What is the name of the den inhabitant? Abstract of IOS on speech development and fiction in the senior group “In a fairytale forest”

A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, says popular wisdom. Who do the characters in Russian fairy tales allude to? Do they have real prototypes?
In fairy tales of all peoples of the world, you can often find stories related to cats. Be it small domestic animals or their wild counterparts. They played all roles - from companions of witches and sorcerers, to intelligent and kind creatures.

Our Slavic folklore also contains many similar tales. Usually the cat is represented as the keeper of the hearth and comfort, the brownie's assistant and the family's talisman. The cat was considered wise creature, capable of communicating with otherworldly forces. God Veles himself patronized these animals. The shaggy cat was his sacred totem and companion.

However, there was another, dark side to the role of cats in culture. Famous fairy tale character Cat Bayun became famous not only as the owner of a magical and healing voice. In some fairy tales, he appears before us as a huge and strong, insidious and evil creature, ready to deal with anyone who cannot cope with his witchcraft. The heroes of many epics go in search of a scary cat. But only the most courageous and cunning manage to catch the sorcerer cat.

Can we say that the mythical Cat Bayun really existed? Did he have a real prototype and what kind of “healing” animal do our ancestors talk about? Or maybe he is a collective image of several animals?

In search of a real prototype

Finding a prototype of a fairy-tale character is like playing riddles. All descriptions of the hero are questions that need to be answered. To identify the animal or animals that claim to be the man-eating cat, consider the image of Bayun created in fairy tales.

This character lived in a dead forest, where besides him there was no other living creature. Sometimes he was placed in the Far Far Away Kingdom, located thirty lands away, and was called the master of this territory.

You could see him sitting on a high, sometimes iron, pole.

Bayun had enormous size and a magical voice that could be heard far away. Only a fellow from the weakest ten could overcome him. This speaks of the remarkable strength of the beast.

The tales of Kot Bayun were considered healing, having the ability to save a person from any disease.

But Bayun’s most striking property, perhaps, was cannibalism.

In Russian fairy tales, the “far-off kingdom of thirty lands” was a name for lands that could be reached by passing three dozen lands. That is, these are very distant, almost inaccessible territories. What are these places? The countries surrounding Russian possessions from the north, south and west were familiar to the Russians. With them they had long had trade, political and cultural relations. Only the lands beyond the possessions of the Pechenegs were unexplored. Then maybe it was Siberia and the Far East?

Quite possible. Russians first began to penetrate Siberia in the first half of the 11th century. This is what the chronicles testify, but in fact, our ancestors could have ended up there earlier. Novgorodians made voyages to the Siberian lands on boats from White Sea to Karskoye, and then down the Ob, Yenisei and other rivers. They swam for valuable furs, which were bought from local residents - Kets, Yakuts, Tuvans, Evenks, Buryats and others.

From these same peoples, Russian merchants could hear about a Siberian or Far Eastern beast, which in folk tales was transformed into Kota-Bayun. The story that he sits on a high pole immediately brings to mind a lynx. In taiga stories by hunter writers, this predator attacks prey from a tree. There she sits in ambush for a long time. But there has never been a known case of a lynx attacking a person - it is too small to cope with it. She can't be a cannibal. This means that Bayun borrowed his enormous size, strong voice and remarkable strength from another predator.

The animal that most likely laid the foundation for such tales and legends is the Amur or Ussurian tiger. The following facts speak in his favor. Firstly, in those distant times, the habitat of tigers was much wider than today. This formidable predator could be found in the east Central Asia to Alaska, in the south of the Siberian region and even on the coasts of the Caspian Sea.

Secondly, the tiger is the largest of the cats. At the withers it reaches a meter in height, and its body weight reaches 350 kg. The tiger is so strong that it does not tolerate any competitors in its habitat. His possessions are abandoned by all others beasts of prey– wolves and even bears. Traveler and geographer V.K. Arsenyev wrote about this more than once in his books dedicated to wild lands Far East. Here is the real ruler of the distant lands of the “Far Far Away Kingdom”! And tracking down and defeating the most formidable and largest taiga predator was indeed a great feat worthy of legend!


Thirdly, the Amur tiger has a strong and loud roar that can be heard for kilometers around. This is how this predator warns competitors about its presence. Also, as a representative of the cat family, he can purr with pleasure. Since ancient times, the Slavs considered a cat’s purring to be healing. Perhaps this property was attributed by analogy to Amur tiger.

Fourthly, regarding cannibalism. This quality is often famous Bengal tiger. And then, only old and sick predators attack people, unable to track down and kill large and strong prey.

The same applies to the Amur tiger. Possessing enormous strength and size, he, even sick and weakened, can easily defeat a person armed with a spear or knife. After all striped predator hunts the largest ungulates: wild boars, deer and even giant elk. And in difficult times winter time he can take a bear out of the den. And when food becomes very scarce, the tiger is not afraid to approach human settlements and attack domestic animals.

But how could a lynx and a formidable tiger turn into a domestic cat in Russian legends?

Imagine, a Novgorod merchant returned from distant Siberia with furs and began to talk about the miracles he saw and heard there. When telling stories about the man-eating tiger, he could compare it to the European lynx. And for those who have not seen a lynx, he could explain that the tiger is like the domestic red Kuzka, only the size of a horse. So Kot-Bayun united three different animals.

The image of a bear in Russian folk tales is often different from the bear living in nature. If you study the literature about animals and their habits, the bear will appear as powerful, strong and smart predator, master of the taiga, king of the Russian forests, clumsy in appearance, but that’s only in appearance. Having met a person one on one, a bear never will attack first, if he or his offspring are not in danger.

In fairy tales, on the contrary, the bear is often described from a diametrically opposite side, although in each fairy tale it appears differently and is also called differently.

Bear in Russian folk tales

Images of a bear from folk tales

Based on how the bear is called in the fairy tale, such a character will appear before us - positive, negative, stupid, trusting, kind or sympathetic.

• Bear names: Misha, Mishutka, Mishka, Mishenka.
• First and middle name: Mikhailo Potapych, Mikhailo Ivanovich.
• Respectful nickname: Father Bear.
• Mocking nicknames: Toptygin, Kosolapy.

One of the first known Russian-Slavic fairy tales about a bear is the fairy tale “The Linden Leg Bear.” In this story, the bear is described as an evil predatory animal that takes revenge on its offender, a peasant, by depriving him of his life. The tale is instructive in the sense that a powerful animal must be respected and revered, otherwise you can lose the most precious thing in life.

Other fairy tales, such as “Tops and Roots”, “Masha and the Bear” talk about laziness, stupidity and the same inherent strength of the beast. The bear is lazy, but tries to get his share or forces others to work for him without lifting a finger. The stupidity of the character lies in the fact that he is easily deceived, having certain skills and knowledge.

A gullible, stupid bear, who is easily deceived by others, in the fairy tales “Beasts in the Pit”, “The Fox and the Bear”, “The Bear and the Mosquito” and even “Kolobok”, known to everyone from childhood. Not only does the fairy-tale hero in them lose his wealth, after which he admits his guilt, although this is not so, but he also loses his life due to illiteracy. This character trait of the animal is also described in the fairy tale “Teremok” - here the bear, in addition, demonstrates its considerable strength and clumsiness.

An amazing combination of the qualities of strength and cowardice is shown in the fairy tale “The Hare's Hut”, when a strong, powerful beast at first glance turns out to be a real coward, incapable of a worthy act.

But there are Russian folk works where people show respect for the mighty beast, and there are quite a few of them too. “The Bear and the Dog”, “The Frog Princess”, “Daughter and Stepdaughter” and many others. In these fairy tales, our bear is strong, kind and sympathetic. He will always come to the aid of a person or another animal. The bear here does not remain to watch from the sidelines the torment of his neighbor, but, using force, given by nature, will solve the problem, help you overcome all difficulties and take the weak under your wing.

Surgut district, Lyantor, MBOU "LSOSH No. 3", 3rd grade

Introduction

Since ancient times, the forest owner, the bear, has lived next to man. He was imprinted with his clumsy appearance in many folk tales, each of which reflects folk beliefs, way of life, culture and, what is important for our research, the relationship of a person to a bear. How do the Khanty people portray the owner of the forest? How is he presented in Russian fairy tales?

The choice of the topic “The image of a bear in Khanty and Russian folk tales” is explained by the fact that we live in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, and when we got acquainted with the local oral folk art, we became interested in how similar Russian and Khanty fairy tales about the bear are, how its clumsy appearance can be traced in many folk tales, each of which reflects folk beliefs, life, and culture. For our research, it is important to identify a person’s attitude towards a bear and trace how this is reflected in fairy tales. We decided to compare works in which the main character is a bear. The purpose of the work was to characterize the image of the bear in Russian and Khanty folk tales and compare the attitude of the Khanty and Russians towards the bear. The object of the study is Khanty and Russian fairy tales, the subject of the study is the bear as a fairy-tale character. During the study, a comparative analysis of fairy tales was carried out and similarities and differences in the depiction of the fairytale bear were revealed. The material we have collected will contribute to a better understanding of the works and characters of the heroes, expanding knowledge about the traditions of the Russian and Khanty peoples.

Bear in the mythology of the ancient Slavs and Khanty

Among the Slavs, like all inhabitants of the forest belt, the bear was surrounded by exceptional reverence. His strength, far superior to that of any forest dweller, his dexterous climbing of trees aroused the admiration of ancient hunters, and the cases of walking on his hind legs made him look like people. It was believed that if you remove the skin from a bear, it will look like a person: The male is like a man, and the female bear has breasts like a woman. He has human feet and fingers, he washes himself, loves his children, rejoices and grieves like a man, understands human speech and sometimes speaks himself, and also fasts throughout the Nativity Fast (sucks his paw). Hunters noticed that a dog barks at a bear in the same way as at a person. All this was explained by our ancestors in no other way than family connection with bears, which is why the bear was the most revered animal among the ancient Slavs.

The bear is the only animal that does not have own name In russian language . This is due to taboo, the prohibition to say the name of a sacred animal. Medved - one who knows (knows) honey. In Russian fairy tales, he is called respectfully “Master” (fairy tale “Daughter and Stepdaughter”), or mockingly: “You crush everyone,” “Opress everyone” (fairy tale “Teremok”), “There is a log at the den,” “Forest oppression” (fairy tale “Teremok”). Tower of the Flies"), "Bear-Father" (fairy tale "The Man and the Bear"), "Clubfooted" (fairy tale "Kolobok"), and even more often - by name, patronymic and surname: "Mikhailo Potapychem" (fairy tale "Three Bears" ), “Mikhailo Ivanovich” (fairy tale “The Cat and the Fox”, “Winter Hut of Animals”) and, affectionately, “Misha” (fairy tale “Shabarsha”).

It was believed that the bear was closely acquainted with evil spirits that he is the devil’s brother or is subject to him as his master. At the same time, the devil is afraid of the bear; a bear can defeat a merman and remove the spell if he is led through a house that has been damaged.

Residents of the Far North also have a special attitude towards the bear: The bear, in the Khanty’s understanding, is not only a forest animal, but also an exalted being. When he lived in heaven as a child, he was irresistibly drawn to the earth. His father, the supreme god Torum, yielded to his son’s requests and lowered him to the ground in a cradle, instructing him to maintain order and justice here, and not to harm people. However, the Bear violates some of his father’s instructions, and the hunters kill him and, as prescribed by God, organize a ritual holiday in honor of the Heavenly Beast. By the way, northern residents always deny that they killed the Bear. The bear is not killed, but “brought down” from the forest to the village. Such faith in the totem, its power over the world, although it was a fantasy, it always seemed like some kind of real power. The bear was and remains a sacred creature for the Khanty, and even when dead they treat it with great respect. Indeed, due to his unearthly origin, he can not only die, but also be resurrected again. His name is also not mentioned out loud, calling him “He”, “Himself”, “Master”, “Beast”, “Guest”, “Old Man of the Forest” or “Old Prince” “Iki” - a male, “Imi” - a female ; bear skin - “soft clothing made by the mother” It is no coincidence that in the center of the Lyantor coat of arms, against the background of a silver hemisphere, a bear is depicted - a symbol of strength, power and justice. [29]

The image of a bear in Russian folk tales

In Russian fairy tales about animals, a bear often encounters a person: “The Bear is a Lime Leg”, “The Man and the Bear”, “Masha and the Bear”. The fairy tale “The Bear is a Lime Leg” is the oldest of Russian fairy tales about a bear. It tells how a man, in a fight with the “owner,” cuts off a bear’s paw and for this the animal takes revenge on him: it finds him and eats him. Here the Bear appears to be a terrible, cruel, vengeful beast who never forgives an insult: he takes revenge according to the rules of the tribal law: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The old man and the old woman are going to eat his meat, and he eats them, although among the Slavs the bear itself does not attack a person, and it poses a danger only when the person himself disturbs him: he pursues, injures, threatens his family. The bear in this fairy tale appears as a prophetic creature. The fairy tale teaches us to honor the beast.

In later fairy tales, the bear appears to be a stupid and gullible “neighbor” of a person, completely unfamiliar with peasant life: you can come to an agreement with him, you can outwit him. For example, “Masha and the Bear” or “The Man and the Bear,” where the bear plays the role of a landowner. He is the owner of the forest, has great strength and a rich fur coat, which is obviously why he was given such a role. These tales describe the life of captivity of the Russian people, the period of serfdom. Then the peasants paid quitrent (half a field of wheat) and worked corvée (worked in a bear’s house, sometimes it lasted 6 days). The bear decided when to let Masha go and how much to rip off the man. In this regard, it becomes clear not only the difficult life of the once free Russian people, but also why they constantly tried to outwit the bear, and even hunt it down with dogs. Most often in Russian fairy tales, the landowner is always stupider than the peasant; the image of the landowner, the bear, is also endowed with the same intelligence. However, in fairy tales“The Frog Princess”, “Daughter and Stepdaughter”, “Shabarsha” we observe that the bear manifests itself as a kind animal character, acts as a person’s assistant: it advises, helps to pass tests, etc. So in the fairy tale “Daughter and Stepdaughter” the bear releases a hard-working girl with gifts, thereby acting as a symbol good forces natures that value hard work and honesty.

In tales of forest inhabitants the bear is presented as a “forest governor”, ​​“master of the forest”. He has strength, power, but at the same time we see his frivolity, simplicity, limited horizons, and anger. All animals fear him, but most often he is deceived by them. We can see the gullibility of the bear in the fairy tale “Beasts in the Pit”, the bear believed the fox that she was slowly eating her entrails, ripping open her stomach, then he ripped open his stomach and died. But this might not have happened if he knew that he should not eat himself. The fairy tale “The Fox Midwife” shows the stupidity and gullibility of the bear. The resourceful fox deceived the bear: she ate the entire supply of honey, and even forced the owner himself to admit to something that he did not do.

The image of a bear in Khanty folk tales

In Khanty fairy tales it is said: “The Bear was the elder brother of people, the Elk was the middle brother, and the Crane and Swan were the younger ones,” therefore in fairy tales northern peoples he is presented as good-natured, hardworking, attentive to his younger brother- to a person. In the fairy tale and legend “Kompolen - the swamp spirit”, a bear lives in friendship with a person, takes care of him: he catches taimen for him, knocks cones off a cedar, goes to visit, tough year gives him his fur coat. The spirits of Evil cannot come to terms with this and deceitfully turn the Bear against the hunter: the swamp spirit Kompolen quarreled them, but wise people They say that the time will come, and the Bear will again be their brother, but this will happen when everyone forever drives out anger from their hearts.

Many Khanty tales are explained various phenomena. This is how the fairy tale “Mos Woman” explains the origin of the constellation Ursa Major(The motif of the deceased mother bear, who turned into a constellation together with her cubs, is widespread among the Khanty and Mansi. The Khanty in some cases speak of seven stars, of which the seventh is a bear, and on the sides there are two cubs) in this tale the Bear is the embodiment of maternal dedication , love, caring for your children. In the fairy tale “Grandma’s Grandson,” an explanation is given of where mosquitoes came from in the taiga. It was the boy who outwitted the evil bear Menk-iki; instead of jumping from a tree into its open mouth, he poured coals into it and burned the bear. The bear, burning, curses: “Let my ashes suck people’s blood.” His ashes, scattering in the wind, turned into mosquitoes.

The bear in the fairy tale “Island of the Seven Bears” is a sacred animal, younger son supreme god Num Turama turns out to be the object of man's revenge against the Sun, Moon and Wind. “... and the old man’s grief was so great that he killed seven bears with his shohar knife, one after another - each one - with the first blow! This is how the Island of the Seven Bears appeared.

In the fairy tale about animals “How the Chipmunk’s Back Became Striped,” Bear is told as the chipmunk’s older brother. “They lived very amicably, ate the same food, lived in the same hole.” The bear fed the chipmunk and did all the hard work, but pride and the desire to appear smarter than the other quarreled, and now the chipmunk has bear claw marks on his back.

For the Khanty, the bear is the owner of the taiga, and in fairy tales he does not tolerate noise in his domain, punishes those who create this noise, and, despite the fact that he has no enmity with people, he collects the children making noise in the forest in a bag and carries them to his den (fairy tale “The Bear and the Guys”).

Sometimes in fairy tales people took the form of a Bear in order to restore justice in the family of the “Make-Dead Nephew.”

Among the Khanty and Russians there are fairy tales with similar plots. For example, in the Russian folk tale “The Cat and the Fox” and the Khanty fairy tale “The Cat” main character His appearance in the forest created a big commotion. The bear, the owner of the forest, sends his charges to find out what kind of extraordinary guest has appeared in these places. In a Russian fairy tale, a wolf and a hare go “on reconnaissance,” and in a Khanty fairy tale, a wolf and wolverine go “on reconnaissance.” As a result, the bear had to pay for his innocence and cowardice: fearing that the cat would eat him, the bear climbs a tree and falls from there.

Unlike the Slavic bear, Khanty bear in folk tales he is portrayed without irony: he is endowed with good qualities: he is kind, hardworking, honest, and if he commits any wrongdoing, he cruelly pays for them (in the fairy tale “The Bear and the Guys” he dies from fear of being killed by people, in the fairy tale “Kompolen - the swamp spirit” was wounded by a man for believing evil rumors). In fact, this was the case among the Khanty: people hunted bears only as a last resort, when they began to destroy livestock. The fact is that only a sick or wounded animal could attack livestock, that is, one that could not get food for itself. And it became dangerous not only for domestic animals, but also for humans. In this case, hunting such an animal was simply necessary.

Conclusion

We came to the conclusion that in Russian folk tales the Bear most often plays the role of an imperious but stupid landowner or a greedy but simple-minded forest owner who is easy to deceive, and in Khanty folk tales the Bear plays more positive qualities: hard work, motherly love, honesty, friendship. Many are associated with his image natural phenomena. It is obvious that the Khanty love, honor, and treat the Bear with a feeling of deep respect.

Difficulty in identifying relationships modern man to the fairy-tale bear it seems that few people have read Russian folk tales, where the main character is the Bear, and modern readers are practically unfamiliar with Khanty tales about the Master. During the study, we conducted a survey among students of class 3 “A” of Lyantor school No. 3. (see Appendix No. 1)

24 out of 25 students coped with the task of listing the names of Russian fairy tales about the bear. Only 9 people were able to name Khanty fairy tales about the bear, but only 4% of the students were able to complete the scope of the task total number students (see Appendix No. 2)

The survey results showed that in Lately we don’t think about the character of the heroes and their meaning, but every fairy tale, every image carries within itself folk wisdom, which we do not always see and understand.

Literature

1. Grandmother's grandson. Tales of the Khanty people. / Comp., . – St. Petersburg: “Alphabet”, 1995.

2. Daughter and stepdaughter. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

3. Woman Mos. Myths, legends, fairy tales of the Khanty. – St. Petersburg, 1990

4. Animals in the pit. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

5. Winter quarters for animals. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

6. Kolobok. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

7. Kompolen - swamp spirit. Myths, legends, fairy tales of the Khanty. – St. Petersburg, 1990

8. Korinfsky A. People's Rus'. – M.: White City, 2007.

9. Cat. Tales of the peoples of the North / Comp. . – St. Petersburg: “Alphabet”, 1995.

10. Cat and fox. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

11. Fox midwife. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

12. Masha and the bear. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

13. Bear and guys. Tales of the Khanty people. / Comp., . – St. Petersburg: “Alphabet”, 1995

14. Bear – fake leg. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

15. Mythological Dictionary / Ch. ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990.

16. Myths, legends, fairy tales of the Khanty. http://*****/books/item/f00/s00/z0000038/st034.shtml

17. The supposedly dead nephew. http://*****/author/varvara_zelenec/varvara_i_zolotaya_baba/read_online. html? page=7

18. Man and bear. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

19. Island of the Seven Bears. Myths, legends, fairy tales of the Khanty. – St. Petersburg, 1990

20. Fishermen of the ancient Slavs. – M.: Russian word, 1997.

21. Tales of the peoples of the North / Comp. . – St. Petersburg: “Alphabet”, 1995.

22. Tower of flies. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

23. Teremok. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

24. Three bears. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

25. The princess is a frog. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

26. Shabarsha. Russian fairy tales: From the collection. . – M.: Artist. lit., 1987

27. Shan Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language. Origin of words/ , . - 7th ed., stereotype. - M.: Bustard, 2004.

28. http://*****/books/item/f00/s00/z0000038/st034.shtml

29. http://www. *****/russia/subjects/towns/lantor. htm.

Application

Questionnaire “Tales of the Bear”

1) Name the Russian folk tales you know, where the main character is a bear.

2) List the positive and negative qualities of the bear in Russian fairy tales.

3) Name the Khanty folk tales you know, where the main character is a bear.

4) List the positive and negative qualities of the bear in Khanty fairy tales.

About our smaller brothers

Answers to pages 16 - 17

Konstantin Ushinsky
Rogue cat

Once upon a time there lived a cat, a goat and a ram in the same yard. They lived together: a tuft of hay and that in half; and if a pitchfork hits the side, it will hit Vaska the cat alone. He is such a thief and robber: where anything bad lies, he looks there. Here comes one purring little cat, a gray forehead; He goes and cries so pitifully.
They ask the cat, goat and ram:
- Kitty, little gray pubis! Why are you crying, jumping on three legs?
Vasya answers them:
- How can I not cry! The woman beat me and beat me; She tore out my ears, broke my legs, and even had a stranglehold on me.
- Why did such trouble come to you? - the goat and the ram ask.
- Eh-eh! For accidentally licking the sour cream!
“The thief’s share of the flour,” says the goat, “don’t steal the sour cream!”
Here the cat is crying again:
- The woman beat me, beat me; she beat me and said: my son-in-law will come to me, where will I get sour cream? Inevitably, you will have to slaughter a goat or a ram.
Here a goat and a ram roared:
- Oh, you gray cat, your stupid forehead! Why did you ruin us?
They began to judge and decide how to get rid of the great misfortune, and decided right there: all three of them should run away. They waited until the landlady did not close the gate, and left.

II

The cat, the goat and the ram ran for a long time through the valleys, over the mountains, over the shifting sands; they landed and decided to spend the night in a mown meadow; and in that meadow there are stacks like cities.
The night was dark and cold: where could I get fire? And the purring cat had already taken out birch bark, wrapped the goat’s horns and ordered him to collide head-on with the ram. A goat and a ram bumped into each other, sparks flew from their eyes: the birch bark began to burn.
“Okay,” said the gray cat, “now let’s warm up!” - and without thinking for long, he lit a whole haystack on fire.
Before they had time to warm up enough, an uninvited guest came to them - a gray peasant, Mikhailo Potapych Toptygin.
“Let me in,” he says, “brothers, warm up and rest; I can't do something.
- Welcome, gray little man! - says the cat. - Where are you going from?
“I went to the beekeeping,” says the bear, “to check on the bees, but I got into a fight with the men, which is why I pretended to be ill.”

III

So they all began to while away the night together: the goat and the ram were by the fire, the little purr climbed onto a haystack, and the bear hid under the haystack.
The bear fell asleep; the goat and the ram are dozing; Only the purr does not sleep and sees everything. And he sees: seven gray wolves are walking, one is white, and straight towards the fire.
- Fu-fu! What kind of people are these! - speaks White Wolf goat and ram. - Let's try the force.
Here a goat and a ram bleated out of fear; and the gray forehead of the cat made the following speech:
- Oh, you, white wolf, prince of wolves! Don't anger our elder: God have mercy, he is angry! How divergent it is - no one will be happy! But you don’t see his beard: that’s where all his strength lies; He kills all the animals with his beard, and only removes the skin with his horns. Better come and ask with honor: we want to play with your little brother who sleeps under the haystack.
The wolves on that goat bowed; They surrounded Misha and started flirting. So Misha steadied himself and steadied himself, and as soon as there was enough for each paw of the wolf, they sang Lazarus. The wolves emerged from under the stack barely alive and, with their tails between their legs, “God bless your legs!”
The goat and the ram, while the bear was dealing with the wolves, picked up the purr on their back and quickly went home! “It’s enough, they say, to wander around without a path, we won’t get into such trouble.”
The old man and the old woman were very happy that the goat and ram returned home; and the purring cat was also torn out for trickery.

1. What is the name of the cat in the fairy tale? Write it down.

Little rogue, purring little cat, gray forehead, little cat, little gray forehead.

2. How can you say it differently? Write it down.

To judge and to rank - to reason.
Sing Lazarus - complain, cry.
Rogue - sly, deceiver.

3. Collect the riddle ⇒ and guess. Write down the answer.

He sleeps in a den ⇒ in winter
Under the huge ⇒ pine,
And when will he come ⇒ spring,
Wakes up from sleep. (Bear)

4. Who came to visit the cat, the goat and the ram? Write down the “first name”, “patronymic” and “last name” of the guest.

Mikhailo Potapych Toptygin.

5. Make a plan for the fairy tale (write it down or draw it). Prepare a retelling.

1. Escape of a cat, goat and ram.
2. Guest, Mikhailo Potapych Toptygin.
3. The bear's reprisal against the wolves.

6 ∗ . Complete the sentence with words from the text. How did you react to the return of the goat, ram and cat? Emphasize.

When asked how long ago folk tales appeared, folklorists do not give an exact answer and argue that the historicism of folklore is not equal to a direct reflection of history. Nevertheless, both historians and folklorists are able to approximately determine, based on a number of signs, the time of occurrence of some fairy tales.

Morozko and Baba Yaga

These characters came to Russian folklore almost from primitive times. Experts see signs in Baba Yaga ancient goddess, which combines the features of the mistress of the kingdom of the dead and the mistress of beasts. She has a bone leg. For many Indo-European peoples, such lameness is a sign of belonging both to this world and to the otherworldly kingdom. The image of Baba Yaga is characterized by dualism - she can be both an evil witch and a good helper, which is also a reflection ancient ideas about the spirits of nature.
Visit to the witch young hero(girls-stepdaughters, Ivanushka, etc.) folklorists interpret as echoes the most ancient rite initiation, transition from childhood to adulthood. Baba Yaga puts the hero on a shovel and threatens to send him into the oven to eat him later. According to the beliefs of many peoples, initiation is the death of a child who must be reborn into an adult. Folklorists, including S. Agranovich, interpret the story about Morozko as an “ice” version of the “fiery” death of a teenager in an oven. The father takes turns taking his daughters to winter forest and leaves it there all night without fire. The girl’s task is to endure the cold ordeal and survive in the forest. The one who succeeds receives a dowry, that is, the opportunity to get married as an adult. The other one, who turns out to be not so persistent, does not receive a dowry. In the most archaic version of the tale, the evil sister dies in the forest.

Subjects related to the bear

Among the most common stories related to the bear is the tale about a girl who found herself in a bear’s den, but managed to outwit the beast, forcing him to carry her home (“Masha and the Bear”). The second famous plot is “The Bear is a Lime Leg.” In many ways, the bear can be interpreted as an ancient totem animal of the Slavs. This is evidenced by the fact that even in ancient times our ancestors were careful not to call the bear by its true name, resorting to the allegory: “knowing honey.” The real name of this beast is probably akin to the German “ber”, hence the word “berloga” - “ber’s lair”. The plot about a girl who finds herself in a den can be seen as echoes of ancient sacrifices to the owner of the forest.
The story of an old man and an old woman is devoid of a happy ending - this is one of the most terrible Russian fairy tales with which our Slavic ancestors used to scare each other on dark nights. The old man was guarding the garden and managed to cut off the paw of a bear who had gotten into the habit of stealing turnips, which he brought home. The old woman began to boil the beast's paw in a cauldron. And the bear made himself a paw from a linden stump and went to the old people's house. He sings an eerie song about an old woman who “sits on his skin, spins his wool, cooks his meat.” The old man rushes to close the door, but it’s too late - the bear is on the threshold! Folklorists see here a motive for insulting the totem animal and punishing such sacrilege. Totemism, sacrifices - all this takes us back to primitive communal times.

Serpent fighting motif

Our folklore knows a lot of fairy tales, the main plot of which is the motive of a battle with a snake or other monster. These stories also have ancient origin. Linguist Toporov traces the motif of snake fighting, which appears in the fairy tales of many peoples, to the main myth that emerged in that era when the Indo-Europeans were still a single people. The myth tells of the struggle between the thunder hero and the chthonic serpent. Since the division of the Indo-Europeans into separate peoples began around the 3rd millennium BC, we can date the origins of tales about snake fighters to around this time.
However, another theory dates their plot to a closer time, to the era of the first clashes of the Proto-Slavs with the steppe nomads. Academician Rybakov dates this event to approximately the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. Clashes with the Cimmerians, Sarmatians, Alans, then with the Pechenegs and Cumans gave rise to stories about battles with a snake (sometimes the enemy is called Miracle Yudo). At the same time, dating is simplified by the fact that sometimes the winner of the monster is not a warrior, but a wonderful blacksmith. The appearance of blacksmithing was considered by our ancestors as a kind of witchcraft, and the blacksmiths themselves were considered powerful sorcerers. These ideas date back to the dawn of the development of metallurgy among our ancestors, that is, around the same time. The blacksmith defeats the serpent, throws a yoke on it and plows furrows, which will later receive the name “Serpentine Shafts”. They can be seen in Ukraine even now. If the theory is correct that these ramparts are associated with the name of the Roman emperor Trajan (another name for them is “Trajan’s Ramparts”), then this speaks of the 3rd-2nd centuries BC.