Slavic Folklore

Front 1

Memorate

Back 1

subcategory of legend: personal experience story; narrator says he or she experienced it themselves. -most popular ones are about nighttime visits from domovoi

Front 2

Fabulate

Back 2

subcategory of legend: stories about events that happen to someone else, usually someone fairly close to the narrator (as in a friend, neighbor, or relative); a special category of fabulate tells about humans who have unusually close relations with an unclean force

Front 3

Religious Legend

Back 3

subcategory of legend: two types *take special note of dual faith in legends*
a. Creation Legend: how the earth/world was formed
b. Divine Wisdom or Elucidation of a Divine Mystery
most religious legends are from the 19th century
2. imagery of god is rare; most often it is the image of Christ or Mary
3. Display moral aspects rather than religious explanation

-Blood, motherhood, earth
-ritual obligation (what happens when you do something right or wrong)
-charity (rewarded for something given and punished for not giving something)

Front 4

Historical Legend

Back 4

4 types: 1. Creation- very specific places and towns, or topographical formations
2. Famous people- rulers v. outlaws
3. Common people with uncommon talents or skills
ex. Boris Godunov

Front 5

Contemporary Legend

Back 5

Deal with contemporary events (prominently the collapse of the Soviet Union); increased role of narrator and performer; fitted to a particular place/time/people (increases credibility); variety of topics
- Post-Folklore: (influenced by film, written word, songs, TV, etc.)
a. Prosaic: legends and anecdotes
b. Poetic: songs, lyrics, poems, romance, etc.

Front 6

Personal Narrative

Back 6

like narratives in the sense that they tell of events experienced by the narrator; unlike memorates, the experiences are quite personal and specific; the story structure comes from the event itself rather than from a traditional narrative pattern; the hardships of the WWII are typical topics in the narratives told in Eastern and Central Europe, the lands where Slavic people dwell

Front 7

Animal tale

Back 7

subcategory of Folktale: primarily animal actors, humans can appear but as peripheral roles; particularly Slavic is that the trickster character is often a female fox *very important* and she is cunning and conniving; dogs are seen as friends and wise

Front 8

Magic Tale

Back 8

a category of folktale: some kind of magical element; best known type of folktale; full of slavic tradition and ritual; see a lot of parallels between Slavic stories and Western culture; Baba Iaga is important element to magical tales

Front 9

Anecdote

Back 9

they focus on a distinctive event and tell about mundane events whereas legends focus encounters with the supernatural or describe momentous happenings; tell about a generic man and woman who may or may not have existed whereas legends deal with concrete individuals; popular today since they capture portraits of human frailties; cleverness is a theme that runs through a number of these stories (90%) and riddle-solving women appear frequently. Stories are humorous and the expression is through the narrator (imitates voices, gestures, etc.)

Front 10

Byliny

Back 10

epic poems of Russia: songs of "bygone" times; short epics; performers are not trained; lines are irregular; performers are usually herders; exaggerated and out of proportions; three cycles of Russian epic verse
i. mythological cycle: its heroes are either superhuman or seem ordinary but turn out to have exceptional attributes
ii. Kyivan Cycle: based on the 11th and 12th century, the heroes of this cycle (bogatyr) are more realistic in size and abilities and efforts have been made to tie them to real, historical figures; Vladimir plays a peripheral role and sends his heroes out on quests (he does not go by himself) - Ilia Muromets, Dobrynia Nikitich, and Aliosha Popovich
iii. Novgorod Cycle: pertains to a later time, when Kyiv was overrun by the Mongol invasions and the political and cultural center of Rus was moved North, becoming, eventually, Russia- Mongols are the enemies and Sadko is the main hero in this cycle

Front 11

Dumy

Back 11

Ukrainian Epic Poetry: performers are trained, only blind people accepted for training because they were thought to be closer to God (God closed their eyes so they could know the truth); used bandura as the instrument
1. Pick up where the byliny leave off, in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries (most dumy appear in this cycle) the Turks and the Tartars are the enemy and brave Cossacks ride out to do battle against them; heroes die quite often in dumy; the sea plays an important role- the Cossacks were expert seamen but when captive they were often used as galley slaves and the dumy tell about the horrors of rowing in the dark galley and about escape from slavery

Front 12

Historical Song

Back 12

center on recent events, shorter and more structured than epics, melodrama (the feelings they convey are more important than the information), heroes are realistic/small-scale, convey a national opinion, often about war or other social problems, "The Capture of Kazan" - gunpowder victory over Tartars

Front 13

Religious Song

Back 13

associated with professional minstrels; more like apocrypha in content and their form is almost identical to that of Historical Songs; Narrative and tell stories about religious figures rather than secular figures; most recount the lives of saints (such as St. Vavara); a number talk about the issues close to the lives of ordinary people (Last Judgement, being prepared for death, etc.); Parallelism - especially with weather and human emotions

Front 14

Ballad

Back 14

story songs and belong to everyone; still being produced today; ballads are shorter than epics or historical and songs - they are also more structures. i. stanzas with refrain OR there is a a couplet rhyme or a rhyme that stretches over a number of lines
content is further removed from history and ballads can be seldom tied to a specific time period or historical event, though traumatic events do stimulate the composition of new ballads; even MORE MELODRAMATIC than Historical Songs; rape, incest, adultery, infanticide, and unrequited love are common topics; the dying person often sings, at length, restating the entire situation and adding DRAMA

Front 15

Lyric Song

Back 15

non-narrative; describes emotions and landscapes; parallelism- describe a scene, then the emotions it stirs up; structured into rhyming stanzas

Front 16

proverb

Back 16

proverbs codify problematic, ambiguous, or upsetting situations, often in complex rhymed form; provide the answer, though often ambiguous; can be made to say whatever the speaker chooses; point out the contradictory nature of life; proverbs say to accept life with its flaws, and emphasize that it is useless to defy nature.

Front 17

riddle

Back 17

used in courtship as a test of metaphorical knowledge; ask a question in stylized language, require an answer; often a common household object; not for puzzling out but to see the other person's way of thinking

Front 18

Incantation/charm

Back 18

verbal component of folk medicine, often said over water, stylized language with occasional meter and rhyme; sometimes includes a distant island "Buian" where desired object can be found; during expulsion part of the charm, the affliction is sent further and further away into the world