The Plot of “The Spirit in the Blue Light” in the Russian Fairy Tale Tradition: Between a Folk Tale and the Authorial Creativity

Abstract

The article examines the existence of the plot type 562 “The Spirit in blue light” in the Russian fairy tale tradition. It is generally believed that this text came into the Russian folklore tradition under the influence of the fairy tale by H. C. Andersen's “Flint,” and the first publication of this plot type is a fairy tale from a Brothers Grimm collection. In Russia, the ATU index describes six variants of this plot type, and one of them was published before the appearance of both the Andersen fairy tale and the Brothers Grimm version, which allows to assume that it goes back to some oral version of this plot type. The rest of the texts are influenced by Andersen to one degree or another, but we cannot exclude the influence of the Brothers Grimm’ fairy tale, as well as of the oral tradition. In addition to the six texts marked in the index, we were able to identify two more published and three archived texts. Storytellers have used this plot type in different ways. In a number of texts, the plot in question is used as an additional storyline in the narrative. In others, storytellers improvise within the framework of the fairy tale. They are familiar with Andersen's text, but when retelling it, they modify it, removing incomprehensible realities, adding familiar elements, filling the text with details, revealing the psychology of the characters, explaining the motivations of their actions, etc. There is also a case of improvisation outside the fairy-tale canon. The variant is an improvisation, which is based on the film “The Old, Old Fairy Tale,” based on several fairy tales by Andersen. Despite such a difference in approaches to the fairy-tale text, we can confidently say that Andersen's text has over time displaced a certain oral version of the plot type 562 from the storytellers’ repertoire.