From early childhood, we all read various legends, there were, inventions, epics. Folk art is an important integral part of our culture. What is the meaning of Russian fairy tales, not everyone thinks, and yet it is embedded in each work. Often the meaning is deep enough, it is impossible for a child to understand it - but for adults it can be very interesting. Let's try to plunge into the world of magical stories and understand what they really tell.
Relevance of the issue
In childhood, almost any person lives in a magical world where miracles and incredible events are possible, fantastic creatures and wizards live. The meaning of Russian fairy tales was to teach a person from a very early age to distinguish where is good and where is bad, what can be called evil and what should not be a place in our life. However, according to many, tales that have come down to our days from ancient times are today interpreted incorrectly. Some are sure that a detailed study of the texts will certainly allow you to find something new, to reveal hitherto unknown and secret information.
To find the meaning of folk tales for themselves, many begin to re-read them already in adulthood, when you can analyze the text, having a considerable everyday experience. Some admit that in this context, legends and epics are often terrifying, goose bumps from other stories, and the actions of the characters are such that they can cause nightmares. As many say, cruelty reigns in fairy tales, which is completely inappropriate in raising children. Indeed, they eat someone, kill others, threaten to bake the third alive. And Ivan is always a fool in fairy tales, and evil is almost invincible and omnipotent. But it’s not so obvious.
How does it all start
For the first time, a child meets fairy tales with a meaning at the most tender age - in the first years of life. Traditionally, the first stories told to a child are “Turnip” and “Gingerbread Man”. The first is quite easy, there are almost no cruel moments in it, but the legend about Kolobok in many adults gives rise to mixed feelings. The tale is narrated if you exaggerate the plot about a traveling bun, which everyone strives to eat, and the Fox succeeds in this. But the original version of the tale is slightly different. In ancient times, our ancestors in the evenings told their children a legend in which everyone they met plucked a small piece from Kolobok, only a crust got to Fox, which she ate.
Not everyone imagines what this narrative means, but almost any modern person will agree that the plot is very cruel. According to the researchers, the meaning of the tale of Kolobok is not very clear to us, because the analogies with which the characters were connected have sunk into oblivion. Both the turnip and the bun in the legends are symbols of the moon. The gingerbread man, which was bitten off a piece from time to time, showed how the moon was waning - because it also completely disappears, like the main character after meeting with Lisa.
On the other hand
The legend about the turnip is no less interesting and symbolic. In old times, this plant was associated with the moon, and the tale itself narrated about the movement of the celestial body and its transformations during the lunar month. All the heroes help to pull the turnip out of the earth, and it is moving slowly and very little by little - just like a celestial body. We can safely say that the story about the turnip, as well as the legend that tells about Kolobok’s journey, are astrological tales with meaning. They were invented in ancient times, to make it easier to explain to the child why and how the moon moves in the sky. The explanation for modern man is not the most obvious and understandable, but in many ways this can be associated with a change in the logical chains that people form, reasoning - apparently, in ancient times they were somewhat different.
No less interesting is the tale that tells about the hare's hut - it is also considered astrological. The roots of the Golden Scallop tale are similar. The rooster was a symbol of the sun. According to the plot, the fox approaches the window to call for the sun. Researchers of folk art say that a variety of creations of that period are generally characterized by an abundance of appeals to the sun - in many ways people's life depended on it. The fox grabs a rooster and carries it to distant lands. If we analyze the text from the point of view of a modern educated person, it seems that the path that the heroes follow is too far, completely unjustified. It reflects the journey of the sun through the sky. The fox symbolizes the night, stealing the source of light, and the cat reflects the morning, with which the heat returns.
But the legend about the hut of the hare, according to scientists who have studied folk art, was created to convey to the children how the seasons change. The fox symbolizes winter, while the hare is a summer image. The sun rooster helps the hare triumph over the winter fox, because the sun is stronger than the cold.
Yesterday Today Tomorrow
As experts say, in order to understand and perceive the meaning of Russian folk tales, one must be able to abstract from the world that is familiar to us. It’s easier to realize what the legends tell, if you can look at the structure of the planet from the point of view of a person who lived in former times - after all, it was then that fairy tales appeared that captured the features of everyday life. They were created to make it easier to explain to children how to interpret what is happening around. Some believe that in recent centuries, folk art has been deliberately distorted, so it is very difficult to correctly perceive famous works.
Even a single fairy tale was sometimes enough to convey to the child how the world around him works. Tales were intended to simplify explanation and learning. If we draw parallels with modern ideas, we can say that fairy tales are such archived data packets, passwords from which are known only to the elite. The importance of legends cannot be underestimated, since these epics transmit images from generation to generation. According to many linguists, the Russian language is very, very figurative, not only a set of letters and their combinations. Originally, language was formed as a system of images, the interpretation of which depended on the context. This is very clearly seen in fairy tales: there are a lot of options for assessing the meaning of one legend.
And if on an example?
Let us turn to the above-mentioned fairy tale about turnip. In addition to the described option, there is another meaning of this legend, and it is completely different from the one given earlier. As you can learn from some sources, there were more characters in this story before: father and mother were also present. Presumably, they disappeared, because the world began to be perceived according to the septenary system, although previously the base number for the Slavs was nine. The hidden meaning of the tale, as some modern scholars say, is to demonstrate to the child intergenerational relationships. The legend about turnips makes it possible to understand how life forms, time, and variants of existence interact with each other. Each of the participants is an image loaded with meaning. Grandfather symbolizes the wisdom of centuries, and his wife - housekeeping and household rituals. The father is a symbol of protection, and his wife is love. The girl shows the importance and inalienability of children in a person’s life, and the dog is a symbol of prosperity, because they start it only if there is something to protect. The cat reflects a good interior and harmony, and the mouse reflects family well-being. As you know, from ancient times they say that mice are not found where there is nothing to eat.
And not only!
Another version of the interpretation of the legend about turnip is astral. What is the meaning of the tale in mind, can tell many researchers of ideas about the supernatural. Presumably, the legend reflected how the soul enters a new level of development. A turnip that leaves the ground is a person escaping from the previous situation. A combination of characters is a set of conditions, the fulfillment of which guarantees the success of evolution. It is believed that the legends tells how to complete the planetary evolutionary stage and move on to the galactic one. To do this, according to the interpreters, it is necessary to develop six entities, indicated in the legend.
With this option of evaluating the meaning, the acting heroes are the bodies of one being, which in fact is the aggregate object of something real and spiritual. The number of souls depends on what level of evolution a person has stopped. There are similar theories regarding nesting dolls, where the inner. The smallest is the same turnip that symbolizes the physical essence of a person. The entities seem to be stacked one into another and do not intersect, as they are formed by different mothers. If you can develop them, you can step forward in the evolutionary plan.
Tales: for what and about what?
Surely many who read the tales of the Slavs and other peoples noticed one significant difference. If in foreign fairy tales the hero usually goes on a journey with the specific goal of finding a profession or discovering a great treasure, Slavic characters often go in search of something unknown, someone strange; in fact, the main impulse that moves the character is the desire for self-knowledge. On his way, he often deviates from the main straight line, helps others. Good-naturedness, compassion at the expense of striving for a certain goal is a cultural national setting that defines the context of legends.
According to the researchers, the main meaning of fairy tales is to explain to a person that the survival of a person cannot be called a priority, the most important is the life of society, kind. It is for this reason that the hero, on his way, seeks to help everyone and everyone. By the way, not just like that: subsequently, these characters come to his rescue. Legends tell that success can only be achieved if people are ready to unite.
About whom and for whom?
To understand the meaning of a fairy tale, you need to be able to correctly interpret the hero. Often in the tales of the main character they call a fool, but this word was not chosen at all to indicate the mental qualities of a person. The word has long become a household word, a folk. In general, it can be considered equal to the often used other name of the protagonist - a man. A distinctive feature of those who are called fools in fairy tales is their tendency to take risks, due to an insufficiently careful attitude to themselves. Tales often tell about how brothers go to the rescue of others, at a crossroads they are forced to choose something, and smart people prefer to go where they can find something for themselves, but only their fate in the end often ends badly. The fool, however, does not consider himself smarter than others, does not claim to be the best, so at the crossroads he can choose the worst option - and turn out to be the winner in the story.
If we turn to the meaning of the fairy tales “The Frog Princess” and others, telling about the adventures of the collective collective Ivan, you will notice that almost always the hero happens to meet someone wise and old, whose advice the character hears. This is also an important meaning of the story as a whole - it is designed to educate the younger generation to listen to elders. But the heroes, confident that they themselves know everything, can die without heeding the wise man’s hint. Knowledge, power are different qualities, and in legends this focuses on. The wisdom accumulated in the princess, the old man, and other characters is often characterized by inaction, but is readily surrendered to a fool. But what initially seemed to be the mind, in the course of the plot turns into true stupidity.
Strong, bold, cunning
To understand correctly the meaning of fairy tales, you need to be able to interpret the characteristics of the characters. For example, the heroes, who are so often told by legends, in fact, all are typical fools, because they are simple-minded, because there is no and cannot be cunning. The classic story tells how the hero defeats the enemy, and the cunning opponent takes all the merits. In the legends of the Slavs, strength with cunning cannot go one way, and exploits are available only to those who are not cunning. Therefore, a fool is lucky that he is not distinguished by such a character and a tendency to deception.
Quite curious are the calculations of people studying the meaning of fairy tales, regarding the typical image of the king. In most legends, she is either sick or old, or has some other shortcomings. It is believed that the image is aimed at increasing understanding of the importance of independent behavior. Anyone who can make decisions is considered good, but a king who is dependent on others is an object of constant deception. Being stupid, he is similar to a capricious child who constantly commits erroneous acts. The fool experienced by such a king successfully passes all the tests because he is hardened by difficulties, but the inspector himself is not ready for this - and suffers through his own fault. Admittedly, infantile characters in Slavic legends do not like - they are not good.
The Legend of the Chicken
One of the most beloved children's fairy tales tells about a chicken that laid a golden egg. As the researchers of folklore say, one can safely say that this is a fairy tale, which was invented in ancient times, for all fairy tales. The story is very short and simple, nevertheless lives in the people's memory and is passed on between generations. This is due to the images encrypted in it. As you can find out by turning to research papers devoted to finding the meaning of the fairy tale “Ryaba Kuroka”, an egg laid by a bird is a gift of higher powers to man, our life. The chicken symbolizes these very forces that give a person the opportunity to live, and give it to everyone only once. He who succumbs to evil cannot save his life and correct it - you need to be able to protect what is left. Parents, telling the tale to the children, thereby allow them to understand through images that there is nothing more valuable than life, and it must be protected by all means.
In many ways, the meaning of the story of the chicken comes to an understanding, if you remember that the characters are trying to break a testicle, but it just doesn’t work out for them - until the mouse runs past. Just a wave of a ponytail - and everything crumbled to dust. This is our life - there are external forces that seek to harm, and people themselves do not initially protect what they have. Time after time, the grandmother and grandfather cannot break the testicle, and finally there is a third source of strength that completes what they started.
For children and not only
The deep meaning of the fairy tale about the chicken, as some believe, is not even for children, and they can not understand it. The main characters of the legend are a prototype of a person trying to destroy herself by her own forces. Some underestimate themselves, scold for no reason. The spoons with which they try to break the egg are anxieties and problems, insecurity and irritability that bother the person. Such negative feelings sooner or later arise in the life of any person. At the same time, the egg as a gift of life symbolizes the need to be able to enjoy what is, and strive to do good. All negative emotions are the food of the mouse itself, whose tail will prove fatal to the egg.
To understand the meaning of the tale, it is worth taking a closer look at the image of the mouse. This animal lives underground, in the dark, where negative force nests. It is she who destroys human life if a person ceases to value it. One has only to think about the fact that it is possible to break an egg, and this mouse immediately comes. She easily does what people did not succeed, and now the characters are crying. In the context of this tale, an event means that a person saves his life, but there is no more light and happiness in it, it becomes ordinary.
From different sides
The meaning of the name of the tale is also curious, which immediately makes it clear who exactly is the central object of the tale. As the interpreters say, the hen symbolizes the higher powers, the creator and creator, the supreme deity. She gives everyone as much as he needs. A person may not be able to cope with what was given to him, and one has to live as usual, like everyone else, and others even feel devastated. To prevent this from happening, you need to value and protect the golden egg.
And geese and swans
No less curious is the meaning of the fairy tale “Geese-Swans”. The legend tells of a girl who did not look after her brother, stolen by birds. The plot of events is the need to return under the wing of parents. A fairy tale was invented to explain to children the importance of obedience, compliance with the prohibitions set by the elders. Researchers of former times know that the Slavs believed in the existence of the physical and spiritual world. In ancient times, they honored their ancestors, believed in a sacred world order and the need to overcome trials before entering an adult independent life. It is them that the plot of this legend shows, therefore, in it the child is carried away by geese-swans - white birds, symbolizing a new start in life and insight. These birds are as if on the border between life and death - as it was seen in antiquity. The swan, as you can see from extant sources, was perceived by the Slavs as a symbol of flowing water.