Русские народные и английские народные сказки

“A folk tale is the great moral culture of people, which we put together by little bits, and the thousand-year history of the people is disclosed in front of us” .
A. N. Tolstoy

“What a charm these tales!”

A.S. Pushkin

We can say that Russian folk tales are the encyclopedia of the Russians, which reveals the sense of their history, routine and ideology to us. Folk tales are taken from generation to generation, they give us wisdom and moral concepts of the nation. Our favourite folk tales are fairy tales and tales about animals.

Fairy tales 

 1. The main thing in the plot is a conflict between evil and kindness.
2. It the end of a tale the main character is a winner and his opponents are punished.
3. Characters have a general attribute which defines their image.

The characters of Russian folk tales are Ivan Tsarevich, Ivanushka-durachek, Koschey Bessmertny, Zmey Gorinych, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa Premudraya, Elena Prearasnaya , Alyonushka and others.

The favourite character of Russian folk tales is Ivan Tsarevich. He is a famous positive person, who fights with evil and helps the weak. He is often the youngest son of a king. He represents courage and good qualities.

Ivanushka-duracheck is also a very important character of Russian folk tales, he stands on the good side and light forces. His peculiarity is that he is not like other characters. He is not very smart, but due to his irrational behavior and unconventional thinking he goes through all the difficulties and becomes a winner. He defeats his opponents and gets the wealth.

It is remarkable that the word “duracheck” (or "fool" in English) did not characterize human mental abilities in the old days in Russia. The younger son was considered to be a “ fool”. But the word "fool" was understood as "another", "next" child.

Еvil in Russian fairy tales are most often represented by Koshey Bessmertny , Baba Yaga and Zmey Gorinych.

Baba Yaga is a character of Slavic mythology and folklore, the witch, she deals with magical powers. Most often she is a negative character.

Koschey Bessmertny in Slavic mythology is the evil character whose death is hidden in several united animals and things.

Zmey Gorinych is a fire-breathing dragon with multiple heads, the representative of the evil forces in Russian fairy tales. Zmey Gorinych usually lives in the mountains.

An important place in Russian folk tales is given to women - beautiful, kind, intelligent and hardworking. They are Vasilisa Premudraya, Elena Prekrasnaya , Alyonushka and others. These women characters often own any magical items or know how to use miraculous powers.

The most ancient.
Animals act and behave like people.
The animal is characterized by a few main
traits.

Folk tales about animals

the strongest
the totem of the Russians
the authority

tricky
clever
 a liar

stupid
greedy

self-confident
careless
naughty
breaks rules

weak
needs help

fair
smart
eloquent

English folk-tales were collected and written down much later than Russian, German and French. The first collections of English folk tales appeared in the late 19th century. For the first time English folk tales were collected and published by Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916). It’s difficult to collect folk tales as many tales have been forgotten.

English tales

The characters of English folk tales usually are people of specific professions: farmers, peasants, merchants, wizards and noble persons.

Typical English characters

Deep and sometimes contradictory nature of Russian people is reflected in the character of Ivanushka-durachek the smartest of the three brothers he outsmarted Baba Yaga, went through all the hardships, married the Princess, got all the riches , won global evil in the form of Koschey Bessmertny.

The characters of some English fairy tales are not always kind, they are capable of trickery and deception, though they are sensible and energetic - traits that are valued in England, where market relations began to develop for the first time in the world. For example, cheating man-eating giants, the girl Molly in the story "Molly Whuppie" and Jack in the folk tale "Jack and the Beanstalk".

The driving force of English folk tales

The main driving force of the actions of English characters is not to become famous but to become stronger and wiser, and to avoid any failure. Recall, for example, the tale "Mr. Mike," in which a little boy Tommy is struggling to behave well, not to get to Mr. Mike for dinner. Often for this reason English tales are considered to be very ordinary.

The outcome of English folk tales

There is not always a happy end, remember "Lord of lords". The ending is dramatic and even sometimes cruel: for example "Magic ointment". Intellectualism is not the most faithful companion of English folk tales. The stupidity can harmoniously coexist with kindness, morality and honesty within a single English character. We cannot imagine it in a Russian folk tale.

Russian fairy tales.

There is a worldwide feast, a gorgeous weeding or winning in the end of our folk tales. A character of Russian folk tale overcomes a lot of obstacles and solves many problems.

Happiness for an English character is in wealth after many different adventures. When a character finds treasures, a tale will end.

Russian writers and the English folk tales

Russian writers also took an interest in English folk tales. L. N. Tolstoy retold English tale “The three bears" for Russian children. S. V. Mikhalkov translated the famous English tale "the Three little pigs". 

Folk tales will live forever

A folk tale is a perfect product of the national` spirit, it is corrected by centuries before it becomes that thing which we see now. There are no odd things. Everything is necessary. That is why a folk tale is eternal. A lack of justice in our life make us read folk tales. Justice always wins in folk tales. We believe they will come true someday.

The end.

Thank you for attention.