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The Folk-Tale Comes of Age

From W. R. S. Ralston's Russian Fairy Tales, 1873

This reader is drawn from the introductory chapter of W. R. S. Ralston's Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, published in 1873. Ralston (1828–1889) was a pioneering English folklorist and scholar of Russian language and culture, serving for many years at the British Museum. His work introduced English-speaking readers to the richness of Russian oral tradition at a time when the academic study of folklore was just emerging as a discipline. In this essay, Ralston traces the intellectual history of the folk-tale—how it rose from neglect to scholarly attention—and outlines the two major theories (Aryan inheritance versus Oriental diffusion) that dominated nineteenth-century folklore studies. He then turns to the specific character of the Russian skazka, arguing that while its themes are often universal, its narrative style reveals genuine national qualities: simplicity, dramatic flair, and a gift for vivid description. The text reflects its era in both its assumptions (the Aryan framework, the focus on peasant 'lower classes') and its scholarly method, which privileges literary and philological evidence over ethnographic fieldwork. A few period terms have been modernised. This chapter is worth a reader's time because it documents a formative moment in the study of oral narrative, when scholars first asked whether tales were ancient myth, borrowed exotica, or windows into the soul of a people—questions that remain alive in folklore and anthropology today.

Band

Silver · First-year university levelTypical starting range: adult

Length

long · about 1353 words in 4 sections · 1 picture

Source

Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore, William Ralston Shedden Ralston

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

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