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Hedgehogs, the Keepers of Order and Knowledge in Slavic Fairy Tales
- Ygg2 11y agoIf there is one interesting thing about Slavic Fairy Tales is that no embodiment is considered truly, irredeemably evil. Everything is sort of gray. Even Death can be called to be Godmother, embodiment of diseases can return a favor, etc.
- kbart 11y agoNot to offend anyone, but considering something/someone "truly, irredeemably evil" is very American attitude. For example, compare contemporary movies from Hollywood vs European.
- amelius 11y agoI always hated fairy tales, even as a child, probably for this very reason. Perhaps I should subscribe to the Slavonic storytelling. Is there a good story-bundle that can be recommended both for adults and children?
- kbart 11y agoI have many physical books of various Eastern European and Slavic tales in my childhood home, but nothing in English or in electronic form.. Anyway, Slavic and Eastern European fairy tales are not very different from other European nations' tales and have much in common (South Europe might be a little different, but I'm not an expert to comment much) to the extend that sometimes only character names differ (or animal type). You might try Grimm's Fairy Tales[1] if haven't read yet, but aim for original/older edition[2] as originally it was quite violent but softened increasingly over time. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms'_Fairy_Tales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms'_Fairy_Tales 2. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/
- Gargol 11y agoI grew up in Ukraine and some of the best books you could get with Slavic stories is this publisher (ababahalamaha in Ukrainian its "А-БА-БА-ГА-ЛА-МА-ГА") - http://ababahalamaha.com.ua/en/Main_Page http://ababahalamaha.com.ua/en/Main_Page . Apart from amazing stories, each book is a piece of great artwork.
- phillc73 11y agoMy boy has a few of these and the artwork really is amazing.
- Ygg2 11y agoI don't think that's necessarily American. Thing is God in Abrahamic (Judaism, Christanity and Islam) religions is unquestionable force of goodness.
- dovdov 11y agomore like rightness
- jdimov9 11y agoDefinitely rightness, not goodness. A "good God" would never punish. Only one with an ulterior agenda (and therefore not a true creator) would resort to punishment.
- cmrdporcupine 11y agoYes it's a big distinguishing mark between 'pagan' belief systems and Christian/Islamic systems, a belief in the moral rightness/perfection/correctness of God. Roman pagans, Greek 'mythology', Germanic and Celtic religion, all had gods who were more like exaggerated people (with all their faults and flaws and terrible behaviours) than what Christians and post-Christians think of as a god.
- oldmanjay 11y agoNot to offend you in turn, but you can't impress people with your provincial pigeonholing when it's clearly borne of ignorance. This is about as compelling and defensible a statement as those made by all the people who think Scandanavia constitutes "the rest of the world"
- vintermann 11y agoTrying to think of some counterexamples. How about Koschei? I'd also argue that redemption isn't usually a topic even when a classically evil figure does something not simply evil.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoI'd also argue that Baba Yaga is also unequivocally evil in every tale I've ever heard.
- Razengan 11y agoI'd argue that this rule too, has an exception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KdYEHsXk1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KdYEHsXk1k
- vintermann 11y agoI specifically mentioned Koschei rather than Baba Yaga because I know there are stories where Baba Yaga isn't pure evil (although I know of rather few Slavic folk tales, not trying to come across as any kind of expert here!). I don't know of any story where Koschei is benign. I have some trouble seeing how that would work out for a character whose defining attribute is having used dark magic to cheat death.
- _pmf_ 11y agoThe original Witcher books (the ones the game is based on) embody this principle very nicely. Although more in a "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" way.
- realusername 11y agoI could also add The Night/Day watch books to this list. Even if you have a dark side and a light side actually, not everything is black and white when you dig a bit.
- Steko 11y agoThe still as noted is from Hedgehog in the Fog which is an amazing animated short and well worth your 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rugwd8ZNHY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rugwd8ZNHY
- cel1ne 11y agoThere's even a chrome theme: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hedgehog-in-the-fog/haocganpkafanhkfldbbmhcpaelmkejg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hedgehog-in-the-fo... :)
- kbart 11y agoYou beat me posting this, amazing short -- one of my all times favorites. Fun fact, it was considered animation for children and in my childhood (nearly 30 years ago) and was shown on kids TV programme in evenings. If I ever have children, this will definitely be on their schedule too.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoDitto, along with Nu Pogodi - which is also great because it doesn't require working knowledge of Russian!
- coman 11y agoreply
- deutronium 11y agoI just found a subtitled version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW0jvJC2rvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW0jvJC2rvM
- phillc73 11y agoAnother one I really like is "There once was a dog": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBBODkPlpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBBODkPlpY And of course Gena and Cheburashka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xrr9mcdFvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xrr9mcdFvw Not from my childhood, but rather my wife's and now our son's.
- miiiiiike 11y agoAfter the sky was finally installed: https://gfycat.com/KlutzyPointedAmericancrocodile https://gfycat.com/KlutzyPointedAmericancrocodile
- andrewclunn 11y agoAh, that explains why the Russian ports of Sonic the Hedgehog are all puzzle games.