What is a fairy tale about animals definition. Poetics of fairy tales about animals

Literature and library science

Features of the poetics of fairy tales about animals. The structure of animal tales is quite simple. Chain structure The most remarkable feature of the plot structure of this type of fairy tales is the stringing of episodes. Quite typical of animal tales is the so-called cumulative or chain structure.

20. Features of the poetics of fairy tales about animals.

The structure of animal tales is quite simple. The basis of the composition is the structure of the plot.

chain structure

The most remarkable feature of the plot structure of this type of fairy tales is the stringing of episodes.

The meeting of animals with each other is very characteristic of the development of the action. But the meeting is usually just the beginning of a series of other meetings.

Quite typical of animal tales is the so-called cumulative or chain structure.

The beginning of the tale is characterized by the construction “there once was an old man and an old woman” (there may be different options).

Dialogism

It is much more developed than in fairy tales of another type: it moves the action, reveals situations, shows the state of the characters.

Optimism

Tales about animals are characterized by bright optimism: the weak always get out of difficult situations. It is supported by the comedy of many situations and humor.


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Tales about animals differ significantly from other types of fairy tales. Their specificity is manifested primarily in the peculiarities of fantastic fiction. The question of the original origins of fantasy in animal tales has been of concern to scientists for many decades. Jacob Grimm wanted to understand the origin of the fiction of fairy tales. The scientist published a medieval poem "Reinhart Fuchs" (Berlin, 1834) translated into modern German. The poem told about the adventures of a cunning insolent, liar and hypocrite Reinecke the Fox.

Reinecke is the hero of numerous literary works. He was known from the Latin poem "Yzengrimus", named after Reinecke's unlucky adversary - the wolf Isengrim (mid-12th century). In Holland, Reinecke was known under the name of Reinart from the poem "Reinart" (XIII century). In France, he is Renard (“Roman de Renart”, XII-XIII centuries). The poem about the fox, which was circulating in Europe in the lists, with the invention of printing was embossed in a printing house, and in 1498 its first edition appeared in Lübeck - "Reineke de Vos". At the end of the XVIII century. Johann Wolfgang Goethe undertook the processing of the medieval legend about the fox - "Reinecke the Fox" (1793). In the processing of the great writer, the poem about the cunning Reineck became known throughout the world. 17 .

The source of literary legends about the fox was the fairy tales known from ancient times to the peoples of Europe, but for some time now Reinecke the Fox began to be perceived as a hero of purely literary origin. The French scientist F. I. Monet spoke about the non-folk origin of the poem about the fox. By translating Reinecke the Fox, Grimm tried to restore their folklore character to medieval legends. In an extensive introduction to the publication of Reinecke the Fox, Grimm revealed the folk nature of the stories about the fox, described the history of the emergence of medieval poems based on folk legends. At the same time, the scientist expressed very important thoughts about the essence of a fairy tale. Critically accepted, even today they can help clarify the question of the origin and historical fate of animal tales.

The meaning of Grimm's statements about the initial forms of folk art comes down to the following. Poetry was not content with depicting the fates, deeds and thoughts of people: it also wanted to master the hidden life of animals. Animals move, scream to different voices, experience pain and passions in different ways. According to Grimm, man unwittingly transferred his properties to animals. Naive primitive fantasy erased the boundaries separating the human world from the animal world. Man did not distinguish between himself and animals. The animistic views of primitive people, according to Grimm, created the possibility of the appearance of an animal epic.

During the decomposition of this epic, a fairy tale about animals and a fable stood out. Arising at the time of the birth of poetry, both the fairy tale and the fable took from the views of primitive hunters and shepherds a firm belief in the ability of animals to speak and think, but pushed all the events that took place in the animal world far into the depths of history - to the time "when the animals were still talking" .

Jacob Grimm saw in the epic animal stories a mixture of human and animal elements. The human touch gives the story a sense, and the preservation of the properties and characteristics of animals in the characters makes the presentation amusing, not boring.

Once having arisen, a fairy tale and a fable began to be passed on from generations to generations, from century to century. Grimm wrote about the fable that, like any epic, in its never-stopping growth, it marks the stages of its development; it was tirelessly transformed and reborn in accordance with the place, the country and the changed human order.

So, a childish, naive attitude to wildlife has become the basis of man's views on the living world: the beast is intelligent, speaks. Whatever amendments we make to these views, their correct foundation will remain unshakable. Tales about animals really took on the forms of fiction from the ideas and concepts of primitive people, who attributed to animals the ability to think, speak and act intelligently. Grimm was wrong when he characterized the social nature of these mythical views. Belief in the rational actions of animals was not the fruit of contemplation. The ideas of people who attributed human thoughts and rational actions to the beast arose in the vital struggle for mastering the forces of nature.

The beast sensed the hunter from afar and hurried to hide. Natural selection and the struggle for existence gave birth in the animal world to that expediency and natural rationality that amazed the primitive hunter. The way of life of animals and birds seemed deliberate to a person. Man attributed to animals the ability to reason and speak, but the misconceptions of people were permeated with the desire to understand the life of animals, to master the means of taming them, protecting them from attack, and ways of hunting.

Under the early tribal system, a kind of belief in family ties between a group of people (most often a clan) and some kind of animal was widespread almost everywhere. The animal was considered the ancestor - the totem. The totem could not be killed and eaten. Each member of the tribal team showed respect for his totem by refraining from harming him. It was believed that the totem patronizes the family. Belief in the totem led to the emergence of various kinds of magical rites, which among many peoples over time turned into a cult of the animal.

Totemism was a peculiar form of religious awareness of man's connection with nature and dependence on it. At the same time, in totemism, and especially in rituals associated with belief in a totem, there was a desire to find protection against the dangers that lay in wait for people at every step.

A person who called himself a relative of a bear or a wolf wanted to protect himself and his home. To do this, it was only necessary to show respect for the totem in all cases. The man hoped to find protection from the beast, to gain his respect for himself as a relative. Any “non-compliance” with the law of tribal respect on the part of a predatory beast was attributed by man to his violation of existing rules. Totemism as a special form of social consciousness was a force that fettered the living thought of a person who was looking for a causal relationship between life phenomena.

Often as a totem tribal clans and primitive tribes chose the most harmless creatures. The totem could be some tiny forest bird or a completely peaceful and fearless animal like a frog and even a plant, some kind of cereal. This, it would seem, does not fit with the thoughts expressed about the natural and social nature of totemism, but in the minds of a person of those distant times, a harmless bird and a weak frog were part of a vast living world, generally powerful and influential. The bird is like the wind, and the wind brought death. The frog relative was close to various reptiles, predators of the waters and poisonous inhabitants of the swamps. The world for man was a continuous chain of family ties. Through some weak being, a person found himself in a family relationship with those forces of nature that he wanted to arrange in his favor.

When these views on the animal world gave way to other, more complex forms of religious consciousness, only a few characteristic superstitions survived, which testified to the former, widespread belief in the mind of animals, their conscious actions and those kindred relations that, according to the thought of primitive people, from time immemorial existed between people and animals.

Traces of totemism have also been preserved in the superstitions of the Russian people, although the latest research is very cautious about the existence of totemism among the distant ancestors of the Russian people. Pointing out the lack of direct evidence that this or that animal was once the totem of any Slavic tribe or part of it, the famous ethnographer S. A. Tokarev noted:

“Of course, the possibility that some distant ancestors of the Slavs knew totemism cannot be denied: moreover, it is even very likely, but hardly any remnants could reach us from that distant era.” Other scientists stand on the point of view of the firm recognition of totemism among the ancient Slavs. Here is what G. I. Kulikovsky wrote about northern superstitions associated with the bear: “In the north of Russia, in the Olonets province, for example, they believe that the bear is a man turned into a bear by some kind of magic (stories about the Lip tree and damage at weddings), therefore, the peasants say, the bear itself never attacks a person; attacks only out of revenge for the displeasure caused to him or in revenge for a committed sin, at the direction of God (even if he eats a cow, they believe that God allowed him). Therefore, they say, hunters have never yet killed a pregnant bear; she, like a pregnant village woman, is afraid that someone will not see her during the act of birth: therefore, as they say, the dog, otherwise barking at a wolf, otherwise at a hazel grouse, otherwise on the squirrel and other creatures, man and bear barks in exactly the same way: she seems to smell a human being in him, therefore, finally, the peasants do not eat his meat either.

This reliable message speaks of the proximity of a bear to a person, that the bear takes revenge for the dissatisfaction caused to him or for any sin, acting as the executor of the highest will, and finally, that bear meat is not eaten. Here we have the most important constituent elements of totem representations associated with the veneration of the bear. It does not say only that a person is a relative of a bear.

The observations of other pre-revolutionary ethnographers do not contradict what G. I. Kulikovsky wrote about northern superstitions. So, for example, N. M. Yadrintsev says: “Russian Cossack hunters in the Turonian guard say that a bear, like a man, makes an undertaking on trees, as if asking if there is anyone older and taller than him: if a person makes a venture on a tree , the bear makes him taller." It definitely says that the bear considers himself superior to people.

The nicknames of the bear, which exist among the Slavs, also carry ideas about the consanguineous relationship of a person to a bear. The Hutsuls call the bear “vuiko” (cf. Russian “uy” - maternal uncle); among the Russian population, the bear is “grandfather”, “old man”, etc. .

The observations of ethnographers convince us that the bear was considered by people as a patron. They believed that a bear could lead a lost person out of the forest.

Numerous Belarusian beliefs speak of the patron bear. There was a custom to invite a bear cub with a bear into the house. The bear was put in a red corner, under the image, generously treated with honey, cheese, butter, and after the treat they were led through all the nooks and crannies of the house and to the barn. They believed that the bear cast out evil spirits. In other cases, the bear stepped over the patient or even stepped on him. As if the healing power of the beast was at work. This power allegedly saved pregnant women from damage by witchcraft. The peasants believed that a mysterious power was hidden in the bear's paw: the bear's claws, drawn along the udder of the cow, made it milky, they hung the paw in yard "from the brownie" or underground - for chickens.

The mercy of the bear was invoked through various magical rites. The well-known collector of Russian and Belarusian folklore P.V. Shein in “Materials for the Study of the Life and Language of the Russian Population of the North-Western Territory” published a description of the festive rite of the comedian made by the priest Simeon Nechaev in 1874. The rite existed in the Borisovsky district of the former Minsk province. “This holiday always happens on the eve of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and is dedicated in honor of the bear. On this day, special dishes are prepared, namely: dried turnip is prepared for the first dish as a sign that the bear feeds mainly on plant foods, herbs; kissel is served on the second dish, because the bear loves oats; the third dish consists of pea lumps, which is why the very day was called “komeditsa”. After dinner, everyone, old and young, lies down, does not sleep, but every minute rolls from side to side in the slowest way, trying as best as possible to adapt to the turn of the bear. This ceremony lasts about two hours, and all this is done so that the bear can easily get up from his winter lair. After dinner, the peasants no longer do their day jobs - they celebrate. According to the peasants, the bear wakes up from hibernation at the annunciation. Here they meet him with good wishes. The hope of the peasants to propitiate the bear so that it does not harm the livestock is understandable.

Archaeologists have found direct traces of the bear cult among the Slavs. In the burial grounds of the Yaroslavl Territory, drilled bear teeth and necklaces made of animal teeth were found, which in ancient times had the meaning of talismans. “Thus,” writes N. P. Voronin, “archaeological monuments, the number of which could be multiplied, testify to the undoubted cult significance of the bear in the northwestern and northeastern parts of the forest belt, especially in Novgorod land and the Rostov-Yaroslavl Volga region , where indications of this come from the depths of pre-class society and enter the beginning of the feudal period.

The bear was also considered a special creature in ancient times: one had to beware of it. "The pagan belief in the bear was so strong that in Ancient Russia in one of the canonical questions they asked:" Is it possible to make a fur coat from a bear? The answer was:

"Yes, you can." Why is this question about the bear? Is it because this beast has long been considered an inviolable creature? But this, of course, was contrary to the spirit of the new Christian religion.

So, nothing prevents us from recognizing the existence of a bear cult among the Slavs as more than probable. The idea of ​​a patron close to the totem was associated with the bear. But even regardless of the solution of the issue, whether the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs had totemism or not, scientists have proven the fact that the Slavic peoples have mythical ideas about animals endowed with reason. It was a world they feared and did not want to quarrel with: a person observed all sorts of customs and magical rites.

The belief about wolf people was widespread throughout Eastern Europe. Herodotus in his "History" wrote about the neurons - the people who lived on the territory of present-day Belarus and, according to scientists, were undoubtedly associated with the Slavs. Herodotus transmitted the stories of the Greeks and Scythians that "every year each Nevr becomes a wolf for several days, and then again takes on its former appearance." Isn't this belief also reflected in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign", which tells how Prince Vseslav "himself in the night prowl"

Traces of veneration of the wolf are well preserved in the life of the Bulgarian people. On special days of November and February, “Valchi holidays” were arranged.

Almost everywhere among the Eastern Slavs there was a belief that wolves have a patron - a shepherd - St. Yuri (Egoriy, George). The howling of wolves at night was perceived as a conversation between wolves and their shepherd: the peasants believed that hungry wolves were asking St. Yuri for food.

S. A. Tokarev writes, finishing his review of the beliefs about the wolf: “All these beliefs refer to real, real wolves, not werewolves. They testify, apparently, to the existence in the past, possibly in ancient times, of a real cult of wolves.

Other wild animals also took their place in the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. Perhaps the good preservation of the ancient beliefs about the bear and the wolf is explained by the fact that until the very last times these strong beasts caused serious harm to livestock and were dangerous to man himself. Fox, hare, birds (raven, owl, owl, cuckoo, sparrow), reptiles (snakes, frogs, toads) were much less dangerous, and the ancient superstitions associated with them survived only in extremely obscure, residual forms. So, for example, the superstitions associated with the fox are almost unknown to us, but the fact that they once existed is said by the “Word about Igor's regiment”, which mentions foxes barking (“breshut”) on the “skinned” (red) shields of the warriors of Igor's regiment when they entered the Polovtsian steppe. Meeting with foxes foreshadowed misfortune. The mention of foxes is put on a par with other unkind signs: let the thunderstorm grow along the yarugs (i.e., wolves excite horror by howling along the ravines); orly klektom on the bones the animals are called ... ". Until very recently, there was a bad omen seen in a meeting with a fox.

This sign will gain even greater historical significance when compared with archaeological data. A necklace consisting of animal teeth was found in ancient burials. It was placed around the neck of the dead. Among the teeth of a bear, a wild boar and a lynx, there were also fox teeth. They had their own magical meaning.

Peasants associated special superstitions with domestic animals: a sheep, a ram, a rooster, a goat, a dog, a horse, a cat and small pests - mice. The Eastern Slavs know the belief that the cry of a rooster in the predawn darkness drives away the evil spirits of the night. It was widely believed that a black rooster lays an egg in the third year, from which a snake hatches, and according to other stories, a black cat. Sheep and ram, according to superstition, oppose the evil and insidious power of the magical forces of the forest. It was believed that even the mere mention of sheep's wool drives away the goblin.

The belief was firmly held that cattle - a cow and a horse - were able to understand human speech and that it had a soul. The dog howls - to the dead man; the imagination of people endowed her with prophetic knowledge. The goat was credited with the ability to drive out devils. The peasants kept him in the stables for protection from the brownie - the owner. Various forms of participation of the goat in rituals aimed at increasing the fertility of the fields. Such is walking with a goat during Christmas caroling. Through the centuries, the peasants carried a vaguely distrustful attitude towards the cat. In particular, black cats seem to be terrible.

The beliefs of the Russian people and the beliefs of the East Slavic peoples in general allow us to assume with all confidence which animals were the heroes of mythical stories and legends of ancient fables. The unconscious fantasy of these legends consisted in the fact that the animals were endowed with various human qualities, but in the animals they saw precisely the animals. Not all stories and traditions of this kind have disappeared from the memory of the people. Their traces are preserved in fairy tales, which, according to tradition, took some of its essential features from the ancient fable. Such is the tale of the bear on the lime leg. This fairy tale is unknown in Western Europe. Its origin is purely East Slavic.

A man met a bear and cut off his paw in a fight. He took it with him, gave it to the woman. The old woman tore off the skin from her paw and put it to boil in the oven, and she sat down to spin the bear's hair. Meanwhile, the bear broke the linden, made himself a wooden leg and went to the village. Goes and sings:

Creak, leg!

Squeak, you bastard!

And the water sleeps

And the earth is sleeping

And they sleep in the villages

They sleep in the villages

One woman does not sleep

Sitting on my skin

Spinning my wool

My meat is cooking

My skin is dry

Hearing the song, the peasant and the woman put out the torch and buried themselves in the beds. The bear broke into the hut and ate his offenders.

The tale resonates with untouched ancient beliefs. The bear did not leave a single insult unavenged. He takes revenge according to all the rules of the tribal law: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; They intend to eat his meat - and he eats living people, although it is known that bears themselves attack people on rare occasions. For a person, bears are dangerous only when he pursues them, injures them, frightens them, and generally disturbs them in any way. The bear in the fairy tale appears as a prophetic creature that knows everything and everything. The proximity of the fabulous image of a bear to the ancient mythical representations is beyond doubt. The tale conveys the feelings that a person experiences during a quarrel with a mighty forest beast. This is one of the scary stories. The impression is especially enhanced by the description of the night village with sleeping earth and water. Everything is sleeping, everything is quiet, only the creak of a fake foot, on which the bear walks, is heard. The tale taught to respect the beast.

Of course, the tale of a bear on a lime foot is not exactly the same legend that existed in antiquity. In some versions of the tale, a man and a woman get rid of death, in others, the bear is the offender himself, and in a fair fight, the man cut off his paw with an ax. These liberties, fully justified in a fictional story, only obscure the well-preserved mythical basis of the tale.

The tale of Ivan Tsarevich and the gray wolf has well preserved the meaning of the ancient mythical belief. Folklorists refer it to the type of fairy tales. As we know her, she is truly a fairy tale. The son guards the father's garden. The Firebird pecks apples in it, the hero wants to catch it; he is looking for a golden-maned horse and gets himself a bride in distant lands - such plot situations are loved by a fairy tale. At the same time, the tale of Ivan Tsarevich was influenced by ancient beliefs about animals. There is a werewolf in the story. At times he takes the form of a man and even a horse. The gray wolf faithfully serves the hero. Where does this location come from? The wolf explains to Ivan Tsarevich: "Since I tore your horse to pieces, I will serve you faithfully."

If we see the remnants of totemism in the beliefs about werewolves, then it is understandable why the fairy-tale wolf, having harmed a person, considers himself obliged to compensate for the damage by faithful service. Family ties were considered sacred and its violation was punishable. When actions ran counter to tribal morality, they demanded compensation, and compensation of the most exact kind. The wolf ate the horse. He himself serves as the hero's horse. He assumes the responsibility to help a person voluntarily, without coercion: for him, family ties are sacred. The logic of primitive thinking is undeniable here. True, we do not know what specific form the ancient stories about wolves had, but it is quite possible that the fairy-tale situation we have taken has some connection with them.

Let's draw some conclusions. The appearance of fairy tales about animals proper was preceded by stories directly related to beliefs about animals. In these stories, the future protagonists of fairy tales about animals acted. These stories did not yet have an allegorical meaning. The images of animals meant animals and no other. The existing totemic concepts and ideas obligated to endow animals with the features of mythical creatures, the animals were surrounded by reverence. Such stories directly reflected ritual-magical and mythical concepts and ideas. It was not yet art in the direct and precise sense of the word. Stories of a mythical nature were distinguished by a narrowly practical, vital purpose. It can be assumed that they were told with instructive purposes and taught how to relate to animals. With the help of observance of certain rules, people sought to subordinate the animal world to their influence. Such was the initial stage of the birth of fantastic fiction. Later, fairy tales about animals were based on it.

Before proceeding to a characterization of the purely artistic properties of fairy tales about animals, let us make one remark. The tale of the bear on a lime foot is different from all other tales where the bear acts. In it, the bear is surrounded by reverence and endowed with the right of immunity, while in ordinary fairy tales the bear is not smart, but stupid, he embodies a great, but not smart power. If the originality of fantastic fiction in the fairy tale about the bear were an exceptional phenomenon, it would not be worth talking about it, but almost all fairy tales judge animals in the opposite way as they are spoken of in mythical beliefs and bylichka.

The wolf, like the bear, in folk beliefs appears as an animal, in whose honor holidays were held. They did not call him by his real name, fearing that by doing so they would call him himself. A hostile and dangerous creature, the wolf evoked respect and fear.

From experience, people knew that the wolf is a predatory, cunning, intelligent, resourceful, evil creature. Meanwhile, in fairy tales, the wolf is stupid, it is easy to deceive him. There seems to be no such misfortune, no matter what this unlucky, eternally hungry, eternally beaten beast got into.

The respectful attitude towards the fox expressed in the beliefs also contradicts the frank mockery with which the fairy tales tell about its frequent mistakes and failures.

The difference between fairy tales and beliefs is so significant that only by understanding its cause, we can understand the essence of the relationship of fairy tales to fiction, traditionally taken from ancient beliefs. Finding out the reason for the difference between animal tales and beliefs is of great interest for the science of fairy tales of all Slavic peoples. Moreover, a similar difference between fairy tales and beliefs is observed among other peoples of the world.

At one time, the opposition between myth and totem belief occupied the famous English scientist James Fraser. In his work “Totemism and Its Origin” he wrote: “Sometimes myths say quite the opposite, that it was not a man who came from a totem animal, but it from a man. Thus, the snake clan of the Mokes tribe in Arizona allegedly descended from a woman who gave birth to snakes. Bakals in western Equatorial Africa believe that their women gave birth to totem animals: one gave birth to a calf, another to a crocodile, a third to a hippopotamus, a fourth to a monkey, and so on.

The opposition of totemic beliefs and myth, as well as the difference between fairy tales and beliefs, indicates that with the change in the life of the people, a different attitude to the old ideas arose. This evolution of popular beliefs was explained by the materialistic view of history. Science, which adopted the only correct method of explaining social consciousness, based on the development of the material conditions of society, understood the reason for the evolution of totem beliefs, traced their history on a number of specific ethnographic facts. In the article “The Cult of the Evenki Bear and the Problem of the Evolution of Totemic Beliefs”, A.F. Anisimov proposed a correct explanation for the duality that is observed in relation to totem animals among a number of northern peoples. The scientist was interested in why in the rituals associated with the cult of the bear, as well as in fairy tales about animals, the bear is everywhere endowed with such features that deliberately discredit him as a totem animal, deprive him of a halo of holiness, make him ridiculous and pitiful from the divine. The same duality marked the attitude towards the raven - the Kamchadal Kuht, the Koryak Kuikil (or Kuykinyakh), as well as the American-Indian Iel. On the one hand, the ancestral raven, the assistant of the supreme being, and in this capacity enjoys respect and reverence, and on the other hand, all sorts of bad deeds and tricks are attributed to him. Funny stories with deadly irony aptly reproduce habits the beast its features.

A.F. Anisimov sees the reason for this duality “in the decomposition of the ancient totem cult”, “in the decay of the totem myth”. In fairy-tale folklore, the scientist with good reason saw "an expression in the artistic form of the overthrow of the maternal family." He repeated and developed his conclusions in the book Evenki Religion in the Historical and Genetic Study and Problems of the Origin of Primitive Beliefs (M.-L., 1958).

Totemism is associated with the era of the maternal clan. Maternal clans were named after a totem animal, and each of the members of the clan organization was considered a descendant of an animal ancestor and, of course, a relative of one or another totem animal. In the maternal clan, a negative attitude towards the totem beast is excluded. The transition from the veneration of a totemic being to its ridicule took place in the conditions of the collapse of the ancient maternal family and the establishment of patriarchy.

The disintegration of the maternal family largely explains why the mythical traditions and tales of many peoples of the world ridicule those animals that are the subject of veneration in ancient cults.

Slavic beliefs about animals have experienced a historical evolution similar to that noted among peoples who have preserved ancient religious holidays, customs and myths.

Life on the East European plains was changing, one way of life in the ancient settlements of the Slavs was replaced by another - there were changes in the mythical views of people on nature and society. What once was an object of reverence and was considered indestructible, holy and inviolable, over time was condemned. Previously revered animals were cruelly ridiculed. There was a breaking of old concepts and ideas. The veneration of animals was rejected, and other views replaced the old views. At a certain stage of historical development, stories in which animals were surrounded by a halo of respect were replaced by new ones in which animals no longer occupied an honorary position.

From the previous stories and legends, new narratives took their characters, but gave these heroes a directly opposite assessment. The exposure of former idols was accompanied by a deliberately ironic depiction of the funny sides of the animal. The subject of jokes was the appearance of the beast, its habits and lifestyle. We will find indirect confirmation of this idea in the bear fun, which was widespread among the Eastern Slavs. Here is what the archaeological and ethnographic literature says about this: “...Together with the whole complex of pagan ritual and magical actions that have degenerated into the“ stupidity ”of buffoons, the“ learned bear ”is a distorted relic of its“ sacred past ”.

By the time when the loss of the old cult beliefs occurred, the appearance of new stories about the bear dates back. Unlike real fairy tales, which will take shape when there is a complete break with mythological views, these new narratives still depicted the beast. The beast that acted in them was still a beast, but already ridiculous, deprived of those honors that had previously been given to him.

Russian fairy tales did not linger, like the fairy tales of some peoples, at this stage of development. In our animal tales one can hardly find distinct traces of this period in the development of fairy tales, but that such a time existed must be assumed with all confidence. The negative depiction of animals is a traditional feature adopted by fairy tales from the time when the former ancient veneration of animals was replaced by an open mockery of them.

Such is the prehistory of fantastic fiction, the forms of which have been adopted by animal tales. The history of the fairy tale as an artistic phenomenon began from the moment when the previous stories about animals began to lose all connection with mythical concepts. The image of an animal was already perceived as an allegorical image of a person.

Labor made a person strong, freeing him from the power of prejudices and superstitions. Ancient myths are gone. True, the remnants of ancient views remained in the minds of peoples for a long time. The triumph of a worldview that was not obscured by previous ideas made possible the flourishing of fairy tales about animals as a genre of artistic creativity. The fairy tale about animals is free from any signs of mythical and religious concepts. Fiction in fairy tales has lost its former character and turned into a poetic convention, fiction, allegory. The transition of the unconscious artistic fantasy of antiquity into poetic allegory was facilitated by the fact that animals from ancient times were endowed with human features.

In the early narrative forms, inextricably linked with beliefs about animals, the essence of the folk story was the expression of animal mythology, which every member of the clan had to know if he wanted to provide himself and his relatives with a well-fed and safe life. The weakness of primitive man in the fight against the forces of nature ultimately determined the nature and properties of the ancient narratives about animals.

In those fairy tales that have come to replace the ancient narratives, other goals are pursued. By this time, a new social order had been established. In a class society, fiction took the form of allegory and began to serve as an expression of class-social sympathies and antipathies. From mythology arose art. In fairy tales, animals personified the real bearers of those morals that were alien to the people and condemned by them. The people, placed in a subordinate position by the ruling class, turned the fairy tale into a satirical work. It is for this hell A. M. Gorky shrewdly pointed out folk tales in a letter to the collector of Adyghe folklore P. Maksimov: what is usually not seen in fairy tales about animals "(emphasis mine.- V.A.). We note that A. M. Gorky gave his remark a general meaning. An attempt to limit the writer's judgment to a specific assessment of one specific tale must be considered unfounded.

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Young children are usually attracted to the world of animals, so they really like fairy tales in which animals and birds act. Animal Tales- this is the most common type of fairy tales, which becomes known to the child early.

Tales about animals, having the most archaic roots, have now almost completely lost their original mythological and magical significance. The youngest children are usually told “childish tales” specially designed for them (“Turnip”, “Kolobok”, “Teremok”, “Wolf and Goats”). They are small in volume, simple in composition. A large role here is given to dialogue, the repetition of one and the same episode. Often this is an episode of the meeting of the protagonist with other characters. In the fairy tale “The Fox and the Hare”, the bunny complains to every animal it meets: “How can I not cry? I had a bast hut, and the fox had an icy one; she asked me to come, and she kicked me out.

In some fairy tales, the episodes are repeated with an increase, in a chain-like manner, and are successfully resolved in the end. (This is how cumulative tales are constructed.) The tale “The Goat” from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev is especially expressive in this regard:

Water went to pour fire.

The fire went to burn the stone.

The stone went to put out the axe.

The ax went to chop the oak,

Dubye went to beat people.

People went to shoot the bear,

The bear went to fight the wolves,

The wolves went to chase the goat:

Here is a goat with nuts

Here is a goat with red-hot!

Repeating episodes, dialogues are often rhymed and rhythmic, accompanied by songs (for example, Kolobok's songs). The goat, and then the Wolf in the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Kids" sing in different voices:

Goats, kids!

Open up, open up.

The performance of such fairy tales is akin to a theatrical performance with the active participation of the audience. The fairy tale approaches the game, which corresponds to the peculiarities of the perception of a work of art by children aged two to five - "assistance and complicity", as the psychologist A. V. Zaporozhets defined it.

The younger the child, the more literally he perceives the events and heroes of the fairy tale. Fairy-tale characters are close to children just like real living creatures: a dog, a cat, a cockerel, kids. In a fairy tale animals take on human traits- think, speak and act like people: they build their own dwellings, chop wood, carry water. In essence, such images bring the child knowledge about the world of people, not animals.

Animals, birds in them are both similar and not similar to real ones. A rooster comes in boots, carries a scythe on his shoulder and shouts at the top of his voice that the goat should go out of the hare's hut, otherwise it will be hacked to death (“Goat-dereza”). The wolf catches fish - he lowered his tail into the hole and says: “Catch, fish, both small and large! (“The Fox and the Wolf”). The fox informs the black grouse about a new "decree" - the black grouses are not afraid to walk in the meadows, but the black grouse does not believe ("The Fox and the black grouse").

It is easy to see implausibility in all these tales: where has it been seen that a rooster walked with a scythe, a wolf caught fish, and a fox persuaded a black grouse to descend to the ground? The child takes fiction for fiction, like an adult, but she attracts with unusualness, dissimilarity to what he knows about real birds and animals. Most of all, the children are interested in the story itself: will the dereza goat be expelled from the hare's hut, how will the obvious absurdity of catching fish with its tail end, will the cunning intent of the fox succeed. Most elementary and in the same time the most important performances- about wit and stupidity, about cunning and honesty, about good and evil, about heroism and cowardice, about kindness and greed- fall into consciousness and set standards of behavior for the child.

In fairy tales about animals, representatives of the animal world embody certain qualities: fox - cunning, flattery, wolf - treacherous strength and stupidity, hare - cowardice. Moreover, in this type of fairy tales there is usually no clear division of characters into positive and negative. Each of them is endowed any one feature, an inherent feature of his character, which is played out in the plot. So, traditionally the main feature of the fox is cunning, so it's usually about how she fools other animals. Wolf greedy and stupid; in a relationship with a fox, he will certainly get into a mess. The bear has a not so unambiguous image, bear sometimes evil and sometimes good, but at the same time always remains a klutz. If a person appears in such a fairy tale, then he invariably turns out to be smarter than the fox, and the wolf, and the bear. Reason helps him to win over any opponent.

Animals in a fairy tale observe the principle of hierarchy: everyone recognizes the strongest and the main one. Is it a lion or a bear. They are always at the top of the social ladder. This brings animal tales closer to fables, which is especially evident from the presence in both of them of similar moral conclusions - social and universal. Children easy to digest: then, that the wolf is strong does not at all make him fair(for example, in a fairy tale story about seven kids). Sympathy listeners always on the side of the righteous, not strong.

Tales claim the child in the right relationship with the world. The grandfather, and the grandmother, and the granddaughter, and the Bug, and the cat are pulling the turnip - pulling, pulling, and not pulling the turnips for them. And only when the mouse came to the rescue, they pulled out a turnip. Of course, the capacious artistic meaning of this ironic tale will become completely understandable to a small person only when he grows up. Then the fairy tale will turn to him with many facets. The child can only think that no, even the smallest force is superfluous in work: how many forces are in the mouse, and without it they could not pull out the turnip.

“Rocked Hen” in the folk version, well presented, for example, in the processing of the writer A. N. Tolstoy, bears in yourself as well important thought for education. A chicken laid an egg, a mouse ran, wagged its tail, the egg fell and broke. The grandfather began to cry, the grandmother began to sob, the gates creaked, the hens flew up, the doors squinted, the tyn crumbled, the top of the hut staggered. And the whole commotion is from a broken egg. Much ado about nothing! The tale laughs at the trifling cause of so many absurd consequences.

Children learn early correctly estimate the size phenomena, deeds and deeds understand the funny side any life inconsistencies. Cheerful and playful kolobok is so sure of himself that he did not notice how became a braggart flattered by his own good fortune, here he is and got caught by a fox(“Kolobok”). The fairy tale about the tower tells about living together flies, mosquitoes, mice, frogs, hare, foxes, wolves. And then bear came- “the oppressor of all” - there was no teremok("Teremok"). Every animal tale has a moral, which necessary for the child because he must determine one's place in life, assimilate moral and ethical standards of behavior in society.

It has been observed that children easily memorize fairy tales about animals. This is explained by folk pedagogical experience correctly captured the features of children's perception. Fairy tales “Turnip”, “Rocked Hen”, “Gingerbread Man”, “Teremok” and some others keep the child’s attention special composition: episode clings to episode, often they are repeated with the addition of some new detail. These repetitions promote memory and understanding.

Animal tales can be called children's and because they have a lot of action, movement, energy- that is inherent in the child. The plot unfolds rapidly: quickly, headlong, a chicken runs to the hostess for butter, - the rooster swallowed the grain and choked, she sends her to the cow for milk. The hen goes to the cow, she asks the owner to give her fresh grass, etc. In the end, the hen brought butter, the rooster was saved, but how much he owes salvation! (“The Cockerel and the Beanstalk.”) The irony of a fairy tale is understandable to a child, he also likes the fact that the hen managed to overcome so many difficult obstacles so that the cockerel remained alive. happy endings I correspond to fairy tales tons of cheerfulness child , his confidence in the successful outcome of the struggle between good and evil.

In fairy tales about animals a lot of humor. This is their wonderful property. develops in children a sense of reality and simply amuses, entertains, pleases, sets in motion spiritual forces. However, fairy tales are known sadness. How the transitions from sadness to fun are sharply contrasted here! The feelings that are spoken of in fairy tales are as vivid as children's emotions. It is easy to console a child, but it is also easy to upset. A hare is crying at the threshold of his hut. The goat kicked him out. The rooster chased away the goat - there is no end to the joy of the hare. Fun and listener fairy tales.

A sharp distinction between positive and negative in the nature of fairy tales. The child has there is never any doubt in, how to relate to a particular fairy-tale character. The rooster is a hero, the fox is a cunning liar, the wolf is greedy, the bear is stupid, the goat is deceitful. This is not primitive, but necessary simplicity, which must be learned by the child before he is ready to accept difficult things.


Similar information.


The word "fairy tale" is attested in written sources no earlier than the 17th century. Derived from the word "say". It mattered: a list, a list, an exact description. It acquires modern significance from the 17th-19th centuries. Previously, the word fable was used, until the 11th century - a blasphemer.

A fairy tale with a purpose is needed for the subconscious or conscious teaching of a child in the family the rules and purpose of life, the need to protect their "area" and a worthy attitude towards other communities. It is noteworthy that the fairy tale carries a huge informational component, passed down from generation to generation, faith in which is based on respect for one's ancestors.

folk tale- genre of literary creativity; epic genre of written and oral folk art. A type of narrative, mostly prose folklore (fairy tale prose), which includes works of different genres, the texts of which are based on fiction.

In fairy tales, the character of the people, their wisdom and high moral qualities are manifested.

A folk tale based on a traditional plot belongs to prose folklore (fairy tale prose). To date, the following classification of Russian folk tales has been adopted:

1. Animal Tales

2. Fairy tales

3. Household fairy tales

Russian folk tale about animals - it is one of the oldest folklore genres. It intertwined echoes of myths about totem animals, stories about the origin of animals and birds, legends about the relationship between the world of people and the world of animals, etc. It captures the centuries-old experience of man in mastering the natural world, comprehending the most important laws of his being.

Tales about animals differ significantly from other types of fairy tales. Their specificity is manifested primarily in the peculiarities of fantastic fiction. According to J. Grimm, the views of primitive people influenced the possibility of the appearance of animal fiction. During the decomposition of this epic, a fairy tale about animals and a fable stood out.

Anikin V.P. in his book "Russian Folk Tale" he claims that the appearance of fairy tales about animals proper was preceded by stories directly related to beliefs about animals. In these stories, the future protagonists of fairy tales about animals acted. These stories did not yet have an allegorical meaning. Animals meant animals. Such stories directly reflected ritual-magical and mythical concepts and ideas. Stories of a mythical nature were distinguished by their vital purpose. It can be assumed that they were told with instructive purposes and taught how to relate to animals. With the help of observance of certain rules, people sought to subordinate the animal world to their influence. Such was the initial stage of the birth of fantastic fiction. Later, fairy tales about animals were based on it.



In the Russian folk "animal" tale, two worlds mutually reflect each other - the world of people and the world of animals. Tales about animals "introduce a person into the circle of the first vital ideas, explain the essence of many phenomena, acquaint with the characters and relationships of people." This gives rise to a special kind of narrative convention. The animal and the person in animalistic fairy tales are interchangeable, the transferability of functions from one character to another makes the action primary, and not the subject who performs it.

The possibility of interchange of characters gives rise in folklore to images that are identical in meaning and parallel plots. So, the beginnings of the tales “The Cat, the Rooster and the Fox” and “Baba Yaga and the Zhikhar” coincide: in the first, the fox carries off the rooster, luring him out with a song, and the cat goes to save him; in the second, Zhikhar is dragged off by Baba Yaga, who lured him out with a song, and a cat and a sparrow rush to help him. Almost identical in plot, composition and ideological meaning are the tales “The Chanterelle with a Rolling Pin” and “The Old Woman Bast Shoes”, in which the heroines, by deceit, change a rolling pin / bast shoe for a chicken, a chicken for a goose, a goose for a turkey, etc. up to a bull / girls.

V.Ya. Propp, defining animal tales, suggested: “Animal tales will mean those tales in which the animal is the main object or subject of the narrative. On this basis, fairy tales about animals can be distinguished from others where animals play only an auxiliary role and are not the heroes of the story.

The fabulous animal epic is a special education, a little like stories from the life of animals. Animals here act in accordance with their nature and act as carriers of this or that character and producers of these or those actions, which should be attributed primarily to man. Therefore, the world of animals in fairy tales is a form of expression of thoughts and feelings of a person, his views on life.

Allegoricalness is characteristic of Russian animalistic tales, where it is possible due to the use of allegorical (fable) imagery. Hence the main themes of Russian fairy tales about animals - human characters, virtues and vices of people, types of human relationships both in everyday life and in the social sphere, up to a sharp social satire on the social structure.

Man has long felt a kinship with nature, he really was a part of it, fighting with it, seeking protection from it, sympathizing and understanding. The later introduced fable, parable meaning of many fairy tales about animals is also obvious.

Animal tale classifications

There are many classifications of both fairy tales in general and fairy tales about animals in particular. Each classification has its own basis, i.e. the basis by which this classification is distinguished. Here are some of them:

BUT) By main character (thematic classification). Such a classification is given in the index of fairy-tale plots of world folklore compiled by Arne-Thomson and in the Comparative Index of Plots. East Slavic fairy tale ":

1. Wild animals:
- A fox.
- Other wild animals.
2. Wild and domestic animals.
3. Man and wild animals.
4. Pets.
5. Birds and fish.
6. Other animals, objects, plants and natural phenomena.

B) By genre (structural-semantic classification). There are several genres in the fairy tale about animals. V.Ya. Propp singled out:

1. Cumulative fairy tale about animals.
2. Magic fairy tale about animals.
3. Fable (apologist).
4. A satirical tale.

E.A. Kostyukhin distinguished the following genres about animals:

1. Comic (household) fairy tale about animals
2. Magic fairy tale about animals
3. Cumulative Animal Tale
4. Novelistic tale about animals
5. Apologist (fable)
6. Joke.
7. Satirical tale about animals
8. Legends, stories, everyday stories about animals
9. Fables

Propp tried to put a formal sign at the basis of his classification of animal tales by genre. Kostyukhin, on the other hand, divides the genres of the fairy tale about animals according to the content, which allows a deeper understanding of the diverse material of the fairy tale about animals.

IN) By target audience.

1. Children's fairy tales (The modern Russian fairy tale about animals mainly belongs to the children's audience.):
- Fairy tales for children.
- Tales told by children.
2. Adult fairy tales.

About twenty plots of fairy tales about animals are cumulative stories. The principle of constructing such fairy tales is the repeated repetition of a plot unit. S. Thompson, J. Bolte, I. Polivka, V.Ya. Propp identified fairy tales with cumulative composition as a special group of fairy tales. Cumulative (chain-like) composition is distinguished:

1. With endless repetition:
- Boring tales like "About the white bull."
- A unit of text is included in another text ("The priest had a dog").
2. With final repetition:
- "Turnip" - plot units grow in a chain until the chain breaks.
- “The cockerel choked” - the chain is untwisted until the chain breaks.
- "For a rolling pin duck" - the previous unit of text is denied in the next episode.

A significant part of animal tales is occupied by apologist (fable), in which there is a moralizing beginning. At the same time, the apologist does not have to have a moral in the form of an ending. The moral comes from the storyline. Situations must be unambiguous in order to easily form moral conclusions. Typical examples of an apologist are the tales "Who is more cowardly than a hare?"; "Old bread and salt is forgotten"; "A thorn in the paw of a bear (lion)"; "The Fox and the Sour Grapes"; "Crow and Fox" and many others.

Next to the apologist stands the so-called short story about animals, allocated by E.A. Kostyukhin. A short story in an animal tale is a story about unusual cases with a fairly developed intrigue, with sharp turns in the fate of the characters. It has a more definite morality than in the apologist, the comic beginning is muted, or completely removed. The content of the novel is entertaining. A classic example of a work is "Grateful Beasts". Most of the plots of a folklore short story about animals are formed in literature, and then pass into folklore.

Speaking of satire in animal tales, I must say that literature once gave impetus to the development of a satirical fairy tale. The satirical effect in a folklore tale is achieved by the fact that social terminology is put into the mouths of animals (Fox confessor; Cat and wild animals).

Each fairy-tale genre is distinguished by its originality of fiction and narrative form, is original in origin, is characterized by special types of heroes inherent only to it and an independent circle of plots.

Tales about animals (or animal epic) are distinguished by the main feature that their main characters are animals. Especially popular were the tales "A fox steals fish from a cart (sleigh)", "Animals in a pit", "Cat, rooster and fox", "Cat and wild animals", "Fool wolf", "Luplen goat".

In world folklore, about 140 plots of the animal epic are known, in Russian - 119. A significant part of them are original. So, among other nations there are no fairy tales "The midwife", "The cat, the rooster and the fox", "The wolf visiting the dog", "The house of the fly". The originality and freshness of the East Slavic animal epic has been noted more than once. However, in the repertoire of all fairy tales, it occupies only about 10% of the plots and is relatively uncommon (only a few fairy tales have been recorded more than 10 times).

In fairy tales about animals, traces of that period of primitive housekeeping have been preserved, when man could only appropriate the products of nature, but had not yet learned how to reproduce them. The main source of life for people at that time was hunting, and cunning, the ability to deceive the beast played an important role in the struggle for survival. Therefore, a noticeable compositional device of the animal epic is deception in its various forms: insidious advice, unexpected fright, voice change and other pretense. The experience of the ancient hunters is connected with the constantly mentioned pen pit. He who knows how to outwit, deceive, wins and receives a benefit for himself. The Russian fairy tale assigned this quality to one of its central characters, the fox.

Fairy tales often feature representatives of the wild fauna. These are the inhabitants of forests, fields, steppes: a fox, a bear, a wolf, a wild boar, a hare, a hedgehog, a frog, a mouse. Birds are represented in various ways: raven, sparrow, heron, crane, woodpecker, black grouse, owl. There are insects: a fly, a mosquito, a bee, an ant, a spider; less often - fish: pike, perch.

As historical development began to appear, fairy tales about domesticated domestic animals and birds began to appear. The Slavs were surrounded daily and became characters in their fairy tales: an ox, a horse, a ram, a sheep, a dog, a cat, a rooster, a duck, a goose. The man himself entered the fairy tales as an equal participant in the events. Since JTH fairy tales were intended for a very long time mainly for lay listeners, the people acting in them also acquired a m`-ization understandable to children: grandfather, woman, grandson, granddaughter. The human mind and friendship, mutual assistance of domestic animals began to be opposed to the brute force and cunning of the inhabitants of the wild.

The most archaic plot layer of the animal epic belongs to the pre-agricultural period. These tales mainly reflect the real ancient life, and not the worldview of people, which was then in its infancy. Direct echoes of beliefs, the deification of the beast, are found in a single fairy tale - "The Bear on a Linden Leg." The beliefs of the Eastern Slavs about the bear, various folklore, ethnography and archeology evidence indicate that here, like many other peoples, the bear was indeed deified. The tale "The Bear on a Linden Leg" recalls the once-existing ban on harming him. In all other tales, the bear is fooled and ridiculed.

For example: “Once upon a time there was a grandmother. She went into the forest through brushwood. Suddenly she hears: it cracked in the swamp, it hit in the woods - the bear is going.

- Grandma, grandma, I'll eat a filly.

“Don’t eat, so-and-so, I’ll give you a car.”

Another time she promised the bear a strong man, and the third time she promised him a tombolk. But when the beast came to the village for this, it turned out that the car was a warm oven, on which the grandmother was lying; krepushka - a tightly locked gate; potombalka - "does not go to the forest and has no luck with firewood" ("The Bear and the Old Woman").

Here you can name many plots: "Cat and wild animals", "Bear learns to play the violin (or carpentry)", "Man, bear and fox". More stupid than a bear is, perhaps, only a wolf.

The mockery of the beast indicates the decay of the totem cult. It is no coincidence that the "bear fun" was widespread among the Eastern Slavs - a dramatized amusement, a grotesque mockery of the rites of the past. In relation to the main plot corpus of the Russian animal epic, we have the right to speak not about traces of totemism, but only about a fantastic device for endowing animals with human speech and reason, that is, about the purely artistic convention of these images.

Russian fairy tales about animals are associated with laughter and even with naturalistic details, which, according to V. A. Bakhtina, “are perceived as fantastic and have a deep meaningful character. serves as one of the means of characterization of the character ... ". In the animal epic, traces of the professional art of buffoons, wandering entertainers, who usually played "bear fun" were preserved. It is no coincidence that part of the repertoire of fairy tales about animals turned out to be directly opposite to the tasks of folk pedagogy. In their crude, albeit witty, erotic content, such tales began to be intended exclusively for a male audience, joining a certain group of anecdotal tales.

Later, under the influence of literature (in particular, with the penetration of translations of Aesop's fables into Russia in the 18th century), the satirical stream noticeably intensified in the Russian animal epic, the theme of social denunciation appeared, prompted by life itself.

For example, the tale of a fox who intended to "confess" a rooster underwent a series of literary alterations in manuscripts, printed collections and in popular prints. As a result, elements of the bookish style, satirically imitating the speech of the clergy, penetrated into the folk rendition of this tale.

Satire, as well as naturalistic eroticism, found its further development in the oral anecdote with animal characters. In general, animal tales broadly reflect human life. They capture the peasant life, a rich range of human qualities, human ideals. Fairy tales figuratively summarized the labor and life experience of people. Performing an important didactic and cognitive task, they passed on knowledge from adults to children.

Animal tales differ significantly from the literary fable. In fables, allegory is born speculatively, in a deductive way, therefore it is always unidirectional and abstract. Fairy tales, on the other hand, come from life's concreteness, preserving, for all the conventionality of their characters, their lively charm, naive plausibility. Fairy tales combine human and animal in the images of animals with the help of humor and fun. As if playing with words, having fun, the storytellers observantly and accurately recreated the features of the real inhabitants of their native fauna. The child-listener was also involved in the process of word creation, for whom acquaintance with the outside world and learning speech turned into an exciting game.

A. M. Smirnov compared the variants of the fairy tale "Terem flies". “The whole artistic meaning of it,” the researcher wrote, “is to give as accurate a designation as possible, to vividly depict the subject, to emphasize its characteristic essence in one or two words.” In the poetic speech of the storyteller, new words often arose under the influence of alliteration, rhyme, rhythm - for the sake of verbal play. At the same time, the tale "Terem of the fly" contains numerous examples of the semantic origin of new words: each animal evoked its own series of impressions, and this was developed in versions of the tale by its different performers.

The nicknames of the frog were associated with the sounds it made in the water: rakhotuha on the water, skunk toad, frog frog, balagta on the water. The bunny aroused visual impressions: Ivanov's son, the white bunny, the runaway bunny, the lapan bunny, the stray bunny. The bear and the wolf were accompanied by nicknames of a motor character: at the lair, a felt tree, forest oppression, an oppressor to everyone, you crush everyone, "Misha Korchin - he came to make you wrangle." The fox received evaluation characteristics: fox-beauty, fox-beauty, fox-gossip, fox-sister, when talking beauty, "I am a fox, butter gubiid, divya beauty, raspberry color"; and also: the fox is sly, the fox is affectionate words. Lisa Patrikeevna. But what nicknames did the tales of the cat so famous for them endow: a cat, a cat, a cat-cat - a gray pubis, a purr ~ lyshko, Vaska the cat, Kotofey Ivanovich, a gray cat, a mischievous cat, a mighty cat, a cat.

The pedagogical orientation of fairy tales about animals also corresponds to their other features. Game performance was combined with a clear, didactically naked idea of ​​the plot, artistic simplicity of form. Fairy tales have a small volume and a distinct composition, the universal device of which is the meeting of characters and dramatized dialogue. The writer and folklorist D. M. Balashov noted that in children's fairy tales "the bear speaks in a low, rough voice, the grandmother speaks in a thin voice, etc. Such a manner is not typical when telling "adult" fairy tales."

Songs are often included in the narrative.

For example, the song of a kolobok concretely and figuratively depicts the process of its preparation. In another tale, the song reveals the rough voice of a wolf pretending to be the mother of goats. The wolf makes the blacksmith "reforge" his throat and again repeats the goat's song, but in a thin voice. And the fairy tale "The Cat, the Rooster and the Fox" turns into a kind of creative competition between the insidious fox and the devoted friend - the cat. In nature, the cockerel is the most "melodious" among these animals, but the fairy tale assigns him only the role of a gullible listener of fox songs seduced by flattery, whom the fox carries away. However, in the end, she herself becomes a victim of such a deception, as she is fascinated by the artistry of the cat:

"... Not finding his comrade, carried away by the villainous fox, the cat grieved, grieved and went to help him out of trouble. He bought himself a caftan, red boots, a hat, a bag, a saber and a harp; dressed up as a harpman, came to the fox hut and sings:

Tribulation, goslings,

Golden strings!

Is Lisafya at home

With my kids…”

Thanks to dialogues and songs, the performance of each fairy tale turned into a small performance.

Structurally, the works of the animal epic are diverse.

There are single-motif tales ("The Wolf and the Pig", "The Fox drowns the jug"), but they are rare, since the principle of repetition is very developed. First of all, it manifests itself in various types of cumulative plots. Among them - a three-time repetition of the meeting ("Bast and ice hut"). Plots are known with a multiple line of repetition ("Fool Wolf"), which can sometimes claim to develop into a bad infinity ("The Crane and the Heron"). But most often cumulative plots are presented as multiply (up to 7 times) increasing or decreasing frequency. The last link has a resolving possibility. So, only the last of all and the smallest - the mouse - helps to pull out a big, big turnip, and the “terem of the fly” exists until the last and largest of the animals comes - the bear.

For the composition of fairy tales about animals, contamination is of great importance. Only in a small part of these tales are stable plots, but in the main, the index does not reflect plots, but only motives. The motifs connect with each other in the process of storytelling, but are almost never performed separately. Contamination of these motifs can be both free and fixed by tradition, stable. For example, the motifs "The fox steals fish from the cart" and "The wolf at the hole" are always told together.

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002