Алтайские народные сказки. - 2002. (Т. 21.)

the foreword to V.V. Radlov’s book «Examples of Folk Literature of the Turkic Tribes Living in South Siberia and the Jungar Steppe» (1866), in which Altai folktales appeared in print for the first time. A more fundamental analysis of the thematic varieties of these tales was con­ ducted by the Altai professor S.S. Surazakov (1925—1980). Two contem­ porary researchers of the Altai folktale are M.A. Tolbina and T.M. Sadalova. Among other things, M.A. Tolbina has researched the traditional artistic- expressive means and inventory of fairy tale story lines, and has compared recordings made at different times. T.M. Sadalova has studied the Altai folktale from the perspective of the interdependence between folktales and ritual culture and other genres such as myth, epos, and songs. The selection of texts reflects the territorial and ethnic particular­ ities of the Altai folktale tradition. Texts representing each of the five Altai dialects are of undoubted interest. When including them the editors paid attention not only to their dialectal-linguistic features, but also to the tales’ contents and artistic-poetic characteristics within the volume’s overall composition. The texts offered include such popular tales as «Bashparak», «Tangzagan», «Yrystu», «San-Аги», «Dyarym-Kulak» and others. The volume «Altai Folktales» provides a representative sample of the basic genres of Altai tales, such as myths-tales about animals, fairy tales, novelistic tales, and tales of everyday life. In many cases their separation into different genres is indistinct; for example, elements of the fairy tale can be found in tales of everyday life and vice versa. Altai tales actively interact with the plots of other folkloric genres, such as myths, heroic epos, songs, riddles, sayings, proverbs, ritual curses, incantations, and magic spells — attesting to the ancient character of this syncretism. The degree of to which Altai folktales and other genres of folklore overlap is evident both in plot structure and poetic style. The corpus of texts contains examples of various forms of Altaic folktale performance: prosaic and rhymed, as well as works that include song elements. Examples of these sung elements have been recorded on the accompanying compact disk With regard to the songs that appear within folktales, it should be said that today’s Altaic folktale tradition displays two forms of performing song elements: recitative, where prosaic speech alternates with song verse; and another form, where the songs are performed by the storyteller. Performing songs by the hero of the folktale is connected with plot development and pursues a specific goal