Тувинские народные сказки. - 1994. [Т. 8.]

Aphoristic expressions, proverbs and sayings are an indispensable feature of the tale, adding to it special colour and emotion. The syntax of the tale considerably depends on the emotional character of the narration. Alteration of epic slowness and the motion of the dialogues is especially characteristic of Tuvinian tales. Beginnings and endings of the tale resemble those in the epos. Traditional words "shiyan" and "shiyata" are used not only at the beginning of a tale, but also in the middle of it, as if encouraging the narrator ("then", "what then", "so"). The outer medial formula of the Tuvinian tale is very specific, one might say unique. While narrating the tale, the speaker introduces some poetic formulal - invocations pleading for a lucky h u n t The Tuvinians treated the tale and tale-teller with special respect. The tale was something sacred that should not be forgotten, kept to oneself or performed carelessly, since that could offend the "masters of the tale" and make them punish you (tale 4). It was believed that men possesing the gift of a tale narrator lived long as they delighted and charmed the ear of the master of the locality and no evil spirits could harm them. In olden times tales would be performed at people’s festivities - in summer or on the New Year when people gathered and held traditional competitions in wrestling, arching or horce- racing. Tales would also be performed at family festivals accompanied by prayers or the seremonies of sanctification. But most often they were told in long winter evenings for a narrow circle of listeners. People came from the neighbouring localities, often bringing their own wood for the fire. They said people stopped gathering after the Pleiades constellation (Uger) di­ sappeared from the sky and spring came. An average repertoir of a good Tuvinian narrator includes 20 to 30 tales and heroic ballads. Sometimes it is much wider: the repertoir of Baasanai included 90 tales, that of Chanchy-Khoo - about 150 tales, and of Kongarzhika - about 300 tales and ballads. Unfortunately, the repertoir is not always confirmed by the records. It sometimes took 2 or 3 evenings to narrate a good long fairy tale or a bogatyr’ ballad. The introduction to the volume presents the history of studies and publications of Tu­ vinian tales. The texts of tales, both in Tuvinian and Russian, are divided into 10-line block and numbered on every page. This "line to line" system makes it easier to compare the original and the translation. The Russian translation preserves such a peculiarity of the Turko-Mongol folklore language as the poetic pairs like "settlement-aal", "raisins-sweets" and onomatopoetic words. Specific and archaic words are explained in commentaries and vocabularies. Given in the commentaries is the information about tale-tellers, performers' traditions, comparisons of the texts published with the analogous Turkic and Mongol tales. Also explained are phraseology and ethnographic peculiarities. The volume is illustrated with the pictures of performers and the odjects of material and spiritual culture. * ♦ * 'Tuvinian folk tales" are one of the 63 volumes of T h e Folklore Monuments of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East” produced by the Institute of philology of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with the research institutes and universities of Moscow, Sanct-Petersburg, Siberia and the Far East. The series follows the best traditions of research and publication in Siberia, the Far East and all over the world. The series includes the incorporates the folklore of the Siberian Russians, the Ukrainian and Byelorussian settlers of the XlXth and the beginning of the XXth centuries, the Jews, and the indigenous peoples - the Buryat, the Yakut, the Altai, the Khakass, the Nenetz, the Evenk, the Khant, the Mansi, the Even - over 30 peoples of Siberia and the Far East, including the small peoples numbering less than 1000 (the Tofalar, the Yukagir, the Negidaletz).