Powered by ProofFactor - Social Proof Notifications

Exploring Themes in Traditional Russian Folktales

Aug 9, 2023 | 0 comments

blog banner

Aug 9, 2023 | Essays | 0 comments

Russian folktales and folklore have their bits and pieces into great tales, particularly from the middle of the 1800s up to the 1920s. A substantial number of the Russian tales tend to be homebred, while others are adapted and captured from other countries’ tales, countries in Europe and Asia. The vast range of parallels and tales throughout other languages is studied through a critical world analysis.

 

People Also Read

Russian folk tales all rotate about tales that are substantially steeped towards allegory and utilize personifications and, therefore, can be vividly interpreted towards various meanings. Today there is a great and significantly rich variety of such tales. A significant number of Russian folk tales revolve around brave folks, pretty women, tsar’s daughters, and sons, with their experiences and encounters, soldiers, parish priests, seasons, animals who speak, and even other life sides. Furthermore, Russian folktales are characterized by behavior as well as action patterns. As compared to other folktales, Russian tales tend to take much longer and have shown to be substantially more complex.

Marriage was a huge aspect of traditional Russia; Ruslan and Ludmila were given a great feast for their wedding by Prince Vladimir, the bride’s father. The importance of marriage is also seen in The Frog Princess, where Tsar wanted his unmarried sons to marry to continue his family line. Moreover, Maria Morevna begins with Tsar Ivan, who had three different sisters get married to princes who appeared from the sky as different birds and changed into princes. Not to mention that Tsar Ivan himself came across Marya Moreva, a beautiful warrior princess he married. Divorce is also mentioned in the Russian folk tales in Ruslan and Ludmila; Ludmila’s father, Prince Vladimir, annuls the marriage after Ludmila vanishes.
A second traditional theme within Russian folktales is wizardry. In these folktales, wizardry and evil went side by side, evil could be caused by wizardry, or wizardry would be sorted as a solution to an evil that had occurred. When Ruslan was in dire search of his new bride, who had vanished in his arms, he sought help from a wizard for assistance in searching for his new bride. The wizard Ruslan consulted had joined the art of wizardry to win the love of his life. With magic’s help, he won over the love of Witch Nania. Wizardry is also seen in the Frog Princess, where when the youngest prince did away with Vasilisa’s frog skin, she was forced to become a prisoner to Koshchei the Deathless. It is interesting to point out that both the Frog Princess and Maria Morevna share an evil wizard, Koshchey the Deathless, who Tsar Ivan came across when he went against Morevna’s orders and went into the cellar’s dark room.

Thirdly, magic and magical creatures are major aspects of traditional Russian folktales. In Ruslan and Ludmila, magic first appears when a strange mist and a voice along with it, then the instant vanishing of Ludmila, the bride, without a trace. The existence of magical creatures in Ruslan and Ludmila is seen when Ruslan encounters a giant on his path, a giant he attacks and subdues him into becoming his servant by committing to obedience to Ruslan. In the Frog Princess, the bride frog was able to speak. Moreover, she turned into a beautiful princess at night; for instance, when the Tsar asked his sons and brides to sew him a shirt or when he asked the sons and brides to bake the finest bread. In Maria, Morevna’s magic is seen quite at the beginning when Tsar Ivan’s sisters had their princes appearing from the sky.

Lastly, honor, as well as values, were critical in traditional Russian folktales. In Ruslan and Ludmila, Ruslan faces several obstacles that would have forced him to quit on his search for his Ludmila, but he remains in his characteristic honor, stays true to his word, and fights till the end. The importance of honor is also seen in the Frog Princess when the youngest son ends up marrying a frog because it was where his arrow had landed, thus keeping his father’s word. Moreover, in the Frog Princess, the youngest son is seen fighting through quite a several obstacles to win victory and finally get his bride back. Honor is also portrayed in Maria Morevna by the Tsar, who went through a great deal to find his wife after she was held captive by Koshchey.

Folktales serve as a great resource for substantial illumination of the traditional lifestyles and values within every culture, even one that is not theirs. Children make observations of similarities and comparisons in the folktales that originate from a similar cultural tradition. Furthermore, they tend to discern common and distinctive features within the different cultures’ folktales. At the same time, folktales enrich the research of a community’s past and history. The popularity of folk tales has grown way past their origins.

5/5 - (11 votes)
Table of Contents