Please tell me what is the difference between fairy tales and epics. What is the difference between an epic, a story and a folk tale

Among the popular genres of folklore are fairy tales and epics. Although they are very similar, these genres each have their own characteristics and were written for different purposes. Consider the similarities and differences between fairy tales and epics.

A brief introduction to the fairy tale genre

Fairy tales are among the popular genres of Russian folklore. First, fairy tales about animals appeared, then magical and social ones. What specific features genre?

• The events described in it were perceived as fiction.
• The purpose of writing is instructive, less often entertaining.
• The form of presentation is prose.

Most often, fairy tales were passed on "from mouth to mouth", which is why they do not have specific authors. Each narrator could forget something or, conversely, add, so the texts had many options.

Description of the epic as a genre

Another interesting folk genre- an epic, an epic song, the main characters were heroes, princes and other defenders of the common people. Their opponents were often endowed with mighty power. So, the Serpent Gorynych - a three-headed monster, spewing fire from his insatiable mouths, captured entire villages of the Russians.

Let's briefly highlight the key features of the genre:

• A poetic form of narration, most often the texts were written in tonic verse with an even number of stresses (2-4).
• The presence of a clear structure: the sing-along - the beginning - the exposition - the ending.
• Heroes often have real prototypes or perceived by the popular consciousness as the embodiment of evil.

In general, this genre was loved by the Russian people, because in the texts good always overcame evil.

Common features

Consider the similarities and differences between fairy tales and epic. First of all, let's highlight common features for both genres:

• Absence of authorship.
• Initially, there was only an oral form of presentation.
• Use of traditional wording and templates.
• They reflected the features of life and life of people of their era.

These are the main similarities of a fairy tale and an epic. The differences will be described below. We also note that both genres used the images of fantastic characters, who most often embodied evil (the Serpent Gorynych in epics, Baba Yaga and Koschey in fairy tales).

Differences

Considering what similarities and differences fairy tales and epics distinguish, we note that they were created for different purposes:

• A fairy tale is for teaching and amusement of listeners.
• Bylina - to sing the exploits of heroes.

Further, speaking about the similarities and differences between the epic and fairy tales, it should be noted that various characters acted in them. At first glance, both of them are objects of fiction. However, in fairy tales, heroes were initially perceived as invented. In epics, they often had a real historical basis and embodied the ideal qualities of people's defenders.

The next similarity and difference between a fairy tale and an epic is in the plot of the text. In the epic, feats were sung, some historical events important for the whole people, which was not in the fairy tale texts. The latter were often dedicated to a specific character and his fate.

Comparison Example

To better understand the similarities and differences between fairy tales and epics, let's compare two texts - "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber" and "Marya Morevna". Both works are very interesting and have a fascinating plot, acquaintance with which will be useful for both children and adults.

The first sign that distinguishes the texts catches the eye: the tale is presented in prose, the epic - in a special verse.

Next, consider other similarities and differences between fairy tales and epics. At the beginning of the texts there is an indication of the place of action. “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state” - this is how Marya Morevna begins, the formula for the genre is traditional and devoid of specifics. And "Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber" directly speaks of where events unfold - the city of Chernihiv.

The following similarities and differences between fairy tales and epics are the main characters. It seems that both of them - both Ivan Tsarevich and the hero Ilya - are brave, determined and courageous, but Ilya's main goal is a disinterested feat for the sake of saving his native people, and Ivan, with all his positive qualities yet acts in his own interests - wanting to regain his lost wife.

Presentation Features

Considering the similarities and differences between epics and fairy tales as genres of Russian folklore, it should be noted that both of them used stable turns, passing from text to text:

• “Soon the fairy tale is told, but the deed is not done soon.”
• "Black-black", "let the gray beast not roar."

Their use not only created a special poetics, but also helped memorize rather voluminous works.

Constant epithets were also often used: “good fellow”, “heroic silushka”, “straight path”.

The similarities and differences between fairy tales and epics indicate that these are different folklore genres, but with many common features.

Bylina and fairy tale are different types folk art. We have repeatedly had the opportunity to make sure that the epic has properties that immediately distinguish it from all other types of folk poetry, including fairy tales. Fairy tale and epic cover different areas folk culture, meet different aesthetic needs. Better than many others, the difference between a fairy tale and an epic was determined by V. G. Belinsky. Belinsky writes: “There is a big difference between a poem or a rhapsode and between a fairy tale. In the poem, the poet, as it were, respects his subject, puts it above himself and wants to arouse reverence in others for him; in a fairy tale, the poet is on his mind: his goal is to occupy idle attention, dispel boredom, amuse others. Hence there is a big difference in the tone of both types of works: in the first - importance, passion, sometimes rising to pathos, the absence of irony, and even more so - vulgar jokes; at the base of the second, a back thought is always noticeable; it is noticeable that the narrator himself does not believe what he is telling, and inwardly laughs at his own story. This is especially true for Russian fairy tales.”

This definition of Belinsky should be recognized as extremely subtle and insightful. A fairy tale is defined by the fact that its aesthetics is based on fiction, deliberately emphasized precisely as fiction. This is the beauty of a fairy tale. M. Gorky emphasized its significance as a "fiction". The people themselves define this with a saying: "A fairy tale is a fold, a song is a true story." The reality of the events taking place in a fairy tale is not believed, and they are never presented as reality. From this comes good-natured humor, light mockery, so characteristic, as Belinsky noted, precisely for the Russian fairy tale. This, of course, does not mean that the fairy tale is divorced from reality. In it, fiction, precisely as fiction, is determined by historical reality, and the task of the researcher of a fairy tale is to establish this connection. The humor and mockery inherent in the tale make it an excellent medium for satire.

In the epic, the attitude to the depicted is different. If you ask a singer if he believes in what he sings about, most of the singers will answer with unshakable confidence in the reality of the events they sing. "Song is a true story." The very word "epic" betrays this attitude, as well as the word "old" by which the people designate epics and which means that everything that is sung about really happened, albeit in ancient times.

True, the researcher cannot fully trust all the testimonies of the singers. When collectors or researchers ask the performer whether he believes in the reality of the glorified events, then the question is put incorrectly. The performer believes in the vital and artistic truth of the performed, that the song does not lie. This is what he expresses in the words - "everything was as it is sung."

For this reason, a fairy tale better preserves prehistoric antiquity than an epic, it is more archaic than it. What is no longer possible as a reality is possible as an interesting fiction. Therefore, for example, in the epic the serpent is replaced by the historical enemies of Russia, but this does not happen in the fairy tale. For the same reason, the most ancient totemic representations (spouse-animal, talismans, etc.) are preserved in the fairy tale, and these representations disappear in the epic.

But Belinsky emphasizes yet another difference between the fairy tale and the epic: the difference in content. In the epic, the poet "reveres the subject of his songs." The epic expresses the highest ideals of the people and seeks to convey these ideals to the listeners: the singer "wants to arouse reverence in others."

We have already seen above that the ideological content of the epic is the blood connection of a person with the motherland, serving her. In a fairy tale, especially in a fairy tale, the content may be different. If in the epic the hero beats the snake and thereby saves Kyiv from disaster, then fairy tale hero defeats the serpent in order to marry the girl he has freed.

The events of the classical epic always take place in Russia. The events of a fairy tale can be localized "in a certain kingdom", "in a certain state". And although in the end the events of the Russian fairy tale also occur in Russia, this is not emphasized in it. Idea content fairy tales are the moral image of a Russian person, his life, everyday ideals, his struggle not only with the enemies of his homeland, but with evil in all its forms. The artistic embodiments of this evil are both the most fantastic creatures, such as witches, koshcheevs, snakes, and the most realistic ones, such as the priest, the landowner and the tsar. But the fight against evil, the fight for truth, justice, is also the content of the epic, although basically a fairy tale and an epic cover different types of struggle. It follows from this that with all the difference between a fairy tale and an epic, there may be closeness between them, there may be rapprochement among the people, and this explains that among the epics of the Russian epic there are those that are characterized by a fabulous coloring, which have a fabulous character.

The degree of closeness between the epic and the fairy tale can be different. The epics we examined, especially the early ones, like songs about Sadko or Potyk, to some extent also had a fabulous character. But there is a group of epics that stand even closer to the tale than the epics we have already considered. What brings them closer to a fairy tale is that the tone of most of them is half-joking, slightly ironic. In the epics we examined, the idea triumphed Kyiv state, Kievan Rus; in the epics of the group under consideration, the question does not stand like that. Neither snakes, nor Tugarin, nor Idolishche threaten Kievan Rus in them; the heroes are not endangered by various enchantresses. There are no more witches in Russia, and they do not penetrate there. But there are still such "poisoners" in distant countries, where, for example, Gleb Volodyevich goes. In the epics of this group, complex family and personal issues are often resolved, as in the epics about Ilya Muromets and his son, about Stavr Godinovich and his wife, etc. In them, as in a fairy tale, the hero shows his high moral character, his resourcefulness, strength and courage. From the closeness with the fairy tale, the epic becomes entertaining. Its execution gave rest from hard peasant labor, contributed to hard life stream of festivity and sometimes fun. But even in these cases, the epic did not serve as entertainment for entertainment. It expresses folk thought and morality, the people's assessment of human characters and deeds.

All this shows that such epics, although they are artistically beautiful, are still not typical of the heroic epic itself. Of these, only one is distinguished by severity and monumentality: this is an epic about the battle of Elijah with his son. Of all the epics of an intermediate character, it is closest to the actual heroic songs, although it is no less close to fairy tales. The fairy-tale character of the rest is more pronounced. All this gives the researcher of the heroic epic the right to consider them in less detail than actually heroic epics.

epics fabulous character less subject to change than the actual heroic epics.

Due to the indicated properties of the epics of this group, dating them, even in the conditional sense in which it is stipulated above, is very difficult. In the vast majority of cases, the plots of such epics are very ancient. Often they go back to the communal-tribal system. Such plots as the plot of a husband at his wife's wedding (“Dobrynya and Alyosha”), the fight between a father and son (“Ilya and Sokolnik”) are among the most ancient Russian plots. This gives the right to assert that they were in Russian folk poetry already at the very beginning of the formation of Kievan Rus. The same can be said about other epic fairy tales. All of them are extremely ancient and from this side they belong to the early Russian epics. Their processing and some details belong to a later time, which should be established in each case separately. But all this does not shake the assertion about early education these epics in the repertoire of the Russian epic. Along with these early fairy-tale epics, there are a number of later epics of fairy-tale content, which, in fact, are no longer so much epics as fairy tales in epic metrical form.

Bylina is an epic old Russian song of the people, which tells about real events in history relating to the XI-XVI centuries. The main goal of the epic is to tell the reader about heroes and heroes Ancient Russia.

Examples of epics

A word about Igor's regiment.

Dobrynya and the Serpent.

Kalin Tsar and Ilya Muromets.

Russian bogatyrs.

A fairy tale is a fictional story with a fantastic, heroic, or everyday character. The plot of the fairy tale, as a rule, never happened in reality. The main goal of the fairy tale is to educate the younger generation and instill moral and moral standards through a fictional story.

Examples of fairy tales

The Tale of the Priest and the Worker Balda.

• About the white bull.

  Princess Frog.

The difference between a fairy tale and an epic

The narrative style in the epic is poetic, usually read to string accompaniment in solemn recitative. The words and parts of the verse go in strict sequence.

Sat on a white-combustible stone
And he plays guselki yarovchaty.
How then in the lake the water stirred,
He appeared, the king of the sea came out "

The tale is written and narrated usually in a colloquial manner and has a free style of presentation.

“Small, my hut is small,” says the bunny. - One has nowhere to jump. How will I let you fox? Did not let the fox bunny into the house. The fox appeared another time and began to walk. Made it easy to go to the hare every day. ”

In the epic, such techniques as triple repetitions, hyperbole, synonymous words, and frequent epithets are often used.

For those for your great deeds, For your game, for something tender, tender.

Fairy tales usually use traditional tropes. Template beginnings. (Once upon a time. In a certain kingdom. Baba Yaga, a bone leg. They pull, they pull.)

Bylina is most often written in the genre of folk epic songs.

Fairy tale is usually a narrative epic genre.

In the epic, as a rule, the character and the event were indeed written off from previously living heroes. (Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich).

A fairy tale always describes a fictional story, event, or character. Often the tale has an absolutely fantastic character. (The Frog Princess, The Flying Ship, The Little Humpbacked Horse.

A fairy tale is a magical story that teaches the reader only positive things. Fairy tales are most often written in prose. The heroes of a fairy tale often become unusual heroes, on the way of which magical evil forces appear. In fairy tales, good always triumphs over evil.

Bylina is a folk song about the adventures of heroes. Rhyming is often present in epics. hallmark epic is vivid description national flavor and historical events from past. The basis of the plot of the epic is the heroic deeds and exploits of the heroes.

Dictionary of terms of Russian folklore
Course compiler Nikita Petrov about what an epic is, did Ilya Muromets really exist and how Stalin became the hero of the epic / Course No. 14 "Russian epic"

How does a fairy tale differ from an epic, who is a storyteller and what is an invariant? Glossary of terms, without which Russian folklore cannot be understood. More in course number 14: to be continued...

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Nikita Petrov - folklorist, anthropologist, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor at the Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore of the Russian State University for the Humanities, senior researcher at the School of Contemporary Humanitarian Studies of the RANEPA. He became interested in a comparative study of the epic at the university after lectures by the researcher of epics Yu. A. Novikov, continued his studies in epic studies at the Institute of Higher Humanitarian Studies of the Russian State Humanitarian University (now E. M. Meletinsky IVGI), then at the Center for Typology and Semiotics of Folklore he defended his dissertation under the guidance of S. Y. Neklyudova. The sphere of scientific interests today is folklore and mythology, anthropology of the city, epic studies, plot and motive indicators, narratology, anthropology of memory.

Author of the monograph "Heroes in the Russian North" (M., 2008), one of the compilers of the collections of folk prose texts "Kargopolye: a folklore guide (traditions, legends, stories, songs and sayings" (M., 2009), "Experts, sorcerers and warlocks: witchcraft and household magic in the Russian North ”(M., 2013), author of articles in the encyclopedia“ Myths of the peoples of the world ”(OLMA; St. Petersburg, M., 2014).

Heroic tales - archaic heroic epic, preceding the epics. The plot is based on collisions of the “heroic biography” (miraculous birth, heroic childhood, heroic matchmaking, loss and re-acquisition of a bride/wife, and so on). Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp called such a fairy tale a “pre-state epic”.

epics- “singing with a voice”, usually poetic works (sometimes they could be told in prose). In epics, events take place around a hero, or an epic lord, or a city (Kyiv, Novgorod). Epics are based on the opposition of “friends and foes” and on a mythical or quasi-historical past. In some epics, heroes of extraordinary physical strength defeat ethnic or historical enemies ("Ilya Muromets and Kalin Tsar", "Alyosha and Tugarin"). Such epics are called heroic. In fairy tales, the heroes do not defeat anyone, but, like the heroes of a fairy tale, they descend into the underground or underwater kingdom("Mikhailo Potyk", "Sadko"). Another kind of epics are texts of a ballad character (“Alyosha and the Petrovich brothers”, “Churilo Plenkovich”, “Stavr Godinovich”). In them, heroes perform ordinary (often unseemly) deeds, or their wives turn out to be heroes, cunningly helping their husbands out of trouble.

The term "epic" began to be used early explorers in the 1840s. Apparently, the term is the result of a misreading of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign": "Start your songs according to the epics of this time, and not according to Boyan's plan" ("epics" here is what actually happened). The performers of epics called these works "old men" or "old men", in manuscript collections of the XVII - early XIX centuries, texts such as epics were called "histories" or "tales" about heroes, "ancient Russian poems"; critics also called them "fairy tales in verse", "poems in a fabulous kind."

Epics existed in the oral environment until the second half of the 20th century. Most of the epics (about 3000 texts) were recorded in the 19th-20th centuries in the Russian North ( Arhangelsk region, Karelia), in Siberia, in the Urals and the Volga.

Song of the epic - the beginning of the text, not directly related to the plot, but revealing the internal logic of the narrative.

The beginning of the epic - a piece of text that introduces the listener to the setting of the action and the circle of characters.

Epic invariant - a text that brings together all the common elements for one epic plot. This is not a real text, but a speculative construct created by folklorists. A specific performance (or recording) of an epic on this plot is called a variant.

News- pseudo-folklore, but in fact author's works, imitation of epics. The authors of novelties are not traditionalist narrators who sing canonical epics, but narrators-improvisers. Novinas were created in the 1930s–1960s either by storytellers on their own, after reading news about the “heroic present” of the Soviet era, or as a result of joint work storytellers and folklorists who came to the villages and brought Chapaev's biography, newspaper clippings about the congresses of the CPSU, and so on. Lenin, Stalin, Voroshilov, Papanin, Chkalov and other Soviet characters appeared in the novelties in place of the heroes. Unlike epics, novinas are unproductive: they were not repeated by other storytellers. In all likelihood, the term "novelty" was coined by the White Sea storyteller Marfa Kryukova, who could sing in the form of an epic and a history textbook. In total, more than 600 texts of novelties are known.

Epic characters. Plot roles: epic hero and his entourage, enemy (antagonist); epic lord; messenger and helper/savior; servant/squire; a messenger transmitting a message/prediction/warning; bride. The main characters of the classical epic are heroes, who usually do not use magic and sorcery, but win with extraordinary strength and desperate courage, have an overactive, self-willed, “violent” character, sometimes even overestimating their strength. But there are also "heroes" who in some cases do not fall under these characteristics: Volkh Vseslavievich, Churilo Plenkovich, Sadko and others. This is due to the fact that the epic does not create “pure” character schemes and any character, even an episodic one, can be assigned. So, there is a hero who appears for one action - to count the wrong strength:

The old old woman and Ilya Muromets said here:
“You’re already a goy, Peresmeta’s son Stepanovich!
You go with your yes with your nephew,
Already you go to the open field, on the hilly slope,
And take a spy-tube,
And how to count, recount this great power,
Great unfaithful power."

A fairy tale (and its difference from an epic). The hero of a fairy tale acts in personal interests or in the interests of his family; having defeated an opponent, he always receives some kind of reward: he marries a princess, obtains material wealth. The hero of the epic song defends national and state interests. If the hero saves a brother or sister, then this happens by chance, relatives recognize each other after defeating the enemy (“Kozarin”, “Brothers Dorodovichi”), while the fairy-tale hero sets himself such a goal from the very beginning. The hero of a fairy tale wins with the help of magic power, in contrast to the epic, where the feat is carried out thanks to the heroic exertion of forces. At the same time, some epic stories (“The Healing of Ilya Muromets”, “Sadko at the Sea Tsar”, “Potyk”, “Dobrynya and Alyosha”) are built on collisions similar to fairy tales.

The plot of the epic. Usually revolves around the biography of the hero and is divided into the following episodes: I. Heroic childhood. II. Gaining strength / wealth / recruiting squads. III. Military collisions. IV. Conflicts. V. Rivalry. VI. Matrimonial conflicts. VII. Adventures. VIII. Death of a hero. The plot of the epic is characterized by two main epic collisions: military (the hero is opposed to the enemy) and marriage (the hero is opposed to the bride).

Opinions of researchers about how many main epic stories exist differ: some give a figure of 100–130 stories (as, in particular, Propp believed), others, including the compilers of the Code of Epics in 25 volumes, believe that there are about sixty.

Orality in epic- a system of rules that the storyteller uses to sing an epic. The concept of orality was formed during the study of Homer: according to the conclusions of some scholars, the Iliad and the Odyssey are of folklore origin, and their texts were formed as a result of repeated performance by storytellers. The narrator, focusing on the plot, known examples of style and poetic vocabulary, put together an epic song by substituting formulas in a certain metrical position and combining themes. Formulas and themes formed the so-called epic knowledge and epic memory, the essence of which was not only the ability to memorize thousands of verses.

Cycling epic - plots grouped around the figure of the protagonist: epics from one cycle can reflect different episodes of his life. There is also a cyclization of events and characters around a certain epic center (Kyiv) and an epic sovereign (prince of Kyiv).

Fairy tales, epics. Probably everyone has them, even a very small number of people. In ancient Russia, for example, paramount importance in the oral creativity of the people have a fairy tale and an epic. Similarities and differences between forms, of course, are found, although both are initially perceived as oral works, the author of which is the people. What is the difference? Let's figure it out!

Fairy tale and epic. Similarities and differences

According to the classification of researchers, they cover and include various areas of culture, differ in the aesthetics of needs and perception. Let's analyze the similarities and differences in more detail.

Definition of V. G. Belinsky

Russian classic literary criticism very subtly defined in his statements, and the epic, the similarities and differences of these forms in the literature. In the poem (epic), the author, as it were, expresses respect for the subject of the description. He always puts him on some high pedestal and wants to awaken the same reverence in his listeners. In a fairy tale, the poet pursues the goal of occupying the attention of the reader or listener, amusing, entertaining. So, in the first case, we have the importance of narration, the absence of irony and jokes, sometimes pathos. In the second, the narrator inwardly laughs at his narration, as if not believing in what he is talking about, which is especially characteristic of many Russian fairy tales.

What is the difference?

The similarities and differences between a fairy tale and an epic can be identified at several key nodes. Most of the story is based on fiction. The epic has a completely different display. The very name "epic" betrays the author's attitude to what is described as to realities. That is, this is what happened, but in ancient, immemorial times (another popular name for such works is characteristic - antiquity, that is, what was in ancient times).

Where are the events taking place?

In the classical epic, the actions almost always take place in Russia. In a fairy tale, events can take place in a certain kingdom, a third state (but this is not necessary).

similarity

The tale reflects the image of a Russian person from the point of view of morality, his way of life and ideals, the fight against evil in all its manifestations: real and fantastic. Considering such forms of oral folk art as a fairy tale and an epic, similarities and differences between them, it must be said that the theme of the fight against evil unites both literary forms, although sometimes its different types are implied. and justice, their restoration is the main idea of ​​many epics and fairy tales. With all the difference between the works between them, there can be a rapprochement among the people. This can also explain the fact that among the epics there are works that have a fabulous coloring and character. But some epics come even closer to fairy tales in their essence, as they have an ironic or comic tone of narration, where, from proximity to a fairy tale, the epic takes on an entertaining character. But even at the same time, epics of this kind (rather atypical for the Russian epic) were not purely entertaining in their genre. They expressed morality and folk thought, an assessment of the actions and characters of the characters.

Bylina and fairy tale: similarities and differences. Table

To better understand the topic under discussion, you can give a small table.

It shows the main similarities and differences literary forms folk art.