Long, Long Tales from the Russian North

University Press of Mississippi

Long, Long Tales from the Russian NorthAuthor(s): Jack V. Haney\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University Press of Mississippi, United States\nImprint: University Press of Mississippi\nISBN-13: 9781617037306, 978-1617037306\nSynopsis\nThis volume of folktales from the Far North of European Russia features seventeen works by five narrators of the Russian tale, all recorded in the twentieth century. The tales, distinguished by their extraordinary length and by the manner in which they were commonly told, appear to have flourished only in the twentieth century and only in Russian Karelia. Although the tales are easily recognized as wondertales, or fairy tales, their treatment of the traditional matter is anything but usual. In these tales one encounters such topics as regicide, matricide, patricide, fratricide, premarital relations between the sexes and more, all related in the typical manner of the Russian folktale. The narrators were not educated beyond a rudimentary level. All were ms