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Russian Folk Ballads and the Tale of Misery and Ill Fortune

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

William E. Harkins*
Affiliation:
Columbia University

Extract

The origin of the seventeenth-century Russian narrative poem, the Tale of Misery and III Fortune (Povest' o Gore i Zločastii) is one of the most vexing problems in the whole field of Old Russian literature. Though one ultimate source for the Tale can be found in the story of the prodigal son, for example, no immediate source has been discovered either in Old Russian written literature or in any foreign literature. More surprising (since the Tale may be a relatively original work, after all) is that the poem is unique in its own genre. Other Russian seventeenth-century tales are in prose, and are stylistically quite different.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1954

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References

1 Ršiga, V., “Povest’ o Gore i Zločastii i pesni o Gore,” Slavia, X (1931), 4066, 288–315.Google Scholar

2 See V. I. Černyšev's collection, Russkaja ballada (Leningrad, 1936), No. 295.

3 See Sonni, A., “Gore i Dolja v narodnoj skazke,” Kievskie universitetskie izvestija, XLVI, No. 10 (October, 1906).Google Scholar

4 See Markov, A. V., “Povest’ o Gore-Zločastii,” Živaja starina, XXII, Nos. 1–2 (1913), 1724 Google Scholar; also V. Rziga, op. cit., pp. 54–55.

5 Kostomarov, N., ed., Pamjatniki starinnoj russkoj literatury (St. Petersburg, 1860), I, 9.Google Scholar

6 Korš, F. E., ed., Povest’ o Gore-Zlošastii (St. Petersburg, 1907).Google Scholar

7 V. Ršiga, op. cit., pp. 40–50.

8 See N. P. Andreev, “Pesni-ballady v russkom fol'klore,” Russkaja ballada, op. cit., pp. xxxii–xxxviii.

9 Ibid., p. xxxv.

10 See Sobolevskij, A. I., Velikorusskie narodnye pesni (St. Petersburg, 1895–1902), Vol. I, No. 179.Google Scholar

11 N. P. Andreev, op. cit., pp. xix–xxv.

12 Ibid., p. xlvii.

13 Sobolevskij, op. cit., Vol. II, Nos. 422–26, etc.

14 Sobolevskij, op. cit., II, Nos. 422–26; V. I. Černyšev, op. cit., No. 299; P. V. Kireevskij, Pesni sobrannye, New Series, vyp. 2, č. 2, p. 203.

15 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, No. 246; II, No. 93; Černyšev, op. cit., Nos. 153, 154.

16 Kireevskij, op. cit., p. 105.

17 Ibid., p. 129.

18 From a manuscript in the possession of N. A. Popov, quoted in the Archiv für Slavische Philologie, VI (1882), 614.

19 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, Nos. 1–50; some variants are known as “Van'ka the Steward.“

20 A. F. Gil'ferding, Onežskie byliny (St. Petersburg, 1879), No. 184.

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22 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, No. 151.

23 Ibid., No. 356.

24 Kirša Danilov, op. cit., No. 33.

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26 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, Nos. 341, 343, 344.

27 Černyšev, op. cit., Nos. 74, 75.

28 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, Nos. 302–07.

29 Ibid., No. 293.

30 Černyšev, op. cit., No. 237.

31 Sobolevskij, op. cit., V, No. 715.

32 Ibid., VI, Nos. 576, 577.

33 Ibid., II, Nos. 53, 120, 121, 124, 125, 448, 449; III, Nos. 123–45.

34 Ibid., I, Nos. 1–5.

35 See Propp, V., Morfologija skazki (Leningrad, 1928).Google Scholar

36 V. Ržiga, op. cit., pp. 42–50 and ff.

37 Rybinkov, op. cit., c. I, p. 461.

38 Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, No. 358.

39 Ibid., No. 280; Rybnikov, op. cit., III, No. 259; Gil'ferding, op. cit., Nos. 263, 311; Černyšev, op. cit., No. 68.

40 Kireevskij, op. cit., VII, pribavlenie, p. 52; Rybnikov, op. cit., I, p. 461; Sobolevskij, op. cit., I, No. 174.

41 Černyšev, op. cit., No. 168.

42 Černyšev, op. cit., Nos. 39, 41, 48, 222, 249, 250, 251, etc.