Fairy tales and legends of the peoples of Siberia. Russian fairy tales from Siberia and the Far East: magical

Buryat people

Buryats (self-name - Buryats), a people in the Russian Federation, one of the many peoples of Siberia. The main population of Buryatia (273 thousand people), also live in the Irkutsk region (80 thousand people), including in the Ust-Ordynsky district (54 thousand people), in the Chita region (70 thousand people), including in the Aginsky district ( 45 thousand people), in the Far Eastern Federal District (10 thousand people). In total there are 445 thousand people in the Russian Federation (2002). Buryats also live in the north of Mongolia (35 thousand people) and in the northeast of China. The total number of Buryats is more than 500 thousand people.

Buryat men's and women's clothing differed relatively little. The lower clothing consisted of a shirt and pants, the upper one was a long, loose robe with a wrap on the right side, which was belted with a wide cloth sash or belt. Married women wore a sleeveless vest over their robes - udje, which had a slit in the front, which was also lined. Women's favorite jewelry were temple pendants, earrings, necklaces, and medallions. The Buryat headdress is called malgai. Outerwear is called degel. Buryat shoes are gutul. The robe's corners, bottom, and sleeves are decorated with ribbon geometric patterns, and circular elements are scattered across the surface.

Buryat folklore

Buryats live in Buryatia (the capital is the city of Ulan-Ude), in the Chita and Irkutsk regions. In the territories where the Buryats now live, many tribes lived in the 17th century. Having merged, they formed the Buryat nation. In the 17th century, the Buryats became part of the Russian state.

Before the revolution, the Buryats used the Mongolian script. In 1931, its own written language was created. The founder of Buryat literature is the outstanding writer Khotsa Namsaraev (1889-1959). Famous poets are Nikolai Damdinov (born in 1932) and Dondok Ulzytuev (1936-1972). Buryat folklore is rich, the heroic epic “Alamzhi-Mergen”, “Geser” is widely known.

The first researcher of Buryat ethnography and folklore was the exiled Decembrist Nikolai Bestuzhev (1791-1855), an artist and writer who lived in a settlement in Selenginsk from 1839.

Buryat folklore - oral folk art, began to take shape in pre-Chinggis Khan times; it was a form of knowledge of life, artistic perception of the world around us. Buryat folklore consists of myths, uligers, shamanic invocations, legends, cult hymns, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, and riddles. Myths about the origin of the Universe and life on earth. Uligers are epic poems of large size: from 5 thousand to 25 thousand lines. The content of the poems is heroic.

The history of the Buryat ethnic group and its culture are closely connected with Central Asia. This is convincingly evidenced by the pinnacle of folk poetic creation - the epic "Geser". The name of this epic hero - a champion of goodness and justice - sounds like a symbol of the common cultural and moral values ​​of the peoples inhabiting a vast territory from the Himalayas to Lake Baikal. It is not for nothing that the epic "Geser" is called the Iliad of Central Asia.

Tales of the Buryats

In the fairy tale tradition, on the basis of ethnic and linguistic community, the kinship of Mongolian, Buryat and Kalmyk fairy tales is clearly visible. An undoubted typological similarity is also found with the fairy-tale epic of neighboring Turkic-speaking peoples - Altaians, Tuvans, Khakassians and Yakuts. These similarities come from the initial adequacy of the natural habitat, forms of farming and the way of thinking of the historical ancestors of these peoples.

Let's move back for a moment to times gone by, to an ancient Buryat yurt, lost in the steppe space. In it, the evening warmth emanates from the hearth and from the breath of people who came to the yurt to listen to the famous storyteller in these parts - Ontokhoshin. He sits on the hoimor - the northern side of the yurt, traditionally intended for respected guests. In the steppe, from time immemorial, artistic expression and performing skills have been highly valued. It is not for nothing that there is a popular proverb, which when translated sounds something like this: “The storyteller sits on a mat of honor, and the singer sits on a hill.”

Source: Children of the Beast Maana. Tales of the peoples of Siberia about animals. / Compiled by Erta Gennadievna. Paderina; artist H. Avrutis, - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk book publishing house, 1988. - 144 p., ill.

CHICKEN AND CAT

“I like you, chicken,” the cat once said. “You’re gray and I’m gray, we need to make friends.”

The chicken didn’t believe her and said:

“I remember how your mother stole my chicken last year.” Is it possible to rely on you? You know that I never offend anyone. And you cats are notorious bullies. If you can, then prove your loyalty, cat!

The cat did not find what to answer and was very upset.

But a few days later the cat came to hunt for mice in the old threshing floor, where there was a haystack.

Suddenly the chicken cackled in fear and rushed under the stack.

"What's happened? — the cat thought. “Probably she needs help...”

The cat ran after her and saw a hawk falling from the sky on her. From above, he did not notice the difference, because the cat and the chicken were both gray.

The cat quickly turned on her back and grabbed the hawk with her sharp claws. Then death came to him, the villain.

Then the hen came out of her hiding place and said:

- Now I believe you, cat. Only a true comrade can do this.

And someone still thinks that a cat and a chicken can never be friends!

MOUSE AND CAMEL

(Translation by A. Prelovsky)

One day a very large and very stupid camel argued with a small but smart mouse.

“I will see the sunrise before you,” said the camel.

No, I,” said the mouse.

Where are you going? You're no bigger than my eyelash. I'm a mountain compared to you. How can you compete with me?

They argued and argued and decided to make sure. They began to wait for the morning.

The camel reasoned: “I am a hundred times larger than this mouse. This means I will notice the sunrise a hundred times faster. And since the earth is round, no matter where the sun rises, I will still see it. And still the first!”

Stupid camel! He didn’t know that the sun always rises in the east!

The camel stood facing south and began to look. And the little mouse climbed onto the camel’s hump and began to look east.

- Here it is, the sun! I saw you before! Oh you camel! - the mouse screamed and jumped to the ground.

The camel turned around and saw that the sun had already risen and seemed to be laughing at him. He got terribly angry. Not on yourself, of course, but on the mouse.

He rushed in pursuit of her, trying to trample her. But the clever mouse managed to hide in the ashes from yesterday's fire.

Since then, every time the camel sees ash, it lies down and begins to roll on it. He gets dirty from head to toe, gets up happy and thinks that this time he has dealt with the mouse he hates.

The mouse, you see, is to blame for being smarter than the camel!

WOLF

(Translation by G. Kungurov. Artist H. Avrutis)

The wolf ran to the river. Looks like the foal is stuck in the mud. The wolf wanted to eat him.

The foal moaned:

- First you pull me out, and then eat me...

The wolf agreed and pulled the foal out of the mud.

The foal looked around:

- Wait, wolf, don’t eat me: I’m dirty. Let me dry, clean off the dirt, then eat.

The foal dried in the sun and became clean. The wolf opened its mouth. The foal said:

“Look, wolf, I have a golden seal hidden in the hoof of my hind leg.” Take it, you will become rich, everyone will envy you...

The wolf was happy.

The foal raised his leg. The wolf began to look for the golden seal in the hoof.

The foal hit the wolf on the forehead so hard that the wolf turned over with its belly up. Crying, tears flowing in streams.

The foal ran away.

The wolf got angry and thought:

“Why didn’t I eat it right away? What is he to me - a son or a brother?

A stallion grazes near the cattle. The wolf bared his teeth and growled:

I will eat you!

Sit on my back,” says the stallion. “I’ll pump you up, then eat me.”

The wolf sat on the stallion. He rushed faster than the wind. He ran under the fence, and the wolf hit the top pole so hard that he fell off the stallion and lay there for a long time as if dead. He stood up, staggering, and trudged towards the ulus.

There pigs grazed and dug the ground.

The hungry wolf shouted:

- I'll eat you.

- You, wolf, first listen to how we sing.
And the pigs squealed loudly.

The men came running and the wolf barely carried off his legs. He went back into the forest, and a hunting dog met him.

“I’ll eat you,” says the wolf.

I saw the carcass of a goat and was happy. He grabbed it with his teeth and fell into a trap.

KHARTAGAY

(Translation by A. Prelovsky)

In the most ancient times, the hunter Hartagai saw a flock of wild chickens in a clearing. Without thinking twice, Hartagai set up nooses and nets, and the chickens were caught in them. Hartagai brought them home and put them in the barn. The chickens guessed that Hartagai was going to cook dinner from them, and they prayed:

- Good Hartagay, don’t kill us! For this we promise you to lay eggs. You will always be full, rich and satisfied with us.

Hartagai did not kill chickens.

But one day Hartagai heard that the chickens were conspiring to fly away when he went hunting again.

Hartagay took a knife and cut the wings of the chickens, and put the feathers in his traveling bag. And he went into the taiga.

The chickens are sad. They flap with clipped wings, but cannot fly into the sky. Then the rooster jumped onto the fence and said:

- Don’t worry, chickens, all is not lost yet. In the morning I will ask Hartagai for our wings. If he doesn’t give it in the morning, I’ll ask at noon. If he doesn’t give it back at noon, I’ll ask again in the evening. And if he doesn’t give it back in the evening, I’ll ask at midnight.

The rooster raised his head to the sky and crowed loudly. But Hartagai did not hear him: he was far in the taiga.

One day after another the rooster crows, but Hartagai still does not return. Something must have happened to him. Either the beast attacked, or something else. The hunter never returned.

And the chickens still hope to fly home to their native wild forests. That is why the rooster is still crowing - calling Hartagai, asking him for his wings. It calls in the morning, during the day, in the evening and at midnight.

PIG AND SNAKE

(Translation by A. Prelovsky. Artist H. Avrutis)

A greedy poisonous snake crawled every day to the old barnyard to bask in the sun and at the same time hunt. The ground was black, the snake was also black, it was difficult to notice.

The rumor about the insidious snake spread far. Geese, calves, chickens - everyone began to avoid the old yard.

Only the fat, fat pig, as if nothing had happened, rummaged under the fence, swam in puddles and slept in the sun. She didn’t even notice that she was left alone in the yard.

The goose tried to warn her about the danger. And she answered him: “oink” and “oink”! The goose didn’t understand what the pig wanted to tell him, so he left.

Everyone has already come to terms with the idea that sooner or later the pig will not be satisfied.

But something completely unexpected happened.

One day, a pig was wandering around the yard, as usual, picking the ground with its nose and grunting with pleasure. And she was so carried away by this matter that she did not even notice how she stepped on a sleeping snake.

The snake woke up and remembered that it was hungry. The snake raised its narrow predatory head with a terrible forked sting and bit the pig on the side. But the pig did not feel pain - just know that it was digging in the ground, the roots crunching on its teeth.

The snake got angry. Let's bite the pig anywhere, its rage has blinded it.

The evil snake did not know that its poisonous venom was not at all scary to the pig. I didn’t know that a pig doesn’t even feel a bite.

The snake jumped around the pig for a long time until it noticed it. And when I noticed, I was very surprised:

- What a big worm! Let me try...

I bit off the tip of the tail - delicious! And the pig ate the whole snake, nothing was left of it.

Thus came the end of the evil and terrible snake. Chickens, geese, calves - everyone returned again to their old barnyard.

But when they thanked the pig for delivering them from the snake, the pig responded: “oink” and “oink”!

They never understood what the pig wanted to say.

CRANE

(Translation by G. Kungurov. Artist H. Avrutis)

The crane collected birds from all over the world. He wanted to become their king. All the birds flocked together, except for the smallest one, her name was Buk-sergine. A beautiful bird, a songbird, like a nightingale.

The birds waited for her for a long time. The crane stretched out its long neck and looked to see if the beautiful bird would fly in soon. The crane could not stand it and went to look for Buksergine. I met her and asked her angrily:

Why haven't you been flying for so long? All the birds are waiting for you.

I was flying from a distant land, I was tired. You see, I’m sitting, resting, feeding.

The crane got really angry:

“Because of you, I still haven’t become king!” - And he began to peck Buxergine. She broke her right wing.

Buksergine began to cry, birds flew in and asked:

- What happened to you?

“The crane got angry with me, it broke its wing, I can’t fly.”

Then the birds began to rustle:

- ABOUT! We don't need such an evil king. He will break all of our wings.

The birds began to judge the crane and decided to punish it. They said:

— When the crane flies to warm regions and back, it must carry Buxergine on its back.

And now you can see: a crane flies, and a small bird always sits on its back.

SNOW AND HARE

(Translation by A. Prelovsky)

Snow says to the hare:

I have a headache for some reason.

“You’re probably melting, that’s why you have a headache,” answered the hare.

He sat down on a tree stump and cried bitterly:

I feel sorry, I feel sorry for you, snow. From the fox, from the wolf, from the hunter, I buried myself in you, hid. How will I live now? Any crow, any owl will see me and peck me. I’ll go to the owner of the forest and ask him to keep you, the snow, for me.

And the sun is already high, it’s hot, the snow is melting, running in streams from the mountains.

The hare became sad and cried even louder. The owner of the forest heard the hare. He listened to his request and said:

“I can’t argue with the sun; I can’t save snow.” I’ll change your white fur coat to a gray one, in the summer you will easily hide among the dry leaves, bushes and grass, no one will notice you.

The hare was happy.

Since then, he always exchanges his winter white fur coat for a summer gray one.

MAGIE AND ITS CHICKENS

One day a magpie addressed her chicks with the words:

“My children, you have already grown up, and the time has come for you to get your own food and live your own life.”

She said so and, leaving the nest, flew with the chicks to the neighboring grove. She showed them how to catch midges and bugs, how to drink water from a taiga lake. But the chicks don’t want to do anything themselves.

“Let’s fly back to the nest,” they whine. “It was so good when you brought us all sorts of worms and shoved them in our mouths.” No worries, no hassle.

“My children,” the magpie says again. “You have become big, and my mother threw me out of the nest when I was very little...

What if we all get shot with arrows? - the chicks ask.

“Don’t be afraid,” the magpie replies. “Before shooting, a person takes aim for a long time, so that the nimble bird will always have time to fly away.”

“All this is true,” the chicks began to chatter, “but what will happen if a person throws a stone at us?” Any boy can do this without even aiming.

In order to take a stone, a person bends down, answers the magpie.

What if a person has a stone in his bosom? - asked the chicks.

“Whoever with his own mind came up with the idea of ​​a stone hidden in his bosom will be able to save himself from death,” said the magpie and flew away.

HUNTER AND PERSISTENT WIFE

(Source: Polar bear and brown bear: Fairy tales of the peoples of Russia in retellings by Mark Vatagin; comp., introductory article and note by M. Vatagin; Artists A. Kokovkin, T. Chursinova. - St. Petersburg: Republican Publishing House of Children's and Youth Literature " Lyceum", 1992. – 351 p.)

In former, distant times, there lived a brave hunter, a sharp shooter. He always hit without missing a beat and never came home empty-handed.

But one day he walked through the forest all day and until the evening he did not meet either an animal or a bird. Tired, exhausted, he went to bed. He sleeps and sees a strange dream: a yellow fog fell on him, and then a motley fog approached. The hunter wakes up and sees a yellow fog approaching him. He got scared, grabbed his bow, put in an arrow, but a human voice came from the fog:

“Don’t shoot at me, brave hunter, I won’t harm you.” The fog became even thicker, denser and turned into a yellow snake with motley, thundering wings. The motley-winged serpent said:

Let's be friends, brave hunter, sharp shooter. I need your help. For many years I have been waging war with the yellow-winged snake and cannot defeat it. Together we will defeat him.

“I’m ready to help you,” said the hunter.

Then let’s go to the valley where the battle will take place,” said the motley-winged serpent.

They came to a wide valley.

“Our battle will be long,” said the motley-winged serpent. “We will rise to the sky three times and descend to the ground three times.” When we rise for the fourth time, my enemy will overcome me, will gain the upper hand; when we go down, he'll be on top and I'll be on the bottom. At this time, do not yawn: I will turn his yellow head towards you, and you shoot at his only eye. This eye is in his forehead, in the very middle of his forehead. Now hide in this hole, soon the yellow-winged snake will rush from the sky right at me.

The hunter hid in a hole.

Soon a yellow-winged serpent rushed from the sky. The battle has begun. The snakes, grappling, rose to the sky three times and sank to the ground three times. The forces were equal. But then they rose to the sky for the fourth time, and the yellow-winged serpent defeated the motley-winged one. When they descended, the Yellowwing was on top and the Spottedwing was below. But the mottled wing quickly turned the head of his enemy towards the hunter. The sharp shooter was just waiting for it. The string of his bow was drawn. A moment was enough for him to shoot an arrow and pierce the yellow eye of the yellow-winged serpent. And then a yellow poisonous fog fell to the ground, from which all the trees in the forest withered and all the animals died. The hunter was saved by a motley-winged snake. He covered his friend with mighty dense wings and kept him under them for three days and three nights until the yellow poisonous fog dissipated.

And when the sun shone again, the motley-winged serpent said:

“We have defeated a formidable enemy.” Thank you, hunter. The yellow-winged snake caused a lot of harm. Every day he swallowed three beasts and devoured the fiery serpents, my subjects. If it weren't for you, he would have killed me and eaten all the fire snakes. Let's go visit me. You will see my palace, my subjects, my old parents.

The hunter agreed, and he and the serpent descended into a deep pit, and from there, through an underground passage, they entered a palace sparkling with gold and precious stones. On the floor lay fiery snakes curled into rings. One hall was followed by another, even richer one. And so they came to the largest hall. In it, two old motley-winged snakes sat near the hearth.

“These are my parents,” said the snake. The hunter greeted them.

This hunter saved me and my entire khanate,” said the snake. “He killed our old enemy.”

Thank you,” said the old snake’s parents. - You will receive a reward for this. If you want, we will give you as much gold and precious stones as you can carry. If you want, we will teach you seventy languages, so that you can understand the conversations of birds, animals and fish. Choose!

“Teach me seventy languages,” said the hunter.

“Better take gold and jewelry,” said the snake’s old parents. “Life is not easy for someone who knows seventy languages.”

No, I don’t want gold, teach me languages,” the hunter asked.

Well, have it your way,” said the old motley-winged snake. - From now on you know seventy languages, from now on you hear the conversations of birds, fish and animals. But this is a secret. You must keep it from people. If you let it slip, you will die that same day.

The hunter left the khanate of the motley-winged serpent and went home. He walks through the forest and rejoices: after all, he understands everything that animals and birds say among themselves. A hunter came out of the forest. Here is the yurt. “I’ll go into it,” he thinks. And the dog barks:

- Come here, traveler. Even though this is a poor man’s yurt, our host is kind and will treat you. We have only one cow, but the owner will give you milk, we have only one black ram, but the owner will kill the last ram for the guest.

The hunter entered the poor man's yurt. The owner greeted him politely and seated him in a place of honor. The host's wife served the guest a bowl of milk. The poor man invited the hunter to spend the night, and in the evening he slaughtered a black sheep for him. As they ate, the dog whined:

“Good guest, drop the lamb shoulder, I’ll grab it and run out, the owner won’t be angry with you.”

The hunter dropped his spatula. The dog grabbed her and ran away. And then she barked:

— A kind guest treated me to a delicious spatula. I won’t sleep all night, I’ll guard the yurt.

The wolves came at night. They stopped near the poor man’s yurt and howled:

Now we will rein in the horse!

My owner has only one horse, he cannot be eaten. If you come any closer, I'll bark loudly. The owner will wake up, his guest-hunter will wake up, and then you will be in trouble. Better go there to the rich man, pick up his fat gray mare, he has a lot of horses, and his dogs are hungry, they won’t want to bark at you.

What does "Russian Siberian fairy tale" mean? Is this a special fairy tale, different from those that existed in the European part of Russia or in the Russian North? Of course not. Any fairy tale has its roots in ancient times, in pre-class society, when nations and nationalities had not yet formed. This is one of the reasons that many fairy tales are international.

“To some extent, a fairy tale is a symbol of the unity of peoples. Peoples understand each other in their fairy tales,” wrote the wonderful fairy tale researcher V.Ya. Propp. The fairy tale is structurally incredibly stable, it is anonymous, it has no authors. This is a collective product. Folklore studies have recorded the names of unique storytellers, but not the authors.

The fairy tale, like other folklore genres - songs, riddles, proverbs, traditions, legends, epics - came to Siberia along with the pioneers and settlers from beyond the Urals. “When going to the new fatherland, the settlers took with them, as the treasured heritage of their ancestors, beliefs, fairy tales and songs about the epics of former times,” wrote one of the first collectors and researchers of Siberian folklore S.I. Gulyaev. He believed that “beliefs, fairy tales and songs” are common to the entire Russian people “across the entire immeasurable expanse of the Russian land,” “but in Siberia there are almost more of them than in all other places.”

These lines date back to 1839, but such a view was not typical for many researchers, ethnographers, fiction writers - researchers who wrote about Siberia. The view on the tradition of oral poetic creativity in Siberia was, rather, the exact opposite until the end of the 19th century.

Specifics of the Siberian fairy tale

First of all, it must be said that a fairy tale, especially a fairy tale, is very difficult to undergo any significant changes. You can read dozens of fairy tales written down in Siberia, but still not be able to determine either the place or time of their recording.

Nevertheless, the Russian Siberian fairy tale has certain specific features. These features are determined by the specifics of Siberian life and economic life of the past. The fairy tale reflects the worldview of its speakers. The very preservation of the fairy tale tradition in Siberia, especially in the taiga village, is explained by the presence here of a relatively archaic way of life in the recent past. The lack of roads, the almost complete isolation of many settlements from the outside world, hunting life, artel work, lack of education, secular book tradition, remoteness from cultural centers - all this contributed to the preservation of traditional folklore in Siberia.

Siberia since the end of the 16th century. became a place of exile, this also left its mark on the fairy-tale tradition. Many storytellers were exiles, settlers or vagabonds who paid with tales for lodging and refreshments. Hence, by the way, one very striking feature of the Siberian fairy tale is the complexity of the composition, the multiplicity of plots. A tramp who wanted to stay longer with his hosts had to try to captivate them with a long tale that would not end before dinner, would not end in one evening, or even two, three or more. The storytellers, invited to artel work specifically for the entertainment of the artel workers, did the same. They often combined several plots in one narrative so that the tale was told all night or several evenings in a row. The storytellers enjoyed special respect from the artel workers; they were specially allocated a portion of the spoils or proceeds.

Details of local life penetrate into the Siberian fairy tale. Its hero, often a hunter, ends up not in a fairytale forest, but in the taiga. He comes not to a hut on chicken legs, but to a hunting winter hut. In a Siberian fairy tale, there are names of Siberian rivers, villages, and this or that area; the typical motif is vagrancy and wandering. In general, the Siberian fairy tale is part of the all-Russian fairy tale wealth and belongs to the East Slavic fairy tale tradition.

Analysis of some fairy tale plots will help to better understand on what basis and why exactly such plots arose in the fairy tale tradition. It must be remembered that the fairy tale is included in the system of folklore genres; in isolation, it does not exist on its own. The genres of folklore are interconnected by many sometimes subtle connections; discovering and showing them is an important task for the researcher. I took one of the aspects of folklore - secret speech and fairy tales associated with it.

Taboos and secret language

Most fairy tale plots, especially fairy tales telling about the “far away kingdom, the thirtieth state” and various miracles, are incomprehensible to the reader. Why do certain heroes and wonderful helpers act in a fairy tale, and why does everything happen exactly this way and not otherwise? Sometimes even the characters’ dialogues seem overly exotic and contrived. For example, in the fairy tale “The Rich and the Beggar,” it is not clear why the master needs to call the cat “clarity,” the fire “red,” the tower “height,” and the water “grace”:

A beggar came to a rich man to hire himself as a worker. The rich man agreed to take him on the condition that he solve the riddles given to him. The rich man shows the beggar the cat and asks:

- What's this?

- Cat.

- No, this is clarity.

The rich man points to the fire and says:

- And what's that?

- Fire.

- No, it's red.

Indulges in the attic:

- And what's that?

- Tower.

- No, height.

Points to water:

- And what's that?

- Water.

- Thank you, you guessed wrong.

The beggar left the yard, and the cat followed him. The beggar took it and set her tail on fire. The cat ran back, jumped into the attic, and the house was occupied. The people came running, and the beggar returned, and said to the rich:

- Your clarity has brought redness to the heights; grace will not help - you will not own the house.

Such fairy tales need to be specially studied, looking for those ideas in the real life of the past with which the fairy tale is closely connected. The vast majority of fairy tale motifs find their explanation in the life and ideas about the world of people of past eras.

The fairy tale “The Rich and the Beggar” also has its own explanation. There is no doubt that it is connected with the so-called “secret speech”. But before talking about this, it is necessary to make one remark. When we want to penetrate into the nature of folklore or ancient literature, for example, we try to understand the origins of a particular plot or image, we must first of all abstract from all modern ideas about the world. Otherwise, you may come to the wrong conclusions.

A fairy tale is a product of past eras and the worldview of the past. Based on this, you need to “decipher” the fairy tale. Ancient man's ideas about the world were completely special. Ancient man even laughed “in a different way” and not for the same reason that we laugh now. And who among us would think that swinging on a swing or sliding down an ice slide has its own secret meaning, something other than fun holiday entertainment?

The life of ancient man was strictly regulated by ritual, tradition, and filled with many different regulations and prohibitions. There was, for example, a ban on pronouncing certain names and titles under certain circumstances. Ancient man had a completely different attitude towards the word. For him, a word was part of what it meant. J. Frazer writes about this in his work “The Golden Bough”:

“Primitive man, not being able to make a clear distinction between words and things, usually imagines that the connection between a name and the person or thing it denotes is not an arbitrary and ideal association, but real, materially tangible ties connecting them so closely that through a name it is as easy to exert a magical effect on a person as through hair, nails or another part of his body. Primitive man considers his name to be an essential part of himself and takes proper care of it.”

The name had to be kept secret; it was pronounced only in certain situations. Having learned the name of the enemy, it was possible to harm him through magic and witchcraft: “The natives do not doubt that, having learned their secret names, the foreigner received a favorable opportunity to cause harm through magic,” writes Frazer. Therefore, many ancient peoples had the custom of giving two names: one real one, which was kept in deep secret, the second was known to everyone. Witchcraft supposedly worked only when using the real name.

J. Frazer gives an example of how a person caught in theft was corrected in the Kaffir tribe. To correct a thief, “it is enough just to shout his name over a boiling cauldron of healing water, cover the cauldron with a lid and leave the thief’s name in the water for several days.” His moral rebirth was assured.

Another example of magical belief in the word concerns the custom of the Bangala blacks from the Upper Congo. When a member of this tribe “fishes or returns from a catch, his name is temporarily banned. Everyone calls a fisherman mwele no matter what his real name is. This is done because the river abounds with spirits who, having heard the real name of the fisherman, can use it to prevent him from returning with a good catch. Even after the catch is landed, buyers continue to call the fisherman mwele. After all, the spirits - as soon as they hear his real name - will remember him and either get even with him the next day, or they will so spoil the already caught fish that he will earn little for it. Therefore, the fisherman has the right to receive a large fine from anyone who calls him by name, or to force this frivolous talker to purchase the entire catch at a high price in order to restore good luck in the fishery.”

Such ideas were obviously characteristic of all ancient peoples. They were afraid to pronounce not only the names of people, but in general any names of creatures and objects with which the corresponding ideas were associated. In particular, bans on pronouncing the names of animals, fish, and birds were widespread. These prohibitions were explained by man's anthropomorphic ideas about nature.

Comparison is the basis of human cognition. Exploring the world, a person compares objects, phenomena, and identifies common and distinctive features. The first idea of ​​a person is the idea of ​​oneself, awareness of oneself. If people can move, speak, understand, hear, see, then fish, birds, animals, trees - all of nature, the cosmos - can hear, see, understand in the same way. Man brings the world around him to life. Anthropomorphism - the assimilation of the surrounding world to man - is a necessary step in the development of humanity, in the development of its ideas about the surrounding world.

Anthropomorphic ideas and the verbal prohibitions that arose on their basis have also been recorded among the East Slavic peoples. Russian traveler and explorer of the 18th century. S.P. Krasheninnikov in his book “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” (1755) reports on the remains of an ancient secret speech among Russian hunters. S.P. Krasheninnikov writes that the elder in the sable fishery “orders” that “they should trade in truth, not hide anything to themselves... also that, according to the custom of their ancestors, they should not call a crow, a snake and a cat by their direct names, but call them horse, thin and baked. Industry people say that in previous years, in the fisheries, many more things were called with strange names, for example: a church - a high-topped one, a woman - a husk or a white-headed one, a girl - a simple one, a horse - long-tailed, a cow - roaring, a sheep - thin-legged, a pig - low-eyed, a rooster - barefoot." Industrialists considered the sable an intelligent animal and, if the ban was violated, they believed that it would cause harm and would not be caught again. Violation of the ban was punished.

The question of verbal prohibitions among hunters was discussed by D.K. Zelenin in his work “Taboos of words among the peoples of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia” (1929-1930). He considers the basis of the prohibitions of hunters and fishermen “first of all, the confidence of the primitive hunter that animals and game that understand human language hear at very great distances - they hear not only everything that the hunter says in the forest while hunting, but often also what what he says at home, getting ready to go fishing.

Learning his plans from the hunter's conversations, the animals flee, as a result of which the hunt becomes unsuccessful. To prevent such unpleasant consequences, the hunter first of all avoids pronouncing the names of animals... This is how the proper names of game animals became forbidden during hunting.”

It is not surprising that church is also mentioned as a forbidden word among Russian hunters. Until recently, the Eastern Slavs retained many pagan ideas dating back to pre-Christian history, pre-class society. Pagan beliefs, right up to modern times, coexisted with Christian ones, but not peacefully and harmlessly, but rather antagonistically. Widespread persecution of traditional folk holidays, games, amusements, etc. by the Russian Church is known. This did not pass without a trace for folk art, including fairy tales. Demonological pagan creatures oppose Christian characters in folklore - this is the result of the struggle of the Russian Church with popular beliefs. “Mountain father,” testifies A.A. Misyurev about the beliefs of the miners of the Urals is the antithesis of the Orthodox God and the worst enemy of church rituals.” “I’m the same person as everyone else, I just don’t have a cross, my mother cursed me,” writes D.K. about the goblin. Zelenin.

After the adoption of Christianity, mermaids, for example, began to be thought of as girls who died unbaptized; the appearances of a goblin, a brownie, a devil, a demon often acquire similar features - a kind of general demonological image is formed. Christ never laughs; in medieval Moscow there was even a ban on laughter, and in epic tales laughter is a sign of evil spirits. The mermaid kills people with laughter and tickling. Laughter is a sign of a devil, a devil. With a squeal and laughter, the creatures born from the devil’s relationship with a mortal woman disappear from sight. There are a lot of interesting connections here that need to be specifically explored.

Naturally, a Russian hunter in the taiga, in the forest, was afraid to mention the Christian God or other characters of Sacred history, the church, the priest. By doing this, he could anger the owners of the forest, harm himself in a successful hunt, and therefore hid his intentions. Hence the well-known saying “neither fluff nor feather,” which was said before a hunter went out to hunt.

In the same way, a Christian was afraid to mention the name of the devil, to swear, especially in front of icons or in church, this was the greatest sacrilege. There are many stories in folklore in which the devil or goblin appears immediately after the mention of their names and does what they were asked to do, willingly or unwillingly.

Riddle culture

The secret speech was brought to us not only by a fairy tale, but also by a riddle. Moreover, it was reflected most fully in the riddle. Try to guess the riddle:

Rynda digs, skinda gallops,

Thurman is coming and will eat you.

In this case, the answer is a pig, a hare and a wolf. The answers to such riddles need to be known in advance; they are associated with secret speech. There is no doubt that riddles taught secret speech, substitute words. At special evenings, riddles were made, and young, inexperienced members of the community, guessing them, learned secret speech. Here are more examples of similar riddles:

Shuru-muru has come,

He took away the chicks and kicks,

The chaff saw

The residents were told:

The inhabitants of Shuru-Mura have caught up,

The chicks were taken away.

(Wolf, sheep, pig, man)

I went along the tow-too-too,

I took taf-taf-t with me,

And he found it on the snoring-tah-tu;

If only it weren’t taf-taf-tah,

I'd be eaten up by the snoring-tah-tah.

(Translation: “I went hunting, took a dog with me, found a bear…”)

Only with the widespread existence of secret speech could such riddles exist. Now children and older people know riddles and fairy tales. This is an entertainment genre. In ancient times, the riddle was a much more serious genre. In Russian fairy tales and songs, his life or the fulfillment of what he wants, for example, a wedding, often depends on whether the hero can guess the riddle.

In the famous ancient legend, the Sphinx - a monster with the head and chest of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird - asked a riddle to travelers and killed everyone who could not guess it: “Which living creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on two legs in the evening?” three?" The Sphinx, located on a mountain near Thebes, killed many residents of the city, including the son of King Creon. The king announced that he would give the kingdom and his sister Jocasta as a wife to the one who would rid the city of the Sphinx. Oedipus guessed the riddle, after which the sphinx threw itself into the abyss and crashed.

Guessing a riddle is obviously associated with a special relationship to the word, with the magic of the word. Making and guessing riddles is a kind of duel. The one who does not guess correctly is defeated.

There are well-known tales in which a competition in guessing riddles takes place between evil spirits and a person who will live only if they solve the riddles. Here is an example of such a story recorded in the Altai Territory:

“Three girls gathered to cast a spell. Near the house where they were casting spells, a lost horse lay. Suddenly the horse jumped up and ran. She ran up to the house and began to ask to go into the hut. The girls got scared and turned to their grandmother. The grandmother put cups on their heads, went to the door and said to the horse: “If you guess the riddles that I tell you, I will let you into the house, if not, then no.” The first riddle: “What in the world are these three braids?” The horse didn't guess. The grandmother said the answer: “The first is the girl’s, the second is the rooster’s, the third is the mowing one.” Second riddle: “What are the three arcs in the world?” The horse didn't guess. The answer was this: the first is a harness, the second is a rainbow, the third is an arc at the boiler. The horse was forced to leave."

There is nothing exotic in this plot; it stems from the superstitious beliefs of the people. It is possible to get rid of a dead horse only by resorting to the magic of words, to a riddle.

Let us remember “The Tale of Bygone Years,” the legend about Princess Olga’s revenge on the Drevlyans for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor. The wise Olga, as it were, challenges the Drevlyans to a duel, which they have no idea about, and this predetermines their death. The princess speaks allegorically, her words have a hidden meaning. Olga offers them honor (they, like matchmakers, will be carried in a boat) and asks them to say: “We are not riding on horses, nor on carts, and we are not going on foot, but carry us in a boat.” These words symbolize the funeral rite. The dead do everything differently from the living, as evidenced by the riddle: “I washed my face the wrong way, dressed up the wrong way, sat down the wrong way, and drove the wrong way, I got stuck in a pothole and couldn’t get out.” Or: “I’m going, I’m going the wrong way, I’m not driving with a whip, I hit a pothole, I can’t get out.” The answer is “funeral”.

In a fairy tale, the bride or groom often undertakes the difficult task of appearing “neither on foot nor on horseback, neither naked nor clothed.” They unravel the secret meaning of this task, and everything ends happily - with a wedding. Olga's matchmakers do not understand the meaning of what is happening. The symbolism of the funeral rite is used twice: the Drevlyans wash themselves and feast on their own death.

Russian folk song has preserved for us the motives of matchmaking - asking riddles. For example, the song “Tavleynaya Game”. The guy and the girl are playing tavlei (chess):

The good guy played about three ships,

And the girl played about a wild head.

How the girl beat the young man,

The girl won three ships.

The young man is sad about his ships, the beautiful maiden calms him down:

Don’t be sad, don’t worry, good fellow,

Perhaps your three ships will return,

How can you take me, a beautiful girl, for yourself:

Your ships are my dowry.

The ritual does not end there either: as expected, the young man asks the girl riddles:

I'll tell the girl a riddle

Cunning, wise, unguessable:

Oh, what do we have, girl, that burns without fire?

Does it burn without fire and fly without wings?

Does it fly without wings and run without legs?

The girl answers:

Without fire our sun burns red,

And without wings we have a terrible cloud flying,

And without legs our mother runs fast.

Next riddle:

Well, I have a boyfriend who is a cook,

So will he really take you for himself?

What will the beautiful maiden soul say:

The riddle is not cunning, not wise,

Not cunning, not wise, only disgusting:

I already have a goose girl,

Surely she will marry you!

The competition was won, the girl gained the upper hand, and showed her wisdom. It is remarkable that here the bride, as in general in the Russian matchmaking ritual, is called not directly, but allegorically.

Fairy tale and parody

Let's return once again to secret speech. Let's consider a fairy tale in which it is very vividly presented - “The Tower of the Fly”. What is most interesting in this tale is what insects and animals call themselves.

“A man was driving with pots and lost a large jug. A fly flew into the jug and began to live and live in it. One day lives, another lives. A mosquito has arrived and knocks:

– Who is in the mansions, who is in the tall ones?

– I am a hype fly; and who are you?

- And I am a squeaking mosquito.

- Come live with me.

So the two of us began to live together.”

Then a mouse comes - “from around the corner,” then a frog – “on the water balagta”, then a hare – “there’s a twist in the field”, a fox – “there’s beauty in the field”, a dog – “gum-gum”, a wolf – “from “behind the bushes” and finally the bear – “forest oppression”, which “sat on a jug and crushed everyone.”

It is remarkable that the riddle brings to us such metaphorical names. The bear in the riddle is “an oppressor to everyone”, the hare is “spinner across the path”, the wolf is “grabbing from behind a bush”, the dog is “taf-taf-taf”.

Let us turn again to the fairy tale “The Rich and the Beggar” and its connection with secret speech. Now this connection is quite clear. It is necessary, however, to make one more very important remark. We talked about the sacred attitude towards secret speech, a very serious attitude, based on absolute faith in the necessity of using such speech in life, in its connection with the magic of the word. A fairy tale is a genre based on pure fiction; there is no connection between the events of a fairy tale and modern reality. Secret speech, the magic of words, is parodied in fairy tales, its use is subject to fairy tale canons.

The fairy tale “The Rich and the Beggar” is characterized, first of all, by the social opposition of the characters: the beggar and the rich. Initially, the rich man gains the upper hand and laughs at the poor man. He owns the secret speech, he is initiated into it. A rich man asks riddles to a beggar. The beggar guessed nothing, the rich man laughed at him and did not accept him as a worker.

But according to the laws of the fairy tale, the rich cannot defeat the poor. This happens here too: the beggar took revenge on the rich, he turned out to be smarter than him. It all ends with a joke, a funny pun. This joke not only has a typical fairytale ending, but one can also hear laughter at the tradition of secret speech itself, at the belief in the magic of words. Here is the riddle from which this tale was born:

Darkness to lightness

Carried to the heights

But there was no grace at home.

(Cat, spark, roof, water).

Secret speech is also parodied in fairy tales about a cunning soldier (Russian folk satirical tales of Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1981. No. 91-93). The fairy tale “For a Rainy Day” was recorded among all East Slavic peoples, including several versions in Siberia. Its plot is as follows:

“There lived two old men who worked all their lives without straightening their backs. They saved pennies for a rainy day. One day the old man went to the market, and a soldier came to see the grandmother. Grandma thought that this “rainy day” had come. The soldier took all the money and begged for another 25 rubles - he sold the “solinets” to the old woman. He took an iron tooth from a harrow out of his pocket and said:

- When you cook something, stir it with this salt and say: “Salt, salt, an old man will come from the market, put it in your bag, there will be crackers for you, there will be slippers for you!” It will be salty!”

One can guess how the fairy tale ended. The comic effect is enhanced by the fact that the soldier speaks in an allegorical, secret speech, and the old woman does not understand him. It’s exactly the same in the next fairy tale. This time the old woman is the first to ask riddles. She did not feed two soldiers.

“So one soldier went out into the yard, released the cattle into the threshing floor, into sheaves of grain, came and said:

- Baushka, the cattle have entered the threshing floor there.

- By any chance, you didn’t let the cattle out?

The old woman went to the threshing floor to drive out the cattle, and the soldiers here managed to make some prey for themselves: they looked into the pot in the oven, pulled out a rooster from it, and put in a bast shoe. An old woman comes, sits on a chair and says:

- Guess the riddle, I’ll give you something to eat.

- Well, make a guess.

She tells them:

– Kurukhan Kurukhanovich is cooking under the frying pan.

“No, grandma, Plet Pletkhanovich is being cooked under a frying pan, and Kurukhan Kurukhanovich has been transferred to Sumin-gorod.”

The old woman did not understand that she had been deceived and released the soldiers, giving them also a piece of bread. She “guessed” the riddle only when, instead of a rooster, she pulled a bast shoe out of the pot. In another version of the tale from the same collection, Kurukhan Kurukhanovich from the city of Pechinsk is transferred to the city of Suminsk.

Such tales are close to an anecdote and perform the same function as it - they ridicule not only human greed and stupidity, but also parody the ritual. Serious things become funny and cheerful. This is the path of any tradition, any ritual associated with beliefs in magical power. In ancient times, the ritual of swinging on a swing was associated with the belief in the connection between swinging upward, throwing objects and the growth of vegetation. The church prohibited this ritual. Those who crashed on the swings were buried without a funeral service, often not in the cemetery, but next to the swings. In the same way, the newlyweds' skating down the ice slide on Maslenitsa was supposed to ensure fertility and a future harvest.

K. Marx in his work “The Tragic and the Comic in Real History” has wonderful words: “History acts thoroughly and passes through many phases when it carries an outdated form of life to the grave. The last phase of the world-historical form is its comedy. The gods of Greece, who were already once - in a tragic form - mortally wounded in Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound" - had to die again - in a comic form - in Lucian's "Conversations". Why is this the course of history? This is necessary so that humanity can cheerfully part with its past.”

We are talking about the law of development of human history, the understanding of which gives a lot for understanding the process of cultural development, including for understanding the folklore process.

Vladimir Vasiliev, associate professor, candidate of philological sciences, Siberian Federal University

Tales of the peoples of Siberia

Altai tales

Scary guest

Once upon a time there lived a badger. He slept during the day and went hunting at night. One night a badger was hunting. Before he had time to get enough, the edge of the sky had already brightened.

The badger hurries to get into his hole before the sun. Without showing himself to people, hiding from the dogs, he walked where the shadow was thickest, where the ground was blackest.

The badger approached his home.

Hrr... Brr... - he suddenly heard an incomprehensible noise.

"What's happened?"

The dream jumped out of the badger, its fur stood on end, its heart almost broke its ribs with a pounding sound.

"I've never heard such a noise..."

Hrrr... Firrlit-few... Brrr...

“I’ll quickly go back to the forest, I’ll call clawed animals like me: I alone don’t agree to die here for everyone.”

And the badger went to call all the clawed animals living in Altai for help.

Oh, I have a scary guest in my hole! Help! Save!

The animals came running, their ears to the ground - in fact, the earth trembles from the noise:

Brrrrrrk, hrr, whew...

All the animals' hair stood on end.

Well, badger, this is your house, you go first.

The badger looked around - ferocious animals were standing all around, urging, hurrying:

Go, go!

And they put their tails between their legs out of fear.

The badger house had eight entrances and eight exits. "What to do? - the badger thinks. - What should I do? Which way to enter your house?”

What are you worth? - Wolverine snorted and raised her terrible paw.

Slowly, reluctantly, the badger walked towards the main entrance.

Hrrrr! - flew out of there.

The badger jumped back and hobbled towards another entrance and exit.

There's a loud noise coming from all eight exits.

The badger began to dig for the ninth hole. It’s a shame to destroy your home, but there’s no way to refuse - the most ferocious animals have gathered from all over Altai.

Hurry, hurry! - they order.

It’s a shame to destroy your home, but you can’t disobey.

Sighing bitterly, the badger scratched the ground with its clawed front paws. Finally, almost alive with fear, he made his way into his high bedroom.

Hrrr, brrr, frrr...

It was a white hare, lounging on a soft bed, snoring loudly.

The animals couldn't stand on their feet laughing and rolled on the ground.

Hare! That's it, a hare! The badger was scared of the hare!

Ha ha ha! Ho-ho-ho!

Where will you hide from shame now, badger? What an army he gathered against the hare!

Ha ha ha! Ho-ho!

But the badger doesn’t raise his head, he scolds himself:

“Why, when I heard noise in my house, didn’t I look in there myself? Why did you go screaming all over Altai?”

And the hare, you know, is sleeping and snoring.

The badger got angry and kicked the hare:

Go away! Who allowed you to sleep here?

The hare woke up - his eyes almost popped out! - the wolf, the fox, the lynx, the wolverine, the wild cat, even the sable are here!

“Well,” the hare thinks, “whatever happens!”

And suddenly - he jumped into the badger's forehead. And from the forehead, as if from a hill, there’s a leap again! - and into the bushes.

The white hare's belly turned the badger's forehead white.

White marks ran down the cheeks from the hare's hind legs.

The animals laughed even louder:

Oh, barsu-u-uk, how beautiful you have become! Ho-ha-ha!

Come to the water and look at yourself!

The badger hobbled to the forest lake, saw his reflection in the water and began to cry:

“I’ll go and complain to the bear.”

He came and said:

I bow to you to the ground, grandfather bear. I ask for your protection. I myself was not at home that night, I did not invite guests. Hearing loud snoring, he got scared... He disturbed so many animals and destroyed his house. Now look, from the hare’s white belly, from the hare’s paws, my cheeks have turned white. And the culprit ran away without looking back. Judge this matter.

Are you still complaining? Your head used to be black as the earth, but now even people will envy the whiteness of your forehead and cheeks. It’s a shame that it wasn’t me who stood in that place, that it wasn’t my face that the hare whitened. What a pity! Yes, it’s a pity, it’s a shame...

And, sighing bitterly, the bear left.

And the badger still lives with a white stripe on its forehead and cheeks. They say that he has become accustomed to these marks and is already boasting:

That's how hard the hare worked for me! We are now friends forever.

Siberia is rich in more than just snow...

The peoples of the North and Siberia have created a unique culture, including rich oral folk art - folklore. The most common genre of folklore is fairy tales...

We bring to your attention the tales of the peoples who inhabited the Siberian land for many centuries and left their mark on history.

We would also like to introduce you to Siberian and Novosibirsk writers and storytellers, whose work continues the best traditions of Russian fairy-tale literature.

Children of the beast Maana: tales of the peoples of Siberia about animals / artist. H. A. Avrutis. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 1988. - 144 p. : ill.

“In ancient times, a miracle beast, Maana’s mother, lived in Altai. She was big, like a century-old cedar. I walked through the mountains, went down into the valleys, but nowhere did I find an animal similar to myself. And she has already begun to age a little. I will die, thought Maany, and no one in Altai will remember me, everyone will forget that the great Maany lived on earth. If only someone was born to me..."

Tales of the peoples of Siberia about animals teach children a kind and attentive attitude towards the world around them.

6+

Russian fairy tales of Siberia / comp. T. G. Leonova; artist V. Laguna. - Novosibirsk: West Siberian Book Publishing House, 1977. - 190 p. : color ill.

Russian people have been living in Siberian places for a very long time - since the conquest of Siberia by Ermak. At the same time, the history of Russian folklore - oral folk art - began here.

This book is a selection from Russian fairy tales of Siberia, from all that fabulous wealth that for centuries was passed on by people from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation, and so has come to our days.

12+

Siberian fairy tales / recorded by I. S. Korovkin from A. S. Kozhemyakina. – 2nd ed., add. – Novosibirsk: West Siberian Book Publishing House, 1973.- 175 p.

The folk poetry of the Omsk region is diverse and rich. Many wonderful experts on fairy tales live there.

One of the best storytellers in the Omsk region was a resident of the village of Krasnoyarskoye, Omsk region, Anastasia Stepanovna Kozhemyakina (born 1888). Forty tales were recorded from her...

A. S. Kozhemyakina herself began telling fairy tales at the age of fifteen. “At first I told the girls and boys,” the storyteller recalled, “when I became a woman, I told my nieces and all the residents of the village.” She took over most of the fairy tales from her mother and told them, it seems, the same way she had once heard them: she rarely changed anything in them, and even more rarely added anything of her own.

Kozhemyakina’s fairy-tale repertoire is not only large, but also varied. The storyteller told heroic, magical, adventurous, and everyday tales.

6+

Fairy tales of the peoples of Siberia / comp.: E. G. Paderina, A. I. Plitchenko; artist E. Gorokhovsky. - Novosibirsk: West Siberian Book Publishing House, 1984. - 232 p. : ill.

The collection includes the best fairy tales of Siberia: Altai, Buryat, Dolgan, Mansi, Nenets, Selkup, Tofalar, Tuvan, Khakass, Khanty, Shor, Evenki, Yakut tales about animals, fairy tales.

One of the compilers of the collection is Alexander Ivanovich Plitchenko, our fellow countryman, poet, writer, translator of the Altai and Yakut epic.

Tales of the peoples of Siberia / comp. G. A. Smirnova; lane in English. language of O. V. Myazin, G. I. Shchitnikov; artist design by V. V. Egorov, L. A. Egorova. – Krasnoyarsk: Vital, 1992. – 202 p.: ill.

“Do you want to know why animals are different from each other and why Raven is black and not white?

Why don't lions live in Siberia now, and the Bear doesn't have a thumb?

Or about the fire the Falcon lit in the sky, how the Ant went to visit the Frog, and little Mosquito defeated the evil spirit Chuchunnu?”- this is how the compiler of this book of fairy tales and legends about various animals, birds, insects inhabiting the taiga and tundra addresses the little reader.

A very attractive gift edition of a book of fairy tales of the peoples of Siberia, with colorful illustrations and page-by-page translation into English.

Belousov, Sergei Mikhailovich. Along the Rainbow or the Adventures of Pechenyushkin: a story - a fairy tale / S. M. Belousov. - Novosibirsk: Nonparel, 1992. - 240 p. : ill.

Who is Pechenyushkin? Amazing creature! He was once an ordinary Brazilian monkey named Pichi-Nush and saved his friend from a terrible death. As a reward, the gods endowed him with limitless magical properties, and most importantly, a heightened sense of justice. And for many centuries Pechenyushkin, like a knight without fear or reproach, has been fighting evil in all its manifestations.

Novosibirsk writer Sergei Belousov wrote a fairy-tale trilogy about the adventures of this mischievous character, which opens with the story “Along the Rainbow, or the Adventures of Pechenyushkin.” Two ordinary schoolgirl sisters live in the most ordinary Novosibirsk apartment and don’t even realize that a magical rainbow leads directly to their balcony. Rainbow, traveling along which they will find themselves in the magical land of Fantasia and help Pechenyushkin defeat the Villain in the Silver Hood.

For middle school age.

Belousov, Sergei Mikhailovich. The Deadly Pan, or the Return of Pechenyushkin: a fairy tale / S. M. Belousov; artist N. Fadeeva. - Novosibirsk: Esby, 1993. - 304 p. : ill.

This is the second book in the fairy-tale trilogy about Pechenyushkin, a monkey endowed with limitless magical power. Sisters Alena and Lisa Zaykin reveal the insidious plan of the cartomors - dangerous creatures generated by people.

Fleeing from these scary little men, the sisters again find themselves in the magical land of Fantasia.

Now the fate of the Earth is in the hands of two girls and Pechenyushkin, who will save his friends from all adversity.

Belousov, Sergei Mikhailovich. The Heart of a Dragon, or a Journey with Pechenyushkin: a fairy tale / S. M. Belousov. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 1996. - 368 p.

For four months now, the inhabitants of Fantasilla have not made themselves known. Anticipating great trouble, the Zaikin sisters decide to take a desperate step: secretly break into a fairyland to the rescue. Here their worst fears come true: evil will has surrounded Fantasia. Who set up the plot and how, where did Pechenyushkin disappear and who is the mysterious lady in black who appears to the residents of the country at night? To find answers to these questions and unravel the great mystery, the sisters will have to go back in time...

The final part of the trilogy about the adventures of the Great Warrior of Justice Pechenyushkin.

Magalif, Yuri Mikhailovich. The magic horn or the adventures of Gorodovich: a fairy tale/story / Y. Magalif. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 1993. - 79 p.

Yuri Magalif dedicated this fairy tale to the 100th anniversary of Novosibirsk.

Three talented and enthusiastic people worked on the image of Gorodovichka-Nikoshka - it was invented by the City inventor Vladimir Shamov, the book was written by the most famous Siberian writer and storyteller Yuri Magalif, and drawn by the wonderful Novosibirsk artist Alexander Tairov.

Y. Magalif: “Gorodovichok is a famous character who has become a symbol of Novosibirsk. A child who reads this book will know what the city was like. What was here in this place before the city began to be built. And what’s interesting today?”

Magalif, Yuri Mikhailovich. Jaconya, Kotkin and others / Yu. M. Magalior. - Novosibirsk: West Siberian Book Publishing House, 1982. - 125 p. : ill.

The book includes famous fairy tales by the famous Siberian storyteller Yuri Magalif - “Zhakonya”, “Typtik”, “Kotkin the Cat”, “Bibishka - Nice Friend”, “Success-Grass”.

“The Tales of Magalif were the tales of the twentieth century. The miracles of technology that have entered the human world coexist peacefully on these pages with witches, talking birds, fairies and kikimoras. Childhood sees the world of things as living, breathing, animated. And in Magalif the storyteller, things and mechanisms speak, feel sad, think, rejoice and are offended exactly like we ourselves - and there is no need to argue with this.

I read all the fairy tales of Yuri Magalif and if I regret anything, it is that I am not little and that these fairy tales, so festively illustrated, were not among the others in my childhood.” Vladimir Lakshin.

• * * *

Books by Urban Inventor Vladimir Shamov

written in a peculiar fairy-tale style,

designed for family reading of Novosibirsk residents

and are very suitable for adults to read to children.

12+

Shamov, Vladimir Viktorovich. Katerina's secret / V. V. Shamov; artist L. V. Trescheva. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 1995. - 78 p. : color ill.

Like all capitals, Novosibirsk has its own secrets associated with its birth.

One of them is about the love of Obinushka and the first builder Ivanushka. The Lady of Ob also told another legend - about Katerina, the ruler of the Ob Underwater Kingdom. Many pages are devoted to the conquest of Siberia by Ermak, how the Russians advanced to these places.

12+

Shamov, Vladimir Viktorovich. Legendary placers: fantastic time travel / V.V. Shamov; artist L. V. Trescheva. - Novosibirsk: Book publishing house, 1997. - 141 p. : ill.

The reader will travel to the sixteenth century, during the time of Ermak Timofeevich, the Cossack chieftain, who annexed the Siberian lands to Rus' during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The mysterious story of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich also attracts attention. After reading this book, you can learn about the wonderful man Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov - cartographer, architect, chronicler. It tells about the origin of the names Zaeltsovsky Forest, Bugrinskaya Grove, Zatulinka. And also - Gorodovichok’s address is offered, where you can write him a letter.

6+

Shamov, Vladimir Viktorovich. Novosibirsk fairy tales / V. V. Shamov; artist E. Tretyakova. — 2nd ed., add. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 2003. - 144 p. : color ill.

Small fascinating tales introduce the history of Novosibirsk, some of its wonderful residents, and city attractions.

As in previous books by V. Shamov,

Everyone’s favorite Gorodovichok operates here.

6+

Shamov, Vladimir Viktorovich. Ob legend / V.V. Shamov. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House: Novosibirsk Centennial Fund, 1994. - 55 p. : ill.

“...did you know, dear reader, that at the bottom of every major river there is a palace? And that these palaces are not similar to each other, like the rivers themselves... In these palaces live river queens, unfading beauties, in whose eyes the entire depth of the rivers lies hidden..." - this is how the “Ob Legend” begins - the first book by Vladimir Shamov from a series of books about history of our city. Obinushka is the queen of the river, mistress of the great Ob River. She talks about the events of the spring of 1893, when construction of a bridge across the Ob began. From its legend you can learn about the first builder Ivanushka, about that. how he dreamed of seeing Novosibirsk, how he wanted future residents to love their city...

12+

Shamov, V.V. Fountains over the Ob: a tale of the future, present and past / V.V. Shamov; artist E. Tretyakova. – Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 2005. –220 p.: ill.

Vladimir Shamov wrote a book of time travel.

Its main characters live in 200-year-old Novosibirsk.