Snegurochka

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Snegurochka, painting by Viktor Michailowitsch Wasnezow

Snegurochka , even Snegurka ( Russian Снегурочка, Снегурка, Снежевиночка to German Snow Maiden, snow girl or Snow Maiden ) is a Russian fairy-tale figure. It is also the title of several Russian fairy tales . The most famous story in Russia comes from the fairy tale collections of Alexander Afanassjew , which were published in eight issues from 1855 to 1863. Some of these fairy tales also come from Vladimir Ivanovich Dal .

Snegurochka in a fairy tale

The best-known story from Afanassiev's collection is about an old couple who want a child but never have one. One day the couple watches children build snowmen and decide to build a child out of snow. It comes to life and is called the Snow Maiden by the woman. The old people love the girl like their own daughter and keep her to themselves. As spring approaches, the otherwise very sociable and intelligent snow girl becomes gloomy and disappears in the traditional jump over a campfire in summer.

In another snow girl fairy tale from the collection of Ivan Chudjakow , the snow girl emerges from a melted snow globe. It is also created in the house of an elderly couple, of whom it is adopted as a daughter. Snegurochka gets lost a little later in the forest and ends up with the witch Baba Yaga , who holds it to herself and works as a nanny. With the help of an ox, Snegurochka escapes and finds his way back to his foster parents.

Today's meaning of Snegurochka

Today Snegurochka is best known among the Russian population as the companion of Father Frost on New Year's Eve when he brings presents to Russian children. Snegurochka has played this role since the 1920s, when this myth was developed by the communists as an antithesis to traditional Christian Christmas motifs and persisted in post-Soviet Russia. Very often Snegurochka is considered the daughter or granddaughter of Father Frost.

Adaptations

drama

In the fairy tale drama Snegurotschka by Alexander Ostrowski (1873), Snegurochka is the daughter of Father Frost and the goddess of spring. Because of these roots she is on the one hand cool-tempered, on the other hand full of longing for love. She falls in love with a person she wants to marry, but she melts under the powerful summer sun, whereupon her fiancé drowns himself in the sea. Behind her death lies the power of the summer god.

music

The play by Ostrowski served as a template for the incidental music Snegurotschka by Tchaikovsky (1873) and the opera Snegurotschka with ballet by Rimsky-Korsakov (1882).

Film adaptations

The story of Snegurochka in Ostrowsky's version has been filmed several times:

Motifs from the fairy tale can also be found in other Soviet fairy tale films:

Fiction

  • Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Maiden. Translated by Claudia Arlinghaus, Margarete Längfeld, Martina Tichy (Snow Child). Kindler, Reinbek 2012 (frequent new editions in various publishers; also in Reader's Digest selection books # 4, 2014). The plot has been modified slightly and moved to Alaska .

literature

  • Russian writers' fairy tales . Pravda Publishing House, Moscow 1985, translation from Russian: Oksana Fedotowa, 2005
  • Russian fairy tales . Königsfurt-Verlag 2006, translation from Russian: Sigrid Früh, Paul Walch (contains the version based on Chudjakow)

Web links

Commons : Snegurochka  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Afanassjew: Narodnije russkie skaski , Moscow 1861
  2. ↑ Ivan Chudjakow: Velikorusskije skaski , Moscow 1860-62
  3. ↑ Template: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available ) Maerchen RU - folk tales from Russia
  4. ↑ a b Ulf Diederichs: Who's who im Märchen , Munich 1995
  5. ↑ Снегурочка (1952) on kino-teatr.ru (Russian), accessed on July 6, 2020