PLOT TYPE 510B “PIGSKIN COVER” IN THE FOLKTALE TRADITION OF KARELIA

The article analyzes fairytales from the folklore fund of the Scientific Archives of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences concerning the plot type designated in the AT Index as 510В “Pigskin Cover” (AT 510B “Peau d’Asne” = “Donkey Skin”). This plot concerns a father who, after the death of his wife, wants to marry his daughter, as a result of which she is forced to run away. In the twentieth century, researchers from the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History, Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ILLH KarRC RAS) recorded such texts in Russian areas (Karelian Pomerania, the coast of Lake Onega [Zaonezhje], and the Pudozhsky area), where it was also told by Karelians and Vepsians. The plot is resolved in different ways so that it is possible to speak about the existence of several versions: “animal skin” (that is, “pigskin”), “pursuit of a daughter”, “the mute wife”, “the lantern”. At the same time, diversity is characteristic of fairytales in the Karelian tradition. The texts relating to the version about animal skin, told and recorded in the territory of the Republic of Karelia by Russians, preserve details of the Russian wedding ceremony. The mention of a pigskin (or other zoomorphic and ornithomorphic skins) is quite rare. On the other hand, the motif of a daughter forced to do dirty housework is almost always present, which associates the story with that of Cinderella.