The positive heroes of the fairy tale are geese and swans. “Geese Swans” - an analysis of a Russian fairy tale. Features of the composition of the fairy tale “Geese and Swans”

Analysis of the fairy tale “Geese and Swans” - theme, idea, what the fairy tale “Geese and Swans” teaches

“Geese and Swans” analysis of the fairy tale

Subject: The fairy tale tells how Swan geese Those who served Baba Yaga stole his brother when his sister was playing with her friends, then she rushed to save him and saved him.

Idea : Nothing can replace your native home, native land, love for your family. Kindness, resourcefulness, and ingenuity are praised.

What does the fairy tale “Geese and Swans” teach?

The fairy tale “Geese and Swans” teaches children love for family and friends, responsibility, determination, courage, and the ability to achieve goals. The fairy tale also teaches respect for the requests of loved ones.

The main meaning of the fairy tale “Geese and Swans” is that the most precious thing to a person is his family. Love for family and friends, responsibility for their fate - such themes run like a red thread through the entire fairy tale. The fairy tale also teaches the reader to be resourceful and decisive, and not to get lost in difficult situations. Although the sister made a mistake by leaving her brother unattended, she made every effort to correct the situation and was successful in returning the little brother home. The sister set a goal for herself - and she achieved this goal, despite the obstacles put in her way.

Heroes of "Geese-Swans":

Brother
Sister
The stove, the river and the apple tree- wonderful helpers
Baba Yaga.
Swan geese

Features of the composition of the fairy tale “Geese and Swans”:

Start fairy talestraditional: Beginning (Lived once….)
Exposition (parents' order)
The beginning (I kidnap my brother by geese and swans, my sister went in search of her brother)
Climax (sister found brother at Baba Yaga)
Denouement (escape from Baba Yaga's hut and return to her parents' house)

The tale is very dynamic, there are many verbs of movement conveying sudden and quick action. For example, about Geese - Swans they say: “They swooped in, picked them up, carried them away, disappeared” they convey the severity of the situation.

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The main character of M. Stelmakh’s story “Geese-swans fly” is the little boy Mikhailik, who embraces his distant light widely and completely. Everything that happens around the New Year is a fairy tale and a miracle. As a happy person with skin, Mikhailik enjoys the joy of life. Original speeches grant you true happiness.

The problems that plague Mikhailik, for whom, at first glance, may seem trivial, but for others they are extremely important: how to get to the theater, how to walk barefoot to the house so that your mother doesn’t bother you, how to get a book.

Even if Mikhailik is a little boy, we can say about him that he is a generous and kind person, who respects adults and his work, in the sense of distinguishing evil people from being kind, hypocrites from being generous, a person who I'd like to get back to school for everything and become a teacher. To love Mikhailik dearly: the girl Lyuba treats herself like a lad, like a good friend, Maryana tries to help him, and Uncle Sebastian is pleased to see a great time with Mikhailik.

The story begins with a beautiful and even wimpy picture: “Swans are flying right over our house.” On their wings the stench carried life and spring. “And at this hour a miracle is happening over me: although an invisible bow passed through the blue sky, through the white gloom, and the stench was like a violin. I’m drawn to the fire and I can’t believe myself: across the rivers swans are flying over our house again! And this violin and the bitter vengeance shake, they mock my childhood, they catch my soul on the wings and take it into an unfathomable distance. And it’s good, and it’s wonderful, and it makes me happy, little one, in this world...” I am creating another image, rather a symbol of swan beauty and a symbol of the long, unrepeatable fates of childhood, which help to make this world richly thorough, kind and beautiful. This is how Mikhailik was taught, and the writer M. Stelmakh was the same way.

However, in the story “Geese and Swans Fly” there are no negative characters. When it comes to positive images, Mikhailik’s family is most valuable – his mother and father, grandfather Demyan and grandmother. The boy’s grandfather was an incredibly kind person and had “golden hands.” For a long time, we have already helped people that we “know all the advice.” The dearest things for my grandfather were “the earth, the faithful woman and the song.” Having respected your squad so much, if you turn around too late from your earnings, you won’t be able to wake them up and spend the rest of your life. “...Behind the weekend of friends and the arrival of my grandfather, the last autumn dream and a cold.” Grandfather Demyan became ill and died suddenly. Mikhailik and her grandmother did not outlive her husband for long.

The boy loved his grandmother very much. And she had the best time to go to the garden. Vaughn said her prayers from the trees, as from her relatives, and Mikhailikova did just that. There was a whole lot of people who were born during the hours of crepation. Vona could not imagine her life without her grandfather Dem’yan: “...Already her life has passed, and until now my old people lived like young people: not only in public, but among themselves, they have been delicate, respectful, friendly for the entire century.” Therefore, perhaps, she could not lose her self in this world. She scolded, cleaned up the house, and she died the next day.

In the image of Father Mikhailik Panas Demyanovich, the writer infused the age-old rural wisdom and kindness that is so characteristic of the lesser than the hardest working grain growers. My father spent his entire life on the earth, on that sun-burnt ten, which lived and lived, and kept him and his family in the world.

Mikhailika's mother, Ganna Ivanivna, acts as the greatest source of beauty. She looks like a true coastal woman, who taught Mikhailik to love the beauty of the original dormouse, morning fog, viburnum and fresh dew. Hanna Ivanivna could not write or read, but her books were the garden and the garden, herbs and flowers, bread and the field. Even though she lived her entire life in shortages, she never lived up to her lot. She really loved her poor kingdom, her garden, her vegetable garden and her village. A tireless worker, she trained her son to practice, learned from her father to find the greatest joy: “... Like a saint, the garden, the mowing, the reaping revived; She loved it so that the sheaves were as neat as children, and half-kipkas, like lads, were shoulder to shoulder. And I really loved in my life, after practice, to lie down on a cart and marvel at the dawn, at the Chumatsky Way, at the Stozhari and at the other Vise that was born from the girls’ tears.”

Another interesting character in the story “Geese-Swans Fly” is Mikhailik’s school friend and first friend Lyuba. This girl had the most kindness and generosity, she was the one who loved the sun. Lyuba was a true forest princess, an extremely sensitive and cautious girl, who knew much of the hidden nature of nature. This itself helped to make the decision for the Stelmakhiv homeland not to leave the Kherson steppe from Podill.

"Geese-swans" came to modern society from ancient times. There is no specific author of this creation, so the fairy tale is truly considered a folk tale. It tells about a simple peasant family who, like everyone else, worked on their land and worked tirelessly. The daughter was the eldest in the family, and the son was still quite small, so the sister constantly looked after her brother.

The main essence of the tale

Everyone remembers that due to her inexperience and negligence, the girl lost her brother, who was carried away by swan geese. She followed the boy through the forest, but it was not immediately possible for her to find what she was looking for. Due to her reluctance to sacrifice her principles, the girl wandered through the forest for a long time and could not obtain the necessary information. Only when the road led her to Baba Yaga did the sister find her brother, but she just did not understand what awaited her. At that moment when the girl showed good service the mouse and fed it, she was able to find out the truth and run away with her brother. On the way back, they met exactly those characters who were refused the first time. It was then that the girl agreed to all the conditions in order to save herself and her brother.

Few people could understand the whole essence of this tale. And the river, and the apple tree, and the stove - this is quite real people that meet daily in Everyday life. They are ready to help and are always kind to others. You should not initially refuse what seems unacceptable, contradictory to your own principles. As they say: “A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it.” We must remember that absolutely all fairy tales tell about life, only in a fairy-tale form in order to convey the necessary idea to the younger generation.

Heroes

In a fairy tale there are heroes whose character can be seen by certain actions. Mother and father are quite serious people who love and care for their children. They go to work every day and give wise instructions to their children.

The daughter, at the beginning of the fairy tale, is a very uncollected and frivolous girl. She forgets about her brother, goes for a walk and does not think about the consequences at all. Only at the moment when the girl learns about the disappearance of her brother does her character change, but not immediately. On the way to Baba Yaga, she is capricious and does not want to accept the fact that her certain principles will be violated. Only on the way back does she understand that for the sake of loved ones she needs to sacrifice something of herself.

"There are - there are other fairy tales in which one of the characters is swan geese.

There are 2 main plots:

1. Fairy tale "Geese-swans"
The husband and wife went to the fair and left their little son at home. The older sister, who was assigned to look after her brother, “went on a spree and played too much” and left him alone. The baby was carried away by geese and swans. The girl set off in pursuit of them and eventually found her brother in Baba Yaga's hut.

Essentially the plot of the fairy tale - display of the ritualinitiation(a ritual that marks the transition to a new stage of development, for example, the transfer of adolescents to the adult class), the subject of which in the original source is the kidnapped brother, but later this role passes to the sister. Accordingly, the images of geese-swans themselves most likely go back to ancient mythological ideas about psychophoric birds (that is, carrying souls to the afterlife).

But this fairy tale also has its own “versions”...
Afanasyev's sister would not have found a brother if the wise hedgehog had not helped her.
In the treatment of A.N. Tolstoy, she finds it herself.
At Afanasyev's, she simply sneaks up to the hut and carries off her brother.
In A. N. Tolstoy's adaptation, she enters the hut, talks with Baba Yaga, etc., and only seizing the moment when she does not see - runs away with his brother.

2. Fairy tale "Ivashko and the Witch" (either "Lutonya" or "Tereshechka")
This tale has been written down many times and in a large number of variants; its main character bears different names (Ivashko, Lutonya, Tereshechka).

Here's a generalized version:
The old man and the old woman had no children. One winter, an old man went into the forest to get firewood. Having chopped firewood, the old man also took with him a log, a linden log. At home, he put the piece of wood under the stove (sometimes on the stove) and after a while the piece of wood turned into a boy. (In some versions, the old man specially goes for this log, then draws a face on the piece of wood with charcoal, and the old woman swaddles it and puts it in the cradle.) By summer, the boy grew up and went to the lake to fish. The old man made a shuttle for him - white (silver), with red (golden) oars, and the old woman gave him a white shirt with a red belt. During the day the boy swims on the lake, and in the evening he swims up to the shore to give the old woman the fish he caught and change his shirt and belt. Baba Yaga lures him to the shore and takes him to her hut. There she instructs her daughter to fry the boy, but he manages to deceive Yagishna, put her in the oven, get out of the hut and climb a tree. Yaga begins to gnaw or chop the trunk. At the last moment, the hero of the fairy tale is saved by geese-swans. A flying flock drops a feather on the boy and he makes wings from them (that is, turns into a bird), or the last bird picks him up. Be that as it may, the hero returns safely to his home.

In the Lithuanian version of this tale, a witch flying with the swans kidnaps him, mistaking him for a swan.
The enchanted brothers from the fairy tale also leave this world in the form of birds. Hans Christian Andersen (Hans Christian) « » .

And the most interesting thing is that in the myths of South American Indians living in the Amazon jungle, a South American witch engages in sexual harassment, and tries to gnaw the tree where the hero is saving himself with the help of his toothy genitals. According to researchers, the South American myth encodes some characteristics inherent in matriarchal relationships

From all this it is clear that there are geese-swans "bad" And "good ones" .
"Bad" geese-swans steal a child and take him to Baba Yaga (the fairy tale "Geese-Swans"), and "good" - help the boy escape from Yaga and return home (fairy tale “Ivashko and the Witch”).

Origins of the plot
To understand the origins of the plot of these fairy tales, you need to turn to mythology =)

Apollo traveled every season in a chariot drawn by snow-white swans. In late autumn he flew to the blissful country of Hyperborea (super-north) in order to return back to Delphi in the spring. Almost all the peoples of the northern hemisphere associated “north” with death, so Hyperborea is not a geographical concept, but a mythological one.
*It turns out that the “bad” geese-swans take Brother to Baba Yaga- that is, they are sentenced to death.

In addition, one can recall the myth of Zeus, who appeared before Leda in the form of a swan.

And now let's turn to the fairy tale about the “good” geese-swans. Yagishna tries to send the boy to the oven, he runs away and climbs a tree, and then, either turning into a bird or riding on it, he returns to our world.

Swans are an integral part of shamanic rituals, and it was believed that they carry the soul of the shaman in the right direction.
Altai shamans sang about the goose: “When you are tired, let him be your horse. When you are bored, let him be your companion, producing whirlwinds on Mount Sumer, washing himself in Lake Milk.”
The Turks and Ugro-Finns call the Goose or Swan Road the Milky Way.
*We see that the “good” geese-swans, on the contrary, return Ivashko in the right direction, that is, home.

Swan geese
In mythological symbolism, the image of geese-swans is perfect for the role of a mediator, connecting the seemingly mutually exclusive basic symbols of any mythology: above and below, summer and winter and, as a consequence, between male and female, life and death.

Birds (top), but associated with water (bottom); bringing spring, but having snow-white plumage.
Among the Ainu (the people currently living on the island of Hokkaido), the swan was called the “spirit of snow.”
According to the Kyrgyz, the swan brings snow and cold.
In England, when it snowed, they said that geese were plucking in the sky.

Russian folk sign:
The swan flies towards the snow, the goose towards the rain.

If in winter geese-swans turn into snow, then in spring, on the contrary, snow turns into geese and swans.
Among the Kets (a small indigenous people of Siberia), Mother Tomem comes out to the banks of the Yenisei in the spring and shakes her sleeves over the river; fluff pours out of her sleeves and turns into geese, swans, and ducks that fly to the north.

It should be noted that geese and swans do not in all cases act as synonyms - often they are opposed to each other aslower- upper, someone else's- to your own.

Selkups (people living in the north Western Siberia) believed that while geese and other migratory birds are sent by the Heavenly Old Woman as food for them, swans cannot be killed. According to the Kets and Selkups, swans understood human speech.

For many peoples of the Trans-Urals, geese and swans were totem animals.
The Ainu had legends about the origin of man from the swan.
The Mongols believed that the first people were made from swan feet.

Baba Yaga
To the already listed female characters associated with geese-swans, it remains to add the Russian Babu Yaga. These birds guarded her hut just as the geese guarded the Temple of Juno Capitoline (the same geese that saved Rome).

In modern everyday language, the word "Yaga" sounds like a curse. In ancient times it was not like that at all. Baba Yaga belonged to the category of Great Mothers, mistresses of the underworld, associated not only with death, but also with the productive forces of nature.

In some fairy tales such as "Geese and Swans", the sister sees her kidnapped brother playing with golden apples, which in European mythology are associated with eternal youth, sexual force by procreation.

Russian Yaga - The owner of the apple orchard lures the boy to her with apples or other food, and in some versions of the fairy tale he himself climbs into her garden.

Since in myth the animal attribute of a character is not clearly contrasted with the character himself, the mistress of the lower world sometimes appears in the form of a giant bird (*it seems to me that Baba Yaga herself turned into geese-swans in the fairy tale of the same name and kidnapped her brother).

How closely in Rus' geese-swans were associated with the idea of the afterlife is evidenced by folk songs, usually classified as historical genres - "Songs about the Tatar full." An old woman is forced by a Tatar who has captured her"Three things to do: first thing- spinning the tow is the second thing- swans (sometimes- geese-swans) to guard, and the third thing- rock the baby."

Deep into history
At the beginning of the first millennium BC, new symbolism appears in Central Europe. Throughout the territory from the Black to the Baltic Seas, archaeologists have discovered images of chariots drawn by geese or swans. The waterfowl served as a solar symbol, connecting the heavenly and earthly sphere, a symbol of fertility.

Archaeological material from later times is quite rich in the “swan” theme and makes it possible to trace its significance, including in territories inhabited Eastern Slavs or their predecessors. Near the village of Pozharskaya Balka, near Poltava, a ritual fire pit dating back to the 6th century was excavated. BC e. , on which about 15 2-meter (!) images of swans were discovered under a layer of ash.

Conclusion
Here are the geese and swans, here is the Russian folk tale =)
Any fairy tale is not “entertainment” for children, but a kind of folklore myth of a certain people, through which the concepts of good and evil, religion and society are revealed...

Geese-swans, it seems to me, a priori cannot be “bad” or “good”, since they carry a certain divine participation within them. Geese-swans and that lightning of Zeus that strikes for offense (in the case of a brother and his sister, this is a punishment for her for not listening to her parents and not watching over her brother), and that salvation that the Gods give to mortals (Ivashko, as it were, prayed while sitting on a tree being chewed by Yagishna, and the Gods heard the prayers and sent their angels).

Links
Basically, when writing the post, I used the journalistic work of Valeria Ronkin - I highly recommend that you read it more closely, since I highlighted from this article the line of geese-swans that interests me, but much remains “behind the scenes.” So go for it ;)

Swan geese
Illustration by Franz Teichel
Genre	Russian folktale
Original language	Russian

Media files on Wikimedia Commons

Brand. An apple tree hides children from swan geese. Soviet stamp, artist E. Komarov

Plot

The husband and wife went to work (option: to the fair) and left their little son at home. The older sister, who was tasked with keeping an eye on her brother (“don’t leave the yard, be smart, we’ll buy you a handkerchief”), went on a spree and started playing and left him alone. The baby was carried away by geese and swans.

The girl set off in pursuit of them and eventually found her brother in Baba Yaga's hut.

Characters

Brother- in some versions is named Ivashechka, but is usually not called by name.
Sister- a brave girl, not afraid of Baba Yaga and her geese; in some versions she is called Alyonushka or Masha, but more often she is also nameless.
The stove, the river and the apple tree- wonderful helpers, but only on the way back (the girl fulfills their demands), they help hide from the swan geese.
Mouse- exists only in the adaptation of A. N. Tolstoy (helps the girl escape from Yaga).
Baba Yaga.
Swan geese- Baba Yaga's assistants.

Plot differences in different versions

In the retelling of Alexander Afanasyev, the sister would not have found her brother if the wise hedgehog had not helped her. In the interpretation of Alexei Tolstoy, she finds it herself.
At Alexander Afanasyev's main character she simply sneaks up to the hut and carries away her brother, whereas in Alexei Tolstoy’s adaptation she enters the hut, talks with Baba Yaga, etc. The heroine, taking advantage of the moment when she is not looking, runs away with the boy.

In the popular version, Yaga simply kidnaps his brother without any particular purpose (nowhere is it said why; and after that he holds him captive). In A. Tolstoy's version, she is an evil witch, a child eater. Wed. similar fairy tales - “Hansel and Gretel”, “Prince Danila-Spoken”, “Ivasik-Telesik”, etc.