A fairy tale, according to the definition of scientists, is a prosaic artistic narrative with adventurous, everyday or magical themes and plot construction oriented as fictional. The fairy tale has a specific style that refers to its origins - ancient ritual roots.
Definition
Fairy tale formulas are called stable and rhythmically organized prose phrases, a kind of stamps that are used in all folklore tales. These phrases, according to the place of their use in the narrative, are divided into introductory (or initial), middle (medial) and endings.
Fairy tale formulas in a fairy tale perform the function of original compositional elements, storytelling bridges, transferring the listener from one plot event to another. They help the listener to remember the story and make it easier to retell it, and make the storytelling more melodious.
The language of a fairy tale as a whole is characterized by formula construction. So, a fairy tale formula is a special conditional speech unit that is taken by listeners for granted.
Beginning (initial)
This is a fabulous formula with which a fairy tale begins. It usually consists of information about the existenceheroes, in which we are briefly informed about the characters - the characters of the fairy tale, the place where they lived (formulas with a topographical element), and the time of action.
The most popular and well-known example from folk tales: "Once upon a time there were …" (a king with a queen, an old man with an old woman, etc.). Characteristically, these are brief preliminary data, and they are not particularly important for the plot.
This kind of formulas gives the listener an attitude of fiction, because it tells that the fabulous event did not happen today, not yesterday, but sometime "a long time ago", "in time immemorial".
In the beginning, there may be not only a temporal, but also a spatial landmark, for example: "in one kingdom, a distant state …", "in one village …", etc.
Both the temporal and topographical beginnings convey non-specific, indefinite information, preparing the listener (reader), tearing him away from the everyday situation and indicating to him that it is a fairy tale, that is, a fictional story, that is being offered to his attention. The events of this story take place in an unknown place, at an unknown time.
Sometimes, in order to indicate that the world is unusual, the narrator could even introduce additional features of real absurdity: "It happened when the goat's horns rested against the sky, and the camel's tail was short and dragged along the earth…" (Tuvian folk fairy tale).
But this is not another world, because it has many signs of the ordinary world (day turns into night, grasses and trees grow, horses graze,birds fly, etc.). But this world is not quite real either - in it "a cat with a self-buzzer sits on a birch", an invisibility cap helps the hero disappear, and a tablecloth offers treats. This world is inhabited by special creatures: Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych, Miracle Yudo, Nightingale the Robber, Kot Bayun.
Many authors of a literary fairy tale, building their work in a folk-poetic fairy-tale manner, actively used fairy-tale formulas as stylistically organizing elements for the same purpose. Here is a well-known example of the beginning from "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Rybka" by A. S. Pushkin:
Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman
By the very blue sea…"
Saying
The function of another, preliminary beginning was sometimes performed by a saying - a small text, an amusing fable. It was not plot-bound to any particular fairy tale. Just like the beginning, the saying was intended to take the listener out of the world of everyday life, to give him a fabulously surreal mood.
As an example, a proverb from Tuvan folklore: "It happened when the pigs drank the wine, the monkeys chewed the tobacco, and the chickens ate it."
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin included the well-known folklore proverb about the Scientist Cat, transposing it into a poem, into his poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila".
Medial formulas
Fairy-tale formulas of the middle can indicate the temporal and spatial framework of the story, that is, report how long and where exactly he traveledhero. It can be just a message (“how long, how short did he walk”), or it can talk about the difficulties that the hero (heroine) had to face on the way: “she trampled seven pairs of iron boots, gnawed seven iron loaves” or “three she broke the iron staff."
Sometimes the middle formula became a kind of stop in the story, indicating that the story is coming to a denouement: "Soon the fairy tale is told, but the deed is not done soon…"
A small medial formula can indicate the location of the object the hero is looking for: "high - low", "far - close", "near the island of Buyan", etc.
Characteristic of the fairy tale are the stable appeals of one character to another. For example, in the Russian fairy tale "The Frog Princess" fairy-tale formulas of this kind are also included. Here Ivan Tsarevich says to the Hut on chicken legs: "Well, hut, stand in the old way, as your mother put - in front of me, and back to the forest!" And here is Vasilisa the Wise, addressing her assistants: "Mothers-nannies, get ready, equip!"
Many of the fairy formulas are of ancient origin. Although schematically, they retain ritual and magical features. So, we guess the surprise of the guardian of the Kingdom of the Dead from the tales of the Indo-European peoples in the remark of Baba Yaga, who, when meeting with Ivan Tsarevich, cannot help but notice: "Fu-you, well-you, it smells of the Russian spirit!"
Description formulas
Portrait formula phrases are widespread in fairy tales, which serve to describe characters and natural phenomena. Like sayings, they are just as little tied to a specific story and wander from fairy tale to fairy tale.
Here are examples of fabulous formulas that serve to characterize a heroic fighting horse: "The horse runs, the earth trembles under it, it bursts with flames from both nostrils, it pours smoke from the ears." Or: "His fine horse rushes, jumps over mountains and valleys, skips dark thickets between his legs."
Laconically, but succinctly and colorfully, the fairy tale describes the battle of the hero and his fabulous mighty enemy. Such are the fairy-tale formulas included in the story about the battle of the Miracle-Yud the Six-Headed and the hero in the fairy tale "Ivan Bykovich". In the text we read: "Here they came together, caught up - they hit so hard that the earth groaned all around." Or: "As the hero waved his sharp sword - one or two! - and demolished all six heads of evil spirits."
Traditional for a fairy tale stable formulaic descriptions of beauties: "She was so beautiful that one cannot say in a fairy tale, nor describe with a pen" (from a Russian fairy tale). Or here is a portrait of a charming girl from a Turkmen fairy tale that would surely seem dubious to many today: "Her skin was so transparent that when she drank water, it was visible through her throat, and when she ate carrots, it was visible from the side."
Ending
The final (final) phrases of fairy tales have different tasks than the initial ones: they return the listener to the real world, sometimes reducing the narration to a short joke. Sometimes the ending may contain some moral maxim, teaching, contain worldly wisdom.
The final formula can briefly inform about the future of the heroes: "They began to live, and live, and make good money …"
And the most famous endings contain fairy tales where the adventures of the heroes end with a wedding feast: "And I was there, I drank honey-beer - it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth …". And the listener understands that the narrator was not at the feast - for what kind of a feast is this, where they were not treated to anything? This means that the entire previous story is nothing more than a joke.
A fairy tale can end differently, when the storyteller, as if putting an end to the story, announces: "Here's a fairy tale for you, but give me a bunch of bagels." Or: "That's the end of the fairy tale, give me some vodka Korets".
