Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov (Penguin Classics) (58 page)

An elderly peasant from a family who had settled there long ago. From the first years of his married life he had been entirely blind and had been supported by the labours of his wife and son. [ … ]
He was a friendly and good-natured man, and his precise ability to remember the days of the calendar was a help to the people around him. He also had a rich store of sayings, riddles, songs, folktales and rhymes with which to introduce a tale (
priskazki
). Above all, he was endowed with a vivid imagination, an ardent fantasy and an unusual fluency of speech that enabled him to carry his listeners away.

Makarenko continues:

On a little shelf nailed into the wall stood a tiny oil lamp with no glass; there was barely any flame at all from its wick. Its feeble light was almost obscured by the blue-grey waves of
makhorka
smoke, the steam from all the human bodies and the soot from the lamp itself. Adults and children alike were crowded into the little hut. Sitting there in their clothes, in the warmth given off by the iron stove, and packed closely together, they were all sweating profusely. Some had dozed off. Others were listening with avid curiosity and extraordinary attentiveness.

Makarenko goes on to praise Chima’s skilful use of pauses and different tones of voice, and his fine understanding of his listeners’ psychology. I would add that this tale is remarkable not only for its emotional intensity but also for its scope. Not only does Chima include vivid details from Tungus everyday life but he also evokes both a sense of horizontal space – as the characters wander through the forest – and a sense of vertical space – as the hero battles with the fiery cloud above and the serpent below.

 1
.     Now usually known as Evenks, the Tungus are one of the native peoples of the far north of Siberia and China.

 2
.     The association between snakes and lightning is almost universal; a snake is often seen as an earthly embodiment of lightning.

 3
.     Literally: ‘our way back to the upper tail’. Some indigenous peoples of Siberia referred to the upper layer of the universe as ‘the upper tail’. Though told in Russian, this
skazka
incorporates much non-Russian material.

 4
.     Azadovsky writes, ‘Usually, in tales of this type, the wife or betrothed of the deceived and abandoned warrior gives in when threatened. [ … ] Chima completely breaks with this tradition and has his Siberian heroine remain faithful to her man, despite being brutally abused.’ Azadovsky considers the final recognition
scene to be ‘among the finest pages of Russian folktale poetry’ (
op. cit
., pp. 221–2).

 1
.     ‘Out of Their Minds’, in Patty Wageman, Russian Legends (Groningen: Groninger Museum, 2007), p. 45.

A-T 550; see also Af. 168 and Haney 305.

 1
.     Both this version and Afanasyev’s are based on an eighteenth-century chapbook. Propp considers this version exceptionally fine. But he notes that, at this point, ‘The hero reasons quite rationally, not at all in fairytale style. [ … ] This tale-teller, an eighteenth-century rationalist, ascribes his own views to the hero. A true hero always takes the road to death, meets mortal danger and overcomes it. In the given case the hero is thinking of his own life.’ Propp then cites another variant of the words on the pillar: ‘Whoever rides to the right will find happiness, whoever rides to the left will find two happinesses, but whoever rides straight ahead will find unhappiness.’ The youngest brother takes the road of unhappiness – which eventually, of course, leads him to happiness. Propp sees this treatment of the motif as canonical (
The Russian Folk Tale
, chapter 3).

 2
.     This custom is still observed at Russian weddings. The guests shout, ‘Bitter!’, as if complaining that the wine is too bitter. In response, the bride and groom must kiss, as if the sweetness of their kiss will sweeten the bitter wine.

 3
.     In a version collected by Khudyakov, the firebird, dulled by the lies of Ivan’s brothers, turns into a crow. But when Ivan at last returns to his father’s palace, the firebird once again becomes itself.

 1
.     N. E. Onchukov,
Severnye skazki
, p. 70.

 2
.     N. E. Onchukov,
Zavetnye skazki
, p. 14.

 3
.    
ibid
., p. 31.

A-T 329; Onchukov 2 (Haney 197); see also Af. 236–7. Told to Onchukov by Aleksey Chuprov, aged seventy and blind. He was equally gifted as a storyteller and as a singer of
byliny
.

 1
.     In the original, this is a pun. The Russian
buravchik
means both ‘gimlet’ and ‘pizzle’ (the penis of a bull or boar). A boar’s pizzle is threaded like a gimlet. From this comes the idea of ‘screwing’ a woman.

 2
.     The Magovey bird is mysterious, though she appears in a few other magic tales and
byliny
. Often the hero has to feed her a part of his own body. There are many variants of her name.

 3
.     According to Marie-Louise von Franz, the hero succeeds because, instead of continuing to fight Evil on its own terms, he gives himself over to the Feminine. He receives help from three feminine figures – the tsarevna, the maid and the bird. Only when he entirely abandons himself to the bird does he escape the tsar (
Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales
, pp. 236–53).

A-T 566; Onchukov 249 (150 in first edition); Haney 325. One of seventeen stories in Onchukov’s collection recorded by the schoolteacher D. Georgievsky.

 1
.     O. E. Ozarovskaya,
Pyatirechiye
, p. 6.

 2
.    
ibid
., p. 20.

A-T 737B*; Ozarovskaya,
Pyatirechiye
, 27 (Haney 400). Recorded in 1925 from Tatyana Osipovna Kobeleva, who was seventy years old and blind. Ozarovskaya – who knew that she too was going blind – wrote, ‘I was struck by the astonishing joyfulness that emanated from everything she said, and I saw her as an instructive example, since I knew that I would have to endure a similar old age’ (
op. cit
., p. 20).

 1
.     The brackets are in the original; they indicate a comment made by the teller.

 1
.     Viktor Berdinskikh, ‘D. K. Zelenin’ in
Novy Mir
, 1995, no. 3:
http://magazines.russ.ru/novyi_mi/1995/3/abook01.html
See also:
http://pagan.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=613

A-T 675; Zelenin,
Vyat
. 23; see also Af. 165–7 and Haney 368. Most oral versions of this widespread tale are similar; even illiterate tellers were evidently influenced by the many chapbook texts. Many versions begin with the fool (usually called Yemelya) being promised fine clothes. In Zelenin,
Vyat
. 138, Yemelya’s sisters-in-law bribe him to perform various necessary tasks (fetching water, gathering firewood, etc.) by promising that his father will bring him red mittens and red felt boots when he comes back from the city. In Af. 166 a similar promise makes Yemelya agree to go and see the tsar.

The editor of one of the chapbook versions (Af. 165, Haney 368), tries to excuse Yemelya’s brutality: ‘But he didn’t know that he ought to shout out some warning so that people wouldn’t be crushed by his sleigh; he rode along without shouting anything and so he crushed a whole lot of people.’ In Af. 166, however, Yemelya shows no qualms at all. Seized by an angry mob as he passes through the town a second time, he just says, ‘By the pike’s command, by my own request, go, stick, and sort out this mob for me!’

This story was told to Zelenin by Afanasy Timofeyevich Krayev, a senile seventy-five-year-old. Zelenin writes, ‘I know only that he is illiterate, a drunkard and a lazybones, that he has no trade and that he has survived in recent years almost entirely through begging.’ After saying how often Krayev left out important passages or jumped from one tale to another, Zelenin expresses regret that he did not meet Krayev ten years earlier: ‘Krayev is one of the very few
specialist
storytellers I met in the province of Vyatka. Storytelling is, one could say, his profession. A great lover of drink, Krayev appears at every wedding in the district. In places where he, a semi-beggar, would never normally be treated to vodka, he is given a generous liquid reward for his merry tales. [ … ] I have no doubt at all that Krayev was once
the bearer of a rich and splendid storytelling tradition’ (Zelenin,
Vyat
., p. 114).

 1
.     Zelenin recorded this tale from Krayev twice; the two versions differ, though only slightly. In both versions, Omelyanushko replies to the soldiers in rhyme. In the other version he says, ‘I’m lying on the stove, I’m nibbling turds’ (‘
Na pechke lezhu, komy glozhu
’).

From
Humorous Stories, Book
2
(1911).

From
Lynx
(1920).

 1
.     The forest spirit, less dangerous than the water spirit but more dangerous than the house spirit.

 2
.     From 1917 to 1946 the Soviet agency in charge of education and cultural matters was known as
Narkompros
or The People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment. A
leshy
or forest spirit is associated with darkness. His role is to confuse people and lead them astray – certainly not to enlighten them.

 3
.     ‘The Humpbacked Horse’, published in 1834 by Pyotr Yershov – though possibly, in fact, written by Aleksandr Pushkin – is one of the most famous of Russian verse fairy tales. A wily but honest peasant boy captures a flying horse. In exchange for his freedom, this horse gives the boy two beautiful black horses and a little humpbacked pony. The first two horses are his to sell or give away; the little pony is to remain his companion. Throughout his subsequent adventures the boy follows this pony’s advice.

 4
.     The Council of People’s Commissars was elected at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in late 1917. Its role was to be responsible for the ‘general administration of the affairs of the state’ while the Congress of the Soviets was not in session. It soon became the highest government authority of executive power. Lenin was the Council’s first Chairman.

 5
.     Zmey Gorynych is a green dragon with three heads who appears in one of the most famous
byliny
. He walks on his two back paws, and he spits fire.

 6
.     The original name for the Soviet security service was the ‘Extraordinary Committee’ or
Cherezvychainy komitet
; this was usually shortened to
Cherezvychaika
or
Cheka
. Later acronyms were the OGPU, the NKVD and the KGB. The Russian security service is currently known as the FSB.

 7
.     A female house spirit in Slavic mythology, sometimes considered the wife of the more important male house spirit. Usually she lives behind the stove or in the cellar, though she can also be found in swamps and forests. She is notably ugly; ‘to look like a kikimora’ means ‘to look a fright’.

A-T 480A* + 313H. First published as a large-format illustrated children’s book in 1932. Teffi follows Af. 103 (Haney 103).

From
Witch
(1936).

 1
.     Vanya is referring to the old Russian saying that a person in love will oversalt their dishes when cooking.

 2
.     In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Hermann Friedrich Eilers supplied flowers to the court and owned a large florists opposite the Kazan Cathedral.

 3
.     ‘The Stray Dog’ was a café in Petersburg, a famous meeting place for writers and poets. Between 1911 and 1915 nearly all the main poets of the time – regardless of their political or artistic affiliations – gave readings there.

 4
.     Mikhail Kuzmin (1872–1936), a homosexual, was known as ‘the Russian Wilde’. A composer as well as a poet, he sang his own songs at ‘The Stray Dog’, accompanying himself on the piano. As a young man, he was a close friend of Georgy Chicherin, who later became the first Bolshevik Commissar for Foreign Affairs.

 5
.     Oscar Wilde used to wear a green carnation in his buttonhole. Wilde owed his fame in early twentieth-century Russia mainly to his trial and imprisonment, but many of the leading poets of the
time – Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov, Nikolay Gumilyov, Mikhail Kuzmin and Fyodor Sologub – translated his work.

 6
.     ‘Waves of the Danube’ is a famous waltz composed in 1880 by Iosif Ivanovici, a Romanian. In the United States it has become known as ‘The Anniversary Song’.

 7
.     i.e. officers of the ‘Cheka’ – the first of the many titles given to the Soviet security service. See p. 452, note 6.

From
Earthly Rainbow
(New York, 1952).

 1
.     Andrey Sinyavsky has written about the place accorded to cats in folktales:

Like the cat, the folktale is attached to home, to warmth, to the stove by which tales were usually told in the evenings. But sitting at home, the folktale gazes out at the forest, longing for faraway lands and dreaming of miracles. In this respect, the folktale resembles the cat, which, for all its domesticity, is regarded as a wild and wily breed. [ … ] The cat is a barometer, a secret guardian, a good demon, a funny and peaceable hobgoblin, without which the house is unstable and seemingly empty. In short, the cat in the folktales makes for an invisible connection between forest and stove, between foreign lands and home, between the animal and human kingdoms, demonic spells and daily life. (
Ivan the Fool
, pp. 51–2)