It is hard to overestimate Professor Jack V. Haney’s extensive contribution to the study of Slavic (Russian) folklore. For many years, he has been researching, selecting, translating, and annotating Russian folktales, as well as publishing scholarly work on Russian folklore. Long, Long Tales from the Russian North represents yet another step in adding to the repository of Russian folkloric texts available in translation. This latest contribution brings a fascinating folktale/narrative tradition of the Russian people to the English-speaking reader, and situates this tradition within a wider context. As Haney points out in his introduction to the volume, the book’s goal is “to highlight a form of narration neglected in the Russian literature about the folktale, and to present what may have been the last stage in the lengthy development of the European folktale” (xxv). All of the tales in the collection appear in English translation for the first time.
Long, Long Tales from the Russian North is a set of seventeen folk narratives from the north of European Russia. These narratives are serial folktales (dolgie skazki, or lengthy tales told in parts) remarkable for their structure, manner of delivery, and relative contemporariness. All of the tales can be considered wonder tales; all have been recorded in the twentieth century; all come from the Russian region of Karelia; and all are the products of the narrative art of five narrators from the region. The main characteristic of the tales is their interesting blend of different, more or less traditional siuzhets (complete themes/tale plots) woven together by their narrators. The tales possess many features of the traditional Russian wonder tale—traditional introductions and conclusions, magic objects, folkloric formulae, and triplication characteristic of the Russian folktale overall. Given their length and narrative and stylistic complexity, these tales resemble orally-delivered short stories.
Haney’s translation of these fascinating tales will give his readers an opportunity to observe the different narrative techniques of the five narrators, to see which plots are used and how they are woven together, and to determine what kind of features each narrator emphasizes (their side comments are quite imaginative, as are the methods of transitioning from theme to theme). There are many curious contemporary inserts in the narratives, such as references to cars, watches, airplanes, drillers and explosives, and even a submarine! Those familiar with literary collections of Russian wonder tales will have a chance to compare censored versions with the ones presented in this volume (exploration of sexual themes is quite interesting, for instance). Readers will also see which old (traditional) elements are still preserved in these “contemporary” renderings, and how they are used. This reviewer was delighted to find examples of the vocative case in two or three of the stories. One of the tales (“The Enchanted Kingdom”) is a charming version of the more widely-known Frog Princess tale.
In addition to the translated tales themselves, the volume offers a short preface which briefly describes the project. The technical note and glossary provide an explanation of the volume’s structure and system of transliteration, and describe the most salient features of the vocabulary and names used in the tales as well as the narrators’ speech styles. There are also brief commentaries to tales, a short bibliography, and an appendix listing ATU/SUS numbers. In the ten-page introduction, Haney shares important background information on this scholarly project, defines what he terms “serial tales” (within the theoretical framework that exists on the subject), and describes the personalities and styles of the five narrators featured in the volume. Here he also offers a brief analysis of the tales in the book.
The volume is put together elegantly, both in regard to its structure and content, and to its technical aspects (appearance, editing, etc.). There are only a few editorial omissions (xiii, 18, 82) and one minor factual mistake: the “Batushko” in the glossary should be “Batushka,” since “Batushko” is a vocative form of this noun (like “Ivanushko” in several stories in the book). These friendly criticisms, however, should not be viewed as aiming to minimize the quality and value of the collection, which are very high.
Folktales, like any genre of folklore, represent a rich source of cultural information, and readers can glimpse in them an important aspect of Russian culture--a particularly Russian experience. Thanks to Haney’s dedication to this area of scholarship (the volume under review being one of his many fine contributions to the field), English-language readers have access to an important oral tradition. Students and researchers of folklore, cultural studies, and Slavic studies, as well as interested readers of all backgrounds will encounter in these tales a wonderfully rich experience.
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[Review length: 768 words • Review posted on April 16, 2014]