Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

I believe I got the original link to this volume through StumbleUpon. The link was to archive.com, which had a digitized version of the original 1916 edition of this book. While it had a number of very detailed and intriguing illustrations, by Noel L. Nisbet, the text was a bit difficult to read as the “paper” was more light gray than white. I subsequently found out that there was a free Kindle edition, so I also got that (the type is crisper and larger, for my old eyes). Thus, I went back and forth between the versions, reading the Kindle and going to the illustrations from the archive.com one.The editor/translator, R. Nisbet Bain, who had also edited a previous book of Russian folk tales, explains in the Introduction that the Cossacks lived in a remote area of what is now the Ukraine and spoke Ruthenian. Most were hardscrapple farmers. As the Cossacks were persecuted by the Russian government, who tried to ban the use of Ruthenian, they but did not succeed. Mr. Bain’s collection is culled from three other collections, each reflecting a different dialect of Ruthenian, most from the mid-1800s.As for the stories themselves, they are replete with Tsars (I believe they were regional rulers then) and Tsarvinas (their wives), woodland sprites, flying serpents, multiple farmers’ daughters, seductive witches, rich and poor sons, and beneath it all, LOTS of magic. There are certainly similarities between these and other fairy tales (the Cinderella tale is almost identical), and there are themes of dire consequences for not using one’s judgment when warned about NOT kissing your wife for a certain amount of time or killing a steer or some other such proscription; more than one of these protagonists has forfeited their wealth/marriage/farmlands by doing so! Other characteristics relate to a serpent/Tsar/saint/evil lord giving the protagonist a number of impossible tasks to complete before the dawn, with our hero being saved by a fairy or other similar being in repayment for a kindness. Most of the human characters are either farmers (as, I would surmise, were most of the Cossacks of the time) or Tsars.There are also some themes which our 21st-century enlightened minds would tend to cringe at; for example, Jews are stereotyped as evil, manipulative and only concerned about money; and somehow mistreating and beating one’s wife is considered de rigeur. Nonetheless, they were, I suppose, reflective of the culture at the time.All in all, I greatly enjoyed this collection, and would recommend it for anyone interested in folk tales or historical literature.

The Cossacks are a rather isolated Russian culture, and this is a collection of their stories. Due to their relative isolation, some of the stories are very unique, although there are also many which have clear influences from other Eurasian cultures.Overall these were enjoyable stories, although one of them uses "Jew" to mean "unsavory stranger," which will probably be offensive to some (I was almost offended, and I'm not Jewish or easily offended).There's an active chart-style table of contents, an active list of the plates (though the pictures are missing), and the few notes present in the tales are properly linked.This book contains the following stories:Oh: The Tsar of the ForestThe Story of the WindThe Voices at the WindowThe Story of Little Tsar Novishny...The Vampire and St MichaelThe Story of Tresin, the Bird Zhar...The Serpent-WifeThe Story of Unlucky DanielThe Sparrow and the BushThe Old DogThe Fox and the CatThe Straw OxThe Golden SlippersThe Iron WolfThe Three BrothersThe Tsar and the AngelThe Story of Ivan and the Daughter of the SunThe Cat, the Cock and the FoxThe Serpent-Tsarevich and His Two WivesThe Origin of the MoleThe Two PrincesThe Ungrateful ChildrenIvan the Fool and St Peter's FifeThe Magic EggThe Story of the Forty-First BrotherThe Story of the Unlucky DaysThe Wondrous Story of Ivan Golik and the Serpents

These are definitely Cossack fairy tales, not Anglicized like the Andrew Lang fairy books. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Andrew Lang; but it's nice to read English translation with out the English stereotypes.

I have always enjoyed Fairy Tales and I like Tolstoy, so this book is a great read. If you like the classics, you will most likely enjoy this book.

These stories reminded me of tales that my mom told me as a child.

Bought this on Amazon.com. Very interesting stories, some unique and some with their own special twist on stories found in more than one country or culture. I enjoyed it very much.

This is well worth a read. Anyone familiar with western folk tales will find a few common themes, but also plenty of original ones as well.

The stories are from old Ukrainian folktales. Falsely states that Ukraine in russia.

Lovely stories useful to have in the classroom, I use my Kindle all the time in the class as I can carry so much information on tap.

The review is for 'Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales' by Abela publishing paperback edition. The book contains 27 Slavonic and Cossack stories. The printing is good on a little off white paper. The only downsize of this edition is that the illustrations printed are cheap, inconsistent and pixelated. So the low quality illustrations are almost useless while reading the book. They didn't add much to the stories. Overall a good book for a fairy tale lover.