At the Pike's Behest
At the Pike's Behest! | |
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Narodnye russkie skazki by Alexander Afanasyev | |
Related | Peruonto The Dolphin Half-Man Foolish Hans (de) Peter the Fool (fr) |
Emelya the Simpleton (
Synopsis
Emelya lived in a village on the shore of the
During the days and weeks the brothers were gone, the wives tried unsuccessfully to get Emelya to do work, until one day, they left Emelya with a choice: get water from the frozen river, or no dinner and no kaftan, red boots and red hat. At that threat, Emelya hurried on his way, and on reaching the river, he grumbled about his problems while hacking away at the thick ice. As he scooped water into the buckets, he noticed he had caught a fish: a large
Emelya was not careful to conceal his new talent for work, and soon the
At first, Emelya was horrified at the idea, believing a wife to be more trouble than it was worth. He agreed, though, and the wedding feast was held soon after, at which Emelya finally got down from his stove. During the feast, Emelya had terrible table manners, which convinced the tsar to finally rid himself of the obnoxious boy. A sleeping potion was added to Emelya's wine, he was thrown in a barrel and tossed into the sea, and his bride banished to an island in the sea opposite the palace. While floating in the waves, Emelya encountered his friend the pike, who allowed Emilyan to wish for anything his heart desired, since he had not abused his power. Emelya wished for wisdom, and when the pike pushed him to the island, Emelya fell in love with his wife. He had the hut on the island transformed into a beautiful palace, with a crystal bridge connecting to the mainland, so that his wife could visit her father, the tsar. With his new-found wisdom, he made amends with everyone, and thereafter lived happily and ruled well.
Translations
The tale was translated into English as Emelyan, the Fool,[1][2][3] Emilian the Fool,[4] Emelya and the Pike[5] and At the Behest of the Pike.[6]
The tale was also translated as By the Will of the Pike, by Irina Zheleznova.[7]
The tale can also be known as At the Wish of the Fish.[8]
English versions
The story was retold and translated into English with the title Foolish Emilyan and the Talking Fish by Lee Wyndham in "Russian Tales of Fabulous Beasts and Marvels", illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak.[9]
The tale was also published as a standalone book titled The Fool and the Fish, with illustrations by artist Gennady Spirin.[10]
The tale was retold as Ivan the Fool and the Magic Pike by James Riordan.[11]
Analysis
Tale type
The tale is classified - and gives its name - to the
19th century Portuguese folklorist
Predecessors
The tale first appeared in a German language compilation of fairy tales, published by Anton Dietrich in 1831, in Leipzig. Its name was Märchen von Emeljan, dem Narren.[18] Jacob Grimm, of his famed collection, noted its great resemblance with Peruonto.[19] The similarity was also noted by mythologist Thomas Keightley, in the 19th century, in his book Tales and Popular Fictions.[20]
Interpretations
Portuguese author José Teixeira Rêgo suggested that the story of Emiliano Parvo ("The Foolish Emelian") was "a deformed [narrative] of the flood myth". He also considered the text of Emelian the Fool as a more complete version of the story, which would allow him to formulate his hypothesis. For instance, he compared the episode of Emelyan meeting the pike in the ocean and its help to Matsya, pisciform avatara of Vishnu, being released by king Manu and, in turn, alerting the human about the upcoming great deluge and helping him reach terra firma.[21] He also compared the crystal bridge the pike produces with his magic to a rainbow the gods send the survivors of the flood.[22]
Variants
Folklorist Alexander Afanasyev compiled two variants of the tale about the magic pike wherein the protagonist is the foolish character.[23][24][25]
He also collected another version about the magic pike, but the protagonist is simply a humble man, instead of a stupid and lazy boy.[26][27][28]
Cultural legacy
The tale was adapted into the 1938 film Wish upon a Pike, four Soviet animated films (1938, 1957, 1970, 1984) and a Russian film from 2023.
See also
- The Fisherman and His Wife (German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm)
- The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (Alexander Pushkin's fairy tale in verse)
References
- ^ Steele, Robert. The Russian garland: being Russian folk tales. London: A.M. Philpot. [1916?] pp. 166-182.
- ^ Tibbitts, Charles John. Folk-Lore and Legends: Russian and Polish. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1891. pp. 58-75.
- ^ Dietrich, Anton, and Jacob Grimm. Russian Popular Tales: Tr. From the German Version of Anton Dietrich. London: Chapman and Hall, 1857. pp. 152-.168 [1]
- ^ Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian Folk-tales. New York: R. Worthington, 1878. pp. 269-272.
- ^ The Three Kingdoms: Russian Folk Tales From Alexander Afanasiev's Collection. Illustrated by A. Kurkin. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1985. Tale nr. 17.
- ^ Afanasyev, Alexander. Russian Folk-Tales. Edited and Translated by Leonard A. Magnus. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1915. pp. 274-280.
- ^ Vasilisa the Beautiful: Russian Fairytales. Edited by Irina Zheleznova. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1984. pp. 124-134.
- ISBN 978-9955-21-352-9
- ^ Wyndham, Lee. Russian tales of fabulous beasts and marvels. [New York, N.Y.]: Parents' Magazine Press, 1969. pp. 12-31.
- ^ Hort, Lenny. The fool and the fish: a tale from Russia. New York: Dial Books, 1990.
- ISBN 0 19 274536 0.
- ^ Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 174.
- ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 236–237.
- ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
- ^ Pedroso, Consiglieri. Portuguese Folk-Tales. London: Published for the Folk-Lore Society. 1882. pp. vii.
- ISBN 978-1-315-70007-6.
- .
- ^ Dietrich, Anton. Russische Volksmärchen in den Urschriften gesammelt und ins Deutsche übersetzt. Leipzig: Weidmann'sche Buchhandlung. 1831. pp. 171-186. [2]
- ^ Dietrich, Anton, and Jacob Grimm. Russian Popular Tales: Tr. From the German Version of Anton Dietrich'. London: Chapman and Hall, 1857. p. viii. [3]
- ^ Keightley, Thomas. Tales And Popular Fictions: Their Resemblance, And Transmission From Country to Country. London: Whittaker. 1834. pp. 303-336. [4]
- ISBN 0-19-512052-3.
- ^ Rego, José Teixeira. "Os animais agradecidos nos contos populares e o dilúvio". In: Revista de Estudos Históricos, v. 1 (1924), pp. 8-23.
- ISBN 978-1-62846-093-3
- ^ "Emelia the Fool." In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev: Volume I, edited by Haney Jack V., 429-38. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Accessed November 17, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.110.
- ^ Народные русские сказки (Афанасьев)/Емеля-дурак
- ISBN 978-1-62846-093-3
- ^ "At the Pike’s Command." In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev: Volume I, edited by Haney Jack V., 439-42. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Accessed November 17, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.111.
- ^ Народные русские сказки (Афанасьев)/По щучьему веленью
Bibliography
- Lee Wyndham, Russian Tales of Fabulous Beasts and Marvels, “Foolish Emilyan and the Talking Fish”
- Thomas P. Whitney (transl.), In a Certain Kingdom: Twelve Russian Fairy Tales
- Moura Budberg and Amabel Williams-Ellis, Russian Fairy Tales