A fairy tale, by the definition of scientists, is called a prose artistic narrative with an adventurous, everyday or magical theme and a plot structure oriented as a fictitious one. The fairy tale has a specific style that refers to its origins - ancient ritual roots.
Definition
Fairytale formulas are called stable and rhythmically organized prose phrases, a kind of stamps that are used in all folklore tales. These phrases at the place of their use in the narrative are divided into initial (or initial), middle (medial) and endings.
Fairytale formulas in a fairy tale fulfill the function of peculiar compositional elements, narrative bridges, transferring the listener from one plot event to another. They help the listener to remember the story and facilitate its retelling, as well as fill the fairy tale narrative with song.
The language of a fairy tale as a whole is characterized by a formula construction. So, the fairy-tale formula is a special conditional speech unit accepted by the audience as a given.
Initiative
This is a fabulous formula with which a fairy tale begins. It usually consists of information about the existence of heroes in which we are briefly informed about the characters - the characters in the fairy tale, the place where they lived (formulas with a topographic element), and the duration of the action.
The most popular and well-known example from folk tales: "Once upon a time ..." (the tsar with the queen, the old man with the old woman, etc.). Characteristically, these are brief preliminary data, and they are not particularly important for the plot.
This type of formula gives the listener an idea of fiction, since it tells us that a fabulous event did not happen today, not yesterday, but once "a long time ago", "in time immemorial."
At the beginning, there can be not only a temporary, but also a spatial reference, for example: "in one kingdom, a far-off state ...", "in one village ...", etc.
Non-specific, vague information provides both temporary and topographical reasons, preparing the listener (reader), tearing him away from the ordinary situation and indicating to him that a fairy tale, that is, a fictional story, is offered to his attention. The events of this story take place in an unknown place, in an unknown time.
Sometimes, in order to indicate that the world is unusual, the narrator could even introduce additional features of the real absurdity: “This happened when the goat horns rested in the sky, and the camel's tail was short and dragged along the ground ...” (Tuvan folk tale).
But this is not another world, because it has many features of the ordinary world (day is replaced by night, grass and trees grow, horses graze, birds fly, etc.). But this world is not quite real - in it, "a cat with moonshine sits on a birch," the invisible hat helps the hero disappear, offers treats a self-collected tablecloth. This world is inhabited by special creatures: Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych, Miracle Yudo, Nightingale the Robber, Kot-Bayun.
Many authors of a literary fairy tale, building their work in a folk poetic fairy-tale manner, with the same goals actively used fairy formulas as stylistically organizing elements. Here is a well-known example of the conception from A.S. Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish Pushkin:
"Once upon a time there was an old man with an old woman
At the very blue sea ... "
The saying
The function of another, preliminary conception was sometimes performed by a saying - a small text, a funny fiction. She was not plot tied to any particular fairy tale. As well as the inception, the saying was intended to lead the listener out of the world of everyday life, to tell him a fabulously unreal mood.
As an example, there is a saying from Tuvan folklore: "It happened when pigs drank wine, monkeys chewed tobacco, and chickens gutted it."
The famous folklore saying about the Scientist’s Cat, having transferred it to a poem, was included in his poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin.
Medial (median) formulas
The fabulous formulas of the middle can indicate the temporal and spatial framework of the agenda, that is, report on how long and where exactly the hero wandered. It can be just a message (“how long, how short it was”) or it can tell about the difficulties the hero (heroine) had to face in the way: “I trampled seven pairs of iron boots, gnawed seven iron loaves” or “three broke the iron staff. "
Sometimes the middle formula became a kind of stop in the story, indicating that the story was approaching the denouement: "Soon the fairy tale affects, but not soon the thing is done ..."
A small medial formula can indicate the location of the item sought by the hero: "high - low", "far - close", "near the island of Buyana" , etc.
Steady appeals of one character to another are also characteristic of a fairy tale. For example, fairy tale formulas of this kind are also included in the Russian fairy tale "The Frog Princess". Here is Ivan Tsarevich telling the Hut on chicken legs: "Well, hut, stand in the old way, as your mother set - before me, and back to the forest!" And here is Vasilisa the Wise, addressing her assistants: “Mother-nannies, pack up, get ready!”
Many of the fabulous formulas are of ancient origin. Although schematic, but they retain the ritual and magical features. So, we can guess the surprise of the guardian of the Kingdom of the Dead from the tales of the Indo-European peoples in the replica of Baba Yaga, which when meeting with Ivan Tsarevich cannot fail to notice: “Fuck you, well, you smell of a Russian spirit!”
Description Formulas
Widespread in fairy tales are portrait formula phrases that serve to describe characters and natural phenomena. Like the tales, they are as little attached to a specific story and wander from fairy tales to fairy tales.
Here are examples of fairy-tale formulas that serve to characterize a war hero’s horse: “The horse runs, the earth under it trembles, from both nostrils it burns with flame, from the ears it blows smoke.” Or: "His good horse is racing, he is jumping over the mountains and dales, he is letting the dark thickets between his legs."
The battle of the hero and his fabulous powerful enemy describes the fairy tale succinctly, but succinctly and colorfully. These are the fairy-tale formulas included in the story about the fight of the Miracle-Jude of the Six-Headed and the hero in the tale "Ivan Bykovich". We read in the text: "Here they came together, came to an equal level - they hit so cruelly that the earth groaned around." Or: "As the hero waved his sharp sword - one or two! - And he demolished all six heads of the evil spirits."
Sustainable formulaic descriptions of beauties are traditional for a fairy tale: “She was so beautiful that she couldn’t be described in a fairy tale” (from a Russian fairy tale). Or a portrait of a charming girl from a Turkmen fairy tale that would seem dubious to many today: “Her skin was so transparent that when she drank water, she could see through her throat, and when she ate carrots, she could be seen from the side.”
Ending
The final (final) phrases have different tales than the initial ones: they return the listener to the real world, sometimes reducing the story to a short joke. Sometimes the ending may contain a certain moral maxim, a lesson, contain worldly wisdom.
The final formula can briefly report on the future of the heroes: "They began to live, live, and make good ..."
And the most famous endings contain fairy tales where the adventures of the heroes end with a wedding feast: "And I was there, drank honey beer - it flowed from my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth ...". And the listener understands that the storyteller was not at the feast - for what kind of feast was it where they did not treat anyone? This means that the entire previous narrative is nothing more than a joke.
A fairy tale can end in another way, when the storyteller, as if putting an end to the story, announces: "Here is a fairy tale for you, and give me a bunch of bagels." Or: "Here’s the end of the tale, give the vodka koret."