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The Texts of the Tales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2021

Extract

I will introduce the texts with a few remarks on the geographical location of the provinces where they are found. Kola is a peninsula on the White Sea and part of the government of Archangel which extends along the Artic Sea from Finland to Siberia. Vologda lies south of Archangel, and Perm southeast of Vologda, both on the Siberian frontier. The three governments of Niži-Novgorod (Nižegorod), Vladimir and Tver follow each other (from the city that gives its name to the first) to a point between Moscow and Petersburg. The provinces of Kaluga, Tula, Tambov, Saratov and Astrachan extend from a point a little towards the south west of Moscow to the Northern extremity of the Caspian Sea; Voronež lies south of Tambov.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1891

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References

Note 22. page 11 The fox is feminine in Russian, hence I use the English word as a feminine in the texts.

Note 23. page 11 The letters on the margin refer to the synopsis of the simple adventures and motives given at the end of these texts.

Note 24. page 12 Other variants of the first four adventures are found in the governments of Vladimir and Tambov: in the latter the Wolf tears the Fox to pieces.

Note 25. page 14 Other variants in the governments of Perm, Niži-Novgorod and Saratov; the second has the Bear in place of the Worlf.

Note 26. page 15 The ‘popes’ (Russian pop—priest) are permitted to marry.

Note 27. page 17 The kissing of the cross, or gospel, is a familiar part of the ceremony of swearing in courts of justice.

Note 28. page 19 The Russian text has ‘blue coat’ and ‘red cap,‘ which I have replaced by officer's coat and soldier's cap in order to make the supposed misunderstanding possible.

Note 29. page 20 This story is inserted here because of its supposed relation to those preceding.

Note 30 page 22 Gusli is a kind of harp, and gusl ir a harper.

Note 31 page 26 Another variant occurs in, the government of Astrachan. The motive of the hunt appears here still more obscured.

Note 32 page 36 Note: Translated by Leger, p. 223 ff.

Note 33 page 38 The end of the story is the same as that given above.

Note 34 page 39 In another variant the old man hides over the door in a basket which drops at the moment when the Bear enters and causes him to flee.