‘Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-Lore'

[David]

‘Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-Lore by W.R.S. Ralston, MA

Though I might start with a snip from chapter one, from the author...

{snip}
In our days the folk-tale, instead of being left to the careless guardianship of youth and ignorance, is sedulously tended and held in high honor by the ripest of scholars. Their views with regard to it’s origin may differ widely. But whether it be considered in one of its phases as a distorted “nature-myth,” or in another as a demoralized apologue or parable-whether it be regarded at one time as a relic of primeval wisdom, or at another as a blurred transcript of a page of creation of the popular fancy, no chance expression of the uncultured thought of the rude tiller of this or that soil. Rather is it believed of most folk-tales that they, in their original forms, were framed centuries upon centuries ago; while of some of them it is supposed that they may be traced back through successive ages to those myths in which, during a prehistoric period, the oldest of philosophers expressed their ideas relative to the material or the spiritual world.

But it is not every popular tale which can boast of so noble a lineage, and one of the great difficulties which beset the mythologist who attempts to discover the original meaning of folk-tales in general is to decide which of them are really antique, and worthy, therefore, of being submitted to critical analysis.
{snip}

Well I’m just reading...

 

[David]

Though this particular Russian Tale “The Fox Physician” is thought provoking. :/

There once was an old couple. The old man planted a cabbage-head in the cellar under the floor of his cottage; the old woman planted one in the ash-hole. The old woman’s cabbage, in the ash-hole, withered away entirely; but the old man’s grew and grew, grew up to the floor. The old man took his hatchet and cut a hole in the floor above the cabbage. The cabbage went on growing again; grew, grew right up to the ceiling. Again the old man took his hatchet and cut a hole in the ceiling above the cabbage. The cabbage grew and grew, grew right up to the sky. How was the old man to get a look at the head cabbage? He began climbing up the cabbage-stalk, climbed and climbed, climbed and climbed, climbed right up to the sky, cut a hole in the sky, and crept through. There he sees a mill standing. The mill gives a turn-out come a pie and a cake with a pot of stewed grain on top.

The old man ate his fill, drank his fill, and then lay down to sleep. When he had slept enough he slid down to earth again, and cried:

“Old woman! Why, old woman! How one dose live up in heaven! There’s a mill there-every time it turns, out come a pie and a cake, with a pot of kasha on top!”

“How can I get there old man?”

“Slip into this sack, old woman, Ill carry you up.”

The old woman thought a bit, and then got into the sack. The old man took the sack in his teeth, and began climbing up to heaven. He climbed and climbed, long did he climb. The old woman got tired of waiting and asked:

“Is it much farther, old man?”

“We’ve half way to go still.”

Again he climbed and climbed, climbed and climbed. A second time the old woman asked:

“Is it much farther old man?”

The old man was just beginning to say: “Not much farther-“ when the sack slipped from between his teeth, and the old woman fell to the ground and was smashed all to pieces. The old man slid down the cabbage-stalk and picked up the sack. But it had nothing in it but bones, and those broken very small. The old man went out of his house and wept bitterly.

Presently a fox met him.

“What are you crying about, old man?”

“How can I help crying? My old woman is smashed to pieces.”

“Hold your noise! I’ll cure her.”

The old man fell at the fox’s feet.

“Only cure her! I’ll pay whatever is wanted.”

“Well, then, heat the bath-room, carry the old woman there along with a bag of oatmeal and a pot of butter, and then stand outside the door: but don’t look inside.”

The old man heated the bath-room, carried in what was wanted, and stood outside at the door. But the fox went into the bath-room, shut the door, and began washing the old woman’s remains; washed and washed, and kept looking about her all the time.

“How’s my old woman getting on?” asked the old man.

“Beginning to stir!” replied the fox, who then ate up the old woman, collected her bones and piled them up in a corner, and set to work to knead a hasty pudding.

The old man waited and waited. Presently he asked: “How’s my old woman getting on?”

“Resting a bit!” cried the fox, as she gobbled up the hasty pudding.

When she had finished it she cried: “Old man! Open the door wide.”

He opened it, and the fox sprang out of the bath-room and ran off home. The old man went into the bath-room and looked about him. Nothing was to be seen but the old woman’s bones under the bench-and those picked so clean! As for the oatmeal and the butter, they had all been eaten up. So the old man was left alone and in poverty.

The simplicity of the story works for me, one could substitute, the old man for STS and the old woman for STO and the world as it is, takes shape from there... osit

In Russian folk-lore, the cabbage – is feminine, some referrer to the cabbage as a symbol of the female sexual organ, and the fox apparently is the female personification of evil, though I don’t get that, though the fox as a personification of STS or denizen of 4D and its influence might do.

Perhaps just pie in the sky thinking (excuse the pun), that gets one sleeping some if not every time, though I think there is more in this fairy tale, even with respect to personality and essence perhaps, though Just a few unformed ideas, anyway just thought I might share, a little story form this book.

Though most of the stories can be found here _http://zeluna.net/russian-fairy-tale.html if one is so inclined. :/

 

[Alvalsen]

this is some modern tales