РУССКИЕ ВЕРСИИ НАРОДНЫХ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЙ О ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИИ КУКУШКИ
RUSSIAN VERSIONS OF FOLK IDEAS ABOUT CUCKOO’S ORIGIN

Summary/Abstract: The article explores folk legends and fairy tales about the origins of the cuckoo, as well as the associated beliefs that reveal the complex nature of the folk perceptions of this bird. The material analyzed is Russian, collected from various regions of Russia and different historical periods. The decision to focus exclusively on the Russian tradition is intentional, as scholarly investigations have already addressed Slavonic, East Slavic, Belarusian, and Ukrainian folk ideas about the cuckoo and its origin, whereas Russian folk ideas have been not studied specifically. By narrowing the research scope to Russian folklore, the study aims to identify and analyze the distinctive Russian features of the cuckoo’s etiology and to clarify the ambiguous attitudes towards this bird and its cuckooing within folk culture. Two conventional types of folk tales about the cuckoo’s etiology and the meaning of cuckooing known in the Russian tradition have been analyzed: one type is closer to Christian legends, while the other has a more fairy-tale quality, but incorporates elements of both high and domestic mythology. The analysis revealed the elements characterizing each type, including the influence of ancient Russian book sources on the first type and the importance of the emotional component in the second type.

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