There is probably not a single Russian-speaking person who could not immediately recall at least one fairy tale whose hero is Ivan the Fool. And everyone can also describe this hero: Ivan is the youngest son in the family, a bad guy, lazy and good-natured. It’s better not to ask for anything, otherwise, and then only after much persuasion, Ivanushka will make everything worse! But why, then, is it at the end of the tale that he will get all the best and half the kingdom in addition? Let's try to figure it out.
Tales of Ivan the Fool: List
Best of all, the tales themselves, or rather, their retelling, will help us understand the character of the hero. Let us take only three of them, so to speak, the most typical ones.
- "Salt". The tale of the merchant's son Ivan, who, once embarked on a ship with a tesa and boards, got into an unknown land during a storm and, having discovered salt there, went to trade it. Having successfully sold everything, he managed to take away also the imperial daughter. But the older brothers did not yawn, they threw Ivan into the ocean, and themselves shared his prey. Yes, only a good hero was lucky: he brought him home, right at the festive table, a giant. And the father, learning about the misconduct of the older brothers, drove them out of sight, and the youngest married the princess.
- "The Tale of Ivan the Fool." In this tale, Ivan the Fool tracks down three horses that trample grass in the royal garden. The mouse helps him in this, which the good fellow generously fed. Three horses - silver, gold and diamond - become the property of Ivanushka. But! As he was a fool for everyone behind the stove, he remained: he did not admit to anyone his booty! Later, when it was necessary, by order of the king, to jump to the princess’s balcony, he began to do this in turn, on each horse. And again he returned to the stove: what can you do - a fool ?! Only when they found and brought him to the royal chambers did Ivan the Fool and the princess live together. True, not in the wards themselves, but in a goose shed. And only the three wars that Ivan won riding on his magic horses proved to the whole kingdom that he was no fool, but just a very modest and brave man. Real hero! For this, Ivan became king.
- "The Fool and the Birch." In this tale, the fool is real, because he was trying to sell the inherited bull to an old dry birch tree, found in the forest. And I gave her a loan! And two days I went for the money, I waited all when I returned. And only on the third - he could not stand it, grabbed an ax along the trunk, and there - a treasure hidden by robbers! Well, fools - happiness!
There are also fairy tales about Ivan the Fool, their names can go on endlessly: “Horse, tablecloth and horn”, “Ivan Bykovich”, “Little Humpbacked Horse”, “Sivka-Burka”, “Ivan the Peasant Son and Miracle-Yudo” and etc.
How did the image of Ivan attract people so much?
Why is Ivan the Fool a hero of fairy tales? Why is the Russian people imbued with such love for him? Is it because Slavs are generally characterized by sympathy for the poor and wretched, a kind of Christian pity? You can talk about this for a long time.
After all, the people who lived for many centuries in poverty and hopelessness, probably felt like the same unloved youngest son - Ivan the Fool, deceived by fate. Although, in spite of this, not only a fairy tale, but life itself taught - not that really fool who, sitting on the stove, measures ash with a hat, spits or sells a bull to a birch on the ceiling, and the one who, being arrogant, does not hear the world around him is not connected with it together. Pride is a sin and it will be punished!
Belief in a miracle gives birth to miracles
Ivan in his actions is not guided by logic, but only by intuition. Where does the intuition come from for a person who always knows what, where and how much? How to develop it in the close framework of decency and canons? But the law was not written to fool, and if it was written, it was not read, and so on ... So, our Ivan will choose the most illogical, the most “wild” of all the options, but it will be necessary, as it turns out later, leading to luck. After all, nothing prevents him from listening to intuition, and most importantly, hearing it!
Remember the tale where Ivan took three years as a priest, and when he was offered to choose a bag of coins or a bag of sand for his labor, our hero, based on logic that was only clear to him, chose sand? Fool, and nothing more!
But on the way home he met a bonfire in the forest, in which the beautiful girl was burning, and here the sand came in handy! Ivan bombarded them with fire, saved the girl, and she, being a sorceress, became his devoted wife and assistant.
By the way, why do you think the witch chose Ivan for herself? Yes, probably for the same reason: this person knows how to act not by the rules, but by listening to the heart. Who, if not a sorceress, can appreciate such a talent!
Character features of a fairy-tale hero
Pay attention to the important qualities of the character of our protagonist. All Russian fairy tales about Ivan the Fool describe him not just as silly, but as naive. For him, every new day is an opportunity to live anew, that is, not to reproach himself endlessly for voluntary and involuntary previous mistakes (and he doesn’t remember them!), But to start all over with a new sheet. Isn't that what the followers of all sorts of philosophical and religious movements seek?
In other words, Ivan the Fool proves every time that very little depends on human knowledge and skills in life, that is, they are secondary and cannot play a major, decisive role in the fate of a person. Recall the dictum of the greatest Lao Tzu: "The smart are not learned, and the scientists are not smart."
And Ivan in fairy tales is always absolutely open to higher knowledge. He, even setting off on a journey, as a rule, “goes where his legs carry” or “where his eyes look.” Thus, he immediately discards common sense (which his elder brothers do not part with until the end of the tale) and he can only gain from this. It turns out that not everything in our life obeys this very common sense!
Reflection in the image of Ivan the Fool of pagan traditions
Some researchers closely associated the image of Ivan with pagan traditions preserved in folklore. For example, A. A. Durov in his dissertation emphasized that Ivan the Fool adorns Russian folk tales not only because of his nearness, but because the pagans, it turns out, were the name of everyone undergoing the rite of initiation.
And the essence here was precisely in the features of the behavior of the neophyte: he had to forget his former life, abandon rationality in his actions. It was this "stupidity" that became the distinguishing quality of a person who wanted to turn from a "baked booby" into a real man.
Remember: in a fairy tale, at the beginning of it, Ivan is a laughing stock, which, sitting behind a stove, excuse me for quoting, “winds a snot on a fist”. And in the end - this is a successful, successful young man. So, the initiation is over!
And if you look at it from the other side?
Perhaps the image of the idiot Ivan the Fool reveals only the people's dream of supernatural forces that can help anyone? And some researchers believe that Ivanushka is a poetic dream, reflecting the dream of a carefree, cheerful life, which will still lead to happiness and wealth.
In the essay "Ivan the Fool. The roots of the Russian folk faith ”A. Sinyavsky even saddened about the people who chose such a protagonist. After all, fools in fairy tales are dirty, ragged, unwashed, not penniless, and lazy to the point of insanity. But to play the pipe or to compose songs - they are much more than that. This total laziness scares the author of the essay, because it supposedly proves that the Russian person, waiting for life's blessings from above, forgets about his personal responsibility.
Evg. In a discussion of the fabulous Fool, Trubetskoy argues that the habit of shifting responsibility to the "broad shoulders of Nikola Pleasant" is the scourge of a Slavic nature, lulling his energy and robbing him of the will to win.
Attitude in the tale of living beings to Ivan the Fool
But it should be noted that all the same, it’s not laziness or nearness that has attracted loyal admirers to Ivan for so many centuries, but his kindness, credulity, and straightforwardness. This hero does not skimp on a good word and deed: he will let a living creature out of trouble, spare a wanderer or an old woman, and all of them will later repay him with the same coin.
Such a hero as Ivan the Fool, and a gray wolf will help, and pike, and dog, and cat. All obstacles are parted before him - after all, he is not afraid that this may not happen!
Remember the path to success indicated in the film “Wizards”: “I see the goal - I see no obstacles”? This is exactly what happens with Ivanushka in every fairy tale. He sees no obstacles to chopping off the twelve heads of the Serpent Gorynych or becoming a beautiful prince by plunging into a vessel with rejuvenating water. He trusts in God and receives according to his faith!
There are still variants of the origin of Ivan’s offensive nickname
And maybe Ivan was also known as a fool not because of the peculiarities of his mind-reason? The guy was just unlucky - he was born third in the family, which means that the eldest sons will take away all the inheritance left from the father, and the younger one will be left with nothing. Is it because Ivan is a fool because he has already been circumvented from a young age?
There is another option for why Ivanushka wears such an offensive nickname. The fact is that in ancient Russia, children were given two names. One, received at baptism, was kept secret (remember the proverb: “they call her a name, but they call her a duck”?), And the second was deliberately unsightly, even frightening, so that the evil spirits would not want to pick up the child or do something bad for him: after all baby is already worthless! And there lived children in Russian villages who had strange names up to 13 years old: Strashko, Hvor, Rotten Tooth, Chernorot, etc.
Often children were called by birth order: Pervak (or First), Drugak (Second, Other), Tretiak, Chetvertak and so on, according to the number of heirs. So, some researchers believe that the Fool is a transformed, modified name of Drugak. Well, perhaps, Fools were such only by birth order ...
The image of Ivan the Fool in child psychology
Speaking about such an ambiguous image in Russian culture, it is important to note that fairy tales about Ivan the Fool are also an effective method of child psychotherapy. After all, the child naturally feels timidity before the future: how will he fit into adulthood? After all, he knows, and he knows how so little! And the fairy tale reassures him: “Do not be afraid, and you haven’t turned up like that!” The tale says: “The main thing is to take the first step, trusting in the inner voice, and then you will get even more than you expect!”
And the child, pushed by the success of such a hero as Ivan the Fool, goes, not fearing, into adulthood, equipped with important experience: there is no bottom from which one could not rise, there is no disaster that could not be overcome.
By the way, every child and fabulous Ivan are always open to a miracle. Maybe that's why miracles happen to them all the time? And the fairy tale about the Fool is actually a fairy tale about how to forget too much “smartness” if you want to win.
So who is this favorite fairy-tale hero?
Researchers believe that fairy tales about Ivan the Fool carry a certain strategy, which does not come from standard postulates that urge to act always reasonably, but rather rely on the search for original, illogical and unexpected solutions. But they are successful!
In Ivan the Fool an ideal person is hidden - true to his word, honest and devoid of personal interest. After all, he also reacts negatively to wealth (obtained as an addition to his wife), despite the fact that at the end of a fairy tale he always owns it.
This state of affairs is quite explainable by the fact that the pursuit of wealth is, from the point of view of the Russian people, always a sign of self-interest, greed, and therefore cannot be a quality of a positive person. And since Ivanushka is the embodiment of something ideal, then he just has to be moneyless, not knowing the value of money and not seeking to make it.
Why does the God of fools love?
Although the statement given in the subtitle seems illogical at first glance, logic is still present in it. Judge for yourself: after all, the Fool has no one to hope for! No one else can help him! And he will not help himself either. There is only hope for God's providence.
In addition, Ivan the Fool, in whatever fairy tales he would not appear, is always full of extraordinary trust only in this. He does not listen to human advice and does not learn anything from his own experience, but he is absolutely open by Providence - and it never fails such a hero!
And not only Fools, but also quite reasonable heroes of fairy tales, the Lord leads the Church out of their difficult situation, as soon as they find themselves at a crossroads, they don’t know where to go. That is, behind each of them is invisibly the image of Ivan the Fool, his passive, open to perception state, which helps to make the only right choice and win in the struggle for life.
The image of the Fool in literature and cinema
Ivan the Fool, capable of “breaking” with himself all the frameworks and decencies that so surrounded an ordinary person, took deep roots in Russian literature and in cinema. At the time, F. M. Dostoevsky, and A. N. Ostrovsky, and N. S. Leskov, and M. Gorky, and many other famous writers and poets took advantage of this.
Indeed, in his mouth you can put what the “noble” hero would never say, and his actions make the viewer be in constant tension and continuously monitor the development of the plot.
Art proves to us: it is Fools who are truly free people. They are not bound by conventions, their actions do not lend themselves to logic, and everything that is done by them is the right path to the Miracle.
And thank God that Fools are indestructible! Otherwise, miracles would simply have left us, and the world, accordingly, would have dried up through the efforts of the "sages" and pragmatists.
If in order for there to be a place for Magic in the world, they are necessary, which means that each of us can and should from time to time put on a cap of the protagonist of a fairy tale about Ivan the Fool. The names that we give to this action are always the same - this is life!