Изборът на брачен партньор в българските народни приказки за животни
The Choice of a Spouse in Bulgarian Animal Folktales

Summary/Abstract: The article examines two tale plots, where marriage is the main purpose and the element of deceive and trick, usually dominating in animal tales, is absent. The future marriage partners belong to one and the same hierarchical level (chthonic animals), but in one case marriage is impossible ("The Frog Refuses to Give Her Daughter in Marriage to the Crayfish"), while in the other it is possible ("The Mouse and the Mole"). One of the reasons is to be found in the inner subordination of chthonic animals in the Bulgarian folklore picture of the world. The second reason (which is the most important in our case) is that these tales manifest at a lower level some mythological and mytho-ritual super-texts. In the tale about the frog and the crayfish these are the plots about the marriage of the Thunderer's real daughter and its isomorhous plot of the heavenly marriage. In the formula tale about the mouse and the mole the choice of a right marriage partner (the mole) is due to the idea of the necessity to preserve the stability of the world tree and the universe through the marriage of the mouse and the mole (the miners). In connection with this plot the author examines the possible correspondence of the characters to supreme Slavonic gods.

• Details
• Contents