Rewards, old maids, and a little magic

[Tatyana Buzina]

I must confess, I've been convinced that it was never meant as a punishment in the way of "be careful what you wish for," and it was rather meant as a reward because they got jobs that fitted them exactly. And their wishes never seemed stupid to me either because they fitted so well with the other folk fairy tales I read. If memory serves me, in various fairy tales, even royalty liked their wives to be proficient in weaving and other similarly common tasks. There was one English fairy tale where a girl is made queen because her mother said the girl could spin and weave and make clothes really well. (She couldn't, her mother was just embarrassed to have a daughter who was absolutely awful at everything, and the girl went on to get herself entangled with a little imp, but that's beside the point.) So that weaving wish wasn't stupid at all, at least not by fairy tale standards, and the other one... again, feasts do feature prominently in fairy tales, and royalty are supposed to entertain everybody, the whole world. Having on hand a wife that can make a meal that grand seems a convenient thing for a king to have. The cook's and the weaver's problem in the Pushkin's tale was, rather, the fact that they couldn't be content with what they wished for. Well, on the other hand, we do have an "avtorskaya" fairy tale here, so not all traditional standards fit, and an authorial point of view can clearly be different from, as it were, a "folk" point of view. Queens do not need to be weavers, just breeders of unique infants, and the cook and the weaver would've done well to realize that. :) 
Regards,
Tatyana


>>I have never had a slightest doubt that it was a reward. While they were
>>talking, it was just a talk, and they had nothing to expect. They became
>>not just a weaver and a cook but "the court weaver and the court cook."
>>Certainly, their status was elevated. And any other time they would be
>>very happy, but they envied their sister and that was the cause of the
>>evil-doing.
>
>
>
>
>"Кабы я была царица, -
>Говорит одна девица, -
>То на весь крещеный мир
>Приготовила б я пир".
>"Кабы я была царица, -
>Говорит ее сестрица, -
>То на весь бы мир одна
>Наткала я полотна".
>"Кабы я была царица, -
>Третья молвила сестрица, -
>Я б для батюшки-царя
>Родила богатыря".
>
>Not a reward but granting the stupid wish in the most literal sense.
>Stupid, because he doesn't need the feast nor that the whole world has
>enough fabric; he does need a son, however, that's why he needs a wife in
>the first place, to ensure the succession.
>
>..................................
>
>Царь Салтан за пир честной
>Сел с царицей молодой;
>А потом честные гости
>На кровать слоновой кости
>Положили молодых
>И оставили одних.
>В кухне злится повариха,
>Плачет у станка ткачиха,
>И завидуют оне
>Государевой жене.
>
>They are not too happy and do not perceive it as a reward. Or do you think
>Saltan was so stupid that he gave as the reward something they did not
>like?
>....................
>
>А ткачиха с поварихой,
>С сватьей бабой Бабарихой,
>Извести ее хотят,
>Перенять гонца велят;
>
>Why извести if they got their rewards? And извести they tried. Granted,
>they did not kill her. But that would have been a tragedy, not a fairy tale.
>
>IMHO they got their "just desserts" and were taught the lesson more than
>once (blinding them was another one). And that was the lesson for the
>reader as well. A tale has to have a moral.
>
>__________________________
> Alina Israeli
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
> Washington, DC 20016
>
> phone:    (202) 885-2387
> fax:      (202) 885-1076 
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
Tatyana V. Buzina,
Associate Professor, Chair,
Dpt. of European Languages,
Institute for Linguistics,
Russian State U for the Humanities

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------