Comparison of Literary and Folklore Fairy Tales (Alexander Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish” and the Folk Tale “The Golden Fish”)

Abstract

This article deals with the comparison of literary and folklore fairy tales. It examines the influence of literary fairy tales on the creation of folklore fairy tales. The study aims to compare the texts of two specific fairy tales—one literary and one folkloric: Alexander Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish” and the Russian folk tale “The Golden Fish” from Afanasyev’s collection.

The analytical study confirmed V.Maykov’s hypothesis that Pushkin’s tale influenced the creation of the folk tale. As Mark Azadovsky points out, "such examples are a common phenomenon in fairy-tale literature." While previous research has identified differences between literary and folklore fairy tales, it has primarily focused on general "parameters that distinguish literary from folklore fairy tales." In contrast, this study undertakes a detailed comparison of two specific tales with similar plots—one literary and one folkloric.

The analyzed tales share a common storyline, setting (the sea), the social status of the characters, and a wish-granting figure—the golden fish. Both tales feature characters marked by greed and the foolish, insatiable desires of the old woman. The tales also share a similar melancholic ending: a torn dress and a broken kneading-trough.

Pushkin’s tale is written in poetic form, while the folk tale is in prose. The folk tale “The Golden Fish” features an opening typical of folklore style, whereas Pushkin’s tale lacks the traditional fairy-tale introduction and begins simply and concisely.

Both tales utilize archaic vocabulary. The sea motif plays a significant role in Pushkin’s tale, while in “The Golden Fish”, the word “sea” is mentioned only twice. In Pushkin’s tale, the vocative form "старче" (old man) is used, while in the folk tale, the nominative case "старик" (old man) is employed.

Additionally, both tales feature variant forms of instrumental case endings for first-declension nouns (-ою / -ею). Inversion, a characteristic often found in Russian folk tales, is present in Pushkin’s tale but absent in “The Golden Fish”.

In the folk tale, the short form of adjectives serves an attributive function, as in "в сине море..." (“in the blue sea...”), which is typical of Russian folk tales. In contrast, in Pushkin’s tale, this syntactic function is performed by the full form of adjectives, as in "в синее море..." (“into the blue sea…”).

As observed, the analyzed tales exhibit significant similarities while also displaying numerous differences.

We believe that our modest research can be utilized in high school for teaching the Russian language.