, the Russian hunter in the taiga, in the forest was afraid to mention the Christian God or other characters of the Holy History, the church, the priest. By doing this, he could anger the owners of the forest, hurt himself in a successful hunt, and therefore hid his intentions. Hence the well-known saying "no fluff, no feather", which was uttered before the hunter went to the hunt.

Likewise, a Christian was afraid to mention the name of the devil, to swear, especially in front of icons or in a church, this was the greatest sacrilege. In folklore, there are many stories in which the devil, the goblin appear immediately after the mention of their names and do what they were asked about, willingly or unwillingly.

The secret speech was brought to us not only by a fairy tale, but also by a riddle. And in the riddle, she was reflected most fully. Try to solve the riddle:

Rynda digs, skinda rides,
Thurman rides, will eat you.

In this case, the answer is a pig, a hare and a wolf. Answers to such riddles need to be known in advance, they are associated with secret speech. There is no doubt that riddles were taught secret speech, substitute words. Riddles were made at special evenings, and young, inexperienced members of the community, guessing them, learned the secret speech. Here are some more examples of such riddles:

Shuru-muru came,
He took away the chiki-bryki,
Myakinniki saw
The habitants were told:
The shura-muru people have caught up,
Chiki-bryki were taken away.
(Wolf, sheep, pig, man)
I went on tuk-tuk-that,
Took taf-taf-tu with me,
And I found it on the snore-takh-tu;
If it weren't taf-taf-ta,
Snoring-tah-ta would eat me.

(Translation: "I went hunting, took a dog with me, found a bear ...")

Only with the widespread existence of secret speech could such riddles exist. Now children and elderly people know riddles and fairy tales. It is an entertaining genre. In ancient times, the mystery was a much more serious genre. In Russian fairy tales and songs, the hero's life or the fulfillment of what he wants, for example, a wedding, often depends on whether the hero can guess the riddle.

In the famous ancient legend, the sphinx - a monster with the head and breast of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird - posed a riddle to travelers and killed everyone who could not guess it: “Which living creature walks on four legs in the morning, two on three? " The Sphinx, located on a mountain near Thebes, killed many residents of the city, including the son of King Creon. The king announced that he would give the kingdom and his sister Jocasta as a wife to the one who would rid the city of the Sphinx. Oedipus guessed the riddle, after which the sphinx threw himself into the abyss and crashed.

Guessing the riddle is obviously associated with a special attitude to the word, with the magic of the word. Guessing and guessing riddles is a kind of duel. The one who does not guess is defeated.

There are stories in which a competition in guessing riddles takes place between evil spirits and a person who will only live if they guess the riddles. Here is an example of such a story recorded in the Altai Territory:

“Three girls gathered to bewitch. Near the house, where they were spellbound, lay a lost horse. Suddenly the horse jumped up and ran. She ran up to the house and began to ask for a hut. The girls got scared and turned to their grandmother. Grandmother put cups on their heads, went to the door and said to the horse: "If you guess the riddles that I ask you, I will let you into the house, if not, then no." The first riddle: "What in the world for three braids?" The horse didn't guess. The grandmother said the answer: "The first is a girl's, the second is at the rooster, the third is a mowing one." The second riddle: "What in the world for three arcs?" The horse didn't guess. The answer was this: the first is a harness, the second is a rainbow, and the third is an arc near the boiler. The horse was forced to leave. "

There is nothing exotic in this plot, it follows from the superstitious ideas of the people. It is possible to get rid of the dead horse only by resorting to the magic of the word, to the riddle.

Let us recall The Tale of Bygone Years, the legend about Princess Olga's revenge against the Drevlyans for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor. Wise Olga, as it were, calls the Drevlyans to a duel, which they do not know about, and this is predetermined by their death. The princess speaks allegorically, her words have a hidden meaning. Olga offers them the honor (they, like matchmakers, will be carried in the boat) and asks them to say: "We are not riding either on horses, or on carts and on foot, we are not going, but carry us in the boat." These words symbolize the funeral rite. The dead man does everything differently from the living one, which is indicated by the riddle: "I washed myself in the wrong way, dressed in the wrong way, and sat down in the wrong way, and went wrong, I sat down in a bump, I couldn't leave." Or: "I am driving, I am not driving, I am not driving with a whip, I drove into a bump, I cannot leave in any way." The answer is “funeral”.

In a fairy tale, the bride or groom often performs the difficult task of appearing "neither on foot, nor on a horse, nor naked or dressed." They unravel the secret meaning of this task, and everything ends happily - with a wedding. Olga's matchmakers do not understand the meaning of what is happening. The symbols of the funeral rite are used twice: the Drevlyans wash themselves and feast on their own death.

Russian folk song has preserved for us the motives of matchmaking - making riddles. For example, the song "Tavleynaya Game". The good fellow and the girl are playing tavlei (chess):

The fellow played about three ships,
And the girl played about a violent head.
Already, how the girl beat the young man,
The girl won three ships.
The good fellow grieves about his ships, the red maiden calms him:
Do not be sad, do not twist, good fellow,
Perhaps your three ships will turn
Like me, red girl, you will take for yourself:
Your ships for me as a dowry.

The ceremony does not end there either: as expected, the young man makes riddles to the girl:

I make a riddle for the girl
Cunning, wise, unrepentant:
Oh, what do we have, girl, burns without fire?
Does it burn without fire and fly without wings?
Does it fly without wings and runs without legs?
The girl replies:
Without fire, our red sun burns,
And without wings, a terrible cloud flies,
And without legs, our mother is a fast river.

Next riddle:

I have a cook boyfriend,
So will he take you for himself!
What will the soul of the red maiden say:

The riddle is not tricky, not wise,
Not cunning, not wise, only disgusting:
I already have a goose girl,
Is she really going to go for you!

The competition was won, the girl gained the upper hand, showed her wisdom. It is remarkable that here the bride, as in general in the Russian rite of matchmaking, is called not directly, but allegorically.

Let's return once more to the secret speech. Consider a fairy tale in which she is very vividly presented - "Terem flies". In this fairy tale, first of all, what is interesting is how insects and animals call themselves.

“A man was driving with pots, he lost a big jug. A fly flew into the jug and began to live and live in it. The day lives, the other lives. A mosquito has arrived and is knocking:
- Who is in the mansion, who is in the tall?
- I'm a fly-hype; and who are you?
- And I'm a squeaky mosquito.
- Come live with me.
So they began to live together. "

Then a mouse comes - "from around the corner hmysten", then a frog - "on the water balagta", then a hare - "a bundle on the field", a fox - "beauty on the field", a dog - "gam-gum", a wolf - "from - for the bushes hap "and finally the bear -" forest oppression ", which" sat down on a jug and crushed everyone. "

It is remarkable that the riddle also brings to us such metaphorical names. A bear in a riddle - "everyone is oppressed", a hare - "a strand across the path", a wolf - "from behind a bush, a snatch", a dog - "taf-taf-ta".

Let us turn again to the fairy tale "The Rich and the Beggar" and its connection with the secret speech. Now this connection is clear enough. However, it is necessary to make one more very important remark. We talked about a sacred attitude to secret speech, a very serious attitude, based on absolute belief in the need to use such speech in life, in its connection with the magic of the word. A fairy tale, on the other hand, is a genre based on pure fiction; there is no connection between the events of the fairy tale and modern reality. Secret speech, the magic of the word is parodied in a fairy tale, its use is subject to fairy canons.

The fairy tale "The Rich and the Beggar" is characterized, first of all, by the social opposition of the characters: the beggar and the rich. Initially, the rich gains the upper hand, laughs at the poor. He owns the secret speech, he is initiated into it. The rich ask riddles to the beggar. The beggar guessed nothing, the rich laughed at him, did not accept him as a worker.

But according to the laws of a fairy tale, the rich cannot triumph over the poor. So it happens here: the beggar took revenge on the rich, he turned out to be smarter than him. It all ends with a joke, a funny pun. In this joke, there is not only a typical fairy-tale ending, but laughter is also heard at the tradition of the most secret speech, at the belief in the magic of the word. Here is the riddle from which this tale was born:

Darkness to lightness
Carried to the height
And grace was not at home.

(Cat, spark, roof, water).

The secret speech is parodied in the tales of the cunning soldier (Russian folk satirical tales of Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1981. № 91-93). The tale "For a rainy day" was recorded among all East Slavic peoples, including several versions - in Siberia. Its plot is as follows:

“There were two old people who worked all their lives without straightening their backs. They saved up pennies for a rainy day. Once the old man went to the market, and a soldier came to see his grandmother. The grandmother thought it was a “rainy day”. The soldier took all the money and begged for another 25 rubles - he sold the "Solinets" to the old woman. He took an iron tooth from a harrow out of his pocket and said:

- That's what you are cooking, then stir with this salt and say: “Salt, salt, the old man will come from the market, put it in your bag, you will lads will be for you flippers! Solono will be! ""

How the fairy tale ended - one can assume. The comic effect is enhanced by the fact that the soldier speaks in an allegorical, secret speech, and the old woman does not understand him. It is the same in the next tale. The first to ask riddles this time is the old woman. She didn't feed two soldiers.

“Here one soldier went out into the yard, released the cattle into the threshing floor, into sheaves of bread, came and said:
- Baushka, the cattle have entered the threshing floor.
- And you, by any chance, did not release the cattle?
The old woman went to the threshing floor to drive out the cattle, and the soldiers had time to make their own prey: they looked into the pot in the oven, pulled a rooster out of it, and put the bast shoe. An old woman comes, sat down on a chair and said:
- Guess the riddle, I'll give you something to eat.
- Well, guess.
She says to them:
- Kurukhan Kurukhanovich is being cooked under the pan.
“No, grandma, Plet Pletukhanovich is being cooked under the pan, and Kurukhan Kurukhanovich has been transferred to Sumin-gorod”.

The old woman did not understand that she was deceived and let the soldiers go, giving them one more piece of bread. She "guessed" the riddle only when, instead of a rooster, she pulled bast shoes out of the pot. In another version of the tale of the same collection, Kurukhan Kurukhanovich from the city of Pechinsk is transferred to the city of Suminsk.

Such tales are close to a joke and perform the same function as it - they ridicule not only human greed and stupidity, but also parody the rite. Serious becomes funny and hilarious. This is the path of any tradition, any rite associated with beliefs in magical power. In ancient times, the ritual of swinging on a swing was associated with the belief in the connection between swinging up, throwing objects and growing vegetation. The church forbade this rite. Those who crashed on the swing were buried without a funeral service, often not in the cemetery, but next to the swing. In the same way, skiing from the ice slide of the newlyweds to Shrovetide was supposed to ensure fertility and future harvest.

Karl Marx in his work "Tragic and Comic in Real History" has wonderful words: "History acts thoroughly and goes through many phases, when it takes an obsolete form of life to the grave. The last phase of the world-historical form is its comedy. The gods of Greece, who were already once - in a tragic form - mortally wounded in Aeschylus' Chained Prometheus, had to die once again - in a comic form - in Lucian's Conversations. Why is history like this? This is necessary so that humanity can cheerfully part with its past. "

We are talking about the law of the development of the history of mankind, the understanding of which gives a lot for understanding the process of development of culture, including for understanding the folklore process.

Altai fairy tales

Scary guest

Once upon a time there was a badger. During the day he slept, at night he went hunting. One night a badger was hunting. Before he had time to get enough, the edge of the sky had already brightened.

Before the sun, a badger hurries to get into its hole. Without showing himself to people, hiding from the dogs, he walked where the shadow is thicker, where the earth is blacker.

The badger came up to his dwelling.

Hrr ... Brr ... - suddenly he heard an incomprehensible noise.

"What?"

Sleep jumped out of the badger, the fur stood on end, the heart almost broke the ribs with a knock.

"I have never heard such noise ..."

Hrrr ... Firrlit-few ... Brrr ...

“I’ll go back to the forest as soon as possible, I’ll call for clawed animals like me: I alone don’t agree to die for everyone here.”

And the badger went to call all the clawed animals living in Altai for help.

Oh, I have a terrible guest in my hole! Help! Save!

The animals came running, their ears clung to the ground - in fact, the earth trembles from the noise:

Brrrrrk, hrr, fuu ...

The fur of all the animals rose on end.

Well, badger, this is your home, you go first and climb.

The badger looked around - ferocious animals were standing around, urging them on, hurrying:

Go, go!

And they themselves, out of fear, set their tails between them.

The badger house had eight entrances, eight exits. "What to do? - thinks the badger. - How to be? Which entrance to your house to enter? "

What are you worth? snorted the wolverine and raised its terrible paw.

Slowly, reluctantly, the badger walked to the very main entrance.

Hrrrr! - flew out of there.

The badger jumped back and hobbled to another entrance and exit.

From all eight exits and thunders.

The badger began to dig the ninth move. It's a shame to destroy your home, but you can't refuse in any way - the most ferocious animals from all over Altai have gathered.

Hurry, hurry! - they order.

It's a shame to destroy your home, but you can't disobey.

Sighing bitterly, the badger scratched the ground with its clawed front paws. Finally, barely alive with fear, he made his way into his high bedroom.

Hrrr, brrr, frrr ...

It was a white hare snoring loudly, lounging on a soft bed.

The animals, laughing, could not resist, rolled on the ground.

Hare! That's a hare! The hare badger got scared!

Ha ha ha! Ho ho ho!

Where will you hide from shame, badger? What an army did he gather against the hare!

Ha ha ha! Ho ho!

And the badger does not raise his head, he scolds himself:

“Why, having heard the noise in your house, didn’t look there yourself? Why did you go to the whole Altai to shout? "

And the hare know to itself sleeps, snores.

The badger got angry, but how the hare shoves:

Go away! Who let you sleep here?

The hare woke up - his eyes almost popped out! - and a wolf, a fox, a lynx, a wolverine, a wild cat, even a sable is here!

"Well," the hare thinks, "come what may!"

And suddenly - jumped on the badger's forehead. And from the forehead, as from a hill - again a gallop! - and into the bushes.

The badger's forehead turned white from the white hare's belly.

White marks ran down the cheeks from the hare's hind legs.

The animals laughed even louder:

Oh, leopard-u-uk, how beautiful you have become! Ho ha ha!

Come to the water, look at yourself!

The badger hobbled to the forest lake, saw its reflection in the water and cried:

"I'll go and complain to the bear."

He came and said:

I bow to you to the ground, grandfather-bear. I ask you for protection. I myself was not at home that night, I did not invite guests. Hearing a loud snoring, he was frightened ... How many animals he disturbed, he destroyed his house. Now look, from the white hare belly, from the hare's paws - and my cheeks turned white. And the guilty one ran away without looking back. Judge this matter.

Are you still complaining? Your head used to be as black as earth, but now even people will envy the whiteness of your forehead and cheeks. It's a shame that I was not standing in that place, that it was not my face that the hare bleached. This is a pity! Yes, it's a pity, a shame ...

And, sighing bitterly, the bear left.

And the badger still lives with a white stripe on the forehead and on the cheeks. He is said to be accustomed to these markings and is already boasting:

That's how the hare tried for me! We are now friends with him forever and ever.

Well, what does the hare say? Nobody heard that.

Literary processing by A. Garf.

Maral offense

A red fox came running from the green hills into the black forest. She has not dug her holes in the forest yet, but she already knows the forest news: the bear has become old.

Ay-yay-yay, woe, trouble! Our elder, a brown bear, is dying. His golden fur coat has faded, his sharp teeth have become dull, and there is no strength in his paws. Hurry, hurry! Let's get together, think about who in our black forest is smarter than everyone, who is more beautiful, to whom we will sing praise, whom we will put in the place of Medvedev.

Where nine rivers have joined, at the foot of nine mountains, a shaggy cedar stands over a swift spring. Beasts from the black forest have gathered under this cedar. They seem to each other with their fur coats, they boast of intelligence, strength, beauty.

The old bear also came here:

What are you making noise? What are you arguing about?

The animals quieted down, and the fox raised its sharp muzzle and squealed:

Ah, venerable bear, be ageless, be strong, live a hundred years! We argue here, we argue, but we cannot solve matters without you: who is more worthy, who is more beautiful than everyone?

Everyone is good in their own way, ”the old man grumbled.

Ah, the wisest, we still want to hear your word. To whom you point, the animals will sing praise, they will sit in a place of honor.

And she herself has let down her red tail, the golden wool is beautifying with her tongue, she smoothes the white breast.

And then the animals suddenly saw a deer running in the distance. He trampled the top of the mountain with his feet, branchy horns led a trail along the bottom of the sky.

The fox didn’t have time to close its mouth yet, but the deer was already here.

His smooth fur did not sweat from a fast run, his elastic ribs did not come in more often, warm blood did not boil in his tight veins. The heart is calm, beats evenly, big eyes shine quietly. She scratches her brown lip with a pink tongue, her teeth turn white, she laughs.

The old bear got up slowly, sneezed, stretched out his paw to the maral:

This is who is the most beautiful.

The fox bit itself out of envy by the tail.

Do you live well, noble deer? she sang. - Apparently, your slender legs have weakened, there was not enough breath in the wide chest. The insignificant squirrels are ahead of you, the bow-legged wolverine has been here for a long time, even the slow badger has come before you.

The deer lowered its branch-horned head, its furry chest swayed and a voice sounded like a reed pipe.

Dear Fox! Squirrels live on this cedar, the wolverine slept in a nearby tree, the badger has a hole here, over the hill. And I passed nine valleys, swam nine rivers, crossed nine mountains ...

The red deer raised its head - its ears are like flower petals. The horns, dressed with a thin nap, are transparent, as if poured with May honey.

And you, fox, what are you bothering about? - the bear got angry. - Did she herself, perhaps, conceive of becoming an elder?

Please, noble deer, take a place of honor.

And the fox is here again.

Oh ha ha! They want to choose the brown maral as an elder, they are going to sing his praise. Ha ha ha ha! Now he is handsome, but look at him in the winter - his head is hornless, hornless, his neck is thin, his hair hangs in tufts, he walks crumpled, reeling from the wind.

Maral did not find words in response. He looked at the animals - the animals are silent.

Tales of the peoples of the North

The book you hold in your hands - storybook. These are tales of different peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East, living on a vast territory from the western to the eastern borders of the Soviet Union, from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka.

Downtrodden and backward in the past, in our country the peoples of the North are surrounded by attention and care. They created a kind of culture, including a rich oral folk art - folklore. Fairy tales are the most widespread genre of folklore.

The fairy tale brightened up the difficult existence of people, served as a favorite entertainment and rest: they usually told fairy tales at their leisure, after a hard day. But the fairy tale also played a great educational role. In the recent past, fairy tales among the peoples of the North were not only entertainment, but also a kind of school of life. Young hunters and reindeer herders listened and tried to imitate the heroes who were glorified in fairy tales.

Fairy tales paint vivid pictures of the life and everyday life of hunters, fishermen and reindeer breeders, introduce them to their ideas and customs.

The heroes of many fairy tales are the poor. They are fearless, dexterous, quick-witted and resourceful (Nenets fairy tale "Master and Worker", Udege - "Gadazami", Even - "Resourceful Shooter" and others).

Various elements of magic, prophetic forces appear in fairy tales (as, for example, in the Ket fairy tales "Little Bird" and "Alba and Khosyadam" or in the Chukchi fairy tale "Almighty Katgyrgyn"), spirits are the masters of the elements (the underwater kingdom, the underground and heavenly worlds , the spirits of water, earth, forest, fire, etc.) (for example, in the Selkup fairy tale "Mistress of Fire", the Oroch tale - "The best hunter on the coast", the Nivkh - "White seal"), death and revival (for example, in Evenk fairy tale "How the serpents were defeated").

Fairy tales about animals occupy an important place in the folklore of the peoples of the North. They explain in their own way the habits and appearance of animals (the Mansi tale "Why the hare has long ears", the Nanai - "How a bear and a chipmunk ceased to be friends", the Eskimo - "How a raven and an owl painted each other"), talk about mutual aid and beast (Mansi fairy tale "The Proud Deer", Dolgan - "The Old Man Fisherman and the Raven", Nivkh - "The Hunter and the Tiger").

The main idea of ​​the tale is simple: there should be no place for suffering and poverty on earth, evil and deception should be punished.

Dear friend! Read this book thoughtfully and slowly. When you read a fairy tale, think about what it is, what it teaches. As the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote: "A fairy tale is a fairy tale, and you draw a conclusion from a fairy tale." So think about what conclusion can be drawn from each fairy tale you read.

In the book you will come across words that may not be known to you. They are marked with an asterisk and can be found at the end of the book for an explanation. These are mainly the names of household items, household utensils, clothes of various peoples of the North.

Read fairy tales slowly, as if you were telling them to your friends or younger brothers and sisters.

Look carefully at the illustrations for fairy tales. Think about which episode of the tale they relate to, what kind of drawing you would draw for a particular tale. Pay attention to the ornament, clothing, household items of different nations.

We wish you success!

There was a poor woman in the world. And she had four children. The children of the mother did not obey. They ran and played in the snow from morning to evening, but they did not help the mother. They will return to the chum, they will drag whole snowdrifts on pimas, and take away their mother. The clothes will get wet, and the mother sushi. It was difficult for the mother. From such a life, from hard work, she fell ill. Lies in the plague, calls the children, asks:

Children, give me some water. My throat is dry. Bring some water.

Not once, not twice did the mother ask - the children do not go for water. The elder says:

I am without pims. Another says:

I'm without a hat. The third says:

I am without clothes.

And the fourth doesn't answer at all. Their mother asks:

The river is close to us, and you can go without clothes. My mouth went dry. I am thirsty!

And the children ran out of the plague, played for a long time, and did not look at their mother. Finally the elder wanted to eat - he looked into the chum. Looks: the mother stands in the middle of the plague and puts on a malitsa. Suddenly the malitsa covered with feathers. The mother takes a board on which the skins are scraped, and that board becomes a bird's tail. The thimble has become an iron beak. Wings grew instead of hands.

The mother turned into a cuckoo bird and flew out of the plague.

Then the elder brother shouted:

Brothers, look, look: our mother is flying away like a bird!

The children ran after their mother, shouting to her:

Mom, mom, we brought you some water! And she replies:

Ku-ku, ku-ku! Late, late! Now the lake waters are in front of me. I'm flying to the free waters!

Children run after their mother, call her, hold out a ladle of water.

The youngest son shouts:

Mother Mother! Come back home! Drink some water!

Mother answers from afar:

Ku-ku, ku-ku! Too late son! I will not come back!

So the children ran after their mother for many days and nights - over stones, over swamps, over bumps. They wounded their feet with blood. Where they run, there will be a red trail.

The cuckoo mother abandoned the children forever. And since then the cuckoo has not built a nest for itself, has not raised its own children. And since then, red moss has been spreading over the tundra.

TALA-BEAR AND THE GREAT WILDER

I got into the habit of wandering around the Tala-bear camp at night. He walks quietly, does not give a voice, hides behind stones - waits: will the stupid deer fight off the herd, will the puppy jump out of the camp, or will it be a child.

However, no matter how hidden, traces remain in the snow. They saw the mother's footprints, told the children:

Do not ride late in the moonlight down the hill! Tala-bear is close. Grab it, take it away in its stupid, pull it up for lunch.

The moon has risen, and the naughty children are still rolling down the hill.

Tala-bear climbed out from behind the stone, opened his sack - a kitty, put it across the road, and lay further away.

The guys rolled down the hill and flew into a bear's bag!

Tala grabbed a bag, put it on his shoulders, goes home, rejoices: “I'm carrying a complete kitty guys! We will eat deliciously! "

He walked, walked, tired, hung the bag on a spruce twig, he himself lay down under the tree and began to snore.

- God created a striped chipmunk, and released a hare with a split lip ...

And the people argued, laughed and answered with their ironic tales:

- No, the chipmunk became striped because grandfather the bear stroked him.

- No, the hare's upper lip split apart because he laughed a lot. Remember when he scared the sheep? ..

The people dreamed of conquering the forces of nature and expressed their dream in wonderful fairy tales. Thus, Evenk women made iron wings for the boy, and he ascended on these wings to the clouds. One woman in a Khanty camp weaved a wonderful towel, on which her husband swam across the sea. And in Altai, the bogatyr Sartakpai built bridges over turbulent rivers, paved roads and even tried to make lightning illuminate the earth at night.

The peoples of Siberia have composed many interesting epics and fairy tales. From these works, scientists learn about the life of the people, their ancient ideas about the world, their dreams and hopes.

A.M. Gorky called fairy tales and epics of the peoples of Siberia pearls, advised them to collect and study them.

But before the October Socialist Revolution, these works were almost unknown to the Russian reader.

During the years of Soviet power, under the leadership of the Communist Party, as we have already seen, the life of the peoples of Siberia has been radically changed. Along with all the peoples of our homeland, they began to govern their own socialist state - the fraternal Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. All the peoples of Siberia have created their own autonomous Soviet socialist republics, autonomous regions or national districts. With the fraternal help of the great Russian people, all nomadic peoples, having created collective farms, went over to a settled life. They replaced the smoky and cold yurt with a light and warm house. Trading posts and hunting and fishing stations have been built for hunters in the taiga. Roads are laid everywhere. Cars came to the most remote areas. Tractors have lifted up centuries-old virgin soil. Factories and factories have been built in the national republics and regions. All peoples have developed their own written language, and illiteracy has been eliminated. There were doctors, engineers, agronomists, candidates and doctors of sciences. Their poets, writers and playwrights have grown up. Their voices are heard throughout the country. Their books have been translated into Russian and published in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and other cities. The best works of art by the peoples of Siberia are shown to the working people of our homeland from the stage of Moscow theaters.

On the advice of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, the writers lovingly and carefully collected the "pearls of folk art." From folk singers and storytellers, they recorded oral works of art - epics, songs, fairy tales.

Many wonderful Russian fairy tales have been recorded in Siberia. They were published in Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. Therefore, we publish here only the tales of those peoples whose work is little known. It will be interesting for the Russian reader to get acquainted with what his talented neighbors have created over the centuries.

The tales in our book are different. Some of them are published in the form in which they were recorded by Russian writers from storytellers, others are published in literary processing, and still others belong to the pen of writers, but they were created based on folk motives. The basis for all the tales included in this collection is the same - folk art, folk wisdom.

There are fairy tales created during the Soviet era. They contain the joy and happiness of the people. There are also old tales about the fight against bai and khans. Young, courageous, strong people, boys and girls, enter this struggle. They are fighting for joy and freedom for all working people. Sometimes they win thanks to their heroic strength, sometimes thanks to their intelligence and resourcefulness. Truth and victory are always on their side. It was an expression of the dream of a free life. The people made their beautiful dream come true.

There are old tales about the conquest of the forces of nature. In the old days, this was a bold dream. In our time, the dream has come true: roads have been built, iron birds carry people over long distances with the speed of sound, lightning serves people, our cosmonauts in miracle ships are mastering the space separating the Earth from its neighbor the Moon, numerous "seas" created by Soviet people, changed the geographical appearance of the country.

Even yesterday, bold dreams were called fabulous. Today the fairy tale has been turned into reality by the labor of the people.

Afanasy Koptelov.

ALTAI FAIRY TALES

SARTAKPAY

In Altai, at the mouth of the Ini River, the hero Sartakpai lived. He has a scythe right down to the ground. The eyebrows are like a dense bush. The muscles are knobby, like a growth on a birch - even if you cut cups out of them.

Not a single bird has yet flown past Sartakpai's head: he shot without a miss.

Hoofed animals running in the distance were always aptly beaten by Sartakpai. He aimed deftly at the clawed beasts.

His archemaks were not empty (archemaks are leather sacks thrown over the saddle). Fat game was always strapped to the saddle. The son of Aduchi-Mergen, hearing the pace of the pacer from afar, ran out to meet his father to unsaddle the horse. Daughter-in-law Oimok prepared eighteen game dishes for the old man, ten drinks from milk.

But the famous hero Sartakpai was not happy, was not cheerful. Day and night he heard the cry of the Altai rivers squeezed by stones. Throwing themselves from stone to stone, they were torn to shreds. Crushed into streams, bumping into the mountains. Sartakpay is tired of seeing the tears of the Altai rivers, tired of listening to their incessant groan. And he conceived to give way to the Altai waters in the Arctic Ocean. Sartakpai called his son:

- You, child, go south, and I will go east.

Aduchi the son went to Mount Belukha, climbed to where the eternal snow lies, and began to look for ways for the Katun River.

The hero Sartakpai himself went east, to the fat lake Yulu-Kol. With the index finger of his right hand, Sartakpay touched the bank of the Yulu-Kolya - and the Chulyshman River flowed behind his finger. All passing streams and rivers, all ringing springs and underground waters rushed into this river with a cheerful song.

But through the joyful ringing, Sartakpai heard crying in the Kosh-Agach mountains. He stretched out his left hand and with his index finger traced a furrow through the mountains for the Bashkaus River. And when the waters laughed, running away from Kosh-Agach, old man Sartakpai laughed with them.

- It turns out that I can work with my left hand too. However, it is not suitable to do such a thing with your left hand.

And Sartakpay turned the Bashkaus river to the Kokbash hills and then poured it into Chulyshman and led all the waters with one right hand down to the slopes of Artybash. Here Sartakpai stopped.