Fairy tales for children with the characteristics of the main characters. Fabulous names. Women's images: "my light, mirror, tell me ..."

Fairy tales have their own special structure - stable plots and motives are constantly used in its composition, heroes of fairy tales with their invariable functions and abilities are encountered. We all remember popular folk tales with their threefold repetitions, with repeating formulas "Once upon a time ...", "In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ...", "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it ...". The space in a fairy tale is conditional and distant from reality.

The heroes of fairy tales are distinguished by such bright human qualities as nobility, kind-heartedness, courage, resourcefulness, and good forces in fairy tales always prevail. Among the positive heroes of Russian folk tales, there are brave princes, epic heroes, simple peasants, and a number of female images.

Bogatyrs were originally heroes of Russian epics, but over time they penetrated into folk tales. The most famous hero of fairy tales is Ilya Muromets. He embodies the ideal of a warrior hero, who is famous not only for his remarkable physical strength, but also for the special moral qualities inherent in a real hero: calmness, perseverance, good nature. In epics and fairy tales, this hero is the people's defender. Let us recall, for example, such a work as "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber." Also worthy of mention is the noble but little-known old hero of Russian fairy tales Ruslan Lazarevich. The plots and adventures in which he appears are close to the well-known plots with Ilya Muromets.

Dobrynya Nikitich, like the hero of fairy tales, acts as a reliable assistant to the prince, whom he has probably served for many years. He carries out personal assignments of the prince, for example, to save his daughter or niece. Dobrynya is distinguished by particular courage - he himself decides to carry out tasks that the rest of the heroes refuse. Often this is the hero of the fairy tale about snake fighting, as well as Alyosha Popovich. Their adventures and the stories in which they appear are extremely similar to each other. Let us recall, for example, such stories as "Dobrynya Nikitich and the Serpent Gorynych" and "Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin the Serpent".

All these three epic heroes are in close interaction with each other, and in different fairy tales they show their strong and noble qualities in different ways. Everyone knows these names of the heroes of folk tales. Alyosha Popovich is a collective image of a hero in Russian folklore. In the character of this hero of the tale, we see a mixture of the most varied features. First of all, Alyosha is distinguished by his courage, but he is also very fervent and cunning. His image reflected the whole breadth of the soul of the Russian person, all its versatility.

Favorite hero of folk tales - Ivan Tsarevich. This is a well-known positive character who fights against evil, helps the weak and offended. This is often the youngest of the king's three sons. In some plots, Ivan does not even know about his royal origin, but, nevertheless, personifies the nobility and good qualities of the soul. For example, he fights with Koschei, overcomes him, saves his wife or a beautiful princess. And for his heroic behavior and good deeds, this hero of folk tales receives the kingdom due to him or other people's half of the kingdom, and the royal daughter, and other magical skills.

Ivan the Fool is also a very important hero of fairy tales, who stands on the side of good and light forces. Ivan the Fool is just a peasant's son and he does not at all resemble a noble fairytale hero. Its peculiarity is that outwardly he is not at all like other positive heroes of Russian fairy tales. He does not shine with intelligence, but it is thanks to his irrational behavior and non-standard thinking that he passes all fabulous tests, defeats his opponent and gets wealth.

It is important to note that Ivan the Fool has a special creative ability - he plays musical instruments (gusli or pipe), and in fairy tales, great importance is often attached to his wonderful singing. This is its peculiarity, because the positive heroes of fairy tales are not always able to create something beautiful on their own, without resorting to the help of magical animals or objects.

Among the female fairy-tale images, the type of the Wonderful Bride is especially outstanding. This extraordinary hero of fairy tales is distinguished by intelligence and special feminine cunning. She often owns some kind of magical items or knows how to use miraculous powers. We all know the heroines corresponding to this type: Vasilisa the Beautiful, Vasilisa the Wise and the Frog Princess. This is the female version of the strong hero of folk tales.

This kind heroine is a reflection of the bright side, the personification of goodness and peace, but at the same time in many plots the wonderful bride is the daughter of the enemy of the protagonist of the tale. A good hero of folk tales goes through severe trials and solves difficult riddles, and a wonderful bride helps him with these tasks. Thus, sometimes in one fairy tale we meet not one, but two, or even three characters who help each other in the fight against evil.

As we can see, the goodies of folk tales are very diverse. They reveal different sides of the national character: here there is nobility, and selflessness, and ingenuity, and cunning, and special heroism, straightforwardness, and female wisdom. The heroes of fairy tales overcome all obstacles on their way thanks to these positive qualities. Indeed, in Russian folklore, fairytale heroes strive for light, and good forces always prevail.

Leafing through illustrated books with fairy tales, watching the most favorite Russian or foreign animated films, children get to know different characters. Over time, some of them become the most beloved.

Famous fairy tale characters

Fairy tales are a powerful tool for teaching children. As you know, children are best suited for information that is given to them in a playful way. Through fairy tales, they quickly and easily understand common truths in a form designed for children's understanding.

From early childhood, when mothers read their first fairy tales to babies, they get to know the fairy tale characters. Little children know such heroes of fairy tales as Three Little Pigs, Gray Goat, Mukha-Tsokatukha, Barmaley, Tarakanische and Moidodyr. They are also familiar with the Ugly Duckling, Doctor Aibolit, Kolobok, Ryaba Chicken, Zhikharka, Buratino, Baba Yaga, Masha and the Bear.

Growing up, children get acquainted with the characters of fairy tales, designed for their age, and accordingly, the priorities regarding their favorite fairy-tale characters change. Among the favorites are Gerda and Kai, Thumbelina, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Balda, Prince Guidon, The Little Humpbacked Horse, Little Red Riding Hood, Mowgli and Carlson. Ellie, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow cannot help but love.

Heroes of the most popular Russian cartoons

There are many children and adults among lovers of Russian cartoons. Let's name the ten most famous heroes Russian cartoons. In the first place is the sneak and the villainous Dyudyuk Barbidokskaya. Dyudyuka with a large bow and an umbrella in his hands is trying to embroil friends. She is the heroine of such cartoons as "A Gift for an Elephant" and "On the Road with Clouds".

As you know, this robber, invented by Korney Chukovsky, lived in Africa and was the enemy of Doctor Aibolit. The honorable third place is taken by such a cartoon hero as the white bear Umka. Cheburashka is in fourth position, and Leopold the Cat is in fifth. A bear named Winnie the Pooh is also one of the most popular characters in Russian cartoons. He took the sixth position in the ranking.

A man in the prime of his life entered the top ten and took seventh place, namely, the beloved Carlson. Eighth place was shared by the following domestic cartoon characters - Thumbelina, Captain Vrungel, Dwarf Nose and silly Dunno. The Wooden Boy is on the ninth line of the rating. The last place in the top ten most popular heroes is occupied by the onion boy - the brave Cipollino.

The most favorite characters of foreign cartoons

Almost every child watches cartoons, and his favorite characters are not only representatives of the domestic film industry, but also cartoon characters of foreign animated films. Powerful advertising contributes to the growing popularity of foreign cartoon characters.

By the way, Disney princesses have become very expensive to manufacture .. Complicated story"Is included in the rating of the most expensive cartoons. The site is.

There are many foreign animated films that have become favorite for children. They have kind and beautiful heroes. Among the favorites are the heroes of the cartoon "Cars". For the most part, they are of interest to boys. But girls are interested in such a character as Kitty. Despite the fact that he appeared on the screens back in 1974, his popularity continues today. The spectacular and beautiful Winx fairies are also more interesting to girls, many of whom strive to be like them. For many years, princesses from Disney cartoons have remained popular - these are Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel.

It is impossible not to remember such cartoon heroes as SpongeBob and Scooby Doo, Sean the Sheep and Bernard, Ninja Turtles and Cuzco, Bart Simpson and Mickey Mouse. All of them are known and loved by children. Green hero foreign cartoon Shrek has long been in leadership positions in popularity among the younger generation. Ratatouille, Hulk and Rango are no less interesting and beloved heroes of full-length cartoons.

The most popular cartoon character today

Each country has a cartoon that is in the first place in the popularity rating. For example, among Korean cartoon characters, Pororo is the most popular. This little blue penguin makes even crying children laugh. Gradually, it becomes popular in many countries around the world.

In Hollywood, as you know, Mickey Mouse has been the most popular for many years. In 1933, he received almost eight hundred thousand letters from fan-viewers. The UK has recognized that Scooby Doo is at the top of the list of popular cartoon heroes. But the most popular heroes of animated films of the Soviet period were and remain the Wolf and the Hare from the animated series "Well, wait!"

Among the variety of cartoons filmed, children from different countries fell in love with films about Shrek and his many friends. It is he who is recognized as the world's most beloved cartoon character. Several episodes with the participation of Shrek have already been released, his little fans are eagerly awaiting the emergence of new exciting stories about this green hero.
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A huge warm river flows in the ocean. It is called the Gulf Stream. It flows and the whole world heats up. If not for the Gulf Stream, the Earth would become like a house without a brownie - cold and uncomfortable. Our life would have become just as cold and uncomfortable without the Fairy Tale, which flows like a huge warm river across the ocean called Life.
Someone convinced us that we ourselves are inventing fairy tales in order to someday "make a fairy tale come true." And why not admit that the Tale invented us, so that later we would return to it. They bathed in "were", like Ivan the Fool in spring water and boiling milk, and returned from there as Ivan Tsarevich and Elena the Beautiful - to the Fairy Tale.
And so as not to forget their historical fabulous home, it flows through our whole life, reminds:
“Don't be shy,” he says, “guys. I'm near. Just a little help. Here is Living water, here is Dead water, there is a Gray Wolf and a flying carpet ... The main thing is, don’t believe the Serpent Gorynych, but don’t forget where Koscheyev’s death is, so that a little trouble with your Princess, they know how to get to Buyan Island ”.
A fairy tale, they say, is "a lie and a hint in it ..." There is no hint in the fairy tale. It says everything directly, without hints: this one is the Tsarevich, this one is Baba Yaga, that one is the Goblin ...
The warm river of the Fairy Tale flows, flows into the ocean called Life, and mixes with it so that it is difficult to separate them. Do you need to share something?

FAIRY-TALE HEROES

ALESHA POPOVICH
Originally from Rostov. Judging by the nickname, he was born into a religious family, which did not prevent him from becoming a professional military man - one of the three heroes. Father's name was Levon, so Alyosha's patronymic was Levontievich.
Unfortunately, Alexei Levontievich Popovich did not have a childhood. According to the recollections of his contemporaries, as soon as he was born and seeing that they were going to swaddle him and put him in a cradle, Alyosha demanded that he "not be swaddled in swaddling clothes, but given chain mail." Putting on chain mail, the newborn asked his mother for blessings, a horse and a saber. Saying goodbye to his parents, he went to work.
Kind, sympathetic and a little naive, Alyosha cut off many enemy heads with his sword. He began his military career with a journey from Rostov to Kiev, on the way where he defeated a terrible monster named Tugarin.
This Tugarin, having met the hero, behaved defiantly and began to threaten him with reprisals (strangle him with smoke, fry and eat). But the monster miscalculated. The young hero defeated Tugarin, cut him with a saber and scattered him across the clear field.
Arriving in the former capital of Ancient Russia, Alyosha Popovich entered the service of Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko (Krasno Solnyshko is not a patronymic and surname, but a nickname) and made friends with other heroes (see Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitich).
Alyosha Popovich limped and wielded magic. He knew how to turn into birds and animals. In adulthood, he married the beautiful Elena, whom he himself called Elena, and the others - Elena the Beautiful.

ALICE
Typically English, well-mannered girl from the fairy tales of the writer Lewis Carroll. A bit boring, but it even decorates her. Once, chasing the Rabbit (see Hare), she climbed into his hole, which turned out to be a bottomless well leading to Wonderland. Then Alice climbed into the mirror and found herself in the Looking Glass. The result is two tales about Alice: in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. In both tales, she travels through the old games of chess and cards.

ALADDIN
Poor Arab youth from the tales of 1001 Nights. He took out a magic lamp from the enchanted cave, inside of which was the Genie (see Genie). This Djinn obediently carried out all of Aladdin's orders and, in the end, helped him to successfully marry an oriental beauty princess (see Princess).
But one should not think that Aladdin himself did nothing in order to earn the love of the beautiful princess Budur. He probably would have done just fine without the Genie, because he was a handsome, brave and cheerful young man. But it so happened that the Evil wizard became the enemy of Aladdin. Therefore, without the Genie, Aladdin would have had a hard time.

AU
Uncle Au is a modern lonely Finnish ghost, described by the writer Hannu Mäkele, and who appeared in Russia thanks to the writer Eduard Uspensky.
A brief description of it is in the tale:
“He will handle the motor,
He'll steal a truck
A cross between a gob and a lifter -
Modern forestry ".
Uncle Au is a colorful and charming personality. He lives in the forest, is also Leshim (see Leshy), experiments, growing an “eternally hungry tree”, fights with the “Box Factory”, which has decided to cut down his entire Finnish protected forest into boxes. Of course, a lone ghost would never be able to cope with an entire factory. It's good that he had friends - children and animals.

WOMAN
In fairy tales he always lives with Grandfather (“Once upon a time there was Grandfather and Baba ...”). She is often a grumpy, wayward woman with a bad temper. All the time he strives to send his Grandfather somewhere. Either to fish to the very blue sea, then to a dark forest for firewood, then to a fair for a cow, and once in winter she even forced Grandfather to sculpt a Snow Maiden in the cold.
In her poor hut, most often there are no pickles. She is stingy, stupid and curious. This is usually used by various passers-by, wanderers and especially soldiers who visit her from time to time. They tell her all sorts of tales and stories, forcing her to put the food in the cellar on the table. A vivid example is the story of the Soldier (see Soldier), who in front of the surprised Baba cooked soup from an ax and from her grandmother's products.
However, to be fair, it must be noted; being in a good mood, Baba can sometimes, at the request of Grandfather, scrape the bottom of the barrel, place it in the barns and bake the Kolobok. She often helps her husband to pull the Turnip and beat the golden egg from under the Ryaba Chicken (see Ryaba Chicken). True, the latter is bad for her. Nevertheless, when Grandfather and Baba live in a fairy tale, the fairy tale itself turns out to be more fun. If in a fairy tale Baba lives without Grandfather, and even in the forest, she is almost certainly a witch. At best, Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga).

BABA YAGA
The character is not fabulous at all, but real. It was found (and maybe it is also found) in taiga places. There, in the swamps, a very tasty berry grows - cloudberry. The pine forest itself is called Yag. It was by the name of the bora and especially the berries that she collected, and they called the lonely grandmother - the hermit, and maybe the healer Baba Yaga. However, there are many other versions of the origin of her name.
Baba Yaga cooked decoctions, dried herbs, knew all sorts of ancient spells from the evil eye, from damage, from toothache. Therefore, of course, she did not enjoy great popular love. Rather the opposite is true. She enjoyed great popular fear. The people were afraid of her. For the nature of the secretive, unsociable. For witchcraft knowledge, incomprehensible. But love is love, fear is fear, and the help of Baba Yaga from time to time was needed by many. Now the cow gets sick, then the teeth will ache, then the drought breaks out, then the flood, then some other misfortune. Who will help? It is known that you need to go to Baba Yaga in the forest. To the hut on chicken legs. By the way, this hut is also, I think, not invented, but real. Hunters in the taiga built (and are still building) houses on pillars, and more often on tall felled stumps. No windows, no doors. And they put their prey there so that the forest animals would not take away. Where did the old hermit come from? It will not build itself. So I lived in such a hunting barn. These barns were low. You can sleep there, but you can't stand to your full height. That is why Baba Yaga slept “nose to ceiling”. One of my grandmothers was joy - communication with interesting people: either Ivashka will look in, then Alyonushka will get lost in the forest, then Koschey will come to the light.

BURATINO
Wooden boy from the tale of Alexei Tolstoy. Papa Carlo's son (see Papa Carlo). Self-confident, ignorant, but kind and brave hero. Perhaps in the future he will become a good actor or even the main director of a puppet theater. No wonder he was able to gather and rally around himself a whole group of like-minded actors (Malvina, Pierrot, dog Artemon, etc.), who coped with the director of the theater Karabas Barabas. In fairy tales, this is the first (and, it seems, the only case of reflection of the eternal struggle in theaters of actors and administration).

Vasilisa the Wise
The best, fabulous bride, and then the wife of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich). He can do everything (see the Frog): sow and grow a field of rye in one night, build a palace of pure wax or gold (in the same short period), deceive the Sea King (see the Sea King), turn into a dove or a duck. Nobody knows who she is, where she is from, only every Ivan Tsarevich dreams of his Vasilisa the Wise.

WOLF
Without the Gray Wolf, there would be three times less fairy tales, which means life is three times more boring. Despite the fact that wolves live in packs, the fabulous Wolf is always alone. He behaves just like the Bear (see Bear) - unpredictable. Either he will eat Little Red Riding Hood with Grandmother, then he will help Ivan Tsarevich or Elena the Wise.
The Gray Wolf is always a loner in fairy tales. Moreover, in every fairy tale he is special. Either stupid, now clever, kindly, now evil, now greedy, now generous. True, evil, greedy and stupid - more often. The Gray Wolf in fairy tales can turn into a "good fellow", "a red maiden", "a clear falcon". Sometimes it suddenly "hits the ground", and now - instead of the Wolf, a heroic horse is already standing in front of the hero. In the worst fairy tales, evil sorcerers turn into wolves and prowl across an open field in search of prey.
On the other hand, what is there to be surprised at: there are all kinds of people.

CROW
The bird, frankly speaking, is sinister on the one hand, and prophetic on the other. Because he lives as long as we never dreamed of - 300 years. Over the years, she has seen, experienced, and changed her mind. She acquired a rich life experience. As a result, she began to play a variety of roles in fairy tales.
On the one hand - she is at Baba Yaga's (see Baba Yaga) circling over the hut, guards the prisoners. On the other hand, it can fly for living and dead water to revive Ivan Tsarevich. A controversial bird.
In Polish folk tales, it is said that when the devil (see devil) made a Wolf from a tree (see a Wolf), then from the remains of a tree he constructed a Crow. It is interesting that in Russian fairy tales the Crow sometimes serves the Wolf.
The crow in fairy tales guards the treasures. At the same time, she is famous as a thief known to everyone, greedy for everything shiny - gold, silver, precious stones. The contradiction in the Raven is a dime a dozen! Her wisdom is as famous as her stupidity. And about her laziness and sluggishness they compose not only fairy tales, but even fables and anecdotes.

WITCH
A distant relative of Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga), but much more harmful. Baba Yaga is somehow simpler, more understandable, more popular. She does not pretend to be anyone, as a rule, she remains herself. It is easy to identify her: a long crocheted nose, old age, a bone leg, a raspy voice, a stupa, a pomelo, etc. The witch is always disguised. Do you think she is a simple peasant woman, or a modest girl from a large family, or even from a wealthy, noble. And in fact it turns out - the Witch.
In order for us to be able to distinguish between a witch and being told, fairy tales are written. If not for fairy tales, there would be many more witches.
Judging by the fact that almost all peoples of the world have tales about witches, we can conclude that witches are everywhere: in Germany, and in England, and in Denmark, and in America, and in China, and in Australia, and even here in Russia. Moreover, a Chinese or German witch is not much different from a Russian one.
Perhaps with the tongue.
All witches meet annually. It happens on Bald Mountain on Walpurgis Night (it usually occurs on May 1 of every year). There are other unclean spirits present in these meetings.
In ancient uncivilized times, to distinguish a witch from a decent girl, they did this; The suspect was thrown into an ice-hole. If he drowns right away, then it’s not a witch; if he swims, it’s a witch. Nowadays, such an examination is no longer carried out, since new, more scientific methods have appeared.

GIANT
Human big stature and, as a rule, a small mind (there is some mathematical regularity. (See Boy with a finger. The exception is Uncle Styopa.) According to ancient legends, the Giants (they are Titans) were the first earthlings who took an active part in the creation of the world: they poured mountains created lakes with the help of dams, broke through the channels of future rivers.In connection with this generally useful activity, the giants became very proud, as a result of which they were punished by God - they died during the Flood.
Some individuals survived, as evidenced by numerous tales of the peoples of the world. The surviving giants are characterized by bad temperaments and criminal inclinations. They are often cannibals. Sometimes there are two, three or more heads. Rumor has it that the remains of the giants are found in ancient burial mounds, and their bones are successfully used by folk healers in the treatment of fever.
In a fair fight, a giant cannot be defeated. Usually people deal with them with intelligence and cunning. So Odysseus coped with the Cyclops Polyphemus, Puss in Boots and Thumb-Boy with Ogre (see Thumb-Boy, Ogre), and Jack (see Jack) killed so many giants that he lost count ..

WINNIE THE POOH
Most likely a bear cub. Loves jam, honey and everything tasty. A character in the books of the English writer Alan Alexander Milne, who in 1927 bought a gift in a store for the first birthday of his son, Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin himself called the bear Edward. But over time, Edward became Winnie the Pooh. "Blame" - because that was the name of the black bear from the London Zoo, which allowed Christopher Robin, and "Pooh" - because it was the nickname of the swan from Sussex. Our domestic “Winnie the Pooh” differs from the English voice of the artist Yevgeny Leonov and the words of the children's writer Boris Zakhoder.

VRUNGEL
Konstantin Bonifatievich, fabulous sea captain. Hero of the book by Viktor Nekrasov "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel". He is best known for his participation in the round-the-world race on the yacht "Trouble", which he won with his chief mate named Lom. Thanks to his exceptional veracity, Vrungel has always enjoyed love and respect from readers. The peak of his popularity came in the 1980s (immediately after the release of the animated series on the screen). Unlike Baron von Munchausen (see Munchausen), Captain Vrungel descends from a simple, non-noble family. However, this did not stop him from becoming as truthful and brave as his German predecessor.

GVIDON SALTANOVICH
Prince. Son of Tsar Saltan (see Saltan). As a child, he and his mother, through libelous aunts, were put in a barrel, which they ground up and threw into the blue sea. Fortunately, the wind drove her to the uninhabited island of Buyan. By that time, Guidon had already grown up in a barrel and matured.
Coming free with his mother, the young man found himself on a deserted shore. Here he saved the Swan Princess from imminent death, who turned out to be a good sorceress (see The Good Sorceress). The swan built a kingdom for Saltan, where he and his mother began to rule. The kingdom was very good, in it the sorceress created many miracles (read “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by Alexander Pushkin). Over time, the Swan Princess turned into a beauty and became the wife of Guidon Saltanovich.
Guidon is a good son, a loving husband, a good king (see King). He many times invited his father to visit his kingdom, who made a tragic mistake - he believed the slander of evil aunts. Finally, Tsar Saltan arrived on the Buyan island. Then his eyes finally opened and he learned about the treachery of his relatives. As a punishment, he sent all of them home, and he himself stayed to live and live on Buyan with his wife, son and the Swan Princess.

DWARF
Lives in forests and mountains. Often in large colonies. It happens to be evil and kind. But kind - more often. The main occupation is geological and mining work. Dwarves work underground, mining ore and various gems.
The gnomes are very small, about the size of a Thumb-Boy. Unbalanced character. They easily pass from joy to sorrow, from love to hate. It is best not to annoy or upset gnomes. This can be judged from the tale of Niels's travels with wild geese. This boy somehow laughed at the small stature of the Dwarf and paid dearly for it. The dwarf was so furious that he cast a terrible spell on him, as a result of which Nils himself became as small. And he had to travel in search of this Dwarf with wild geese, and then, in order to be disenchanted, fulfill his almost impossible whims.
So it is better to do what Snow White did when she found herself in the forest with the seven dwarfs (read the tales of the Brothers Grimm). She cleaned the house for them, cooked dinner, sang songs. And in the evenings she told fairy tales. The gnomes, on the other hand, doted on her. So they lived in perfect harmony.

GOODWIN
The Wizard of the Emerald City (read the story of Nikolai Volkov) - Great and Terrible, but in fact - an ordinary American magician. Once in the fabulous city, he, with the help of several circus tricks, convinced all the surrounding residents and evil sorceresses that he was the most powerful Sorcerer. Thus, having carried out a fabulous election campaign, he became the head of the city, which he called Emerald. The city got this name because the "Magician" ordered all residents to wear green glasses without removing them. The same glasses were given out to all visitors free of charge. So he would have lived happily, if not for a countrywoman from Kansas - the girl Ellie, who was brought to the Magic Land by one of the hurricanes (Read the fairy tale itself further).

SWAN GEESE
A flock of swans, flying over the village, carried away on their wings a little boy playing on the grass under his window. The swan geese were in the service of Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga), so they carried the boy to the hut on chicken legs. It must be said that the Geese-Swans have long acquired a bad reputation about themselves. "They played a lot and kidnapped small children."
Interestingly, this was not observed alone for swans. Usually swans were beautiful enchanted princesses, whom the princes later married. But in the pack, they somehow deteriorated, became aggressive and went to the service of the evil spirits. (The exception is Hans Christian Andersen's Wild Swans).
The abducted children were handed over to Baba Yaga by the swan geese, after which they carried an air guard service near the hut. Such a service was necessary for Baba Yaga, since she herself was scattered and inattentive.
So this time I did not follow the boy. His older sister, who rushed in pursuit of the swan geese, managed to steal her brother. The swan geese, of course, immediately flew after her, but they did not succeed, since the sister and brother hid in the stove that stood alone on the road.
Most likely, there was nothing for the swan geese from Baba Yaga, because she herself is to blame for everything.

GRANDFATHER
(Look Baba). As a rule, he always lives with Baba. Sometimes in a village near a forest or a field, another “by the very blue sea”, from time to time in “a distant kingdom, a thirty-tenth state”. Compliant, hard-working, sometimes he achieves an unprecedented harvest, with which, however, then he does not know what to do (read “Turnip”). So in fairy tales it happened that the grandfather either has no children at all, or there are three of them at once. Likes to send them somewhere far away for marriage or other happiness. He also loves simple peasant food: porridge with milk, gingerbread man (see Gingerbread man), rejuvenating apples, etc.
Grandfather is a man, although he is elderly, but cheerful. He treats Baba condescendingly, does not like to argue with her, and sometimes he is afraid.

FATHER FROST
Currently, he is a kind, simple-minded (a little silly, but this suits him) grandfather who comes to the children on New Year's Eve to put a present under the tree for them. All gifts are carried in a large beautiful bag. He wears a red (sometimes blue) fur coat with a white collar. Wears boots and a hat. His nose and cheeks are always red. Most likely - from frost.
The character of many fairy tales. Perhaps the most long-awaited (they are waiting for a whole year) for all children. But he did not become so immediately, but over time.
Several thousand years ago, he was the most terrible villain in the world. Worse Koschey. They frightened not only children, but also adults. And it happened just on New Year's Eve, when the day is the smallest and the night is the longest (“winter solstice.”) During this solstice, the Slavic peoples of antiquity usually performed the Kolyada ritual, and the ancient Romans - the holiday “Invincible Sun.” This period according to ancient legends, it seemed to our ancestors time Great battle for the Light and the Sun.
This battle was fought by Belobog and Chernobog (according to other versions - Perun and Karachun). Legends depict Karachun as a gray-bearded old man pursuing Gromovnitsa, Perun's wife.
Karachun turns into a bear and, with a pack of wolves, personifying cruel winter snowstorms, tries to find the Thunderstorm, which should give birth to the New Year's Sun - Kolyada. (The word "kolyada" comes from the ancient Slavic "kolo", that is, a circle that has always served as a graphic image of the sun). This very same Karachun was once our Grandfather Frost.
Santa Claus, as you all know, usually appears at midnight - the most traditional time of rampant evil spirits. At the same time, the walking of mummers in the images of bears, wolves, goats, etc. begins.
From time immemorial, frost has been a dangerous enemy for a merchant, a craftsman and a peasant. Here is how the people spoke of Frost on Christmas Eve:
Moroz, Moroz Vasilievich! Go eat kutya! I'll break my head with a chain,
I'll carve my eyes with a broom!
Judging by this verdict, the relationship of our ancestors with Grandfather Frost can hardly be called friendly. They imagined him as a little old man with a long white beard and a staff in his hand. He ran through the fields, knocked with his staff and thus caused crackling frosts. They tried to appease and tame this Santa Claus. In winter he was often fed: they threw tasty bread balls out the window “for Frost”, took out a spoonful of sweet jelly, and at the same time they said: “Frost, Frost! Come eat jelly! Frost, Frost! Don't hit our oats! ”
Grandfather Frost ate sweet jelly and gradually matured. So the evil old man turned into the kind Grandfather Frost. And he did the right thing, because now they love him.

JACK
(See Ivan the Fool). It differs from our Ivan the Fool only in that no one has ever called him a fool. On the contrary, they immediately said that Jack is smart and smart. Lives in fabulous England. The main occupation is the conqueror of giants (see Giant). Jack defeated his first giant named Cormoren in early childhood. It was a voracious hairy monster that dragged everything from the surrounding villages. At a time, Cormoren carried away ten bulls, and strung sheep and pigs on a belt in hundreds.
As a business man, Jack officially entered into his first ever contract to destroy the giant with the Cornwall County Council. All the looted treasures of the giant that were stored in his cave served as a reward for the work. (Here we see another difference from Ivan the Fool, who never signed contracts with anyone).
Jack coped with the first job promptly, literally burying the unlucky giant in a cleverly disguised hole. Thus began his labor activity, which he completed many years later, having killed about a dozen giants of various sizes.
Jack's activities useful to the kingdom were highly praised by the English government. From King Arthur, he received a knighthood and the daughter of an influential duke as a wife.

GENIE
Thanks to the famous animated series about Aladdin (see Aladdin), the modern young man, who is intelligent enough to believe in fairy tales, has a completely distorted idea of ​​the image of the Genie. He was introduced as a kind of friendly shirt-guy with the smile of a Texas cowboy.
I must report that this is a delusion. The real Genie, who has been sitting corked in a bottle for thousands of years, is far from being a Disney hero.
If the reader has ever seen parents open a bottle of warm Champagne, he can imagine a Genie flying out of such a bottle after having sat in it for a thousand years.
He destroys, sweeps away everything in his path and woe to those who are at this moment next. Unless, of course, a special spell was imposed on the Djinn, according to which he must serve the person who released him (as happened with Aladdin). So take your time to let the Genie out of the bottle. Think about the consequences first and read the tales of 1001 Nights. This is the best instruction for dealing with Jinn.
There are, of course, exceptions. For example, the case that happened to the pioneer Volka from Leonid Lagin's fairy tale "Old Man Hotabych". But to be honest, I doubt the truth of these events. Firstly, Volka found the bottle with the Genie not in the sea or ocean, and not even on the Arabian Peninsula, but in the Moscow River, where Genies cannot be found. Don't survive. And secondly, Khotabych was a very good-natured old man, if he was a Djinn, then he was wrong ..
Much more correct was his brother, whom Khotabych and Volka caught while traveling by sea. This one - exactly the Genie - is evil and harmful. Can quickly build a palace and destroy it even faster. So do not look for magic lamps or bottles with Genies in caves and ponds. Rely only on yourself and on your parents. Because each person is his own best Genie.

GOOD WIZARD
A very beautiful woman in a star cap, cloak and with a magic wand in her hands. Fulfills all the wishes of the good heroes of fairy tales and punishes the evil ones.

NIKITICH
The great Russian hero. The second in importance after Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) and the first before Alyosha Popovich (see Alyosha Popovich). Dobrynya Nikitich always reconciled Ilya Muromets with Alyosha Popovich. If it were not for him, we would not have had the Three Bogatyrs.
By origin, Dobrynya Nikitich was from a princely family, hereditary military. Dobrynya comes from the city of Ryazan. His mother, Amelfa Timofeevna, was engaged in the upbringing of the hero, because his father, Nikita Romanovich, died when Dobrynya was not even born. The mother gave her son a good education. He "learned to read and write cunningly", and of course he studied music. There was no piano then, of course. Therefore, he played the first scales on a harp. And also - he sang and played chess wonderfully. In future heroic deeds, all this was very useful to him, and Dobrynya more than once remembered his mother with a kind word.
Most of all, Dobrynya Nikitich loved to fight with different snakes. He did not like snakes and, as the authors of encyclopedic dictionaries justly write: “The fight against the snake tribe began for him early, when“ a young Dobrynyushka Mikitinets began to ride a good horse in a clear field ... to trample small serpents ”. Finally, Dobrynya is tired of trampling on small baby snakes. This is not a heroic business, - he decided, and went to the Puchai River to fight the main Serpent - Gorynych (see Serpent Gorynych).
Dobrynya drove up to the river and saw: on the bank the port wash girls were working, heroic and peasant ports were washing. They saw Dobrynya Nikitich and began to dissuade him from fighting. Either they liked Dobrynya so much, or they already got used to the Serpent Gorynych, we do not know.
Dobrynya Nikitich did not obey - he dived into the river and swam. Only he reached the middle of the river, from nowhere the Serpent Gorynych flies in and dives right at the defenseless hero. Breathes fire on him, sprinkles fiery sparks. Is that not a bomb. The hero was not taken aback and dived, and surfaced on the other side of the river. Dobrynya went ashore and "crushed the Serpent with a cap of the Greek land." He fell on the damp earth and began to ask for forgiveness. Dobrynya was a kind hero. For the first time he forgave the Serpent Gorynych, but as time has shown, in vain. Serpent Gorynych, taking his feet away from Dobrynya, immediately took up the old. Flying over Kiev, he kidnapped Vladimir's beloved niece, Red Sun, - Zabava Putyatishna. The hero had to fight the Serpent again.
Dobrynya Nikitich was a relative of Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko. And when the prince ordered him and his brother Putyata (the father of the liberated Fun) to go and punish the inhabitants of Novgorod, who did not want to be baptized, but stubbornly worshiped the gods of pagan mythology. Dobrynya obeyed. Together with the Paths, they baptized all the surviving residents of Novgorod. Since then, a humorous proverb has developed among the people: "Putyata baptizes with a sword, and Dobrynya with fire."
During his life, Dobrynya Nikitich won many great victories. He was not afraid to fight even with Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga). What a Yaga! Dobrynya Nikitich entered into battle with Marina Ignatievna, a well-known witch in the whole district, a "sorceress", "poisoner", "root vendor", a sorceress who knew how to turn a person into an animal.
Here is how it was; Once Dobrynya Nikitich went to “Marinkin lane”. Approaching her house, he suddenly sees the Serpent Tugarin and Marinka kissing in the window. Here the heroic heart quivered, and he shot an arrow right through the window. The snake Tugarin, immediately died on the spot, and Marinka began to offer herself to Dobrynya Nikitich as a wife. He, of course, did not agree. Why would he have such a wife? Marina Ignatievna got angry and turned the hero into a “bay tur” - that is, into a horned bull. This would be the end of the fairy tale, if Dobrynya's mother had not helped out. Amelfa Timofeevna saw what Marina Ignatievna had done to her son and came to the rescue. She immediately cast a spell on her son, made him a man, and turned Marinka into a “water mare”. So she has been carrying water ever since.
Dobrynya Nikitich married a very good girl - Nastasya Nikulishna. All his life he loved her very much. Once, leaving for work in the open field, Dobrynya punished his wife to wait for him exactly 12 years, and if he was delayed, to marry whoever he wanted. The main thing is not for Alyosha Popovich.
Time passed, the hero was delayed and it was time for Nastasya to get married again. She, of course, did not want this very much. But then, out of nowhere, the hero Alyosha Popovich appeared and began to strongly insist that she become his wife. Nastasya had to agree. And then, during the wedding, Dobrynya Nikitich returned from work from a clean field. So that he would not be recognized, he dressed up as a buffoon and began to sing songs and play the harp (this is where his music lessons came in handy!).
From the songs Nastasya Nikulishna recognized her husband. Dobrynya Nikitich was very offended by Alyosha Popovich and decided to fight him for life and death. And he would have killed, probably, if not for Ilya Muromets, who reconciled them.
Alyosha Popovich asked for forgiveness, and the three heroes remained good friends.

GOOD AND EVIL
Most importantly, because of what everything happens in fairy tales and in life. Twin brothers, leading the universal battle.

DR. AIBOLIT
Actually his name is Doctor Doolittle. There are twelve children's books written by the English writer Hugh Lofting. They are called "Doolittle" and tell the story of the adventures of an extraordinary gentleman who understood the language of animals. But what does the name Doolittle say to you and me? Only that he is a foreigner.
Therefore, the writer Korney Chukovsky, based on the tales of Doctor Dolittle, created his fairytale hero and called him by the name we understand, Aibolit.
This is the kindest doctor in the world. And the most fearless. A kind of hero (see Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich). Despite the fact that outwardly he does not at all look like a hero (instead of chain mail - a doctor's dressing gown, instead of a helmet - a white cap, glasses on his nose, and in his hands a bag with medicines) Doctor Aibolit always performs real feats.

DOMOVOY
In fairy tales, the creature is kind, but with character. Loves to be treated like a human being. Sweetheart. He especially respects jelly. Ready to eat it day and night. Especially at night, because it is predominantly nocturnal. The Brownie got his name from the place where he was born, lived and worked - the House. True, the life and work of the Brownie mostly takes place behind the stove. From here, he keeps order: so that the mice and the owners do not mischief, so that it is cozy and warm in the house. From time to time, the Brownie himself likes to misbehave: rearrange things from place to place, knock on doors and windows.
It looks different: sometimes it will appear in the guise of the owner of the house - you cannot tell, sometimes it will appear like a gray-haired old man with a face completely overgrown with hair, or even pretend to be a broom or a cat.
Irritable. If you almost hit it, he throws everything in the house, breaks the glass, turns the pots over, it’s good if the fire doesn’t start. Most likely, he shows his character (The wife of the Brownie (see Kikimora) is a strict, quarrelsome and unjust woman. Therefore, having received a portion of abuse from his wife, he takes it out on the household. They will endure everything, they will not go against the Brownie).
When the owners move from one house to another, they ask for the Brownie to themselves. They bow to him, treat him in a special way, beg him: let's go, the breadwinner, to a new house! There, a Russian stove is ready for you, and a jelly, and a new bathhouse with a swimming pool. They ask for a long time until he agrees. Because a house without a Brownie is not a house, but a misunderstanding.

THE DRAGON
(see Serpent Gorynych). Found in China, England, France, Germany, and America. We do not have them in Russia, apparently for climatic reasons. There are only Serpents Gorynych (see Serpent Gorynych), which better endure cold winters. The absence of dragons in our country should not upset you, because the Serpent Gorynychi is no worse.
The dragon is many-headed, spews smoke and flame from itself, flies, swims, walks (sometimes crawls). Unlike the Serpent Gorynych, in fairy tales it sometimes performs noble roles - it carries knights on itself, engages in battle with witches, and, from time to time, turns into a noble prince, then into a disenchanted princess.
This does not happen with our Serpent Gorynych. He is a convinced villain. If the appearance of the Serpent Gorynych has not yet been well studied, then the Dragon has been described and sketched many times; This fabulous hero is not devoid of beauty and grace. Its members are harmonious, proportionate, the scales burn brightly with gold and silver, the wings cover half the sky. Outwardly, it resembles a greatly enlarged lizard (see Lizard) with wings.
Due to the fact that the claws, heart, teeth and other parts of the Dragon's body in ancient times were considered lucky talismans, medicines and luxury goods, the number of dragons on earth has decreased. Dragons have remained only in fairy tales, where the hunt for them is strictly controlled by kings and wizards.

INCH
Very small and beautiful girl... Not even a girl, but a fairy who was born in a flower. Then she traveled a lot - by water, by air, by land. I even visited underground, in the hole of an elderly gray mouse. She really wanted to marry her off to the wealthy Mole. But, fortunately, everything worked out.

UNCLE STEPA
Lucky variety of Giant (see Giant). Unlike other giants, he goes to work every day and benefits people. He successfully worked as a policeman, sailor, pilot, mastered several working professions. Uncle Stepa was invented by the poet Sergei Mikhalkov.

UNCLE FEDOR
A very independent boy. Even the soup knows how to cook. Something like Uncle Styopa. Not growth, of course, but a nickname and independence.
Loves nature and animals. With the money found in the treasure, he founded agriculture in the village of Prostokvashino. His farm is managed by Kot Matroskin (Kot took the surname for himself due to his great love for the sea). The Dog Sharik (from simple dogs, not from purebred) also works here, who in his free time is engaged in photo-hunting; He runs for half the day to take a picture of the Hare, and the other half to give him the photo.
Uncle Fyodor's farm is prosperous and progressive. Therefore, there is hope that over time, Uncle Fyodor will become a real farmer, breadwinner for the family - mom and dad. Over time, in addition to mom and dad, Uncle Fyodor had many other relatives - uncles and aunts, about whom the writer Eduard Uspensky also wrote books.

FIREBIRD
In the illustrated books of fairy tales, it is always very similar to a peacock, but in fact it has nothing to do with a peacock. And it looks completely different. They say that in pagan religions the Firebird meant “a gift from God,” and the one who found the feather of the Firebird is not afraid of any adversity. Catching the Firebird, or at least finding its feather, is everyone's cherished dream.
Someone succeeds.

HARE
(He's the Cowardly Bunny Gray, he's the Oblique) The most cowardly, defenseless and resourceful hero of fairy tales. There is an interesting legend about the origin of the Hare on earth.
They say that God, carried away, sculpted his ears that were too big, and when he began to sculpt his heart, he saw that there was not enough clay. But for God, as you know, there are no unsolvable problems. He tore off the hare's tail (leaving a stub) molded a heart out of it. Therefore, the Hare's heart turned out to be small, cowardly.
The fairy-tale world without the Hare would be boring. This is the kind of prey that always eludes any hunter: Fox, Wolf, Bear (see Fox, Wolf, Bear). The hare is a kind of fairy-tale Kolobok (see Kolobok), - he left everyone, defeated everyone, not by strength, but by intelligence, or even weakness (There is nothing strange in this, weakness is also a weapon).
For example, the sly Fox kicked the Hare out of his hut. Where can he go? She walks and cries. Here and assistants appear. He is not alone in the forest. Another thing is that not everyone can outwit the Fox. But there was a Rooster (see Rooster), who restored justice and drove the red-haired cheat out of the hare's house. That is why he and the Rooster are to restore justice in fairy tales.
On the other hand, the Hare is not such a weakling as people usually think of him. For example, in the cartoons and books of the writer Alexander Kurlyandsky (“Well, wait a minute!”), The Hare runs away from the Wolf, but in such a way that it becomes a pity not for the game, but for the Wolf itself.
In short, the Hare is a very good fairytale character. And our distant ancestors understood this. It is not for nothing that, according to ancient Slavic customs, it was not accepted to eat hare.

ZMEY GORYNYCH
A cross between a lizard bat and a flamethrower. Flying kite with multiple heads. Serpent Gorynych's father is a real Mountain! Therefore, his patronymic is - Gorynych. The number of heads of the Serpent Gorynych depends on its age. The smallest has three heads, the older Gorynych has six, the mature has nine, the elderly has twelve. Amphibian; Can fly, swim, dive, walk on the ground. He lives in holes and caves, where he hides his wealth, which he cannot spend in any way. Because when they see him, they immediately give everything away for free.
In his holes, he hides beautiful princesses, whom he steals, flying over different kingdoms and cities. He especially fell in love with the Kiev princesses.
With these thefts of brides and princesses, not everything is clear. The main thing is why he so easily manages, flying over the city, to steal another bride. The fact is that the approach of the Serpent Gorynych is known to be accompanied by noise, thunder and rain. But for some reason, it was at this time that the princesses strive to go out for a walk, and as a result, they fall into the clutches of a terrible monster.
The Serpent Gorynych usually dies at the hands of Ivan Tsarevich, or Dobrynya Nikitich, who do not kill him immediately, but first give him time to improve. But the Serpent Gorynych has never corrected himself, therefore the second meeting with the heroes always becomes the last for him.
After the death of the Serpent Gorynych, the victor frees the captives, captives and even heroes, whom the villain keeps in the dungeon. And then destroys (usually tramples) all the snakes. But, apparently, he does this last work in a hurry, because the Serpents of the Gorynychi appear in other fairy tales.

CINDERELLA
A sweet, hard-working, kind girl who met at a ball with a real Prince (see Prince), fell in love with him and eventually became a Princess (see Princess). Which is what I wish for all of you.

IVAN-BYKOVICH
Most often - the half-brother of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich). Differs in intelligence, courage and great physical strength. Ivan Bykovich usually does not have a dad, his mother is a Cow.

IVAN - THE FOOL
(He is Ivanushka - a fool) The most beloved folk hero... Usually the youngest in the family. Kind, lazy and lucky. Loves animals, fish, firebirds and horse riding. Often he rides on the Gray Wolf, then on the Little Humpbacked Horse, then on the Sivka-burka, or even just on the stove. At the end of fairy tales, he most often becomes a king and marries Elena the Beautiful or Vasilisa the Wise. But before getting married, many trials go through. First of all, poverty, because he is usually born in a poor large family (rarely in the royal family), lies on the stove and catches flies. Ivan the Fool really doesn’t have enough stars from the sky: he will pick up some toadstools in the forest instead of good mushrooms, then he will feed his shadow with his father’s dinner, so that he will lag behind him, then he salts the river, then he puts hats on pots so that they don’t freeze ... But all the nonsense, which Ivan the Fool does a little later begin to serve him well. No wonder they say: "Fools - happiness."
And he receives a Sivka-burka a prophetic kaurka, and a Sword-kladenets, and a wonderful pipe, and a Princess-not laughing, and half a kingdom to boot. And all because he is not greedy and lucky. And yet - a master of playing the pipe, singing songs, guessing riddles (and solving). How can such a Firebird not catch, the Princess cannot be made laugh!
And at the end of the tale, he bathes like a bath in spring water, but in boiling milk, then, as a good fellow jumps out of these cauldrons, the spitting image of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich).

IVAN-PEASANT SON
The whole biography is in his name. From a simple peasant family. Strong, almost like Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets). Clever, almost like Dobrynya Nikitich (see Dobrynya Nikitich), naive, almost like Alyosha Popovich (see Alyosha Popovich), a hero, almost like all fabulous heroes.

IVANA.
Real heroes of Russian folk tales. Among them there is simply Ivanushka or Ivashka, there are Ivan Bogatyr, Ivan is a peasant son, Ivan is a soldier's son, Ivan is a living son, Ivan is naked, Ivan Gorokh, Ivan Besschastny, Ivan Bykovich, Ivan Kobily son, Ivan Cow's son, Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Ivan Korolevich, Ivashka Zapechnik, Ivashka White Shirt, Ivashka Medvedko and many others.
All of them are united by heroic strength, heroic fairytale fate and difficult work biography.

IVAN TSAREVICH
(He is Ivan Korolevich). Unlike Ivan the Fool, from the very beginning the tsar’s son and the tsar’s throne were provided for him even without marrying the tsar’s daughter. This circumstance in the last century prevented its widespread popularity. Others were more honored: Ivan the Peasant's son, Ivan the Naked, Ivan the Soldier's son, Ivan the Unchaste, Ivan who does not remember his kinship, and simply Ivan the fool.
Despite this circumstance, Ivan Tsarevich is perhaps the most important Ivan of Russian folk tales. Here he has only one competitor - Ivan the Fool. Moreover, sometimes not a competitor at all, because there are fairy tales where Ivan Tsarevich and Ivan the Fool are one and the same person. It's just that at first he is Ivan the Fool, and at the end is Ivan Tsarevich.
He has similarities with Ivan the Fool and the fact that both of them are the youngest children - Ivans are the third. Both have no inheritance options, and both have to rely only on themselves.
For example, if a beautiful bride, a queen or a princess comes from a kingdom next to Ivan Tsarevich, you can be sure that Ivan Tsarevich will go to rescue them. Together with him, his older brothers, who do not like Ivan Tsarevich, will first set off on the road. They reach some deep well, or an underground cave where the Serpent Gorynych (see Serpent Gorynych) usually hides his brides, and begin to argue who will go down there first. Guess who gets the lot? That's right - to Ivan Tsarevich.
He descends, defeats Gorynych, frees a beautiful prisoner (and sometimes as many as three beauties) and shouts from the bottom of the well to the brothers to raise the girls. The brothers raise the first princess and immediately fall in love with her. And having fallen in love, they immediately begin to fight with each other. Then they raise the second one and also fight, because the second princess is even more beautiful. Can you imagine how annoying the first one is!?.
Further more. When the third Princess is taken out of the well, we already understand for sure that it will be bad for Ivan Tsarevich. And we are not mistaken. Because, seeing her, the brothers forget about the first two and about their third, youngest.
Yes, they do not just forget, but decide to ruin him: First, they raise him almost to the frame of the well, and then the rope is cut off. And Ivan Tsarevich falls from a great height down. Another would have crashed in his place. But Ivan is tough. Doesn't break. Moreover, he finds three eggs in the lair of the Serpent Gorynych. Not simple, but copper, silver and gold. Three kingdoms are rolled in those eggs. Then the eagle lifts him up, he catches up with his brothers. They reconcile, but at night Ivan Tsarevich is still killed. They are chopped into pieces. It's good that the Gray Wolf appears, which takes out living and dead water. Without them, the fairy tale and Ivan Tsarevich would be over. Ivan Tsarevich comes to life, goes to his Far Away Kingdom, deals with his brothers, marries the beautiful Princess and becomes a real Ivan Tsarevich. Not the third, but the only one.

ILYA MUROMETS
Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was born into a peasant family in the village of Karacharovo, in the Murom district of the Vladimir region. The most important Russian hero. The life path of Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was glorious and difficult.
For thirty years he sat sitting on the stove in his Karacharovo, as he was born “without arms, without legs”. And he would have sat like this all his life, not having accomplished a single feat, but a lucky chance helped. Once, when his parents (father - Ivan Timofeevich, mother - Efrosinia Yakovlevna) went to work, two cripples knocked at the Muromites. Ilya replied that his parents were not at home, and that he himself was as crippled as they were, even worse, because he could not get up from the stove. The cripples probably didn’t hear him, so they knocked again. A real miracle happened here. Ilya Muromets for the first time in thirty years suddenly got to his feet and went to open the gate.
In those early days, guests often came with their own food and drink. So this time, the cripples, entering the courtyard of the Muromtsy, treated Ilya to a glass of honey drink. Having drained a glass and washed it down with spring water, Ilya Muromets felt an unprecedented strength in himself and went into the field to help his parents.
After that, Ilya mounted a heroic horse and rode to Kiev. In those days, all the heroes went to Kiev to serve in the heroic squad of Prince Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko. This squad was really elite, princely. And serving there was not only interesting, but also honorable.
Having driven away quite a bit from his village, Ilya Ivanovich ended up in the neighboring village of Devyatidubye. This village was notorious among the Karacharovites. A large family of Nightingale Robbers settled on nine oak trees (see Nightingale the Robber). The most terrible was the head of the family, who sat on nine oak trees at once and waited for rare passers-by.
But neither the nightingale whistle, nor the snake thorn, nor the animal roar frightened the hero. Only his horse was a little scared, which was then very ashamed in front of the owner. Ilya Muromets shot a red-hot arrow into the right eye of the Nightingale the Robber. He immediately curled and fell from the oak tree.
The Robber's wife, - Nightingale began to ask the hero to let her husband go, but Muromets did not believe her. And so that the family of Solovyov Robbers no longer ruined the neighboring heroes, he “chopped off all the children of the Nightingale”.
Having accomplished his first feat, Ilya tied the Robber to the saddle and went to Kiev. On the way, Ilya Ivanovich did many more good deeds: he cleared the city of Chernigov from the enemy “great force” and erected several pedestrian bridges for local residents across the Smorodina River.
Having finally arrived in the capital city of Kiev, Ilya Muromets showed Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko his trophy - Nightingale the Robber. He, of course, immediately whistled, which greatly frightened the prince and his guests. Then the hero killed the villain, and the frightened Vladimir made Ilya Muromets his most important hero.
And on time. Because in Kiev, out of nowhere, a filthy Idolische appeared. Everyone, of course, was frightened. Only Ilya Muromets was not afraid and went to fight. But then he went wrong. As soon as they started to fight with the Idol, Ilya sees, he has forgotten somewhere his damask club. And without it, the Idolische cannot be won. In annoyance, Muromets took off his fur "hat of Greek soil" from his head (either his hat was from Greece, or there was earth from Greece in it - the epic is silent about this) and praise her about the filthy idol! And then the end came to him.
Ilya Muromets rendered great assistance to the defense of Kiev from the invasion of the Golden Horde. Once meeting with their leader Kalin the king, the hero first asked him to withdraw his troops from Kiev in an amicable way. In response, the invader "spat in Ilya's clear eyes."
This was his fatal mistake. Ilya Muromets grabbed the gate by the legs “and conceived waving: wherever he waved - there are streets, where he turns away - with side streets”. He waved Kalin, waved, and then "hit a stone on the fuel and smashed it into crumbs." Kalin the king turned out to be strong. He collected everything that was left of him and fled from near Kiev with the army.
And crumbs of combustible stone are still probably lying somewhere in Kiev. And Ilya Ivanovich Muromets was also a traveler. On his heroic horse, he traveled all over Ancient Russia, visited India, Turkey, Mongolia and even Karelia.
Ilya Muromets was a real hero and a good friend. He was friends with Alyosha Popovich and Dobrynya Nikitich (see the corresponding articles). He had a very good wife, whom he affectionately called "Baba Zlatigorka" and three children: Sokolnik, Sokolnichek and Podokolnichek.
At the end of his life, Ilya Muromets found a treasure, which he gave to Vladimir the Red Sun for the whole people. Nothing is known about the further fate of this treasure. Having given the treasure, Ilya Ivanovich went to the Kiev caves, where he completely turned to stone and is in this state to this day.

CARLSON
Invented by the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren. Not a magician, not a man or a beast. Lives on the roof, eats jam and indulges. Like any mischievous person, he flies, because he has a propeller in the back. In general, a completely useless person, even some kind of non-pedagogical. On the other hand, the Kid is very bad without Carlson.
Judge for yourself, who is this Kid who does not have his own Carlson?

KIKIMORA
A kind of evil spirits. Brownie's wife (see Brownie). If you can at least somehow come to an agreement with the Brownie, then you cannot find a common language with your home Kikimora. Grumpy, harmful and useless in the household. Her favorite pastime is to scare small children and confuse everything. Can't stand all men, including her husband. Loves darkness and dampness. Found in the cellar, sometimes in a faulty refrigerator.
The wild variety of Kikimora lives in fabulous swamps, for which it received the nickname Swamp. Here she waits for good fellows, whom she drowns with special pleasure in a quagmire. He often communicates with Leshim, Baba Yaga and Koshchei the Immortal (see the corresponding articles).

KLEPA
Quite a modern girl, a sorceress. She was born, it seems, in France. And this is noticeable in her wonderful dress, iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow. He loves to travel in his free time from miracles: in time, space, sciences, cities, planets, countries ... There are no places where Klepa has not visited. N. Dubinina wrote about some of her adventures in the book “Once, Klepa…”. The book is interesting, with pictures. Unlike other fairy-tale heroes - Buratino, Aibolit, Baba Yaga, etc. (see the corresponding articles), Klepa has his own children's magazine of the same name).

KOLOBOK
Some nonsense: a loaf is not a loaf, a pie is not a pie, something like a dry bun without raisins, but everyone wants to eat it. First, Grandfather, who asked Baba (see Grandfather and Baba) to scrape the bottom of the barrel and scrape together flour for Kolobok. Then the Hare (see the Hare), then the Wolf (see the Wolf), then the Bear (see the Bear). He sang a song to everyone, and drove away from everyone. Then the Fox (see Fox) still outwitted him and ate him.
The most mysterious hero of Russian folk tales, because he does nothing special, but everyone loves him. This Gingerbread man has not done any good or evil to anyone, but everyone pity him.

QUEEN
The queen is different. She is usually the wife of the King (see The King), but sometimes she is lonely. If the Queen is lonely, then she is most likely an evil sorceress who commits many unkind deeds. A prime example is the Snow Queen (read “The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen). If the Queen is the second wife of the King, then she will be his stepmother, the royal children (see Stepmother).
In the best case, she is a kind, intelligent wife, in the past she could be Alyonushka (see Alyonushka) or a Princess (see Princess).
The queen is unhappy in personal life... The husband-king either dies early, or at the slander of those close to him expels her together with the heir (heiress) from the kingdom. But that's what a fairy tale is, so that in the end everything will end happily; she either remarries, or the King realizes what an injustice he has done and asks her forgiveness.

KOROLEVICH ELISEY
A kind of Prince (see Prince). A real fabulous groom and hero. For the sake of his beloved, he performs various heroic deeds: he fights with giants, snakes and other evil spirits, searches for his betrothed at the end of the world, kisses her “on the lips of sugar,” and then he must marry her and make her his Queen (see the Queen).

KING
(see King). Many fairy tales begin with the words: “Once upon a time there was a King ...” So without fairy kings we would not have had many good fairy tales.
Fairy kings are different: there are stupid ones, there are smart ones, there are evil ones, there are good ones. Evil kings in fairy tales end badly. They either die an unnatural death, or they are dethroned, and good kings take their place. As for the good kings, they have various troubles at the beginning of the tale, but in the end everything ends well
The King often has a daughter, a princess (see Princess), or a son, a prince, and sometimes even three sons. Then the younger is necessarily either a fool or a prince. In both cases, the royal son marries a princess at the end of the tale, and the King has a beautiful daughter-in-law.
Often the King has a wife - the Queen (see the Queen). Depending on what kind of King the Queen develops and his fabulous life.

PUSS IN BOOTS
If you ever inherit a Cat, be kind and affectionate to him. Feed him, give him drink, change the filler, read fairy tales to him aloud. Over time, your cat will grow up and appreciate your care. Perhaps he will make you the Marquis of Carabas and marry a princess. Perhaps he will make you just a good person (not a marquis) and marry a simple, good girl who will become a princess anyway.
It may also happen that you yourself successfully marry (or get married) even without the help of the Cat. But in this case, the Cat will not hurt you.

KOSCHEI THE DEATHLESS
The name "Koschey" in translation from the Turkic means "captive". Whose captive he was is unknown. Apparently your own. Despite his surname, at the end of fairy tales, the Immortal inevitably dies, which makes him in fact the most mortal of all fairy tale characters.
He usually carefully hides his death in a needle, an igloo in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a pike, a pike in a hare, a hare in a chest, a chest under the roots of an oak, an oak stands on Buyan Island, an island “on the blue sea , on okiyane ”.
Koschey's appearance is the most repulsive. I don't even want to describe it. The character is harmful. Constantly strives to steal the royal daughter. Either the Beautiful Elena, or Vasilisa the Wise. Steals in order to marry. But he never lives up to the wedding because he keeps talking to his brides about the whereabouts of his death. The brides immediately inform their savior-heroes about this, and those who only need to get to the reserved oak tree.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
“Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Little Red Riding Hood ... "This is how the tale of the French writer Charles Perrault begins, which he wrote more than 300 years ago for ... adults (However, as well as" Cinderella "," Puss in Boots "," Little Boy "and others). The girl was called “Little Red Riding Hood” because she always wore her bright red hat and never took it off. Even at home. Even my grandmother is visiting. She loved this hat very much. Then Little Red Riding Hood and his grandmother were eaten by the evil Wolf (see Wolf). And if not for the hunters, she would have sat in her red cap in a wolf's belly all her life. But it all ended well.

CROCODILE GENA
Cheburashka's best friend (see Cheburashka). In childhood and adolescence, he worked at the zoo as a crocodile. And in his free time he helped build the House of Friendship. When the house was built, he successfully went into business (read “Business of the Crocodile Gena” by E. Uspensky).

CHICKEN RYABA
Kind, healthy poultry. Favorite of Grandfather and Baba (see Grandfather and Baba). He lives in a hut and, in gratitude for the care, carries many large, fresh eggs. Once she decided to especially thank the household and laid not a simple egg, but a golden one. This was a mistake, because neither Grandfather nor Baba knew what to do with this egg. Out of habit, they began to beat him.
The golden egg was durable and did not break. A mouse ran by (there were mice in the house), inadvertently touched a golden testicle with its tail, which fell and broke. This upset the old people very much, and they cried like children.
Clever Chicken realized that the old men did not need a golden testicle and promised them to lay an ordinary egg. Not golden, but simple. Grandfather and Baba calmed down, began to live well, and make good money.

Leshy
(Not to be confused with the forester). If a forester is a profession, then Leshy is fate. He lives in a fairy forest and fouls, in contrast to the forester, who brings only one benefit. Of all the devil's known to me, only one managed to use his powers for the benefit of society. This is Uncle Ay (see Ay). All the rest, as they rightly write in scholarly books: "a gathering of evil spirits and the embodiment of the forest, as a part of space hostile to man."
Dressed poorly and warmly - in animal skins, which he fastens from left to right and wears all year round. His shoes are also always worn the other way around. The left bast shoe is on the right leg, and the right one is on the left. Growth is changeable. Now below the grass, then above the trees. When required.
Friend of Kikimora (see Kikimora). Just like she, she loves children. He especially loves to lead them astray and lead them into the thicket. Cheerful. To the place and out of place he laughs, frightening hares, birds and mushroom pickers. It can turn into a bush, dry tree, stump.
In fairy tales, good fellows usually circle around the forest, preventing them from getting to the red maidens languishing in the hut of Baba Yaga or the hole of the Serpent Gorynych (see Baba Yaga, Serpent Gorynych). But good fellows are not children. You will not be mischievous with them. So Leshy has to shamefully run away from them into the thicket.
What Leshy eats and what he thinks about in his free time, no one knows, and no one is interested in this.
So they say: "Come on to Leshem."

FOX
The most cunning, cunning and eloquent animal that lives in the vastness of folk tales. Lives by deception and for the sake of deception. Constantly steals the Rooster (see Rooster), eats the Kolobok (see Kolobok), drives the Hare out of the bast hut (see the Hare). She even deceives her close, but stupid relative - the Wolf (see Wolf). Despite these negative qualities, Lisa (nicknames: Redhead, Cheat, Sister, Kuma, etc.) is distinguished by its beauty and femininity.

Eater
The most unpleasant fabulous type. Lives alone in a dense forest. It eats poorly and irregularly, mainly by lost travelers, boys and girls. Growth - a giant (see Giant). Just like Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga) is a good cook. Innocent. It is not difficult to carry it out. Puss in Boots (see Puss in Boots), for example, tricked him into taking advantage of the Ogre's passion for transformation.
It is best to run away from him when he falls asleep or goes hunting. There is one more proven method (read "Thumb Boy").

FROG
In all fairy tales she is a kind mistress - “she bakes cabbage pies, very fatty and tasty” both in the mansion and in the mansion of Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich), and at the same time she sews wonderful shirts and smart dresses. A frog is good for everyone, only it is painfully scary and unpleasant to the touch.
But as soon as she sheds her frog skin, there is a beauty in front of us (see Princess). She dances like a swan princess, helps her husband in everything, in short - a clever girl.
Only once Ivan Tsarevich hurried up, burned her skin in the stove, and for this he had to get ready again on the road, to help out his wife. In fairy tales they love the Frog. Here she is always, if not held in high esteem, then certainly not offended. But in life, they treat her differently. They are afraid and disdain. They say that she can jinx a person, cause rain, and a storm, and, they say, she is poisonous and is known with evil spirits.
And they also say that frogs came from people who drowned in the Great Flood. There is another version, that they came from Egyptian soldiers - “Pharaoh's army”, which drove the Jews out of Egypt. This very army was so carried away by the process of exile that they did not notice how they entered the sea. And since the Pharaoh's army was not sea, but land and did not know how to swim, then everything sank at once.
Popular rumor says that someday everything will change, and frogs will again become people.

LITTLE MUCK
Hero of the Eastern fairy tale by the German writer Wilhelm Hauf. Born in the city of Nike, and his full name was Mukra. He was small, and his father was a respectable man and completely uneducated. Once he fell from somewhere, badly hurt himself and died, leaving the sixteen-year-old Torment in poverty and ignorance. He went where his eyes were looking, and in one city he finally got into the service of a lonely witch (see Witch), who had many cats and dogs. After living with her for some time, he fled, because the mistress's cats were completely insolent and behaved somehow.
As a reward, Mook grabbed the Witch's magical shoes, walkers and a cane, who knew how to look for treasures. With all this goodness, he came to the neighboring kingdom and got a job as a royal runner. (In those days there were no couriers and courier trains yet, so all urgent news was carried by the fast walkers).
Once, according to an evil slander of the courtiers, little Muk was seized and accused of theft. To avoid death, he had to give the King (see King) both the magic shoes and the cane. Poor and small, Muck came to the forest where the figs grew. (I must inform you that there are countries where figs tend to grow on trees). These figs were sweet, and Muk ate them. After that, he grew long ears and a nose. Muk looked into the lake, saw himself and realized that it was all over. Finally, he swallowed a few more figs from another tree and ... suddenly he saw that everything fell into place - both ears and nose. Then he took figs (or otherwise - figs) and went to the King. There Muck fed the King with figs, and he immediately grew long donkey ears. The king was frightened and returned little flour to his shoes and a cane. And little Muck never gave him a figure that shrinks his ears. He just showed it from afar and left.
Many years have passed since then. Little Muk grew old and returned to his hometown. There he lives, surrounded by the respect of his neighbors.

BOY WITH A FINGER
The youngest and smallest of all his brothers. He is as tall as a little finger. Despite such a significant drawback, he was the most quick-witted: at night he overheard the parents' conversation that they were not able to feed so many children at once and were going to take him and his brothers into the forest to be torn apart by wild animals.
Therefore, Little Boy immediately picked up white pebbles in his pocket, and when in the morning the unhappy father, shedding tears, took his children into the dark forest, he slowly threw pebbles on the road.
Then, when the children ended up in the Ogre's house (see Ogre), the Little Thing Boy also deceived him and took the brothers home safe and sound, by the stones. Parents have long since repented of their deeds and were very happy when their children returned. They didn’t do such stupidity anymore. Moreover, when he grew up, Boy-with-Thumb was probably able to provide for their entire large family.

MOWGLI
Forest Indian boy from the tale of Rudyard Kipling. Once in the jungle (Mowgli) was stolen by the Tiger. But the circumstances were such that he could not eat it right away, which he later regretted all his life. But it was too late. Mowgli was picked up by a wolf pack and made of him a real person.
In the jungle, Mowgli had many friends - the bear Baloo, the panther Bagheera, the boa constrictor Kaa and other forest dwellers. He did not like monkeys, because they were humanoid and grimaced all the time. He did not like Mowgli and the tiger Sher Khan, who did nasty things to him all the time.
Finally, Mowgli found a sure remedy for Sher Khan - "red flower" - as the locals of the jungle called fire.
As time went on, Mowgli became an adult and, finally, it was time for him to get married. He said goodbye to his friends and went to the village, where he found his bride, and along with his mother.

STEPMOTHER
An evil, disgusting wife of a kind and spineless father. She usually has one or even two daughters of her own. The same as herself. If the Stepmother has several daughters, then she unsuccessfully tries to marry them one after another for the Prince (see Prince). If there is only one daughter, then she makes her stepdaughter jump for a bucket into a deep well, or in winter, in the very cold, drives her out after snowdrops.
If the Stepmother has no one other than a weak-minded husband, then she tries with all her might to destroy her stepdaughter, takes her into a dense forest, and then poisons her with bulk apples.
But she doesn't succeed. Princes don't like her lazy daughters, the magic mirror tells the whole truth, regardless of her unpleasant face, but the stepdaughter always marries the Prince Elisha (see Elisha the Prince), or in extreme cases receives a good dowry from Frost Ivanovich (see Santa Claus).

BEAR
The hero of many fairy tales, folk and non-folk - ordinary. In a way, the Bear is also a hero. Strong, human-like. The Bear's feet and fingers are human, he washes his face like a man, sometimes walks on his hind legs, understands when you talk to him, dances, sucks his paw. So in the dark it is quite possible to mistake him for a person. Even guard dogs often confuse him, and bark in the same way as at a passer-by.
The ancients believed that if you remove the skin from a bear, then inside it looks just like a person without clothes. (This is easy to check. You need to put on a fur coat and look in the mirror).
In fairy tales, as in life, the Bear is completely unpredictable. Therefore, they do not like to meet with him. It is not clear what to expect from him. Either he will eat you, or he will simply lead you to his forest hut (in fairy tales, the Bear is often in the hut, but in life - in the den) and feed with what God has sent. It all depends on the mood of the Bear.
A bear in the forest knows the woods, with Baba Yaga (see Goblin, Baba Yaga), often serves them, and on the other hand, it can help: uproot an oak tree so that Ivan Tsarevich (see Ivan Tsarevich) from there is a chest with Koscheeva's death got it out.
Like every person, the Bear has a name. We often call him Mikhailo Ivanovich or Mikhailo Potapych. Those who are closer familiar call them simply - Potapych, or simply - Misha.

SEA KING
The same as the devil (see the devil) only underwater, sea. In fairy tales, at first he pretends that he helps the protagonist to get out of a hopeless situation (and, indeed, helps), but then demands that either the hero himself or his son go down to the seabed for a favor. The hero descends to the Sea King and becomes his prisoner. It's good that the tsar often has a beautiful daughter named Vasilisa the Wise (see Vasilisa the Wise). She falls in love with the hero and helps him escape. True, together with her.
The sea king arranges a pursuit for the young, but he cannot catch up with them. A similar story happened to a Novgorod merchant named Sadko. He played the harp very well. Almost like Dobrynya Nikitich (see Dobrynya Nikitich). And the Sea King liked his game so much that he decided to lure Sadko to him. And then a chance turned up: in the heat of the moment Sadko argued with other merchants that he would catch a “fish of golden feathers” (a kind of freshwater goldfish) in Lake Ilmen. And he made a big bet. Here the Sea King helped him. He has in the kingdom of these golden-finned fish (see Fish) as much as his heart desires.
And when Sadko set out on merchant ships by sea, the Sea Tsar then reminded him of his continuation. The merchant had to go to the bottom together with the harp. He comes to the royal chambers and begins to work out his duty, to play the harp. The sea king was delighted, sang, danced ... The sea, of course, became agitated, a storm arose, the ships began to sink in such numbers that at the bottom they did not have time to uvarachivatsya.
Sadko sees that it's a bad thing. Picked up and broke the strings.
- All, - he says, - did not take any spare. There will be no more music.
Then the Sea King decided to marry his captive guest to his daughter, a sea girl. Here and the wedding was played.
Well, and then, you yourself know what happened. Sadko returned home, saw that his ships sailed with rich goods, and he began to live and live and make good money.

MUNCHHAUSEN is an ordinary honest German baron who lived more than 200 years ago. His name was Baron von Karl-Friedrich-Jerome-Munchausen. Member of the Russian-Turkish war (1735-1739). After the end of the war, Munchausen was demobilized and settled on his estate near the city of Hanover. Here he loved to gather funny companies and talk about his military exploits and travels across Russia.
Once these stories were heard by the German writer Rudolf-Erich Raspe. He heard them laughing, and then immediately emigrated to England. Here he wrote and published a book entitled "The Narrative of Baron Munchausen about his wonderful travels and campaigns to Russia." Although Raspe added quite a lot to the stories of Munchausen, he did not put his name under this work.
A few years later, this book fell into the hands of another German writer - the poet Gottfried-August Bürger. He, too, decided to add a little different stories to her. And he not only composed, but also published it under a new title: “The amazing travels of Baron von Munchausen on water and on land. Hikes and fun adventures, as he used to talk about them over a bottle of wine with his friends. "
This is how the stories of Baron von Munchausen, the most truthful man in the world, appeared, which I highly recommend reading. Who knows, maybe after that another book about Munchausen will appear - yours.

UNKNOWN
The most attractive little guy from the Sunny city. A kind of Ivan the Fool (see Ivan the Fool), only very small - less Boy-s Thumb (see Thumb Boy). The writer Nikolai Nosov invented tales about Dunno and his friends. Despite the fact that a lot of other short people lived in the Sunny City, Dunno is loved most of all. He is the most naughty, curious, stubborn and cocky. If Dunno studied at school, he would have been a round poor student. But, fortunately for the teachers, he did not study at school, but was self-taught. He himself learned to write poetry, drive a car, fly in a balloon and operate a magic wand.
It all worked out badly for him, but it ended well. Despite the fact that Dunno - literary hero, they love him as a folk

NIKITA KOZHEMYAKA
This story began scary. I will not retell, everything in the fairy tale itself is written: “A serpent appeared near Kiev, he took considerable extortions from the people: from each yard there was a red girl. Take the girl and eat her. The time has come to go to that snake of the king's daughter. The snake grabbed the princess and dragged her to his den, but did not eat her: she was a beauty, so he took her for his wife. The snake will fly to its trades, and the princess will fill up with logs so that she does not leave. "
And here sits, as usual, the princess heaped with logs in the snake den and writes a letter to her parents. (Her letters were delivered by one dog, who loved the princess very much and was devoted to her). In the letter there was a request: to find at least some hero, so that he was stronger than the snake. They did not know what to answer.
And Serpent Gorynych (see Serpent Gorynych), I must say, was the same chatterbox as Koschey the Immortal (see Koschey the Immortal). He once told his wife that only Nikita Kozhemyak was stronger than him. The wife immediately reported this to her father, who immediately found the hero.
Nikita was from an ordinary family. A simple leatherworker. I crumpled my skins onto sheepskin coats, hats and shoes. And just as he saw that the tsar himself had come to his workshop, he was frightened. Nikita was not afraid of anyone. Only the king. As I saw him, Kozhemyaka's hands trembled and he tore 12 skins at once. He was so strong.
And when he broke up, he was very upset. They were good skins, dear ones. In frustration, he refused to help the king. But he did not get angry, but gathered five thousand children and ordered them to ask for the princess Nikita Kozhemyaka. At this point Nikita could not refuse and even shed a tear. Then the hero wiped away his tears, took 300 poods of hemp (this is 4800 kilograms, - almost five tons!), Tied himself with this hemp, and then tarred it for the fortress.
As Zmey Gorynych saw Nikita tied with hemp, he understood that the end had come to him. He harnessed Kozhemyak Gorynych into a plow (it also weighed about five tons) and began to plow the border on it. From “Kiev to the Sea of ​​Kavstriyskiy”. Plowed, and then in this sea and drowned the snake.
Nikita Kozhemyaka for his feat did not take a penny from the tsar and did not even marry a princess (see Tsarevna).

PAPA CARLO
A simple street organ grinder, the carpenter's best friend Giuseppe and Buratino's father (see Buratino). He made his disobedient son out of ordinary logs and tried to educate him. It turned out to be not so easy, because it is very difficult, being a poor organ-grinder, to educate yesterday's log. However, the kindness, dedication and love of a father for his son eventually bore fruit. The son, having gone through a big life school, became a wooden artist. This result allows us to assert that a true teacher is able to educate a real person from anything.

ROOSTER
A wonderful bird in all respects. The most beautiful in our latitudes: “golden comb, oily beard, silk beard ...” Somehow, connected with the Sun. It crows both before sunrise and before sunset. Therefore, apparently, any fabulous evil spirits do not like roosters very much.
If the Rooster gets into trouble, he is sure to be rescued. And he himself is a faithful friend and helper. His main enemy is the Fox (see Fox). The cheat invents all kinds of ways to eat it. Sometimes she is very close to the goal. But never before in fairy tales did Lisa succeed in this.
Moreover, the Rooster often manages to deceive the Fox and restore the violated justice. All this allows us to talk about the Rooster as our national fairytale hero.
The Rooster's character is violent, cocky, restless. His name is, as a rule, Petya. Why not Vasya or Boris Gavrilovich is unknown. In any case, he only responds to Petya. And this means that his patronymic is Petrovich. So - Peter Petrovich. Roosters do not have surnames.
In some tales, the Rooster is at odds with the autocracy. In Pushkin's fairy tale about the Golden Cockerel, he pecked at the crown of Tsar Dodon and thereby became the cause of his untimely death. Nothing is known about the Rooster's attitude to other representatives of the government and the types of government.
In Russia, roosters have always been treated with respect. They even called them “the master” and cooked delicious cabbage soup from them. A good rooster protects the house from diseases and evil spirits. If the rooster sings on the doorstep, wait for the guests. If you crowed at the wrong time, wait for the news.

PRINCE
Son of the King (see King), fiancé of the future princess (see Princess). Kind, handsome, strong and fair. But it should not be assumed that the Prince must necessarily be of royal blood. So thought one Princess, who drove the Swineherd away and then bitterly repented. Because it turned out that the real Prince was disguised as the Swineherd.
So if you are a real Princess, and your fiance is the best in the world, then he is your Prince, or one day he will be.

PRINCESS
There are two types: good and bad. The Good Princess is a kind, sympathetic, courageous girl. Most often - the former Cinderella (see Cinderella). Bad - on the contrary: capricious, wayward, lazy. (More often all of him is the future Stepmother (see Stepmother). The heroine of hundreds of fairy tales. If it were not for the princess in fairy tales there would be no one to look for, free, protect, no one to help, no one to marry. So the Princess is in some way the main fairytale heroine.

PROSPERO
Heroic personality. Professional revolutionary from Yuri Olesha's fairy tale “Three Fat Men”. As a result of the first failed uprising against the government, three fat men, who terribly oppressed the people, ended up behind bars in the basement where the government zoo was located. From there he was rescued by a simple circus girl named Suok and another revolutionary - also a professional circus performer - gymnast Tibul.
After his release, Prospero still made a revolution and drove out the three fat men. What happened next is unknown, probably everyone began to live happily and no one else was overthrown.

A FISH
In fairy tales it reaches fantastic proportions. One whale fish is worth something. The whole island! Yes, that the island, the whole earth, according to some fabulous information, rests on three whales. They say that she used to stand on even four, but one died of old age, which is why the Great Flood happened. However, this information is often refuted by other, more plausible ones, where it is argued that the earth is not installed on three whales, but only on two fish lying crosswise.
From time to time, large fish are swallowed by ships in fairy tales. They do the same with some fairy-tale characters. But the hero cannot be swallowed with impunity. Once in a fish belly, he behaves like a sports angler: he makes a fire and cooks fish soup. The fish, of course, immediately develops a terrible heartburn, and for the purpose of self-treatment, it releases the eaten to freedom (This usually happens just near its native shores).
Fairy fish love to swallow different rings and other jewelry that princesses and queens lose (see princess, queen). After that, they are immediately fished out by poor fishermen who fish for the king's table. So if you ever dine at the royal palace, please eat the fish very carefully.
In addition to the above fish breeds, in fairy tales you can find Ruff Ershovich (an extremely prickly, ruffy and slightly edible creature), a Pike, known for its talkativeness and magical qualities, a Goldfish that fulfills all desires, as well as: a magic Sturgeon, stupid Carp, ominous Eel, fussy Herring and many others inhabiting the deep-sea fairy world.

SALTAN
Some confuse Tsar Saltan with Turkish Saltan Saltanovich. This mistake happens because they are namesakes. But there is nothing more in common between them. Because Tsar Saltan is a simple fairytale king who married a peasant girl, who, as promised, gave birth to him a hero (see Guidon). Saltan Saltanovich is an ordinary villain, whom Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) shot from a bow. And serves him right. Because after that everyone began to live happily.

SEVEN SEEDS
(They are the Seven Simeons)
This is a very interesting hero of fairy tales. What is interesting about him is that he is not alone, but there are seven of them - the Semyonov brothers. Each individually - neither this nor that. And together - fantastic heroes.
They were born in the village “with one man” - all the good fellow is better. But the trouble is - everyone is lazy. Didn't do anything. The father suffered with them, suffered, and then took and took them to the service of the Tsar (see Tsar). The king, of course, was delighted at first. Seven heroes have arrived! And when he realized who the man had brought him, it was already too late. That and a trace is gone.
He began to think what to do with the lazy Seeds. I thought, thought and came up with. He sent them to steal the princess from the neighboring overseas kingdom, in order to marry her later. Semyony boarded the ship and sailed away. They sailed, stole the princess and returned safely. Only the princess was slightly wounded in her left hand on the way, because she “suddenly turned into a white swan” and tried to fly away. But nothing came of it, because among the Semenov there was one very well-aimed shooter. He shot the princess in the left wing.
The Tsar thanked the Seven Semenov for their service and rewarded them. And the princess never married the king. Because he was very old. She chose the eldest Semyon as her wife, who stole her from the overseas kingdom with his own hand. And the Tsar did not take offense at them, he was even delighted and once again rewarded Semyonov. These are the heroes.

SISTER ALENUSHKA
Highly good girl... Suffers a lot. Sometimes it comes from a peasant family, sometimes from a royal family. She usually has a naughty younger brother, Ivanushka. Her parents immediately die at the very beginning of the tale, but for some reason she does not become a queen. Probably too small, and children have to walk in all four directions. On the way, misfortune occurs: Ivanushka, not listening to Alyonushka, drinks from a puddle and turns into a kid. One unmarried King finds them in this position (see King). He immediately falls in love and marries Alyonushka. And so all three of them would have lived happily: husband, wife and kid, but then out of nowhere a Witch appears (see Witch). Most likely, she herself wants to marry the Tsar, therefore she puts damage on Alyonushka. She is withering and withering before our eyes.
And then this sorceress disguised as a healer (this is a doctor who treats with traditional folk remedies) comes to her and promises to cure her. The Witch led Alyonushka to the sea, tied a stone around her neck and threw it into the water. That's all the treatment.
The Witch herself turned into Alyonushka and went to the royal chambers. But it all ended well; The little goat eventually led the Tsar to the sea, Alyonushka surfaced, the Tsar removed a stone from her neck and led him to the Tsar's palace. And the wicked witch was burned at the stake. "After that, the Tsar, the Tsarina and the Kid began to live and live, and make good money."

BLUE BEARD
Unpleasant person. I don't even want to write about him. But, for the edification of frivolous girls, it is necessary. "Bluebeard" is the nickname of a man whose name no one knows and does not want to know. A notorious villain, a criminal, a wealthy French nobleman of a heroic physique. He did not give alms to anyone, did not go to church, lived in seclusion in the castle, which was called Bluebeard's Castle. He was friends only with his dogs - three Great Danes, huge and strong, like bulls. He regularly went hunting in the woods on a hefty black horse. He was married seven times. In short, the villain!
Returning from another hunt, he grabbed a girl on the road who had gone out for a walk at the wrong time. At the castle, Beard announced to her that now she would be his eighth wife. On this, the courtship of the villain ended, and difficult family everyday life began for the girl.
Once Bluebeard once again left for three months to hunt. Before leaving, he gave his wife seven keys (the lock was large), instructing her not to unlock anything with the seventh key. In this act, the whole insidious essence of Bluebeard was manifested. If he really didn’t want his wife to unlock the seventh room, he would never give her this key. But he understood that his wife would be tormented by curiosity. And since Bluebeard was a real tormentor of his wives, he gave her this key.
I gave it away and was not mistaken. The wife suffered, suffered and ... opened the seventh door. Horror gripped the unfortunate at the sight of her seven dead predecessors. The rest is known even to a child. She dropped the key, which was stained with blood, then the villainous husband came and, seeing that his wife knew his terrible secret, began to sharpen a knife on her.
Fortunately, two of her brothers managed to arrive. For an hour they fought their criminal brother-in-law and finally killed him. Since then, this girl completely got rid of curiosity and began to live happily.

SNOW MAIDEN
Granddaughter of Santa Claus (see Santa Claus). Helps grandfather to give gifts to children. Nothing is known about her parents. Probably an orphan. Unlike her grandfather, she is very smart and resourceful. Knows a lot of games, riddles, poems about the New Year. Friends with the good forest dwellers: squirrels, hedgehogs, bunnies, etc.).
As a result, all the intrigues of the enemies of Santa Claus (Wolf, Fox, Baba Yaga, Leshy, etc.) always fail.

SOLDIER
Brave, cheerful and resourceful hero. He often appears in the fairy tale, returning home after 25 years of service. So he is already an elderly man. Nevertheless, at the end of the tale, he sometimes marries a good girl, whom he rescued from trouble: from the devil or from the Serpent Gorynych he saved (see the devil, the Serpent Gorynych).
A soldier likes to go to some village to the meanest Baba (see Baba) in order to eat and rest. He succeeds in doing this, because the Soldier is a seasoned man. Either he cooks soup from an ax, then he will guess such riddles that even the Serpent Gorynych will not guess them, not to mention Baba Yaga (see Baba Yaga).

Nightingale robber
Countryman Ilya Muromets (the village of Devyatidubye was located next to the village of Karacharovo). In fairy tales, he lives with his entire family (his wife Nightingale and the children Nightingales) on nine oak trees, where he whistles and plunders. It whistles so loudly and piercingly that no hero can withstand such a whistle. Only Ilya Muromets (see Ilya Muromets) was able to defeat the Nightingale the Robber.
Therefore, it is clear that a subtle ear for music sometimes only interferes with real heroes.

THREE PIGS
Heroes of an English folk tale. Actually, only the third Piglet was the hero of them, because the first two, unfortunately, were eaten by the Wolf (see Wolf). I ate it, because the story of how all the piglets gathered together in the stone house of the third, unfortunately, is a fiction of the wonderful American cartoonist Walt Disney and the equally wonderful Russian writer Sergei Mikhalkov.
In fact, both pigs who built houses of straw and brushwood fell victim to their carelessness. But the denouement of this drama was terrible for the Wolf himself. Having devoured two young piglet brothers, he went to the stone house of the third. It was a real pig fortress, so the Wolf decided to take it by cunning. He tried several times to lure Piglet out of the house. But he turned out to be smarter, and the Wolf had no choice but to go to the assault. The assault was carried out through the chimney, from where the gray robber fell exactly in the place set by the third Piglet - into a boiling cauldron.
Now listen to what really happened to the Wolf: “... The piglet instantly closed the boiler lid and did not remove it until the wolf was cooked. Then he ate it at dinner and healed happily, and he still lives like that. ”

QUEEN
(see Queen). Character depends on what kind of King she has (see King). If he is an independent man, a true just autocrat, then the Queen is usually kind, submissive and patient. If gentle and lazy, she becomes cruel, angry and narcissistic.
A good and fair Queen is not uncommon, but she is not the main fairytale hero. Her son, daughter, husband, or counselor is in charge. If the Queen is evil, then she immediately finds herself in the main characters of the tale. Nobody loves her, but she loves herself very much.
At the end of the tale, the good Queen triumphs along with justice and the main characters, and the bad one is roughly punished. After her punishment, they usually play someone's merry wedding.

TSAR
(see King) Lives either in "a certain kingdom in a certain state" or in the "Far Away Kingdom, a Thirty State." The figure is complex and contradictory. On the one hand - a kind family man, a good husband and father, a brave warrior. On the other hand, it can behave frivolously or too trustingly. In the heat of the moment, he promises, for example, the Sea King or the devil (see Sea King, devil) “that does not know at home” (usually this is his newborn son or daughter), and then the children have to fight a whole fairy tale with evil spirits. Or another example - the Tsar will believe in slander against his wife and drive her out of the kingdom with a small child. Yes, it’s also good if he just chases him away, otherwise he will order him to be ground into a barrel and thrown into the sea, or tied in the forest thicket to a tree to be eaten by wolves.
By old age, he often becomes inclined to solve the simplest everyday questions in the most fabulous way; For example, to marry his three sons, he orders them to shoot arrows in different directions. It's good that in fairy tales the arrows fly where they need to: to the boyar's daughter, to the merchant's, to the Frog Princess (see The Frog). What if the brothers missed?
The King is not much different from the King. Usually he is the hero of Russian fairy tales (read "Russian folk tales"), and the King - foreign ones (read "Tales of the peoples of the world"). Although sometimes (very rarely) it happens that the King (or the Prince's son) lives in our fairy tale and it does not even occur to him that he is a foreigner.
The king is one of the main fairy-tale figures. It depends on his behavior whether the fairy tale will be scary or funny, happy or sad. However, this is not only in fairy tales, it is so everywhere.

CHEBURASHKA
You may be surprised, but the first Cheburashka was maybe even your grandmother, when she was still very little. It happened a long time ago. It was in the winter, in Moscow. The future author of Cheburashka, the writer Eduard Uspensky, once saw in the courtyard a girl of about three years old who was walking with her mother. The girl was wearing a long, shaggy fur coat, bought for growth. She was in this huge fur coat all the time stumbling and falling. And her mother raised her all the time and said: “Oh you, Cheburashka ...” The writer liked this word and he named his fairytale hero with it.
Since then, this "beast unknown to science" has appeared, which, according to the author, came to us in a box with oranges. Since oranges in those days were brought primarily to Moscow, Cheburashka settled here. At first, his housing was bad, and he lived in a pay phone booth, where he met Crocodile Gena.
Later, having got used to it a little, he, together with his friends, built the House of Friendship, and began to live, live, and make good money ..

HECK
In one word - "unclean". Lives in the underworld, deep underground. There he, along with fellow workers, tortures sinners who have misbehaved in life.
It looks unpleasant: all in black wool, with horns, a tail and smells of sulfur. A spitting-out black goat if it stands on its hind legs. Only the goat has no wings, but the fabulous devil does. Little ones, black, also unpleasant. Just like the Wolf and the Bear (see Wolf, Bear), he knows how to turn into a man. And also - a pig, a snake, a dog and a black cat.
If the devil turns into a person, then for some reason he prefers to be a miller or a blacksmith. Probably knows these professions well.
Most often, the devil appears in fairy tales after 12 at night and disappears at dawn when he hears a cock crow. From time to time, however, it is also daytime.
Meeting him does not bode well. But if he meets a Soldier or Balda in a fairy tale, then his business is bad. They will deceive, they will take it to the wool, they will achieve their goal and it is good if they let them go right away. Otherwise, the whole fairy tale will have to devil serve and help them faithfully. Friends with other devils, goblin, brownies, By the sea king and Baba Yaga (see Sea King and Baba Yaga).
And he has no more friends and cannot be.

LIZARD
It happens to be an enchanted princess, a witch or the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (see The Queen). It cannot be argued that the lizard necessarily belongs to evil spirits. In fairy tales, sometimes quite worthy people and wizards turn into lizards. By her appearance, you can distinguish who turned into her. If the Lizard is green - a girl or a woman, if gray - a boy or a man.
If the Lizard does not burn in fire, then it is a salamander; if it burns, it is a witch. The bite of a fabulous lizard is poisonous and even fatal. According to scholarly books, a man bitten by a lizard cannot be cured until “until he hears the roar of a donkey, until he counts the grain of a whole measure of millet, until he finds nine white mares and nine sisters and drinks milk from nine sisters.” You yourself understand that while he does all this, he will definitely die.
If not from a bite, then from overwork. Therefore, lizards, especially fabulous ones, need to be protected.

Russian folk tales Is a significant element national history, through the prism of which it is possible to consider not only the people as an integral entity, but also its individual aspects. Belief in good and evil, justice, family foundations, religious views, awareness of their own place in the world around them. Russian folktale always carries a teaching component, hiding it under the shell of an easy, unpretentious story.

Heroes of Russian folk tales Are collective images of the most typical folk traits. The breadth of the Russian soul, praised by proverbs, perhaps, or a fool getting rich in thoughts - everything is reflected in folklore narratives. Whatever fairy tale we take, deep meaning is hidden around. Often, under the guise of a clumsy club-footed bear, a gullible hare or a sly fox, one can see the vices of a human character, much more clearly than it would be noticeable in "adult" narratives.

It's not for nothing that they say- a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it ...

Animal heroes in Russian folk tales are closely related to the ideas of the world of the ancient Slavs. Close proximity to the natural environment, vast forests and valleys of deep rivers, settled in fairy tales typical representatives of the surrounding landscape - foxes, bears, wolves, hares. Cattle and small ruminants also often act as fairy-tale characters. Especially in cases where the cult of the hearth, prosperity, family is emphasized ( for example, in the fairy tale Tiny-Khavroshechka). Poultry is also revered ( Ryaba chicken), and small rodents ( Mouse Norushka).

It is important to remember that the ability not only to listen, but to hear and understand what is hidden in Russian folk tales, as valuable as, for example, understanding a foreign language. By themselves, symbol words have no meaning. It is much more important what depth they keep in themselves. And, since fabulous legends have survived the troubled and well-fed times, since they have survived, it means that they are indeed a storehouse of folk knowledge.

List of heroes of Russian folk tales

1. Baba YAGA

An evil woman in the mythology of the Slavic peoples. Acts as a negative hero. Endowed with magical powers. Its main attributes are: a black cat, a hut on chicken legs, a mortar with a broomstick.

V various fairy tales the image of Baba Yaga has a different emotional color. Sometimes she confronts the protagonist; in some cases supports, instructs him; less often - she herself opposes evil.

Baba Yaga is a very ancient mythological image. It allows you to look differently at the life and philosophy of our ancestors.

Tales about Baba Yaga:

2.Vasilisa the Beautiful

The collective idealized image of the feminine principle in fairy tales. Combines the mind - worldly wisdom and beauty. Considered a daughter Sea King, and goes to the main character as a reward for defeating evil. Other names: Elena the Wise, Vasilisa the Wise, Marya the Artisan, Marya Morevna. Often changes images, transforming into animals.

Vasilisa is a very ancient Slavic image that idealizes the feminine principle. By carefully reading fairy tales, you can learn a lot about ancient social institutions, relationships between men and women.

Tales about Vasilisa the Beautiful (Wise):

3. Water

The lord of the water element in the view of the Slavic peoples. Moreover, in contrast Sea King, dominates over stagnant, musty waters: pools, swamps, polynyas. Usually depicted as an old man with fish features, a long shaggy beard, dressed in mud.

Legends about Vodyanoy are very diverse. He is powerful and, despite his bad temper, favors beekeepers. He does not touch the fishermen who are ready to share their catch with him. But he does not regret the unbaptized or those who forgot to sign the sign of the cross before bathing.

The Tale of the Water One:

4. Firebird

A fire bird; usually the object of the search the main character of the fairy tale... You cannot take it with your bare hands. Singing the Firebird heals the sick, restores youth, drives away sorrows. Able to give its owner untold wealth.

5. Serpent Gorynych

The mythical dragon in Slavic mythology. Possesses multiple heads. Capable of spewing flames. Dwells in the area Fiery river and guards the passage to Kingdom of the dead... In fairy tales, he acts as a negative character, an integral link in the balance of the forces of good and evil.

6. Ivan the Fool

A comic character in Russian folk tales. This is a collective image of the poorest peasant class - illiterate, artless and outrageously simple in everyday affairs. It is for these qualities that Ivan the Fool is rewarded what he deserves. The late Christian cultural layer also plays an important role in this image.

Truly I say to you, if you do not turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven ”(Matthew 18: 3)

7. Ivan Tsarevich

Hero of Russian folk tales. In most plots - positive character... Name "Tsarevich" indicates rather the royalty of intentions and deeds, rather than a real title. Usually, according to the plot, he performs a difficult task for which he receives a reward.

8. Gingerbread man

The protagonist of the eponymous Russian folk tale; rolled dough ball, a symbol of the contentment and satiety of the Russian people... A limited number of ingredients are used for its preparation, but despite this, the Kolobok turns out to be ruddy and appetizing. This is hidden the main moral of the tale... True, in the end, for his arrogance, Kolobok faces reckoning.

But, all the same, it is emphasized - Bread is the head of everything.

9. Cat Bayun

A mythical creature endowed with magical powers. Usually, bad guy... It has enormous size and the ability to speak in a human voice. "Bayun" means a talker. With his stories - fairy tales, the cat can chatter to death the interlocutor. However, for the one who knows how to tame it or get it as a trophy, the cat will give eternal health, youth and strength.

10. Koschey (Kaschey) Immortal

Skinny, wrinkled old man... Always a negative character in fairy tales. Possesses magical powers. Immortal. His life is enclosed in several objects, placed one in another. For example, an oak tree, under it is a cave, there is a chest, in a chest there is a casket, in a casket there is an egg, in an egg there is a needle... In the mythology of the Slavs, it guards the passage to the Kingdom of the Dead. Enters into an alliance with the Serpent Gorynych.
According to the plot of a fairy tale, he often kidnaps the bride of the protagonist.

11. Chicken Ryaba

Magic chicken from the fairy tale of the same name. Carries golden eggs... It personifies the special role of domestic animals in the peasant economy. Reasonable and wise. Shows that not always gold can be more important than an ordinary egg that is used for food.

12. Goblin

Owner of the forest, disembodied or corporeal being... Able to change appearance. It transforms into animals, trees, dwarfs, giants, and even takes the form of familiar people. Goblin neutral... And depending on his attitude towards the hero, he becomes either a good or an evil character. Knows how to emit all the sounds of the forest. Often the approach of Leshy is guessed in the rustle of foliage in calm weather.

13. Dashing

Living incarnation hard human life, fate. Usually appears as one-eyed ugly monster with a slobbery toothy mouth. The prototype of Likh in Slavic mythology is the Greek myths about the one-eyed Cyclops.

14. Frost

Morozko, Santa Claus. it gray-bearded old man in a long fur coat with a staff in his hands. Is an patron saint of cold... Snowfalls, blizzards and blizzards obey him. Usually fair. Gives gifts to those he likes. Helps in difficult situations and punishes those who deserve it. Rides a large sleigh drawn by three horses.

(In the western tradition - Santa Claus rides a sleigh with reindeer).

15. Sea King

Lord of all earthly waters. Possesses untold riches left after the ships sunk in different historical epochs. The Tsar lives in a huge palace in the very depths of the sea. He is surrounded sea ​​maidens, which are capable of capturing sailors and men just by chance walking along the shore. The king is subject to storms. He sinks ships of his own free will.

16. Snow Maiden

Granddaughter of Santa Claus. In Slavic mythology, it is referred to as a girl made out of the snow... In winter, the Snow Maiden has fun and behaves like an ordinary child. And as soon as the sun warms up, it melts, turning into a cloud until next Winter.

Winter frightens summer, but it still melts.

17. Soldier

The hero of Russian fairy tales, devoid of any supernatural power. Is the impersonation common Russian people... As a rule, after the end of the service, he finds himself in difficult situations, from which he is helped to get out magical creatures and objects.

The fire heats up the soldier, the rain washes, the wind blows, the frost burns through, but it still happens the same.

18. Princess Nesmeyana

Tsar's daughter who never smiled. According to the concept of fairy tales, the main character comes up with how to make the princess laugh and for this he gets her as a wife, along with half of the kingdom.

Laughter is not a sin, since it is pleasant for everyone.

19. The Frog Princess

Usually, under the guise of the Frog Princess hides Vasilisa the Wise... She is forced to be in the body of an amphibian until the main character frees her. Possesses magical abilities and worldly wisdom.

20. Miracle Yudo

An extraordinary fairytale character, sea ​​dweller and oceans... Does not bear a pronounced emotional coloring ( not good and not evil). Usually perceived as a wonderful fish.

REFLEXION

Grandma's tales. Fragment. Artist V.M. Maximov. 1867.

UDC 293.21: 821.16

Shtemberg A.S.

Heroes of Russian folk tales: who are they and why do they behave this way and not another?

Shtemberg Andrey Sergeevich, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Department of Experimental Biology and Medicine of the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Email: [email protected]

The article is devoted to the mythological and ritual roots of the images of the heroes of traditional Russian fairy tales (Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, the Serpent Gorynych).

Key words: Russian folk tales, fairytale heroes, Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych, magic assistant, clan structure, matriarchy, totem, magic, the kingdom of the living and the kingdom of the dead.

Russian folk tales ... From early childhood we all plunged into their amazing, unlike anything and often very mysterious world. From that very early childhood, we learned that a fairy tale is a fiction, that good always triumphs in it, and evil is always punished, and nevertheless we followed with excitement the adventures of fairy-tale heroes. The most attentive of those who, having become older, did not stop reading and rereading fairy tales, probably noticed that they are all built according to strictly defined rules. With all the seemingly enormous diversity of them, the plots of fairy tales are repeated all the time, and the fairy-tale heroes constantly wander from one fairy tale to another, however, sometimes under different names.

Perhaps you have also noticed some oddities in the behavior of fairy tale characters, often contrary to logic and common sense. So, for example, for some reason, parents send or take their children into the dense forest to be eaten by some fabulous evil spirits, Baba Yaga, this sinister and cannibal, for no reason at all helps Ivan Tsarevich, whom he sees for the first time in his life, a gray wolf having devoured Tsarevich Ivan's horse, instead of eating it himself, he suddenly begins to serve him faithfully and resignedly cleans up all the troubles caused by his disobedience ... This list of fabulous absurdities (from our modern point of view) could be continued and continued. Many collectors of folk tales have noticed that the narrator himself is often perplexed by the

water of the motives of the actions of his heroes, sometimes even tries to somehow explain them from the point of view of our modern logic, but, as a rule, this cannot be done without violating the main scheme of the fairy tale narration. After all, the main feature of a fairy tale and its difference from other, author's, literary genres is that it reflects not the personal perception of the world by the storyteller, but what is in common that unites him with all people. It is this feature that allowed the fairy tale to preserve the echoes of ancient beliefs, customs and rituals. After all, fairy tales, especially magical ones, are terribly ancient, they are rooted in primitive society, when people lived in a primitive tribal system. And then the ideas of people about the world around them, and the rules of their behavior were completely different. It is with this that the strange, as it seems to us, features of the behavior of fairy-tale heroes are connected. And despite the fact that kings and kings, soldiers and generals act in these tales (after all, the storytellers, retelling tales for centuries, of course, outwardly modernized the heroes), they are imbued with the worldview of primitive man, for whom the nature around him was incomprehensible, mysterious and complete unexpected dangers: the royal daughter was walking in the garden, suddenly a three-headed Serpent (a whirlwind of unidentified nature, Koschey the Immortal) flew in and carried the princess to the thirtieth kingdom ... to speak and how to behave in the most incredible fairy-tale situations. Where? What is it all about - the thirtieth kingdom? Who are its permanent inhabitants - Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent G rynych? Where did they come from? Why do they behave in all fairy tales exactly this way and not otherwise? Surely all these questions arose when reading fairy tales. We will try to answer them in our essay. The fact is that all these heroes come from there, from the world of primitive man, and their behavior is determined by his ideas, beliefs and customs. Indeed, after all, fairy-tale heroes are unique, they are not found anywhere else - neither in myths, nor in heroic epics, nor in legends. In fairy tales, characters of Russian myths and legends are not found at all - all these brownies, gobies, mermaids, barnacles, kikimors and others - ideas about them were formed much later. They are spoken of in bylichkas - a special variety of Russian folklore that does not look like fairy tales. And fairy-tale heroes are much older - let's try to trace their ancestry, understand their behavior and actions.

Ivan Tsarevich

Ivan Tsarevich is the main positive hero of most fairy tales. Occasionally, however, he appears under different names - Vasily the Tsarevich or Dmitry Tsarevich - sometimes he is replaced by characters of lower origin - Ivan the merchant's or peasant's son, or even Ivan Bykovich

Illegitimate offspring of a cow, but its essence, fabulous role and nature of actions do not change from this. Therefore, let us, without taking into account social origin, call him the most common name - Ivan Tsarevich, meaning the main fairytale hero who overcomes all obstacles and in the end of the tale marries the princess.

So, who is Ivan Tsarevich? Let's start from the very beginning - with the birth of the hero. First of all, he is usually the youngest son in the family. Why? Apparently, the fact is that in the ancestral primitive society, it was the youngest son who was the keeper and heir of family property, orders and traditions, because he remained in the family the longest. Older brothers, as a rule, went to the family of the mother's brother. Over time, with the collapse of primitive communal relations and the emergence of paternal (patriarchal) law and a large patriarchal family, the situation changed. They began to look at the separation of older brothers as the fragmentation and weakening of the family, the destruction of the common cause and the squandering of family property. Therefore, the inheritance law was revised in favor of the eldest sons. So the youngest son turned out to be offended and disadvantaged - after all, it is not for nothing that many tales about the three brothers begin with the death of the father and the division of property, in which the youngest gets almost nothing or nothing at all. Naturally, in fairy tales that preserve the most ancient ideas, all sympathies are on his side - he acts as the keeper and protector of the original ancestral principles, while his brothers are their destroyers. Therefore, our hero embodies the ideal of ideas about the virtues of a person of primitive communism - he is disinterested, trusting, respectful to his elders, while brothers are the focus of the qualities that destroyed this society: commitment to profit, greed, treachery. Probably, as the keeper of the family hearth and ancestral traditions, he also provides himself with the protection of mythical forces - the spirits of the mother's family, which help him in further adventures. This is also associated with his close relationship with animals, also willingly helping him. The fact is that the matriarchal clan system was associated with the idea of ​​animal totems - the ancestors and patrons of the tribe. Let's pay attention to one more feature of the birth of our hero: in some fairy tales this is a magical birth. So, in the fairy tale "Ivan Bykovich" the queen, the cook and the cow give birth to three boys-heroes, having eaten the magic fish - the golden-feather ruff. Fish in the minds of primitive man was associated with getting rid of infertility because of its incredible fertility and life in water, fertilizing the surrounding nature. So already some circumstances of the birth of Ivan Tsarevich indicate that he is not an entirely simple person. Let's notice this and move on.

The next stage in the biography of our hero (childhood and adolescence are skipped, and what to stop at them

After all, it grows by leaps and bounds) - getting a magic assistant. This is the most important stage, after which

Ivan Tsarevich on the gray wolf. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1889.

Ivan Tsarevich at a crossroads. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

Then he is no longer an ordinary person, then his business goes like clockwork, and the success of the enterprise is guaranteed.

Here is the most interesting part of the tale and the greatest variety of situations. Let's try to make out the most typical ones. How does it all start? Sometimes the brothers decide to marry and shoot arrows - where the arrow falls, there is the bride ("The Frog Princess"). Quite a strange, in our opinion, way of choosing a wife, isn't it? We can assume two reasons for the emergence of this incomprehensible action: one - fortune-telling, the belief of a primitive man in fate; the second is connected with the fact that the arrow (the symbol of lightning) was associated with fertilizing rain and was used by the ancient Slavs in the wedding ceremony as a sign of fertility and an instrument sanctifying the marriage union. Here the brothers marry ordinary (and rather clumsy) women, and Ivan Tsarevich gets a magical helper in the face of the frog princess.

In other cases, the brothers' father dies and tells his sons to be on duty at his grave for three nights (also a strange wish from our modern point of view), as, for example, in the tale of Sivka-burka. What is the matter here? With the withering away of the cult of totemic ancestors along the female line in primitive society, they were replaced by male ones. Therefore, being on duty at the father's grave meant performing the prescribed rituals and sacrifices necessary for the dead to find peace and not return. Brothers here, as usual, get lost, dumping their responsibilities on Ivan, and he honestly fulfills his duty and receives a magic assistant from his father, this time in the form of a Sivki-burka. The image of the deceased donor father comes from the primitive ideas about the power of the dead - after all, they are in another world, where everything is known, where everything begins and where everything ends. This plot is very close to the story with the weed of a reserved field or garden (as in the tales of the Firebird and the Humpbacked Horse), when the hero conscientiously guards the territory entrusted to him, discovers or catches a thief and also receives a magical assistant as a reward. Here the rituals associated with the existence of special reserved fields of the dead-ancestors among the ancient Slavs, which were supposed to divert their attention from the living, were reflected here.

We have analyzed the situations when the hero receives magic assistants, without going on a journey, so to speak, with home delivery. True, even in these cases, he cannot avoid traveling: he either loses these assistants (for example, burning the skin of the Frog Princess), or various misadventures fall on him, and, whatever one may say, he, my heart, has to stomp into the thirtieth kingdom - rescue a stolen wife or bride, carry out assignments of the authorities (the old king), get rejuvenating apples for the old father, or something else. In other situations, Ivan Tsarevich receives magic assistants directly in the thirtieth kingdom - as a gift or steals a magic horse from Koshchei the Immortal or Baba Yaga, meets a gray wolf, fraudulently takes possession of a self-assembled tablecloth, an invisible hat, a magic club and other wonderful items.

So, running a little ahead, we came to sending our hero on a long journey - to the notorious thirty kingdom. Here is the time to talk about how he is going there and what is this most thirtieth kingdom. Remember what the princess says when she goes there? “Look for me in the distant lands, in the thirtieth kingdom! Before you trample three pairs of iron shoes, break three iron staffs, erase three stone prowls, than find me! " Shoes, staff, breads (bread) - these are exactly the items that the ancients supplied the dead, preparing them for a journey to another world. The fact that there are three of them (the method of tripling is generally characteristic of fairy tales), and the fact that they are made of iron and stone, apparently, should have meant the length of the journey. Everything that we know about the thirtieth kingdom (and this is the kingdom in which everything is wrong, the dwelling place of magical creatures and the residence of magical objects) suggests that the thirtieth kingdom is the otherworldly kingdom, the kingdom of the dead. We will talk about this in more detail when we find ourselves there with our hero, but for now let's see how he gets into the thirtieth kingdom.

First of all, we note that the hero does not always go to this kingdom in search of stolen relatives or on the instructions of the leadership. There are situations in fairy tales (the same Ivan Bykovich), when the heroes themselves, for no apparent reason, are called “to go to alien lands, to look at people themselves, to show themselves in people”. Another common fairytale collision is the motive for selling a newly born child to some mysterious creature: “give what you don’t know at home” (this plot, among other things, may have reflected primitive ideas about atoning sacrifices for violating the prohibition) or giving the son away to training the sorcerer (as in the tales of the sea king or cunning science). Let's pay attention to the fact that in both cases the son comes at the disposal of the fabulous miracle Yuda upon reaching a certain age.

So how does our hero get into this other kingdom and why should he definitely visit it? The ways of crossing to the thirtieth kingdom are varied: Ivan Tsarevich can go there on a magic

Three princesses of the underworld. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1881.

Three brothers. Illustration for the fairy tale "The Frog Princess". Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

horse, on birds (for example, Nogai-bird takes him to a high mountain), descend underground (as in the tale of the three kingdoms - copper, silver and gold) or follow a counselor (for example, for a magic ball), but they all reflect the idea of ​​a primitive man about the journey of the deceased to the afterlife.

Now let us note one more very significant point: in most fairy tales, the hero's path certainly lies through a dense forest. Here it is time to compare this circumstance with what we talked about a little earlier - about the sudden departure of matured heroes or sending them to some fabulous undead (that is, again, to the same other world - the thirtieth kingdom). Doing so, we arrive at a second extremely important performance and the associated primitive ritual, the memory of which is reflected in the motives of most fairy tales. This is a rite of passage, or initiation, through which young men of all primitive tribes, without exception, who have reached a certain age, must pass. This rite consists in the fact that young men are taken away or sent to some special sacred place, almost always located in the forest; uninitiated members of the tribe (especially women) are strictly forbidden even to approach him. There they are subjected to ritual tests, often cruel - it was believed that during these tests the boy should, as it were, die, and after passing them, he would be reborn as a new person - a man, a hunter, a full-fledged member of the tribe. Often, after initiation, the boy even received a new name. It is the memory of this rite, which played an extremely important role in the life of a primitive man, that underlies such fabulous motives as the sudden departure of heroes to the thirtieth kingdom, sending them into service or training for fabulous evil spirits; hence the plots of the expulsion or withdrawal of children by the parents to the dense forest - nothing can be done, the time has come.

It is important for us that this ceremony was accompanied by magical rituals - after all, the memory of primitive magic forms the basis of the magic that we constantly encounter in fairy tales. In the view of primitive man, the art of a hunter consists primarily in getting the beast into his hands, and this, in his opinion, can be achieved only with the help of magic. Therefore, teaching magical techniques, introducing the boy into magical representations, rituals and ceremonies of the tribe constituted an important part of the initiation rite (hence, sending him to study with a fabulous sorcerer). In close connection with this, the receipt by the hero of a magic gift (invisibility hats, running boots and other accessories of a fairy-tale hero) or a magic assistant - the rite of initiation involved the acquisition of a guardian spirit associated with the tribal totem.

What is this magical assistant, solely with the help of which Ivan Tsarevich successfully solves the tasks assigned to him?

These can be magic items: a flying carpet, an invisible hat, a self-assembled tablecloth, running boots, magic clubs, knapsacks, balls, boxes, etc. There are different opinions about the origin of these magical objects, but they are all somehow connected with the thirty otherworldly kingdom and reflect certain properties of its inhabitants. So, in the minds of ancient people, the inhabitants of the kingdom of the dead could fly (flying carpet), become invisible to the living (invisible hat), and instantly move in space (running boots). Besides, other world, in their opinion, it was distinguished by an incredible abundance - it was not for nothing that milk rivers with jelly banks flow in the thirtieth kingdom; so the self-assembled tablecloth, obviously, seemed like a piece of this abundance, which in a portable version could be carried away with you.

These can be magical animals: a horse, a gray wolf, an eagle, a raven or a falcon. In this company, the main role undoubtedly belongs to the horse, so we will dwell on it in a little more detail.

First of all, how does the hero acquire a horse? He is not at all satisfied with the usual earthly horse from the nearby royal stables: “whatever horse he approaches, he puts his hand down, he falls off his feet.” The hero either finds a horse in the thirtieth kingdom in some dungeon, or receives as a gift, earns or steals from one of the inhabitants of this kingdom (Baba Yaga, Koshchei, some local king), or personally feeds it from a lousy foal in protected (magic) meadows.

We will talk about receiving a horse as a gift a little later (in the chapter on Baba Yaga), but for now, note that the plot of feeding a horse most likely originates from the rite of feeding sacrificial animals, which gave them magical (magical) power.

As for other (wild) animals, their willingness to serve the hero is most likely determined by their belonging to the totem of his tribe, that is, they are the patron spirits of the mother's kind. No wonder in some fairy tales (as in the tale of the three kingdoms) the eagle, the falcon and the raven are the hero's sons-in-law, that is, relatives in the female line. Therefore, the gray wolf, having devoured the generally unnecessary ordinary horse of Ivan Tsarevich, departed at his full disposal. The main role of magical animal helpers, among other magical services, is that they are intermediaries between the two kingdoms, and they transfer the hero from one to another.

Finally, the third type of magical helpers is the artisan helpers. Ivan Tsarevich picks them up on the way to their destination, going to woo some cunning and malicious princess. These are all kinds of eaters, opials, freezers, magic runners, arrows, and so on. These are also patron spirits, but they are either personified (humanized) incarnations of any one, but unlimited ability, or

Magic carpet. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1880.

spirits-masters of the elements (frost, wind and others). True, there are also such universal magic assistants that combine the properties of all three varieties - for example, Shmat-mind (“Go there, I don’t know where, bring that, I don’t know what”) or a magic ring.

So, obtaining (in one way or another is also important, but we will talk about this later) a magical assistant is a decisive stage in the fabulous career of our hero. Now he is magically armed, initiated and elected, he is not just some ordinary prince or hero, but a powerful magician, the only one able to measure strength with the inhabitants of the thirty otherworldly kingdom. After receiving the magic assistant, the hero is already firmly on his way to the intended goal and knows exactly how he will achieve it. Probably, many even had the impression that further the hero plays a passive role: the assistant does everything for him, and at best he comes to the ready-made, and at worst he only gets underfoot and interferes, complicating the life of the assistant. This, in general, is not true: the magic assistant is not an independent character, he is just personified magical abilities hero. Functionally (that is, according to the role played in the fairy tale), the hero and the assistant are one person. Confidence in the behavior of the hero is determined by his magical weapons, and, in fact, his very heroism lies in his magical knowledge and power. But as for the disagreements that sometimes arise between the assistant and the hero, it seems to me personally that this is a manifestation of the contradictions between the magical and human essence of the hero.

So, now, magically armed and ready for all the upcoming troubles, Ivan Tsarevich arrived in the thirtieth kingdom. Let's stop with him for a minute and look around. What do we know about this kingdom? In different fairy tales, it may just be somewhere very far away, on a high mountain or even inside a mountain, underground or under water, but, as a rule, there are no specific underground or underwater features in it. Often the hero, having got there, is even surprised: "And there the light is the same as ours." The ancient (yes, probably, and not only the ancient) people had a tendency to transfer the features of the world in which they live, and to the other world. It is interesting that, as the external forms of life of the storytellers changed, modernizing the entourage of fairy tales (kings, generals settled in them, palaces and bins appeared), all these attributes were automatically transferred to another kingdom.

The main distinguishing feature of this kingdom, its seal is the golden color of everything that belongs to it. There are golden palaces in it, golden animals are found - a deer - golden horns, a golden goat, a pig - golden bristles and others, all objects are also made exclusively of gold - golden rings, eggs, boxes and so on. And this kingdom itself is often golden - most likely, copper, silver and golden kingdoms - just an ordinary fabulous trebling. The golden color is, apparently, an expression of sunshine - after all, almost all the beliefs of the ancient Slavs were very closely associated with the Sun. Perhaps, the idea of ​​the inexhaustible abundance that reigns in the thirty kingdom is also associated with it. We have already mentioned rivers of milk with jelly banks and a self-assembled tablecloth (the idea that if you bring food from there, it will never end on earth either). Now we can also recall the quite fabulous wealth of the inhabitants of the thirtieth kingdom and the inexhaustible abundance of their reserves.

About what and why the hero does in the thirtieth kingdom - communicates with Baba Yaga, defeats Koshchei the Immortal or the Serpent, solves tricky tasks and brilliantly withstands the tests of the local king or princess,

finally, after long twists and turns, he marries a princess and becomes a king himself - we will talk in the following sections (about Baba Yaga, Koschey, the Serpent, the king and princesses), where we will consider in detail his relationship with these characters. And here, finally, let us dwell on one more feature of the behavior of Ivan Tsarevich - the plot of his flight from the thirtieth kingdom, which is very often found in fairy tales.

Sometimes this flight is caused by the abduction of the bride, but sometimes, it would seem, it is not motivated at all (as, for example, in the tale of the sea king and Vasilisa the Wise): everything ended well, the hero passed all the trials, married the princess - it seems just time to calm down ... But no - he wanted, you see, to go home. Well, I wanted to - go, it seems, why should the sea king interfere with him? But for some reason this cannot be done, and when they run away, the sea king for some reason falls into a terrible rage and sets off in pursuit. This chase is magical: it is repeated in many fairy tales (only the pursuers change - Baba Yaga, Koschey or someone else) and is accompanied by the transformation of heroes or the throwing of various magical objects: the brush turns into a dense forest, a mirror into a lake, a comb or flint, into inaccessible mountains, etc.

Most likely, escape with transformations is a later plot structure, although it can be noted that the ability to transform into animals is a property that is often attributed to the inhabitants of the other world in ancient Slavic beliefs. But throwing household items is in its purest form the so-called imitative (based on external similarity) magic: an impenetrable forest emerges from a thick brush, a lake or a river appears from a mirror similar to the surface of water, and so on. Here

Vasilisa the Beautiful runs out of Baba Yaga's hut. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

The Red Horseman (Noon or Sun). Illustration for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

Baba Yaga. Headpiece to the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1900.

there are echoes of another type of magic - partial, based on the idea that a part causes the appearance of a whole: flint (part of a mountain) - inaccessible rocks, flint - a river of fire. During the chase, the pursuer overcomes two obstacles, and the third stops him. It is curious that the third obstacle is most often the river (sometimes fiery). Apparently, this is the border of the otherworldly kingdom, and the persecutor cannot cross it, because his power does not extend to the kingdom of the living (in the ideas of many ancient peoples, the river is the border of the kingdom of the dead).

But what caused such anger among the inhabitants of this kingdom? Most likely, the flight is a consequence of the theft of magical items. This is a very interesting moment, because it reflects the very ancient ideas of primitive man, when he still did not produce anything, but only took forcibly, abducted from nature. It is not for nothing that the first things leading to culture seemed to the ancient people not made, but stolen (the fire stolen by Prometheus, the first arrows and seeds from the South American Indians). After all, the later rite of passage, which we talked about, assumed a completely peaceful and voluntary transfer of a magical object (which is also often found in fairy tales). So we see that in some cases our positive hero breaks into the kingdom of the dead as if he were alive - a troublemaker, destroyer and kidnapper, thereby causing quite natural discontent among the country's masters. This is one of the motives that determine his relationship with the inhabitants of the otherworldly kingdom, but, as we will see later, they do not always develop this way.

Who, you might say, does not know who Baba Yaga is? A malicious, unsympathetic old woman, lives in a forest in a hut on chicken legs, flies in a mortar with a broomstick, eats children (or rather, tries to eat, because the children are constantly deceiving her) ... In general, a frivolous character. However, sometimes she helps Ivan Tsarevich with advice or gives him something - a horse, a magic ball ... Let's start with this.

If you look more closely, you will find that there are three varieties of Baba Yaga in fairy tales: the Yaga the advisor and the giver, the Yaga the kidnapper and the devourer (the one who strives to eat children) and another less common type - the Yaga warrior (for example, in for the last thirty years he fought with Baba Yaga - the golden leg). Let's start with the first variety, especially since it is the main, initial and most closely related the earliest notions, beliefs and rituals. And this makes Babu Yaga one of the most complex and interesting characters in Russian fairy tales.

As promised, let us return to the hero of the previous section - Ivan Tsarevich - at the moment when he (or a character that is functionally close to him, say, a merchant's daughter from the fairy tale about Finist Jasna-Sokol's feather), making his way through the dense forest, approaches Baba's hut Yagi. How is this hut described in a fairy tale? "There is a hut on chicken legs, no windows, no doors, in front of the forest, back to it." Well, it would seem that you approached the hut from behind - go around it and enter. But for some reason this cannot be done in any way. And Ivan Tsarevich pronounces the well-known formula: "Hut, hut, stand with your back to the forest, in front of me." At the same time, he knows exactly what needs to be said, because the hut obediently turns. What does he see? "Baba Yaga is lying on the stove - a bone leg, from corner to corner, his nose has grown into the ceiling."

Also strange, isn't it?

After all, Baba Yaga, it seems, in Russian fairy tales never seemed to be a special giantess. So, this is not Baba Yaga that big, but the hut is very small? What explains all these oddities? And they are explained by the fact that Baba Yaga is a dead man. And she lies in a cramped hut, as in a coffin, and the fact that this hut is raised above the ground on its chicken legs suggests the air burials of the ancient Slavs - they buried their dead in the forest on trees or special platforms. And the bone leg - the leg of the skeleton - is also a sign of the dead.

There are also some other indirect signs that speak in favor of this assumption. For example, practically nowhere in fairy tales does it say that Baba Yaga walks - she either lies or flies, and these are also signs of the inhabitants of the other world. And the fact that she rarely sees the hero, but mostly smells it, says the same thing. And her hut, which stands somewhere at the end of the world, in the deepest forest and which cannot be bypassed in any way - this is a "border post", a guard post on the border of two kingdoms - the kingdom of the living and the kingdom of the dead.

Baba Yaga's hut. Fragment of the cover of the "Fairy Tales" series. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

Devils in the forest. Illustration for the fairy tale "The Feather of Finist Jasna-Sokol". IL artist. Bilibin. 1900.

Hut of death. Fragment. Artist N.K. Roerich. 1905.

Baba Yaga is a very ancient character, rooted in the days of matriarchy. She is in many ways inherent in the features of the most ancient totemic female ancestor, whose worship was associated with the animal progenitors and patrons of the tribe and with the cult of nature. After all, it is not for nothing that in fairy tales, animals often obey and serve her (by the way, the chicken legs of her hut remind of her connection with them), and she herself, perhaps, has retained the features of animal ancestors. Of course, this is a controversial issue, but some researchers trace the lineage of Baba Yaga from the ancient Slavic goddess of death, who was closely related to the snake - a symbol of death among some tribes. Perhaps the bone leg comes from there - it is assumed that Yaga was originally one-legged, and then transformed into a bone-leg. And even her name is derived from the common Aryan roots of the ancient Slavs - from the ancient Indian Sanskrit Ahi - snakes. Well, it may very well be, because our fabulous Baba Yaga is in very friendly and even kinship relations with her colleague - Serpent Gorynych. But the features of the female ancestor - the patron spirit of the tribe, are manifested in her in the fact that she is prophetic - she knows everything and guides the hero along the right path, a powerful sorceress, adviser and assistant. As a family patron spirit associated with the cult of the hearth, she has inherent kitchen attributes - a stove, a mortar, a pestle (the ancient Slavs did not grind, but pounded grain) and a pomelo.

However, let's return to the friendly communication of our heroes. We have established that Baba Yaga's hut is a "checkpoint" to the kingdom of death. That is why it cannot be bypassed in any way, but it is imperative to go through it and, in order to get into this kingdom, it is necessary to pass certain tests, demonstrating sufficient magical knowledge. Ivan Tsarevich had already uttered the first part of the password by turning the hut. What happens next? And then Baba Yaga also utters the traditional, well-known to all: "Fu-fu-fu, something smells of the Russian spirit!" What kind of Russian spirit is this, so unpleasant for her? Apparently, this is the smell of a living person. Apparently, the ancient people believed that for the dead, the smell of a living person is as disgusting as for the living - the smell of a dead person.

Then the interrogation begins: “Where are you, good fellow, going? Are you trying to do it, or are you getting away with it? " The hero reacts to these seemingly completely innocent and natural questions very unexpectedly and aggressively - instead of answering, he goes on the offensive: “Oh, you old hag! First, give something to drink, feed the good fellow, and then ask around! " And then the behavior of Baba Yaga suddenly changes dramatically: she begins to fuss, invites Tsarevich Ivan into the house, puts him at the table, and so on. In some fairy tales she even indulges in self-criticism: “Oh, I'm an old fool! Not having fed the good fellow, but I ask you! ". It is interesting that this feeding motive is an indispensable element of the hero's meeting with Baba Yaga, which is present in all fairy tales without exception. What is the matter here? Why should he certainly eat with Baba Yaga? Was it impossible to eat elsewhere? Of course, one could assume the simplest thing - the usual manifestation of hospitality in relation to the traveler, but the obligatory nature of this procedure and what we already know suggest that this food has some kind of ritual character. Indeed, in the mythological concepts of many peoples (including the ancient Slavs), in order to get into the kingdom of the dead, a person must certainly taste the special food of the dead. After that, he is considered to have already fully joined the other world. Therefore, Ivan Tsarevich, demanding food from Baba Yaga, thereby shows that he is not afraid of this initiation, is ready for it - and Baba Yaga resigns himself, finally taking him for his own.

Then, as you know, questions begin - Baba Yaga takes a detailed interview from the hero about the goals of his journey. As a result, it turns out that she is in the know (“I know, I know where your beautiful Vasilisa is”) and gives Ivan Tsarevich precise and detailed instructions on where to go, what to do and how to achieve the intended goal. Sometimes, however, she resorts to the help of animals: she convenes her "network of informants" - beasts of a trot, flying birds, creeping reptiles, and so on, demonstrating her totemic roots.

In some cases, Baba Yaga's help is limited to instructions, in others they are followed by a magic gift - most often it is a horse, sometimes a magic ball, an invisible hat or something else; but even if the gift is not presented immediately, then as a result of the execution of the instructions received, the hero still receives it. Why does Baba Yaga render such an invaluable service to the newcomer prince in the form of advisory and magical (magical) assistance? Because he passed the test and demonstrated his magical competence and strength: he knew the spell that turned the hut, and was not afraid of Baba Yaga's food, having introduced himself to the inhabitants of the otherworldly kingdom.

As we can see, in this situation, Baba Yaga acts as a purely positive character, helping the main character to achieve his noble goals. And this role of her is explained by what we have already talked about - the origin from the most ancient totemic female ancestor, the patron spirit of the clan, omniscient and omnipotent. Hence the gift of magic assistants - magical protection of the hero and his protection from evil spirits. So how did she manage to turn into such a sinister ogre, which is found in many other fairy tales? To understand this, let's move on to the second variety of Baba Yaga - the Yaga-abductor and devourer - and try to trace the connection between these two hypostases of our character.

To do this, we will have to turn again to the ideas of primitive people about the rite of passage, which we described in the previous section. It is easy to see that the gastronomic inclinations of Baba Yaga of this variety are mainly aimed at children and are associated with the getting of these children in one way or another (leaving, taking away or abducting) into the dense forest in the notorious hut on chicken legs: that is, here we see

"Here he said goodbye to Yagoya with a cheerful soul." Illustration for "The Tale of the Three Tsar Divas and Ivashka, the Priest's Son" by AS Roslavlev. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1911.

all the features of the environment surrounding the rite of passage. The image of Baba Yaga the devourer is closely connected with this rite - after all, we have already mentioned that the essence of initiation was the symbolic death and subsequent revival of the boy passing through it. By the way, here you should pay attention to the fact that it is boys who invariably come to lunch at Baba Yaga - after all, they are the only ones who undergo the initiation rite. So in the tales about this Yaga, the memory of this rite, preserved from primitive times, is very vividly reflected: a dense forest, from which some mysterious and inevitable danger emanates, a hut is the abode of a mysterious mythical creature, fear of the upcoming ceremony ...

Well, well, you say, but what does the eating of children have to do with it? The fact is that very often the imaginary death of the initiate was presented as being devoured by some mythical monstrous animal, and the subsequent rebirth to life - as an eruption from his womb. Baba Yaga also owes such official duties in this category of fairy tales to an ancient totemic animal ancestor. We will also meet these ideas in the section on the Serpent Gorynych, which in some situations can act as a deputy or understudy of Baba Yaga. Memories of the rite of passage, apparently, were reflected in the fact that in fairy tales, after getting to Baba Yaga, a happy ending always follows: the hero avoids the danger that threatens him and gains all kinds of blessings - the entry of a person who has passed initiation into full members of the tribe and granting him the privileges with which he never possessed before.

The positive role of patroness and helper lost by Baba Yaga in these tales, oddly enough, may have been reflected in the detail that she prefers to use the children who come to her exclusively in fried form.

The Slavic tribes retained the custom of the so-called "palanya" of children until a relatively late time, associated with ideas about the healing power of fire - the child was slightly "baked" in the oven, which supposedly made him stronger and more resistant to disease. So here, too, it seems that Baba Yaga was originally an assistant and healer, and not at all evil.

Thus, the connection between the ideas about the Yaga the assistant, the counselor and the giver, the guard of the border of the kingdom of the dead, and the Yaga the devourer, the performer of the initiation rite, begins to become clear. This connection is in the kinship of the ideas of primitive man about true death with subsequent travel to the other world and temporary death, imaginary, to which he was subjected in the rite of initiation. By the way, the acquisition of magical knowledge and magical weapons (obtaining a magical assistant) after crossing the border of the otherworldly kingdom and passing the rite of passage (in both cases, after communicating with Baba Yaga) brings these ideas together.

But again we see that initially in all these situations Baba Yaga played a positive role. What happened after all? And what happened, most likely, is what. The collapse of the authority of Baba Yaga as the most ancient totemic ancestor is a reflection in the minds of people, and after that - in the myths and tales of the collapse of matriarchy and the emergence of agriculture and agricultural religion. For the ancient man, the forest ceased to be a home and source of livelihood, dear and understandable, and therefore all the characters of the former forest religion turned into a continuous evil: the great magician and shaman of the tribe - into an evil sorcerer, the patroness mother and mistress of animals - into a malicious witch, dragging into his den of children for the purpose of by no means a symbolic devouring.

So, perhaps, we managed to partially rehabilitate Baba Yaga in your eyes: the most ancient, original historical roots of this fairytale character come from the benevolent, positive role she played in the beliefs of our ancestors. And the idea of ​​her as a cannibalistic witch, which then got an ironic connotation (in later everyday tales Baba Yaga does not shine with intelligence - her children constantly leave her in the fool, and only a stupa and a broomstick remained of her magic power), developed in much later times.

And in conclusion, a few words about the third type of Baba Yaga - about the Yaga warrior. Most likely, this character, rarely found in fairy tales, has no independent meaning and acts simply as someone's deputy: according to the role he plays in the fairy tale, in his place could be anyone - Serpent Gorynych, Koschey the Immortal, some fairy tale king or king. It is not for nothing that in the fairy tale about White Polyanina this variety can be mistaken for a representative of a certain woman-yagov aristocracy and a full-fledged citizen of the thirtieth kingdom: there she is - Baba Yaga - a golden leg.

Koschey (Kaschey) Immortal

This great fairytale villain is another character familiar to all of us from early childhood. And, however, let's try to summarize, what do we know about him from the fairy tales we read? Although practically nowhere in these tales there is a description of Koshchei's appearance, we are used to imagining him as a tall, bony, incredibly thin old man - it’s not for nothing that they say: “As skinny as a bone,” with sunken, burning eyes, sometimes with a thin goat beard.

The main occupation of Koshchei the Immortal is the abduction of women. Isn't it true that at the mention of this fairytale hero, gloomy castles with dungeons full of captives appear in our imagination, and chests with countless riches, with which he unsuccessfully tries to seduce these captives? And, of course, the indispensable attributes of his immortality are the standard fairy-tale nesting doll: death hidden in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare and

Baba Yaga. Illustration for the fairy tale "Sonko Filipko". Artist E. D. Polenov. 1905.

Baba Yaga. Illustration for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1900.

Koschey. Fragment. Artist S.V. Malyutin. 1904.

Koschei the Deathless. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1917-1926.

Let's try to figure out the origin of our negative character. First of all, where did his name itself come from - Koschey? It turns out that in the Old Russian language the word koschei meant a slave, a prisoner, a servant. It is in this sense that it is used in the famous "Lay of Igor's Campaign", when Svyatoslav reproaches Prince Vsevolod for his indifference to the fate of the Russian principalities - if Vsevolod had acted differently, other, better times would have come: a leg, but a bone for a cut. " In other words, there would come a time of fantastic cheapness in the slave market (nogata and cut are small monetary units in ancient Russia, chaga is a slave, a cleaver, and a koschey, respectively, is a slave, a slave). And in another place: "Shoot, master, Konchak, the filthy koshchei, for the Russian land, for the wounds of Igor, the buoy Svyatoslavich!" Konchak is called here a slave, and Galician Yaroslav is called a master. And also: “Tu Prince Igor vysed from the saddle of gold into the saddle of koshcheevo”, that is, he moved from the gold, master's saddle to the saddle of slaves.

On the other hand, the word koshchei could be derived from the name of Kosh: koshchei - belonging to a certain Kosh (Kosh is the lord of the slave Koshchei). This Kosh is the most ancient, original name of Koshchei. It is still sometimes found in some fairy tales (for example, in the tale about Koschei from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev, he is called Koshem the Immortal). What is this Kosh? It turns out that during the collapse of the primitive communal society, the first masters who seized power and established the institution of slavery were called koshas. This word comes from the common Slavic root bone (Old Slavic kosch, kosht) - the backbone, base, root of the clan - the clan elder, the eldest in the family, who became the master. He is the founder of the family, everything rests on him, all subsequent generations are his "bone". In the Ukrainian language, this meaning was preserved until later times: kosh - stan, settlement, koshevoy - elder, chief of kosh. Perhaps, it is with these etymological roots of the name of Koshchei that associations with his incredible thinness (bony) and deep old age are also associated.

This is where the negative role of our character begins to become clear. In the eyes of primitive people, committed to the primitive justice of the tribal maternal society, Koschey was the embodiment of a force that violated the ancient orders of tribal equality and took away from a woman her social power. This is where the indestructible tendency of Koschey the Immortal to abduct and enslave women and his power comes from - after all, Koschey in fairy tales, as a rule, is represented as the lord, the king of his dark kingdom, and the possession of untold riches, and greed, and cruelty are associated with him. Koschey was the personification of social injustice and untruth, the paternal right of violence and money-grubbing, a symbol of the collapse of a tribal, just society and its replacement by a class one. Perhaps his immortality embodied the immortality of injustice, violence and profit in human society, and the death of this "immortal" hero is the age-old dream of mankind that someday these orders will still collapse, as it collapses dark kingdom Koschei after his death. The fact that the idea of ​​the immortality of this character is associated with some deep, eternal concepts is also evidenced by the fact that Koshchei's death is hidden in an egg. After all, the egg is the beginning of life, its indispensable link, which makes it possible for continuous reproduction, and only by crushing it, destroying it, you can put an end to this life.

Probably later, during the period of continuous wars of the Slavs with the nomadic tribes, these ideas about Koschey were superimposed on the perception of him as an enemy, an adversary, who were already associated with the later meaning of this word - slave, captive. Indeed, in some fairy tales (for example, in the tale of Marya Morevna), Koschey appears as a prisoner who, contrary to the prohibition, is freed by our unlucky Ivan Tsarevich.

A peculiar look at Koschei from the outstanding collector and connoisseur of Russian folk tales, Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev. He sees in Koschey a demon - a wither of rain moisture (hence his dryness, thinness), the personification of winter, dark clouds, shackled by cold. And the meaning of his name comes from the same place - after all, it is not for nothing that they say: "Ossified from the cold." And the story of the death of Koshchei Afanasyev connects with the Slavs' ideas about the oak - the tree of the thunder god Perun, and in the egg he sees a metaphor of the sun killing winter, and in its immortality - the continuous revival of winter in nature. In support of this point of view, Alexander Nikolaevich turns to the same Marya Morevna. Indeed, there the prisoner-Koschey hangs in iron chains

Koschei the Immortal. Illustration for the fairy tale "Marya Morevna, the overseas princess".

Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1901.

pyah (a cloud bound by frost) and breaks off them, only after drinking water (saturated with rain moisture in the spring). The magic assistants to Ivan Tsarevich in this tale are the eagle, the falcon and the raven, who personify the forces of wind, thunder and rain, and in the end, Ivan Tsarevich (the thunder god) kills Koshchei with a horse's hoof (lightning) (destroys the cloud, forcing her pouring spring rain).

In his fabulous role, Koschey the Immortal is in many ways a close relative and often an understudy of the Serpent of the Mountain-nycha (they often replace each other in different fairy tales). This refers to the abduction of princesses and all sorts of intrigues perpetrated by positive fairy-tale heroes. Many of Koshchei's features characterize him as a typical representative of the thirtieth otherworldly kingdom: he smells the Russian spirit, flies, is immensely rich and has magical powers. The originality of this character is primarily associated with the idea of ​​his "immortality": the hero does not enter into a direct battle with him, due to the futility of this occupation, but must defeat him by completing one of the difficult tasks - to find and get the death of Koshchei, which he and does it with the help of magical assistants, one of whom is always the princess who is abducted and living with Koshchei. It is she who, as a rule, cheats Koshchei, inquiring from him where his death is hidden and how to get it. But we will also mention this in the section on the princess.

Zmey Gorynych

Probably, there is no other creature that would play such a colossal role in the mythological representations of all, without exception, the peoples of the Earth, like the Serpent.

Therefore, we will resist the temptation to draw any parallels with mythology and turn exclusively to our native Serpent G rynych of Russian folk tales. First of all, we find that this character is not properly described anywhere in fairy tales.

Although there are some signs of a criminal. It is multi-headed: as a rule, there are three, six, nine, twelve heads, although occasionally there are five- and seven-headed specimens. Perhaps this is its main distinguishing feature.

The rest are only sometimes mentioned: he is flying, fire-breathing (fires down with fire) and, apparently, is somehow connected with the mountains, as evidenced by his surname (or patronymic?) - Go-rynych - living in the mountains, the son of a mountain. Here, however, it must be borne in mind that in ancient times the common Slavic word “mountain” meant not only the mountain itself, but also the top in general, and could also be used in the sense of a forest. So the nickname Gorynych could mean both "living above" and "forest". It may well be that this very Serpent of the Mountain-nych in the minds of the Slavic tribes living in the forests was associated with forest fires caused by a lightning strike. This is evidenced by his constant connection with fire, and the description of his flights is the personification of an evil natural element: a storm rises, thunder thunders, the earth trembles, a dense forest slopes downward - the three-headed Serpent flies. According to A.N. Afanasyev, the flying fire Serpent was associated with a snake-like wriggling lightning. In general, various associations with fire arise in almost all appearances of this character in fairy tales. The properties of fire are reminiscent of the Snake's ineradicable tendency to swallow everything, and its many-headedness, and the ability to grow new heads all the time instead of the severed ones (as new tongues appear in the flame), and the fiery finger, with which heads are grown (cut off the fiery finger - the Snake won ). Fire crawls like a snake and bites like a snake. In the fairy tale "Ivan Bzhovich" the main character categorically forbids his brothers to sleep before meeting the Snake.

Maybe this is the memory of a real danger that lay in wait for the primitive hunter, who fell asleep in the forest by the fire, and violated the ban on sleeping before the fire?

It is also possible that the Snake's peculiar relationship with women is partly connected with fire. On the one hand, he acts as a kidnapper and rapist (duplicating in many of Koshchei's tales), on the other, as a seducer: certain irresponsible heroines of fairy tales willingly come into contact with the Serpent, uniting with him in developing intrigues against the positive hero. The connection of a woman with the Serpent-Fire is, probably, an echo of the role that a woman as the keeper of fire played in primitive society. Although, who knows, perhaps, in this hypostasis of the Serpent, the later, already inspired by Christian mythology, ideas about the Serpent-tempter were reflected? After all, he performs his insidious Don Juan functions in fairy tales in the respectable guise of a fine good fellow, and not a fire-breathing thug-dragon. But we got distracted. The notions of fertility were also associated with fire among primitive tribes. Among the Slavs, a rite is known, which consisted in the fact that barren women were given water to drink, into which sparks fell from the smut from the hearth.

The memory of the primitive rituals of sacrifices to the gods of fertility, performed with the aim of influencing the future harvest, is probably reflected in the fabulous stories about the levies of the Serpent, when he demands girls as an annual tribute. With the withering away of this rite, when new forms of agriculture and new family and social relations developed, their sympathy was transferred from the spirit-absorber to the victim. It was then that the hero-liberator appeared, killing the Snake and saving the fairy-tale beauty. The motive of kite fighting, just like transformation

Zmievna. Artist N. Roerich. 1906.

Zmey Gorynych. Opened - Fragment of the cover of the series

ka. Artist I. Ya. Bili- "Russian folk tales".

bit. 1912. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.

Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with the seven-headed Serpent Goryny-than. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1913-1918.

Dobrynya Nikitich frees Zmeya Gorynych Zabava Putyatichna from the Serpent. Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1941.

ideas about Baba Yaga, apparently, appeared with the collapse of matriarchal relations and the emergence of a patriarchal family. It reflected the denial of generic relations, in which a woman did not belong to an individual, but to the whole family. There was a desire to take the woman away, to win the right to her. The serpent fighter defeated the ancient lord of fire in order to take a woman from him.

However, what is the role of this fairytale character? He, like Baba Yaga and Koschey the Immortal, is a full-fledged inhabitant of the thirtieth kingdom. Let's try to trace the development of his relationship with the main positive hero according to the same fairy tale "Ivan Bykovich", in which they are described in more detail.

Here the heroes come to the river Smorodina, Kalinovy ​​bridge. For some reason, this bridge cannot be crossed in any way ("human bones lie along the entire bank, knee-deep will be piled up"). Therefore, the heroes are located in the hut that has turned up and begin to go on patrol - to watch the Snake. It can be assumed that this viburnum bridge, like the hut of Baba Yaga, is a border outpost, and the Smorodina river is a kind of border that can be crossed only by killing the Serpent. So the Serpent, among other things, like Baba Yaga, carries out a guard service, only Baba Yaga protects the periphery, and the Serpent is the very heart of the thirtieth kingdom.

But now our heroes finally meet. And then it turns out interesting detail- The serpent knows in advance both who his opponent is and about the predetermined death from him: “What are you, dog meat, stumbling, that you, a crow's feather, flutter, that you, a dog's wool, bristle? Ali, do you think that Ivan Bykovich is here? " Then Ivan Bykovich appears, and a boastful squabble occurs between the opponents; then the fight itself begins. In it, the tactics of conducting combat actions by our heroes are curious: the hero tries to cut off the Serpent's head, the Serpent does not use any weapon, but strives to drive the foe into the ground. In third,

In the most terrible battle, the hero comes to the aid of his magic assistant - a heroic horse. With his assistance, Bykovich manages to chop off the fiery finger of the Serpent, after which cutting off the heads left without a regeneration mechanism becomes a matter of technique.

What is the origin of this peculiar ritual, which is repeated in almost all fairy tales? How does the Serpent know the name of the enemy? To understand this, we will have to turn again to the primitive rite of initiation, which simulates the swallowing of the initiate by some monstrous animal, often, by the way, resembling a snake. "Swallowed" and "thrown back" a person acquires magical power and power over the animal that once swallowed him. In the myths of many primitive peoples, a great hunter and a great shaman emerges from the Serpent. At the same time, as we have already said, in the rite of initiation, the exit from the womb of the Serpent was represented by the second birth of a person. "Born of the Serpent", who passed through him, the initiate himself becomes to some extent a Serpent and acquires a magical connection with him. That is why the Serpent knows in advance the future adversary and destroyer - born of him and the only one who can kill him. Perhaps that is why the Serpent drives the hero into the ground - trying to return him to the "dust" from which he came, therefore the decisive role in the victory over the Serpent is played by the hero's magic assistant - the victory is magical in nature. With the disappearance of the rite, its meaning was lost and forgotten, but the memory of the rite itself remained. However, the absorption by the Serpent was already considered not as a blessing, but as a very unpleasant threat - the motive of snake fighting arose, which we already spoke about.

In general, the Serpent, like many other mythical and fabulous creatures, is a mechanical combination of several animals, the main ones of which are a bird and a snake. In the minds of ancient people, the bird was associated with a distant kingdom, and the snake with the underground. These are the two main animals associated with

Fight of Ivan Tsarevich with the three-headed Serpent. Artist V.M. Vasnetsov. 1918.

Mortal combat with a three-headed snake. Card. Artist B.V. Zvorykin. 1916.

ideas about the human soul. Therefore, the Serpent is associated with the image of death - the concept of death as the abduction of the soul. Therefore, in fairy tales, he constantly plays the role of a kidnapper, hence his function as a symbolic devourer in the rite of passage. Perhaps his many-headedness - many mouths - is an exaggeration -

ny image of devouring (reception of strengthening the quality through the multitude).

To be continued

LITERATURE

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Illustration for the fairy tale "Tsarevich Ivan and the Firebird".

Artist I. Ya. Bilibin. 1899.