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"Historical legend as a genre of folklore in the folk art of the Arkhangelsk north." Tradition: definition, concept, meaning The plot of the legend

A legend is an epic prose story created orally, with a focus on authenticity, the main content of which is a description of real or quite possible facts.

Like legends, traditions were created with an eye to authenticity. They differ in what is taken as the basis for the story - real or fantastic facts - and how they are depicted in the legend or tradition. Supernatural characters are not typical for the genre of legends, but they are always present in legends. The legends of the Mordovians, like those of other peoples, are characterized by the following features: attachment to a place, an object; installation on authenticity; retrospectiveness.

Conventionally, two large groups of legends can be distinguished: historical and toponymic.

The first ones tell about memorable events and famous figures of the past. They are divided into a number of cycles: about giants, Mordovian tribal leaders, the struggle of the Mordovian people against external enemies, Ivan the Terrible’s campaign against Kazan, the baptism of the Mordovians, Razin and Pugachev, robbers and treasures.

A significant number are toponymic legends. As a rule, they are based on the history of a particular village or locality. Their purpose is to explain the origin of geographical names. The area of distribution of such legends is usually limited to one or several nearby villages. Almost every village has legends about its founders, first inhabitants and conditions of its origin.

Legends, unlike other genres of folklore, do not stand out so clearly from everyday prose and are not distinguished by structural independence and completeness. They are distinguished by their range of themes and plots, their focus on verisimilitude and the truth of the narrative. No matter how implausible or unreliable the story may be, the narrator always tries to be believed. Therefore, first of all, he seeks to confirm the reality of the story with a special clause - “everyone knows about this,” “that’s what old people say,” etc.

The plots of Mordovian legends are one-dimensional, they give the simplest scheme development of main events. Tradition is rarely detailed, consisting of several episodes or motives, such as, for example, individual stories about Tyushta: election, reign, care of the sea. Most often, the plot consists of one episode, essentially even one motive. But the episode chosen is important, culminating, allowing one to reveal the essence of the event, the character actor, dramatic collisions. There are also plotless legends of the simplest type, in the form of a short message about the qualities of the hero, the time of his life, and the people who heard about his extraordinary deeds.

Often there are common motifs in legends.

Legends can also be associated with other genres - beliefs, tales.

Tradition is something that has come down to the present day directly from the depths of centuries and therefore has preserved the spirit of that time. “The legends of deep antiquity...” - this is what A.S. says. Pushkin about the events described in “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.

The word "legend" in the mind modern man It is even more associated with fiction, a frankly implausible story that embellishes reality.

But in scientific literature In folklore, these concepts have a different, more precise meaning. Traditions and legends are genres of oral folk art. Legends are stories of historical content, folk and historical prose. Legends are stories with religious content. The popular consciousness does not make a distinction between traditions and legends. Yes and modern science cannot always draw a clear line between them.

The name “legend” quite accurately reflects the essence of this genre. This is a story that is passed on from mouth to mouth, passed on from generation to generation.

Literacy and books were available to few. And almost every person wanted to know their place in history and understand events. And right up to XIX century legends replaced historical literature for the common people, telling about the past in their own way. Legends do not reflect the entire course of events. They pay attention to certain highlights of history.

Legends often highlight the origins of a particular people. Usually we're talking about about some ancestor, ancestor, with whom the name of the tribe or people (ethnonym) is associated.

There are many things in legends that cannot be read about in books. The past is usually embellished in legends. Thus, it is said that in former times there lived not ordinary people, and the giants; therefore, human bones found at the site of former battles between Russians and Lithuanians or Chud (one of the Finnish tribes) seem to be amazing in their size. In the past, robber or Cossack atamans also possessed some magical properties: for example, Ermak, according to legend, is invulnerable to bullets, Razin is a sorcerer, etc.

Of course, real circumstances were also reflected in legends.

About our own kings and generous robbers.

In almost all legends, at the center of any event there is always one bright personality: a prince, a robber. Ataman, general, etc. This personality determines everything that happens.

In the legends about historical figures events that are widely known can be described: for example, the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, Ermak’s conquest of Siberia, etc. But along with this, there are many stories that depict various actions famous people, not known from archival documents or other sources.

Of particular interest to folk historical prose is the private life of a historical figure. Bright, outstanding figures, although they differ in legends from ordinary people, but for some reason they are similar to mere mortals. They have their own personal life, they can do things that are not at all heroic, everyday, communicate directly with the common people, etc. It is told, for example, how Peter I becomes the godfather of the son of a poor peasant, as one of the largest commanders of the 18th century. Count Rumyantsev fishes on his estate, and Suvorov jokes with his soldiers.

Often legends are full of irony: even great figures in them can make mistakes, be mistaken, and appear in a funny light. This is another important feature of legends: they not only consolidate historical events in people’s memory, even if embellished, but also bring them closer to everyday life. Therefore, in the stories, in addition to famous personalities and high-profile events, there are heroes and circumstances unknown outside the local area.

Many legends are devoted to how this or that city was founded and new territories were developed, how certain geographical names arose. These subjects are also connected with the activities of any one outstanding person.

The names of cities, villages, rivers, lakes are sometimes associated with some event local significance(which in reality might not have happened).

Among the heroes of legends there are often robbers and strong men.

Robbers rob, kill people, hide the loot, bury treasures that no one can find. There are stories about entire villages of bandits: residents lured travelers to spend the night with them, and then killed them; or they did ordinary work during the day and robbed at night.

However, in legends, robbers are not always portrayed as villains. Often we are talking about noble people's intercessors who distributed the loot to the poor. Among them, Razin and Pugachev are mentioned.

Strongmen in legends are always simple people, representatives of the environment in which they are told about: among the Cossacks - this is a Cossack, in barge haulers' stories - a barge hauler. Such a strongman surpasses everyone in physical strength and usually does not have an equal opponent, but in all other respects he is the same as everyone else. But sometimes such heroes are endowed with mythological, magical traits. One of the most famous strongman heroes is Rakhta (or Rakhkoy) Ragnozersky, so nicknamed after the village of Ragnozero in Karelia.

Such characters indicate the connection of legends with other folklore genres, in the center of which is an exceptional person: with epics, historical songs, fairy tales, folk beliefs.

How Christ gathered bread

The word "legend" in Latin literally means "that which is to be read." Initially, this was the name given to the lives of saints, which contained examples of Christian virtue and pious behavior. Later, legends began to be understood as generally instructive and pious stories. And then just stories in which something unusual, wonderful happens, but it is perceived as something that actually happened.

In legends, along with people and animals, God and saints, angels and demons act. If the legend is directed to the past, then the legend does not specify the time of action. This is either a sacred time - when God created the world, or we are talking about events that could happen at any time.

Everything that happens in legends is described and assessed from the point of view of compliance with Christian standards of life - as understood by folk tradition. There is a lot of incredible things in the events depicted in legends. But the concepts of “plausible” or “implausible” do not apply to them.

In legends, Christ or saints often descend to earth and unrecognized walk on it, rewarding the righteous and punishing sinners. Such stories are based on the contrast between what people think about inconspicuous wanderers and who they really are. Punishment or reward follows immediately or is promised in a future life, hell or heaven.

It happens that legends have something in common with fairy tales. The difference between them is that fairy tales are told for fun, for fun. And legends, despite the similarity of plots, are taken quite seriously, as a real case from which conclusions should be drawn and morals drawn.

The plots of the legends were drawn not only from oral, but also from written culture. Among written sources, the apocrypha ranks first. Legends were also based on some biblical events.

Christian images and stories are often superimposed on ancient folk beliefs.

Legendary stories are reflected not only in literature, but also in icon painting. The most common type of icon of St. George - "The Miracle of George on the Serpent" - is associated with a legend, and not with the life of this saint. This image, where Saint George on horseback tramples and pierces a snake with a spear, was so popular that it became the coat of arms of Muscovite Rus', and then Moscow.

Legends and traditions are a living genre. They surround us to this day. Folk culture still, in its own way, keeps track of events, selecting what seems most important. And the rumors that modern rumor gives rise to and spreads may well reach descendants in the future as outlandish stories.

UNFAIRY-TALE PROSE

GENERAL FEATURES OF WORKS OF NON-FAIRY-TALE PROSE

From the point of view of the people, works of folklore non-fairy prose are important as a source of information, and in some cases also as a warning and edification. Consequently, in non-fairy tale prose, cognitive and didactic functions prevail over artistic ones. Non-fairy tale prose has a different modality than fairy tales: its works are confined to real time, real terrain, real persons. Non-fairy-tale prose is characterized by not being distinguished from the flow of everyday speech and the absence of special genre and style canons. In the most general sense, we can say that her works are characterized by the stylistic form of an epic narrative about the authentic: The old people said...; The old Vyksa man told me...; I saw miracles, I imagined...; They say it's like...; My mother told...; Here in our village one woman has...; So I was in trouble myself.

The most stable component is the character, around which all the rest of the material is united. An important feature of non-fairy tale prose is the plot (content). Usually the plots have an embryonic form (single-motive), but can be conveyed both concisely and in detail. Works of non-fairy tale prose are capable of contamination. Sometimes plot cycles are formed - around a character or event. Many plots of folk non-fairy tale prose are of a typological nature; they naturally arose in world folklore. There are also “wandering stories” recorded among different peoples at different periods of their history.

Genres of non-fairy tale prose do not have the stability of poetic form that is inherent in fairy tales, so they are usually determined by the nature of the content of the works. Early traditional folklore was characterized by myths. In classical folklore, tales, legends, and demonological stories are known.

The thematic and plot fund of non-fairy tale prose is oral folk stories- works that usually do not contain fantasy elements and are framed as a story about modernity or the recent past. Oral folk stories cannot be called folklore proper; they are a kind of “raw material” for legends, traditions, etc., which could be in demand if necessary.

The problem of delimiting the genres of non-fairy tale prose is complex. This is due to the vagueness of the material itself and the great flexibility of the works. General and characteristic folk narratives of a non-fairy tale nature - inconstancy, fluidity of form. They easily adapted to local conditions. The blurring of genre boundaries often led to interactions between non-fairy tale prose genres, both among themselves and with fairy tales. The same plot could take different forms, periodically appearing in the form of little stories, legends, traditions or fairy tales. It is no coincidence that legends, tales and especially tales in the 19th century. were published in fairy tale collections interspersed with fairy tales.

LEGENDS

Characteristics of the genre of legends

Tradition is a story about the past, sometimes very distant. Tradition depicts reality in everyday forms, although fiction and sometimes even fantasy are always used. The main purpose of legends is to preserve the memory of national history. Legends began to be written down earlier than many folklore genres, as they were an important source for chroniclers. IN large quantities legends exist in oral tradition even today.

Traditions are an “oral chronicle,” a genre of non-fairy tale prose with an emphasis on historical authenticity. The word “tradition” itself means “to convey, preserve.” Legends are characterized by references to old people and ancestors. The events of the legends are centered around historical figures who, regardless of their social status (be it a king or the leader of a peasant uprising), most often appear in an ideal light.

Any legend is historical at its core, because the impetus for its creation is always a genuine fact: a war with foreign invaders, a peasant revolt, large-scale construction, a crowning of the kingdom, etc. At the same time, legend is not identical to reality. As a folklore genre, it has the right to artistic invention and offers its own interpretation of history. Plot fiction arises on the basis historical fact(for example, after the hero of the legend has been at this point). Fiction does not contradict historical truth, but, on the contrary, contributes to its identification.

In July 1983, during folklore practice, students of Moscow State Pedagogical University in Podolsk near Moscow wrote down from A. A. Vorontsov, 78 years old, a legend about the origin of the name of this city. It is historically reliable that Peter I visited Podolsk. The legend expresses the negative attitude of the people towards his foreign wife (Catherine I), for whose sake the legitimate queen was exiled to a monastery (see in the Reader).

There are two main ways of creating legends: 1) generalization of memories; 2) generalization of memories and their design using ready-made plot schemes. The second path is characteristic of many legends. General motifs and plots pass from century to century (sometimes as myths or legends), being associated with different events and persons. There are recurring toponymic stories (for example, about failed churches, cities). Typically, such stories paint the narrative in fairy-tale-legendary tones, but they are capable of conveying something important for their era.

One of the international ones is the story of how the king pacified the raging water elements. (He, for example, was attributed to the Persian king Xerxes.) In the Russian oral tradition, the plot began to appear in the legends about Ivan the Terrible and Peter I (see in the Reader).

Stories about Stepan Razin were also subsequently attached to other characters. For example, V.I. Chapaeva, like Razin, cannot be killed by any bullet; he fantastically frees himself from captivity (by diving into a bucket of water or sailing away in a boat painted on the wall), and so on.

And yet the event of legend is depicted as single, complete, unique.

The legend tells about something generally significant and important for everyone. This influences the selection of material: the theme of the legend is always of national significance or is important for the inhabitants of a given area. The nature of the conflict is national or social. Accordingly, the characters are representatives of the state, nation, specific classes or estates.

Legends have developed special techniques for depicting the historical past. Attention is shown to the details of a big event. The general, typical is depicted through the particular, specific. Legends are characterized by localization - geographical location to a village, lake, mountain, house, etc. The reliability of the plot is supported by various material evidence - the so-called “traces” of the hero (he built a church, paved a road, donated a thing).

In Olonets province. they showed silver cups and fifty kopecks, allegedly donated by Peter I; in Zhiguli, all antiques and human bones found in the ground were attributed to the Razins.

The prevalence of legends varies. Legends about the tsars existed throughout the entire territory of the state, and legends about other figures of Russian history were told mainly in the area where these people lived and acted.

Thus, in the summer of 1982, the folklore expedition of the Moscow State Pedagogical University recorded in the village of Dorofeevo, Ostrovsky district, Kostroma region. from the peasant D.I. Yarovitsyn, 87 years old, the legend “About Ivan Susanin” (see in the Reader).

The plots of legends are usually single-motive. Consolidated (contaminated) legends could develop around the character; story cycles emerged.

Legends have their own ways of depicting heroes. Usually the character is only named, and in the episode of the legend one of his traits is shown. At the beginning or end of the story, direct characteristics and assessments are allowed, which are necessary for the image to be correctly understood. They act not as a personal judgment, but as a general opinion (about Peter I: Here it is, the king - so the king, he did not eat bread for nothing; he worked better than a barge hauler; about Ivan Susanin: ...after all, he saved not the Tsar, but Russia.).

The portrait (appearance) of the hero was rarely depicted. If a portrait appeared, it was laconic (for example: robbers are strong, handsome, stately fellows in red shirts). A portrait detail (for example, a costume) could be connected with the development of the plot: the unrecognized king walks around dressed in a simple dress; The robber comes to the feast in a general's uniform.

Scientists identify different genre varieties of legends. Among them are historical, toponymic, ethnogenetic legends, about the settlement and development of the region, about treasures, etiological, cultural - and many others. We have to admit that all known classifications are conditional, since it is impossible to offer a universal criterion. Often legends are divided into two groups: historical and toponymic. However, all legends are historical (by their genre essence); therefore, any toponymic legend is also historical.

Based on the influence of the form or content of other genres, groups of transitional, peripheral works are distinguished among the legends. Legendary legends are legends with a miracle motif, in which historical events are interpreted from a religious point of view. Another phenomenon is fairy-tale plots dedicated to historical figures (see in the Reader the plot about Peter I and the blacksmith - the famous storyteller F. P. Gospodarev).

Description of the video lesson

Tradition- a genre of oral folk art, stories of historical content, folk historical prose. Legends have reached our days from time immemorial and have preserved the spirit of that time.

The word “legend” accurately reflects the essence of this genre. This is a story that is passed on from mouth to mouth, passed on from generation to generation.

Literacy and books in ancient times were accessible to few, but almost everyone wanted to know their place in history and understand events. Until the 19th century, legends replaced historical literature, telling in their own way about the past and present. But legends do not reflect the entire course of events; they pay attention to individual bright moments of history.

Legends often tell about the origin of a particular people. Usually we are talking about some ancestor, ancestor, with whom the name of the tribe or people is associated. For example, in medieval European historical works there was a widespread legend about the origin of the Slavic tribes. It said that once upon a time there lived three brothers: Czech, Lech and Mech, or Bear. From the first came the Czechs, from the second - the Poles, from the third - the Russians.

The past is usually embellished in legends. For example, it is said that in former times there lived not ordinary people, but giants. Therefore, human bones found at the site of former battles between Russians and Lithuanians or Chud (one of the Finnish tribes) seem to be amazing in their size.

In the past, robber or Cossack atamans also possessed some magical properties: for example, Ermak, according to legend, is invulnerable to bullets, Razin is a sorcerer.

Real circumstances were also reflected in the legends, but after repeated retellings, something that seemed uninteresting was forgotten, missing details were conjectured, characters acquired new features, and events acquired new details. As a result, the facts in the story could be distorted beyond recognition.

In almost all legends, at the center of any event, from the largest to the smallest, there is always one bright personality: a king, a prince, a robber, an ataman, a general. This personality determines everything that happens. Attention is focused on this person, and the events described occur according to his will.

Legends about historical figures may describe events that are widely known. For example, the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, Ermak’s conquest of Siberia, the uprising in Moscow against the Poles during the reign of False Dmitry, the founding of the city of Petrozavodsk by Peter, Suvorov’s crossing of the Alps and others. Along with this, there are many stories that depict various actions of famous people that are not known from archival sources.

Many legends are dedicated to the founding of cities and the development of new territories. These stories are often associated with the activities of some outstanding person.

Among the heroes of legends there are often robbers and strong men. Robbers rob, kill people, hide their loot, and bury treasures. However, in legends, robbers do not always appear as villains. Often it is about noble robbers who distributed the loot to poor people. Among them are Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev.

Strongmen in legends are always simple people. Among the Cossacks - this is a Cossack, in barge haulers' stories - a barge hauler. The strongman surpasses everyone in physical strength and usually has no equal opponent. Sometimes such heroes are endowed with mythological, magical traits.

Thanks to the presence of fiction, legends are often close to epics or fairy tales.
Tradition "On the conquest of Siberia by Ermak" tells about distant events of the 16th century. The beginning of the legend is almost fabulous: “Tsar Ivan heard that beyond the Urals lies a land richer than the one that is subject to him.” And from then on there was no peace for Ivan the Terrible; he wanted to annex Siberia to his lands, but he didn’t know how. The king was tormented by this question so much that he fell ill and “went to bed.” The boyars could not help the sovereign. It turned out that a simple servant was capable of resolving such an issue. He suggested to the king the name of a man who would be “brave and daring, who is not afraid of death, who will not be struck by lightning or deafened by thunder.” It was this servant who was able to find the Cossack Ermak Timofeevich in the vast expanses of Russia. Ermak arrived to Tsar Ivan, agreed to go to the Siberian land and win it for his state from Khan KuchUm. Since then, Siberia has become part of the Moscow state.

The legend is completely different in form. "About Pugachev". There is no fabulousness in it; rather, it is an everyday sketch that reflects the dreams of the people about “their” ruler - a sovereign from the common people. For this reason, in legend, Pugachev appears not as an impostor encroaching on the throne, but as the real Peter III: “He was only called Pugachev.” But it so happened that he married either an Italian young lady or a princess “from our village”, who threw him off the throne and took it herself. But Catherine II arrived and put everything in its place: she returned the reins of power to Pugachev, ordered the colonel who treated the potential tsar badly to be cut off, and made the Cossack a colonel. And Pugachev sent his treacherous wife to a monastery.

And in legend "About Pugachev", as in the legend about Ermak, the events described are very different from those that actually took place. The real Pugachev was an impostor; he did not have a wife of Italian origin. Catherine II was not his ally, and therefore did not return the throne.

Many legends are completely at odds with historical reality. But in the poetic images of Ermak Timofeevich or Emelyan Pugachev, the reader sees the image of the Russian people, their autobiography. The legends are small in volume, but they reveal a lot: the original character of the Russian people, their attitude towards the tsarist power, the people's self-awareness of unity, and national certainty.

Legends are imbued with love for the homeland and tell about the historical past. They are educational in nature. The main advantage of legends is not the historical, but the moral principle. Thanks to him, the folk epic is relevant and valuable today.

Tradition is a story about the past, sometimes very distant. Tradition depicts reality in everyday forms, although fiction and sometimes even fantasy are always used. The main purpose of legends is to preserve the memory of national history. Legends began to be written down before many folklore genres, as they were an important source for chroniclers. A large number of legends exist in the oral tradition even today.

Traditions are an “oral chronicle,” a genre of non-fairy tale prose with an emphasis on historical authenticity. The word “tradition” itself means “to convey, to preserve.” Legends are characterized by references to old people and ancestors. The events of legends are concentrated around historical figures who, regardless of their social status (be it a king or the leader of a peasant uprising), most often appear in an ideal light.

Any legend is historical at its core, because the impetus for its creation is always a genuine fact: a war with foreign invaders, a peasant revolt, large-scale construction, a crowning of the kingdom, etc. At the same time, legend is not identical to reality. As a folklore genre, it has the right to artistic invention and offers its own interpretation of history. Plot fiction arises on the basis of historical fact (for example, after the hero of the legend has been at a given point). Fiction does not contradict historical truth, but, on the contrary, contributes to its identification.

And yet the event of the legend is depicted as single, complete, unique.

Legends have developed special techniques for depicting the historical past. Attention is shown to the details of a big event. The general, typical is depicted through the particular, specific. Legends are characterized by localization—geographical confinement to a village, lake, mountain, house, etc. The reliability of the plot is supported by various material evidence—the so-called “traces” of the hero (he built a church, paved a road, donated a thing)

In Olonets province. they showed silver cups and fifty kopecks, allegedly donated by Peter I; in Zhiguli, all antiques and human bones found in the ground were attributed to differences.

Thus, in the summer of 1982, the folklore expedition of the Moscow State University of Pedagogical University recorded in the village of Dorofeev, Ostrovsky district, Kostroma region. from the peasant D.I. Yarovitsyn, 87 years old, the legend “About Ivan Susanin” (see in the Reader).

The plots of legends are usually single-motive. Consolidated (contaminated) legends could develop around the character; story cycles emerged.

Legends have their own ways of depicting heroes. Usually the character is only named, and in the episode of the legend one of his traits is shown. At the beginning or end of the story, direct characteristics and assessments are allowed, which are necessary for the image to be correctly understood. They act not as a personal judgment, but as a general opinion (about Peter I: This is the tsar - so the tsar, he didn’t eat bread for nothing; he worked better than a barge hauler; about Ivan Susanin: ... after all, he saved not the tsar, but Russia!) .

The portrait (appearance) of the hero was rarely depicted. If a portrait appeared, it was laconic (for example: the robbers are strong, handsome, stately fellows in red shirts). A portrait detail (for example, a costume) could be connected with the development of the plot: the unrecognized king walks around dressed in a simple dress; The robber comes to the feast in a general's uniform.

Based on the influence of the form or content of other genres, groups of transitional, peripheral works are distinguished among the legends. Legendary tales are tales with a miracle motif, in which historical events are interpreted from a religious point of view. Another phenomenon is fairy-tale plots dedicated to historical figures (see the story about Peter I and the blacksmith by the famous storyteller F. P. Gospodarev in the Reader).

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002

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