Thread: Russian folklore/fairy-tale creatures

Thank you very much, Lampada! Now even more things to read! Жил-был...

ну погоди 16серия has a great many references to Russian folk lore. Including the house on chicken legs, here it is dancing.



Here are some other things in ну погоди 16серия , folk lore referred to in earlier posts, above.





Also in this cartoon is the magical instrument that when someone plays it, other people have to dance to it. Baba Yaga made to dance.

Баба-яга Боже мой! Какое ужасное (хотя интересное) существо!!!

Кто-нибудь написал о Лисе-Патрикеевне?
Она такая хитрая и забавная лисичка! Я бы хотела узнать почему её назвали Патрикеевной?

"Патрикеевна" is just a patronimic name from "Патрикей" (this name is almost not in use nowadays). No idea why a fox is commonly referred to as "Лиса Патрикеевна" (also, a bear is called "Михайло Потапыч" or "Михайло Иваныч").

Typically, a fox is considered as a "[over]smart ass", while a bear is a strong, friendly, and simple guy.

I love this thread!! Thank you so much for posting it. I am curious about old pagan traditions and customs in Russia. I have heard that there has been a return to this in some circles, is that true? America also has a growing number of people returning to pre-Christian religions. I find these old ways fascinating.

Originally Posted by Lampada

По щучьему велению
По щучьему веленью

Емеля сидит на печи:

OMG, "По щучьему велению" ("By will of the pike-fish") has to be one of the strangest сказки I've ever read. I mean, it almost seems like a subversive parody of fairytales, because it seems to have no moral lesson whatsoever! Emelya starts out a complete lazybones who snores on the лежанка (the big warm shelf/ledge on top of the oven) while his two older brothers (who are nice guys and don't mistreat Emelya in any way) go out and work... and at the end of the story, he's still a lazybones and hasn't learned a thing -- only now he's the Tsar, and married to the former Tsar's beautiful daughter.

And all this is because once, by pure dumb luck, Emelya happened to catch a talking щука (pike) who's got more magic powers than Dumbledore and Voldemort combined but seems to possess all the moral and ethical insights of -- well, a fish. So, unlike Pushkin's золотая рыбка, this fish isn't a didactic allegorical figure who offers добрым молодцам a cautionary урок about hubris and greed! No, she just keeps granting wish after wish, giving Emelya whatever the f*ck he asks for.

So, Emelya almost runs over some innocent villagers with his fish-provided magical sleigh, and when they (not unreasonably) try to pull him off the sleigh and give him a richly deserved butt-kicking, he wishes for some magical oaken cudgels that fly around by themselves, beating everyone into a half-coma while Emelya gleefully rides homeward in the sleigh. In other words, he's not only lazy, but is kind of an asshole... and he never gets his "comeuppance", doesn't end up as a sadder-but-wiser Emelya -- he gets the princess, gets the wealth, gets the kingdom, gets a magical facelift/makeover so he'll look more handsome, gets the magical weapons, etc. -- and yet he's still lazy!

I also heard that there were isolated places in Russia that were ignored completely by the USSR because it was so difficult to reach them.. so those people were left to themselves and lived "subsistence" lifestyle in Siberia...

I've heard the same stories.

Когда-то давно нам рекламировали "изометрическую" гимнастику. Шутили, что именно благодаря ей (упираясь ногами и руками в стенки печи) Емеля стал таким сильным.

Чудесная сводка

Удачно сделанный

Originally Posted by Valda

Чудесная сводка

Удачно сделанный

To sound more natural:

Чудесная подборка.
Удачно сделано.

Also your signature should be:

Пожалуйста, исправляйте мою грамматику.