Oriental Studies (Apr 2018)
Cumulative Fairy Tales from I.I. Popov’s Collection
Abstract
The article considers Kalmyk cumulative fairy tales recorded by the collector of Kalmyk folklore, I.I. Popov. The investigator actually compiled a considerable collection of Kalmyk fairy tales comprising fi fty one plots. All types of fairy tales are represented in this fantastic collection: magic, powerful, household, about animals and cumulative ones. It should be noted that most of currently known Kalmyk cumulative fairy tales were recorded by I. I. Popov. Within the fairy tale collection, six samples of cumulation were revealed and subjected to synoptic comparison with oneplot multi-temporal known variants. As a result, it was revealed that fairy tale texts had retained stable integrity. Among them - both in the all-Mongolian and Kalmyk fairy tale traditions - the fairy tale ‘Bogshada’ (‘The Sparrow’) is distributed most widely. I. I. Popov’s variant of the fairy tale has never been published in Kalmyk before, and its text is in the appendix to the article. The original text is identical to other recorded variants of the same fairy tale. The fairy tales ‘Küünä Kishgin Tuul’ (‘The Tale about Human Happiness’) and ‘Chonyn Tuul’ (‘The Tale of the Wolf’) from I. I. Popov’s collection have been introduced into scientifi c discourse already. The fi rst one has been printed both in Kalmyk and in Russian; the second one is known only in translation, and the original Kalmyk text is for the fi rst time drawn in the appendix. The fairy tale ‘Aratyn Tuul’ (‘The Tale of the Fox’) is presented for the fi rst time. The fairy tale ‘Delüünä Tuul’ (‘The Tale of the Spleen’) is also newly introduced into scientifi c discourse. As for ‘Bogshadan Tuul’ (‘The Tale of the Sparrow’), it should be noted that an identical variant of the tale was discovered in the Scientifi c Archive of the Kalmyk Scientifi c Center of the RAS but the latter was recorded 75 years later and also from a Don-Kalmyk woman which testifi es that the plot is territorially unique; neither any other variants were revealed in published sources.
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