The Magic Swan Geese

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The Magic Swan Geese

The Magic Swan Geese or Гуси-лебеди is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki,[1] numbered 113.

It is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 480A*.[2]

Synopsis[]

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 swan geese snatched him away. The daughter chased after him and came upon an oven that offered to tell her if she ate its rye buns; she scorned them, saying she doesn't even eat wheat buns. She also scorned similar offers from an apple tree, and a river of milk. She came across a little hut built on a hen's foot, in which she found Baba Yaga with her brother; Baba Yaga sent her to spin flax and left. A mouse scurried out and said it would tell her what she needed to know if she gave it porridge; she did, and it told her that Baba Yaga was heating the bath house to steam her, then she would cook her. The mouse took over her spinning, and the girl took her brother and fled.

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]

Another translation of the tale, by Bernard Isaacs, was Little Girl and Swan-Geese.[4]

Analysis[]

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 480A*, "Three Sisters Set Out to Save Their Little Brother".[5]

Variants[]

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").[6]

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.[7]

According to Stith Thompson's reworked folktale classification (made in 1961), tale type AaTh 480A* registered 30 variants in Lithuania.[8]

Estonia[]

The tale type ATU 480A* is also reported in Estonia, with the title Kured viivad venna ära ("The Cranes Take the Brother Away").[9] In the Estonian variants, the heroine's little brother is taken away by cranes or geese.[10]

Adaptations[]

1949, "Soyuzmultfilm": a 20-minute animated film "Гуси-лебеди" by the directors Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya. It was repeatedly published on VHS and DVD in collections of the Soviet animated films.[11]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Alexander Afanasyev, Narodnye russkie skazki "The Magic Swan Geese"
  2. ^ Russian Wondertales. II. Tales of Magic and the Supernatural (The Complete Russian Folktale). Edited and Translated with an Introduction by Jack V. Haney. M. E. Sharpe. 2001. p. xlii. ISBN 1-56324-490-X
  3. ^ "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.
  4. ^ Vasilisa the Beautiful: Russian Fairytales. Edited by Irina Zheleznova. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1984. pp. 109-114.
  5. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 283. ISBN 9789514109560.
  6. ^ "Сказка о Сизом Орле и мальчике" at Wikisource (In Russian).
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Järv, Risto; Kaasik, Mairi; Toomeos-Orglaan, Kärri. Monumenta Estoniae antiquae V. Eesti muinasjutud. I: 1. Imemuinasjutud. Tekstid redigeerinud: Paul Hagu, Kanni Labi. Tartu Ülikooli eesti ja võrdleva rahvaluule osakond, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, 2009. pp. 579-580, 615. ISBN 978-9949-446-47-6.
  10. ^ Järv, Risto; Kaasik, Mairi; Toomeos-Orglaan, Kärri. Monumenta Estoniae antiquae V. Eesti muinasjutud. I: 1. Imemuinasjutud. Tekstid redigeerinud: Paul Hagu, Kanni Labi. Tartu Ülikooli eesti ja võrdleva rahvaluule osakond, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, 2009. p. 615. ISBN 978-9949-446-47-6.
  11. ^ "Гуси-лебеди, 1949".
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