Bahato komariv - bahato iahid.
Bahato moshky - bahato hrybiv.
lakyi rik na bdzholy - takyi i na vivtsi.(4)

10

Omens, Proverbs and Tales: Genre Fluidity in Folklore

mna Pasichniuk, University ofKyiv

The starting point for this study is the omen. Omens are a specific genre of folklore.

They preserve knowledge by codifying it in concrete and objective form. Omens are found in every

known folklore tradition. In contemporary Ukrainian folklore scholarship, omens are considered a

minor genre, often relegated to the field ofparemiology, and studied in isolation.(I) Following

Pavlov, we can define the omen as a paremiological unit whose primary function is prediction.(2)

Further, we can apply the fOIDlUlaproposed by Elie Koingas-Maranda and Pierre Maranda:(3)

"If A, then B, if not C" where C=O

We can then define the omen by the fOIDlUla:"If A, then B", where one half of the equation is the

phenomenon that does the forecasting and the other half of the equation is the thing forecast For

example:

Lots of mosquitoes - lots of berries.
Lots of gnats - lots of mushrooms.
If it' s a good year for bees, it will be

a good one for sheep.

But the purpose of this study is to show that omens do not exist in isolation. Indeed, they can be

transformed into other units: they can be interpreted as another paremiological type, namely the

proverb, and they can even be expanded into short narratives, prose of the non-magic tale variety.

Permiakov, one of the founders of cliche theoty in contemporary folklore scholarship,

believes that omens are monosemantic; that they are an analytic form of the cliche and possess

properties that characterize them alone. These properties include:

1) a single and unambiguous meaning which arises from the meanings of the
constituent parts.

2) an absence of the use of imagery, metaphor, and other devices; all words
are used in their primary meaning.

3) a requirement that all constituent parts of the omen be equally
unambiguous.(5)

If any of these traits is absent, then we no longer have an omen, but an homonymous proverb; that is, a

proverb which has the same form as the omen, but has a broader, metaphorical meaning. Some

examples are:

Sylnyi doshch dovho ne ide.(6)
Soloveiko spivae poky v iachmeni kolosu

nemae.

A heavy rain does not last long.
A nightingale sings as long

as there is no barley.

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11

Doshch v obid-zapriahai ta i dodomu iid'.(8)

Doshch z ranku-nadivai dranku ta pohaniai
upole,

laicpokazavsia kolos, todi propav ioho As soon as the ears of barley
holos.(7) appear, his voice disappears.

If the above texts are given a straight-forward and monosemantic interpretation, then they are omens.

That is, in a certain context, these texts could be interpreted as presenting information about the

duration of heavy rain and the duration of a nightingale's song and, because omens have a single and

unambiguous meaning, that information alone. By the same token, these two texts can be understood

as proverbs. Here, concrete images (rain in one case and the nightingale and barley in the other) are

used to make statements about abstract ideas: the relationship between dmation and force in general,

or the relationship between inspiration and how long it lasts. These abstract concepts are applicable to

any situation. If applied to a human being, these texts could be commenting on a person who begins

sometbing with great enthusiasm, but does not exhibit great tenacity, or someone whose inspiration

lasts only as long as there are not distractions (the ear of barley). Ifread this way, the texts can only

be categorized as proverbs. Proverbs demand realization as metaphors; they cannot have a straight,

monosemantic meaning. Thus, a reading that relies on literaIy device assumes that the texts are

proverbs. It should be noted that, if read as proverbs, the two texts are essentially synonymous.

Another important trait of omens is that they are fixed and exhibit virtually no

variation from one telling to the next. To facilitate their memorization and hence their fossilization,

omens have been endowed with a wealth of formal features: unusual and striking word order, rhythm,

rhyme, assonance. Some examples are:

Chaika sila no vodu-chekai dobroi pohody If a seagull has landed on water,
good weather is on the way.
If it rains in the moming, put on old

clothes, and drive (your
horses) out to the field,

If it rains at noon, hitch up (your
horses) and go on home.

Omens of this type are strikingly similar to proverbs in appearance and form. But if we keep in mind

that the function of omens is to predict the future and that omens have only a single meaning, then the

above texts are clearly omens. It should be noted again that prediction and monosemantic function are

the features that distinguish omens from all other paremiological units. Commenting on the highly

structured and polished nature of the omen, Greenblatt hypothesized that the information contained in

omens was at one point conveyed by much more loosely structured utterances. He:further

hypothesized two lines of development: a metaphorical and proverbial one which capitalized on the

greater freedom of expression which had once characterized the transmission of forecasting clues and

a fossilization of the information that still had a direct, non-metaphorical meaning into the ornate,

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Koly no Stritennia moroz buvae,

to medvid' svoiu budu rozbyvae.
Koly no Stritennia moroz, medvid'

rozbyvae

12

polished omens we see today.(9)

If we now look at the phenomenon of "free" expression. we see that this, too, is still

connected to omens. Our initial definition of an omen is that it is a paremiological unit with the

structure "If A, then B" which serves to predict the future. Certain omens, in the course of their

existence, lose their characteristics as paremiological units and come to approximate non-magic tale

prose. Thus the transformation of the traditional omenlparemiological unit can go in a number of

directions. Very often, an omen is expanded, while still conveying the same infOImation. When this

happens, an important role is played by elements which serve to delineate a phenomenon more

narrowly, or provide motivation. or further interpret the original paremiological unit. Let us examine

variants of an omen about Candlemas (Febrwuy 21 Febrwuy 15, old style):

When it is below freezing on
Candlemas,

then the bear destroys his lair.
When it is below freezing on

Candlemas, the bear
destroys his burrow,

svoiu havru, a koly vidlyha, to napravliaie.(10) but if there is a thaw, he repairs it.

These two variants of a single omen demonstrate expansion of the underlying paremiological unit.

The pivotal element in first omen is a temperature that is below freezing. Logically, this can be

contrasted with its opposite (thaw) and then the results of the opposite, namely the thaw, can be

conjectured.

The example above contains only minimal expansion. Furthermore, the second text,

though more lengthy, is still the same type of paremiological unit as the first; it is still an omen. Next,

let us examine the incOInplete omen.:

Na Stritennia zyma z litom zustrichaiut'sia.(11) At Candlemas, winter and summer
meet

We also find instances where this text has been expanded into its complete form:

Na Stritennia zyma z litom sia strityla. At Candlemas winter and summer
meet.

Koly no Stritennia moroz peremozhe tepIo, If cold conquers warmth on
Candlemas,

to borshche bulle lito. then the summer will be all the more
VIgorous

Koly teplo peremozhe moroz, If warmth conquers the cold,
dovshe poderzhyt zyma.(12) then it will be winter a while longer.

Theoretically, a text of this type could continue to be expanded, producing an infinite number of

variants.

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13

The above examples show that, no matter how a calendaIy omen (as in the above

case) is expanded, it still remains a paremiological unit. But if a "complementaIy and explanatory

plot" develops on the basis of an omen, in which the omen appears in a narrative about a single event,

then the text breaks out of the paremiologica1 category. An example is the following:

Strichalisia zyma z litom, v p 'iatnytsiu vony pobylysia i lito prozhene
zymu, lito kazalo do zymy: tikai, uzhe hodi tobi pakuvaty, vzhe zzila vse, sheho
ia prystaralas', zyma stala plakaty i tikaty. (13)

Winter and summer met. They quarreled on Friday and wagered whether
summer could defeat winter. Smnmer said to winter: flee quickly. You have hung
on long enough. You have already eaten everything which I stored away. And
winter started to cry and flee.

The transformation that we see in the above text cannot be explained by a simple,

unilateral accumulation of changes. In fact, we have tried to show that an omen can undergo a

complete category shift Here, the material is no longer a paremiologica1 unit, but the nucleus for the

plot of a prose text.

The goal of this study was to demonstrate how an omen can be transformed and

reinterpreted to become another paremiologica1 unit, namely a proverb. In this case, the

transfoImation can hinge on something as minimal as context. It is possible that if the basic traits of

an omen, namely that it foretells the future and has a monosemantic meaning, are ignored then the

same words can be taken metaphorically to have a more general and abstract proverbial meaning. The

other aspect of this study has been an attempt to show that a ~ed minor genre, the omen, can be

transfoImed into one of the major genres: narrative prose. Here we see that an omen is perhaps more

open-ended than previously supposed. Explanatory, motivating, and other materials can be added to

an omen even as it retains its status as a paremiologica1 unit. At the same time, if an omen becomes

the subject matter of a narrative built upon it, then it transcends the narrow confines of the

paremiologica1 unit and becomes an element of narrative prose.

Notes

I. Permiakov, G. L. Osnovy strukturnoi oaremiolo~i. Moscow, 1998; Tokarev, S.

A. nSushehnost' ; proiskhozhden;e magi;," Issledovani;a; material v po voprosam pervobytnykh

reli~oZJUlkh verovanii. Moscow, 1959, vol. 51, pp. 7-76.

2. Pavlov, E. G. "Opyt klassifikatsii narodnykh primet," Paremiolo~cheskie

issledovaniia. Moscow, 1984, pp. 294-300.

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14

3. E. K. Koingas-Maranda, P. Maranda, "Structural Models in Folklore," Midwest

Folklore. Vol 12, 1962, pp. 133-192; reprinted in Zarubezhnye issledovaniia po semiotike forldora.

Moscow, 1985, pp. 241-243.

4. Prysliv'ia ta Drykazky: pryroda. hosoodars'ka diial'nist'. liuqyna. Kyiv, 1989, p.

384.

5. Penniakov. G. L. Of po'lovorki do skazki. Zametki po obshchei teoTii kilshe.

Moscow, 1970, pp. 85-86.

6. Penniakov, G.L. Osnovy strukturnoi paremiologii. p. 47.

7. Hrinchenko, B.D. Etnowqficheskie mateTialy sobr. v Chemicovskoi i sosednei s

nei gubemiialch. vyp. 2. Chemigov, 1896, p. 6.

8. Prysliv'ia ta prykazky. p. 35.

9. Gtynblat, M. Ia Prykazki i Drymauki u dvukh knvhakh. Book I, Minsk, 1976, pp.

5-48.

10. Prysliv'ia ta prykazky. Kyiv, 1989, p. 387.

II. Agapkina, T. A "Neskazochnaia proza iparemia," Slavianskoe i balkanskoe

i~koznanie: Struktura malvkh fol'ldomykh tekstov. Moscow, 1993, p. 157.

12. Agapkina, p. 157.

13. Agapkina, p. 158.

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