Morsels on the Tongue: Evidence of a Pre-Christian Matriarchy in Russian Fairy Tales

Szarycz, Ireneusz (2001) Morsels on the Tongue: Evidence of a Pre-Christian Matriarchy in Russian Fairy Tales. Studia Slavica, 46 (1-2). pp. 63-72. ISSN 0039-3363

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Abstract

The Russian fairy tale has endured centuries of evolution. It was part of an oral tradition and as such, none of its details were static. A single story was told by generations of storytellers over a period of centuries. In this way, the tale is layered with beliefs and customs from many periods reaching far back to the pre-Christian, matriarchal times. While weakness and submissiveness are the preferred qualities of Russian folk heroines, many tales portray women of strength. The introduction of Christianity to 10th-century Russia extinguished there a strong matriarchal tradition. Matriarchal cultures are traditionally linked with mysti-cism and magic. Given the hypothesis of an early Russian matriarchy, the paper traces magi-cal figures like Baba Yaga and her sisters back to a time when there was no need to portray them as evil. It is only after the priests come that she was cast out and labeled evil. The Rus-sian fairy tale may appear to be vague, repetitious and hard on women, yet when these quali-ties are added together a magical transformation occurs that brings out lively and simplisti-cally beautiful images that give the tales that special Russian flavour.

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