FOLKLORICA_7F


Haney, Jack V., trans. and ed. Long, Long Tales from the Russian North. Jackson, MS: 
University Press of Mississippi, 2013. Glossary. Bibliography. A-T-U/SUS Numbers. xxv + 300 
pp. $60 (cloth: alkaline paper). ISBN 978-1-61703-6. ISBN 978-1-61703-731-3 (e-book).  
 
 In Long, Long Tales from the Russian North, Jack V. Haney has selected and translated 
seventeen lengthy epic folktales by five tellers of northern European Russia. He refers to his 
selections as “serial” tales because of their length, the tendency of the tellers to string several tale 
types together, and the fact that they were told serially over several nights. 
 The five tellers include two Pomors, Matvei Mikhailovich Korguev of the now almost 
abandoned village of Keret’ and Petr Iakovlevich Nikonov of Sukhoi Navolok. The other three 
tellers are from the Pudozh area and include Fedor Fedorovich Kabrenov, Mikhail Osipovich 
Dmitriev, and his extremely talented but little recorded father, Osip Ivanovich. 
 Haney’s translated versions are true to the Russian. He has not doctored them in any way, 
so that they appear in natural form with all their idiosyncrasies, stumblings, and asides. Haney 
also gives the Aarne-Thompson type numbers for the tales. For anyone using the older Andreev 
index (Указатель сказочных сюжетов [Index of Tale Plots]), known as SUS, the numbers will 
differ occasionally. Examples include “Dawn Lad,” which is 301B in the Andreev index but 301 
A and B in the A-T-U/SUS indexes, and “Son of a Bitch,” which is 300*B (+303 +513A) in the 
Andreev index but 402 + 400A + 302 in the A-T-U/SUS indexes. 
 Haney keeps the okan’ie (non-reduction of unstressed o), so characteristic of northern 
speech, as recorded, so that it is Tsar Ondron (176) in Nikonov’s “The Enchanted Kingdom” and 
Tsarevna Oleksandra (143) in Korguev’s “The Peasant’s Son and the Firebird.” 
 Nine of the seventeen translated tales are narrated by Korguev, who is deserving of the 
lion’s share of space as the most prolific and well-known of the tellers. Korguev was awarded 
the Знак Почёта [Medal of Honor] and was a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. In 
Haney’s faithful rendition of the text, Korguev’s personality emerges. Korguev’s narrations are 
peppered with asides, small digressions, explanations, additional information and anachronisms. 
In “Elena the Beautiful,” for example, Korguev informs his audience that there are two ways to 
tell the tale (19). After telling the listener that Ivan is forbidden to sleep with Elena for three 
years, he declares, “Now that’s a misfortune for Ivan!” (32). And when Elena is given only four 
hours to visit her parents, Korguev adds, “Such a time limit he gave!” (36). In “The Airplane,” 
correcting himself in an aside Korguev says, “I’ve omitted something here” (133). 
 In addition, the modern world creeps into Korguev’s accounts, so that we learn in the tale 
titled “Island of Gold” that in his capacity as ship’s cook Ivan asks for three rubles to prepare 
sixteen meals. Ivan also requests a letter of recommendation, and in “The Airplane,” the plane as 
a mode of transportation takes the place of the more traditional magic carpet or gigantic bird. In 
“Shkip,” Tsarevna Maria runs away, buys a home, and rents part of the house out to a widow and 
her son, named Ivan, who becomes Maria’s business partner. 
 The other Pomor teller, Petr Iakovlevich Nikonov, learned his tales from his father. 
Unfortunately, only four of Nikonov’s tales were recorded. Haney has translated two of them, 
“The Enchanted Tsardom” and “(The Rejuvenating Apples),” which represents half of 
Nikonov’s surviving repertoire. 
 Some of Nikonov’s characters have unusual names, not traditionally given. He uses 
Makar, Brebius, Zakhar, and Grigorii, and he refers to the Frog Tsarevna as “swamp hopper” 
(177).  Like Korguev, he likes to offer explanations. He informs the listener that Mukhomor is 
“the same as Koshchei the Deathless” (183).  Anachronisms are present, too. Nikonov refers to 



the ataman field spirit of “(The Rejuvenating Apples)” as a “manager” (192). The teller touches 
on sexual relations with the utmost delicacy. When Ivan cannot resist making love to the 
sleeping ataman field spirit after being told not to, Nikonov informs us that Ivan “committed his 
crime” (191).  
 However, occasionally Nikonov uses colorful language. When Ivan selects the marriage 
road, Nikonov has Ivan reasoning, “What the hell, I won’t go home without that” (193).  Again, 
when the bird transporting Ivan had to eat parts of Ivan to survive, the old woman in charge of 
the bird scolds, “You bitch, you ate his calf muscles and the muscles of his arms. You go vomit 
up those calves and muscles for him. He’s sitting on the shore there dying!” (203). 
 The two Dmitrievs and Kabrenov are Pudozh tellers. Three tales are translations from 
Mikhail Osipovich Dmitriev. He learned his art from his father, Osip Ivanovich, who was a 
professional taleteller. In “About a Wife Svetlana” and in “Bur-Khreber,” Dmitriev dazzles his 
audience by stringing together four tale types. He observes the use of formulaic expressions, 
such as, “Soon a tale is told, but by its result is a deed done” (226) and formulaic endings, such 
as, “I was there, I drank mead-beer. The beer was warm. It flowed over my lips, but nothing got 
into my mouth” (225). 
 M. O. Dmitriev stands out in Haney’s selections for his propensity to describe violence, 
especially as it is used against women. In the Svetlana tale, Dmitriev has Ivan, the hero, “pop” 
old women in the ear, and Bur-Khreber, too, is a great bully. Dmitriev seems to relish describing 
how Bur-Khreber gives Maria Tsarevna a beating with rods until she hugs and kisses him 
properly. He depicts Baba Yaga getting a beating and animals being crippled. Mercy and 
kindness appear as weakness. When Ivan ignores an old woman’s advice to choke his wife and 
instead takes her finger tenderly, Dmitriev comments, “And that’s how he became a Fool” (218).  
 Mikhail Osipovich’s language is sometimes crude. In the above-mentioned Svetlana tale, 
after Ivan pops the woman sitting on a golden chair in the ear, he informs the audience that she 
“farts,” knocks over a table, and “farts” again (216).  There are anachronisms in his tales. In 
“Bur-Khreber,” the tsar and his entourage go down to the sea “either by car or on foot….” (240). 
In “Your Friend Liubodei,” the false Ivan sends a radiogram to the tsar.  
 At the end of the Bur-Khreber tale, Dmitriev claims to have heard the story from his 
father, Osip Ivanovich. Indeed, the propensity to depict violence is present in the one story by 
Osip Ivanovich that Haney translated, “About a Mighty Warrior, Tsar Peregar, Who Reeked of 
Drink.” But Dmitriev’s father’s depictions are less graphic, less sensational, and seem to fit more 
naturally into the fabric of the single tale we have by him in this collection.  
 Only five of Osip Ivanovich Dmitriev’s tales have been recorded. The Tsar Peregar tale 
depicts battles and violence in a manner reminiscent of the bylina [epic]. In addition, in typical 
bylina superhero fashion, Tsarevich Dum grows “not by years but by the hours” (258).  When 
Dum tosses a boulder fifty versts, tramples armor, and takes off his enemy’s head, Osip 
Ivanovich adds colorfully that Dum “tossed him off like a buttered blin [crepe]” (259).  When 
Dum agrees to give the golden-bristled pig to his brothers-in-law in exchange for a finger each, 
the brothers-in-law say blithely, “We have good doctors; they’ll manage to heal our hands” (263).  
Even in this one tale, it is apparent that Osip Ivanovich’s style is more polished than that of his 
son. 

 Pudozh teller Fedor Fedorovich Kabrenov, who worked with wood as a carpenter and 
logger, has an extensive repertoire represented here by two tales, “About an Enchanted Mill” and 
“Ivan Tsarevich and Koshchei the Deathless.” Kabrenov’s tales keep his audience on the edge of 
their seats. The combinations are fascinating, and Kabrenov adds interesting imagery. In “Ivan 



Tsarevich and Koshchei the Deathless,” for example, he describes Raven Ravenson/Talon 
Talonson (282) as having a brass nose and lead tail. At times he verges on poetic prose. The 
feathers Ivan’s raven brothers-in-law give Ivan to indicate that he is in trouble begin to quiver, 
causing hearts to quake (290).  Kabrenov is the most artistic of the tellers selected. 
 Kabrenov honors old traditions in his use of the introductory formula (zachin): “This is 
no tale; it is a pre-tale” (268).  There are modernisms, too, for example in the drawing up of a 
contract, instead of an agreement, with the devil (269).  At times Kabrenov provides 
explanations and motivation. The devil of the Enchanted Mill tale, for example, convinces Maria 
to kill her brother, and Kabrenov explains that, “the devil filled Maria with its spirit, so that she 
no longer loved her brother” (272). 
 In fact, Kabrenov demonstrates Christian belief not only in his selection of content, as in 
“About an Enchanted Mill,” where the devil’s interests are foiled, but in his telling. In the Ivan 
Tsarevich tale, Ivan and his parents pray before he sets out on his journey to marry Maria 
Tsarevna. In rounding up the mares kept by Koshchei’s mother, Ivan asks to let his work in 
corralling the mares be “for Christ’s sake” (294).  In sensitivity and artistry, Kabrenov stands in 
stark contrast to the coarser Dmitrievs. 
 Jack Haney’s selections and translations demonstrate a strong bylina influence in the 
repertoires of the northern tellers showcased here. Even bylina characters, such as Solovei-
razboinik (Nightingale the Robber), appear as well as traditional fairytale characters, such as 
Baba Yaga. 
 Haney comments in his “Introduction” that “none of these seventeen tales has a true 
heroine….” (xxiii).  However, the stories depict heroines who are on different journeys than 
those of the heroes but who nevertheless are heroic in their own way. (For specific heroine types, 
see Bonnie Marshall Carey, “Typological Models of the Heroine in the Russian Fairy Tale,” diss. 
U of North Carolina, 1983, in which there is a discussion of three typological models: the Hero-
Warrior Maiden, the Swan Maiden, and the Passive Beauty.). 
 The unique characteristics of the tellers selected are conveyed in Jack Haney’s selections 
and translations. He is to be applauded for his faithful renditions of the texts, which make Long, 
Long Tales invaluable to scholars. 
 
Bonnie Marshall 
Retired Russian Professor 
New Hampshire Historical Society 
Concord, New Hampshire 
United States