Public-domain ebook
by Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal
Language: en1,277 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Children & Young Adult Reading·Mythology, Legends & Folklore·Russian Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #12851.
The volume is a collection of Russian folk narratives compiled by Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal, presented as a preservation effort against the “practical spirit of modern progress” that threatens the wandering bard and the nurturing nyanya. The opening essay frames the stories as urgent recordings of a vanishing oral tradition, aimed at letting American children glimpse the “magic world of the old Slavic nation.” The first tale, “The Tsarevna Frog,” introduces a princely family, an enchanted frog‑wife, and a series of impossible tasks that lead the hero through magical transformations, talking animals, and a final showdown with the Deathless Kostshei. The narrative proceeds in a straightforward, episodic style, moving from the prince’s arrow‑fate to the frog’s metamorphosis, the creation of wondrous loaves and rugs, and a quest that intertwines kindness to beasts with the retrieval of a life‑saving needle.
The language reflects a late‑19th‑century translation sensibility, blending formal diction with occasional archaic spellings (“Tsarevich,” “nyanya”) and a rhythm that echoes oral storytelling. Illustrations punctuate the text, reinforcing its fairy‑tale atmosphere. Readers who enjoy richly detailed mythic adventures, the moral logic of folk heroes, and the cultural flavor of Russian folklore will find this anthology rewarding, especially those interested in comparative fairy tales or the historical context of oral tradition.
The opening · free to read
In Russia, as elsewhere in the world, folklore is rapidly scattering before the practical spirit of modern progress. The traveling peasant bard or story teller, and the devoted "nyanya", the beloved nurse of many a generation, are rapidly dying out, and with them the tales and legends, the last echoes of the nation's early joys and sufferings, hopes and fears, are passing away. The student of folk-lore knows that the time has come when haste is needed to catch these vanishing songs of the nation's youth and to preserve them for the delight of future generations. In sending forth the stories in the present volume, all of which are here set down in print for the first time, it is my hope that they may enable American children to share with the children of Russia the pleasure of glancing into the magic world of the old Slavic nation.
THE AUTHOR.
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