Title of the article:

LEGEND OF CHRIST WITHIN THE FOLKTALE ABOUT MARKO THE RICH: ORAL AND BOOK SOURCES OF SLAVIC NARRATIVES

Author(s):

Vera S. Kuznetsova

Information about the author/authors

Vera S. Kuznetsova — PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher, Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolayev St., 8, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia. E-mail: vera_kuznetsova@mail. ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2017

Volume

Vol. 46

Pages

Pp. 122-134

Received

May 20, 2017

Date of publication

December 15, 2017

Index UDK

398.2

Index BBK

82.3

Abstract

Folk narrations about Marko the Rich — citing predictions (later come true) to the rich man that his successor and future son-in-law is to be a poor-man`s son and following attempts of the rich man to ruin him — belong to а number of popular stories in folklore (АaТh 930; SUS 930=461). A fragment contained in an initial part of Slavic folk stories about Marko the Rich and known as “a legend about Christ on a visit at a certain man” is of special interest (Christ as a beggar comes in a rich man`s house; unrecognized he gets expelled and oretells the future of a newborn boy from poor family that will inherit riches of Marko). This fragment is considered as an “accretion” to the basic part of a narration (about attempts of ruining the child), being exclusively a part of the Russian folk tradition (N. F. Sumtsov). F. I. Buslaev saw the source of this episode in a story of the Prologue of October, 18 called “About a certain Father Superior, tempted by Christ in the guise of a beggar”. However the legend does not contain the motive of predicting the fate and therefore could not be a source of a considered episode of folk narrations about Marko. Comparison of variants of an initial episode of folk stories about Marko with other forms of Slavic narratives concerning fate reveals that the source of this motive in legends goes back to folk beliefs of Slavs about predetermination of fate and is connected with the image of sudenitsy — female mythological characters determining fate of the child at his birth. 

Keywords

Slavic folklore, legends of fate, predetermination of fate.

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