In the darkness of millennia, in pagan times, fairy tales began to take shape. Depending on the talent of the storyteller, additional adventures of the heroes were added to them or, conversely, the excess was cut off. Each tale had many options. But most importantly, she taught that for a good person everything will end in good. Each tale had its own morality. Fairy tales were not recorded until the mid-18th century. The scientific interest in Russian folklore began in the 19th century.
“What a beauty these tales are!”
Following our genius, these words could be repeated by A.N. Tolstoy. Like all children of his generation, Russian fairy tales were close to him. Being already a famous writer, he repeatedly turned to folklore. In his youth, he published a collection of “Magical Tales”, then there were “The Little Mermaid Tales”, and only then the writer literary edited forty-three Russian fairy tales. Today we will consider a folk tale "Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka" (summary). The author for the people of our time is not a people, but A. N. Tolstoy, because in its processing she speaks to us in our language, without the use of outdated words and phrases. Its plot is extremely concise, and morality is clear to the youngest listeners.
Until we began to present a brief summary (“Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka”) of a fairy tale about the difficult life of her sister and brother, we will briefly talk about her author. Rather, about his life and work on fairy tales.
The life of a writer
Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1883-1945) was born in Nikolaevsk in the family of a count, the leader of the county nobility. The master of the word described his childhood and how he began to study at home in the wonderful story “Nikita’s Childhood”. His mother Alexandra Leontyevna also acts there. The teenager graduates from college in Samara, and then begins to study at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. Realizing that his calling is literature, he leaves his studies and begins to print a little. At first it was poetry, then Alexey Tolstoy drew attention to prose.
During World War I, he sends articles from the frontline to the rear. After the revolution, he went abroad for a long time. Living in Paris and Berlin, the writer yearns for his homeland. At the request of A. M. Gorky, he is allowed to return home. He is actively working on major fascinating novels that are the pride of our prose. But even at this time he manages to process Russian fairy tales. One of them, which was also loved by our Russian artists, we will now consider a brief summary. “Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka” is a short but instructive tale.
Listening to a fairy tale
The parents of Alyonushka and Ivanushka died. The sister was almost a girl, and the brother is still very small. The girl went to work and took her brother with her. We began to tell a short summary (“Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka”) of a fairy tale story. They go a long way under the hot sun. Ivanushka was thirsty. He wanted to drink some water from the foot of the cow hoof, and then from the horse’s footprint. But the sister explained that he would become a calf or foal.
Going further, it is getting hotter and hotter. They see a track full of water from a goat's hoof. Ivanushka did not listen to his sister that if he drinks water, he will become a kid, and he drank water. Alyonushka looked around, calls for a brother, and a white little kid runs to her. Trouble can always happen if young children don’t listen to their elders: mom and dad, brother or sister, aunt or uncle. Alyonushka sat down and burst into tears. A merchant rides past, stops and asks what the red maiden is crying about. Alyonushka told him everything. Then the merchant called her in and promised that they would not leave the kid. The summary (“Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka) of the tale continues safely so far.
What happened next
The girl married the merchant, and they began to live together together. Once the merchant left on business, and a witch came to the window of Alyonushka and affectionately began to call her to bathe. Alyonushka, not feeling anything bad, went after her. Here is another moral. You can’t walk neither big nor small for strangers, because the witch brought Alyonushka to the river and drowned. And she herself turned into a red girl, changed into her dress, and even the merchant did not recognize the substitution. One kid knew everything. He became sad, stopped eating and drinking, and started running to the shore, calling his sister back.
The witch discovered this and began to persuade the merchant to kill a kid. Tom is sorry, but he did not refuse the witch. The fairy tale “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka” continues so scary and dramatic, the summary of which we are now retelling.
How will the fairy tale end?
Kozlenochek took leave at the beach before his death and began to complain to his sister that he would soon be slaughtered and the meat cooked. Alyonushka replies that she cannot swim out, because the heavy stones are attached to her, the grass of her legs is tangled, and the heavy sand lies on her chest. The servant of the merchant heard this conversation, ran home, told everything to his master. Good people with nets came and dragged Alyonushka ashore. She was dipped into spring water, and Alyonushka became even more beautiful.
Kozlenochek three times (according to Russian beliefs this is a magic number) turned over his head and again became a pretty boy. The witch was executed for her atrocities.
So well the instructive and entertaining work “Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka” ends, a brief summary of which we told and explained.