The Magic Swan Geese
The Magic Swan Geese (
It is classified in the
Synopsis
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Once there was a couple who had both a daughter and a son. They left their daughter in charge of her younger brother, but one day she lost track of him and the magic
Baba Yaga sent the swan geese after her. She begged the river for aid, and it insisted she drink some of it first; she did, and it sheltered her. When she ran on, the swan geese followed again, and the same happened with the apple tree and the oven. Then she reached home safely.
Translations
A more literal translation of the tale's title is The Swan-Geese.[3] Bernard Isaacs translated the tale as Little Girl and Swan-Geese,[4] while Bonnie Marshall Carey translated it as Baba Yaga's Geese.[5]
Analysis
Tale type
The tale is classified in the
German scholar
Variants
East Slavic
The story is classified in the East Slavic Folktale Classification (Russian: СУС, romanized: SUS), last updated by scholar Lev Barag in 1979, as type SUS 480A*, "Russian: Сестра (три сестры) отправляется спасать своего брата, romanized: Sestra (tri sestry) otpravlyaetsya spasat svoego brata, lit. 'Sister (Three Sisters) goes to rescue her brother'". According to the catalogue, the type is reported in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.[9]
Russia
The oldest attestation of the tale type in Russia seems to be a late-18th century publication, with the tale "Сказка о Сизом Орле и мальчике" ("The Fairy Tale about the Blue Eagle and the Boy").[10][11]
Lithuania
Lithuanian folklorist Jonas Balys (lt), in his analysis of Lithuanian folktales (published in 1936), previously classified the Lithuanian variants as *314C (a type not indexed at the international classification, at the time), Trys seserys gelbsti raganos pavogtą broliuką.[12]
According to Stith Thompson's reworked folktale classification (published in 1961), tale type AaTh 480A* registered 30 variants in Lithuania.[13]
Latvian
A similar story is found in Latvia, also classified as type AaTh 480A*, Bārenīte pie raganas ("The Orphan in the Witch's House"): the heroine's little brother is taken by the witch to her lair. The heroine's sisters try to get him back, and fail. The heroine herself is kind to objects on her way to the witch, rescues her little brother and the objects protect her when the witch goes after her.[14]
Estonia
The tale type ATU 480A* is also reported in Estonia, with the title Kured viivad venna ära ("The Cranes Take the Brother Away").[15] In the Estonian variants, the heroine's little brother is taken away by cranes or geese.[16]
Mari people
Scholar S. S. Sabitov located a similar narrative in the "Catalogue of Tales of Magic from the Mari people", indexed as type 480A*, "Сестра отправляется спасать своего брата" ("Sister races to save her brother)": the heroine treats objects and trees with respect, which protect her when she escapes with her brother from the witch Vuver-kuva and her geese.[17]
Adaptations
1949, "
See also
- Labyrinth
- Prunella
- The Enchanted Canary
- The King of Love
- The Little Girl Sold with the Pears
- The Old Witch
- The Witch
- Hansel and Gretel
- Diamonds and Toads
- Frau Holle
- Ivasyk-Telesyk
References
- ^ Alexander Afanasyev, Narodnye russkie skazki "The Magic Swan Geese"
- ISBN 1-56324-490-X
- ^ "The Swan-Geese." In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. pp. 200-01. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.74.
- ^ Vasilisa the Beautiful: Russian Fairytales. Edited by Irina Zheleznova. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1984. pp. 109-114.
- ^ Carey, Bonnie Marshall (1973). Baba Yaga's geese, and other Russian stories. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 92–95.
- ISBN 9789514109560.
- ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
- ^ Haney, Jack V., ed. “COMMENTARIES.” In: The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. University Press of Mississippi, 2014. p. 501. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qhm7n.115.
- ^ Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. pp. 149-141-142.
- ^ "Сказка о Сизом Орле и мальчике" at Wikisource (In Russian).
- ^ "Старая погудка на новый лад: Русская сказка в изданиях конца XVIII века". Б-ка Рос. акад. наук. Saint Petersburg: Тропа Троянова, 2003. pp. 146-152. Полное собрание русских сказок; Т. 8. Ранние собрания.
- ^ Balys, Jonas. Lietuvių pasakojamosios tautosakos motyvų katalogas [Motif-index of Lithuanian narrative folk-lore]. Tautosakos darbai [Folklore studies] Vol. II. Kaunas: Lietuvių tautosakos archyvo leidinys, 1936. pp. 25-26.
- ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Third printing. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 [1961]. p. 167.
- ^ Arājs, Kārlis; Medne, A. Latviešu pasaku tipu rādītājs. Zinātne, 1977. p. 78.
- ISBN 978-9949-446-47-6.
- ISBN 978-9949-446-47-6.
- ^ Sabitov, S. S. (1989). "Сюжеты марийских волшебных сказок". Вопросы марийского фольклора и искусства (in Russian). 7: 30–31.
- ^ "Гуси-лебеди, 1949".