--- title: Opening, part 40 — Russian Folk-Tales · full text with trees · page 2 description: Opening, part 40, «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: The fence is made of boards or sticks or stumps. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/40/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / Opening, part 40 # Opening, part 40 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/40/) **2** \_Kutúzovo.[72](../../72/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ The Kutúzovy are one of the most ancient of Russian families; this particular village from which they derive their name must be somewhere on the trade route of the Dniepr.[73](../../73/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Kvas.[74](../../74/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ A liquid made from various kinds of flour and fermented with sour milk to which is added malt or yeast.[75](../../75/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Name-day.[76](../../76/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ The day of the patron Saint.[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") In Russia Saints’ days are kept in place of birthdays.[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Na-úm.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ In this Russian name the two vowels are to be sounded separately, \_Na-úm\_.[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Nightingale Robber.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ His patronymics are Rakhmánovich, Odikhmantovich, Rakhmánya, all of them very difficult of definition or explanation.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Nightingale Robber.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ Ilyá Múromet’s conquest of the Nightingale Robber is his most notable feat.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") He is a very difficult figure to explain.[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") He is a gigantic bird who has been explained on the one hand as a highway robber who was a great bard, for the Russian \_solovéy\_ (nightingale) is applied to a minstrel.[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") But it is more probable that there is a confusion of two other words in this one, and that the word \_solovéy\_, which has come to mean nightingale, is either derived from \_sláva\_, meaning fame, or from the same root as the hostile power whom Ilyá Múromets, in some of the ballads, fights, namely Solóvnik the Grey One.[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") Be this as it may, the version which has come down is that the Nightingale Robber was an enormous bird, whose nest spread over seven oaks, who had needed no other weapon than his dreadful beast-like, lion-like, or dragon-like whistle on which every wall and every beast and every man fell down in sheer terror.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") The rest of this story may be gathered from the one which has been selected for this book.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") \_The Pike.[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ The pike plays a peculiar part in Russian folk-lore.[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Potán’ka.[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ The name of Potán’ka \[in which the ‘n’ and ‘k’ are to be sounded separately as in pin-case\], is also found in the Nóvgorod ballads where Potán’ka the Lame is one of the boon companions of Vasíli Busláyevich.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Prískazka.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ Many of the tales begin with a conventional introduction which has no relation to the story.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") Such an instance may be found in ‘The Wolf and the Tailor.’[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") Also in ‘A Cure for Story-telling.’[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") And the tale of ‘The Dun Cow,’ ‘Princess to be Kissed at a Charge,’ etc.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") \_The Realm of Stone.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ For the episodes in this story of the kingdom turned to stone there seems strong evidence of adaptation or loan from the Arabian Nights.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") Cf.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") The Tale of the Young King of the Black Islands, and the Tale of the City of Brass, but the development is very different.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Sebezh.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ A city in the Vitebsk Province bordering on Poland.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Shemyák.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ The judge.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") Shemyákin Sud, the court of Shemyák, is a proverbial expression for arbitrary judgments.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") He was a prince of Galicia of the time of Vasíli II, 1425–62.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") He was also a leader of the unruly nobles of that time.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") This may be partly the reason that the name of the family has been given this unfortunate significance.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") \_The Shovel.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ Shovels are used to insert loaves and pots deep into the Russian stove, for which use see the long note on the ‘Dream.’[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") \_The Sister of the Sun.\_ The Russian commentator in the compilation, from which these stories are drawn, states that this is the expression for the dawn.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Sorrow.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ This picture of Sorrow as an ancient hag who pursues mankind throughout life is peculiarly Russian and is the theme of very many beautiful ballads.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") She is described as a lovely beggar woman, with a pale face, low stature, and hare’s blood in her veins, and her cheeks of poppy red, and she entices men to drink their sorrow away in the public-houses, and is frequently turned into a moral lesson against over-indulgence.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") But this particular application of the myth, the picture of her as a wandering devil who attaches herself to unfortunate heroes but can be cheated into non-existence, much like the ordinary devil of folk-lore, is a feature, as has been said, probably peculiar to Russia.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") \_St. Nicholas.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ In Russia St. Nicholas is the most popular miracle worker amongst all the saints.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") In the story of St. Nicholas and St. Elias his beneficent character is clearly shown.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") In the story of St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker, I have taken the story as I found it, and have not attempted to fill up the obvious gaps.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") \_The Sun, and how it was made by Divine Will.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ This story is of literary and ancient origin; the language is very antique.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") \_Svyatogór.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") \_ Svyatogór in this story may be eponymous of geography.[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") The word standing for \_svyátyya góry\_, the sacred mountains.[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") Múrom is an ancient Russian settlement in the province of Vladímir, by the river Oka, and the village of Karacharovo is not far off.[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") As to Svyatogór’s bride, there is another story which tells how he acquired her.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") One day Svyatogór was walking on the earth and laid hold of a wallet which an old man whom he met wandering by held.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") He could not lift it however, for it was rooted in the earth.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") He went on from there to a smith, something like Wayland Smith (the whole tale has a curious Norse tang), who forged his fortune, told him he would have to go to the Kingdom by the Sea, and there he would find his wife who for thirty years had been lying in the dung.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") He proceeds to the Kingdom by the Sea, finds the miserable hut, enters it, and sees the maiden lying in the dung.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") And her body was as dark as a pine.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") So Svyatogór purchases her freedom by taking out five hundred roubles, laying it on the table, and then snatching up his sharp sword out of his sheath smote her on her white breasts and so left her.[134](../../134/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the maiden woke up, and the skin of age-long filth had been broken; she went and traded with the five hundred roubles, came to the Holy Mountains, and presented herself there in all her maiden beauty.[135](../../135/ "tree and pragmatics") Svyatogór the Knight also came to look on her, fell in love and wooed her for his wife.[136](../../136/ "tree and pragmatics") He then recognised her by the scar on her white breasts.[137](../../137/ "tree and pragmatics") 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