E-mail: tgivanova@inbox.ru
Tel.: +7 (812) 328-19-01
4, emb. Makarova, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
Full Professor (Philology), chief researcher, department of Russian Folklore, Institute of Russian
Literature (Pushkin House), Russian Academy of Sciences
The paper considers an epic plot “mother sells her son” (the son is sold to sailors by his mother because of his bibulosity in taverns). Few studies of the plot by O. F. Miller, A. N. Veselovskiy, V. F. Miller, V. Ya. Propp and comments by B. N. Putilov and D. M. Balashov are reviewed. Specimens of the “starina” have been recorded at Vygozero and the Western White Sea coast and published in P. N. Rybnikov’s, A. F. Gil’ferding’s, A. D. Grigor’ev’s and in RNPKP (“Russian Folk Songs of the Karelian Pomerania”) collections. The author has analyzed 9 renowned variants, which constitute 6 separate redactions, i. e. plot versions. Versions are distinguished depending on the ending of the plot. The first presents an epic version, the second postulates a possibility of the hero’s moral improvement, the third articulates an impossibility of the hero’s moral improvement. According to the fourth version, the hero obtains magic features of a wizard, whereas the pattern of “Sadko” the “bylina” epics is used (the hero descends to the sea profound to visit Marine King). Two versions (the 5th and the 6th) elaborate lyrical themes of the Sorrow and of the “Talan” (happiness). The paper deals with the problem of genre attribution, does this “starina” represent a “bylina” (heroic epics) or a ballad? Despite of an extensive ballad component included (action isn’t attached to Kiev the epic capital; the conflict develops within a family; the hero has no heroic features typical of the “bylina’s bogatyr’”; ballad and lyrical topics and common places appear in the texts), the author proves the dominant epic nature of this specimen. Mother’s character is the key argument. She is named with typical “bylina” epic’s name of Ofim’ya Aleksandrovna. Whereas in ballads the cruel mother is an ominous figure, there in this song hero’s mother adheres behavior rules of the “bylina” epics and warns her son not to drink heavily in tavern, that reverberates the image of the wise mother.
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