Classification of Fairy Tales. Characteristic Features of Each Type

The most important ideas, central themes, plotlines, and—most importantly—the alignment of forces representing good and evil are essentially the same in the fairy tales of different cultures. In this sense, any fairy tale knows no boundaries; it belongs to all of humanity.

Folkloristics has dedicated numerous studies to fairy tales, yet defining them as one of the genres of oral folk art remains an open question. The heterogeneity of fairy tales, their vast thematic range, the diversity of motifs and characters they contain, and the countless ways conflicts are resolved make the task of defining the genre of fairy tales quite complex.

However, the divergence in views on fairy tales is connected to what is considered their essence: an emphasis on fiction or an attempt to reflect reality through fiction.

The essence and vitality of fairy tales, the secret of their magical existence, lie in the constant combination of two elements of meaning: fantasy and truth.

On this basis, a classification of fairy tale types emerges, though not entirely uniform. For instance, using a problem-thematic approach, fairy tales can be categorized into those about animals, tales of unusual and supernatural events, adventure tales, social and domestic tales, joke tales, upside-down tales, and others.

The boundaries between these groups of fairy tales are not sharply defined, but despite the fluidity of categorization, such a classification allows for a meaningful conversation with children about fairy tales within a conditional "system"—which undoubtedly makes the work of parents and educators easier.
Today, the following classification of Russian folk tales is widely accepted:

1. Animal tales;
2. Fairy tales;
3. Everyday tales.

Let us examine each type in more detail.

### Animal Tales

Folk poetry encompassed an entire world; its subject was not only humans but all living beings on the planet. Depicting animals, fairy tales endow them with human traits while also capturing and characterizing their habits, "way of life," and so on. Hence, the lively, dynamic text of these tales.
Humans have long felt a kinship with nature; they were indeed a part of it, struggling with it, seeking its protection, sympathizing with it, and understanding it. The later addition of fable-like, parable-like meanings to many animal tales is also evident.

In animal tales, fish, beasts, and birds act, speak to one another, declare war, and make peace. Such tales are rooted in totemism (the belief in a totem animal, the protector of a clan), which evolved into the cult of animals. For example, the bear, a hero of many tales, was believed by ancient Slavs to predict the future. Often, it was seen as a fearsome, vengeful beast that did not forgive offenses (as in the tale "The Bear"). The further belief in totems faded, the more confident humans became in their power, and the more possible their dominance over animals, their "victory" over them. This is seen, for instance, in the tales "The Man and the Bear" and "The Bear, the Dog, and the Cat." Fairy tales differ significantly from animal legends—in the latter, fiction tied to paganism plays a significant role. In legends, the wolf is wise and cunning, the bear is terrifying. The fairy tale, however, loses its dependence on paganism and becomes a mockery of animals. Mythology transitions into art. The fairy tale transforms into a peculiar artistic jest—a critique of the beings represented by the animals. Hence, the closeness of such tales to fables ("The Fox and the Crane," "The Animals in the Pit").

Animal tales are distinguished as a separate group based on the nature of their characters. They are subdivided by types of animals. Tales about plants, inanimate nature (frost, the sun, the wind), and objects (a bubble, a straw, a bast shoe) are also included here.

In animal tales, humans:
1) Play a secondary role (e.g., the old man in the tale "The Fox Steals Fish from the Cart");
2) Occupy a position equal to that of the animal (e.g., the peasant in the tale "Old Bread and Salt Are Forgotten").

A possible classification of animal tales.

First and foremost, animal tales are classified by their main character (thematic classification). Such a classification is presented in the index of fairy tale plots in world folklore compiled by Aarne-Thompson and in the "Comparative Index of Plots: East Slavic Fairy Tales":

1. Wild animals.
- The Fox.
- Other wild animals.
2. Wild and domestic animals.
3. Humans and wild animals.
4. Domestic animals.
5. Birds and fish.
6. Other animals, objects, plants, and natural phenomena.

Another possible classification of animal tales is the structural-semantic classification, which categorizes tales by genre. In animal tales, several genres are distinguished. V. Ya. Propp identified the following genres:

1. Cumulative animal tales.
2. Magical Tale about Animals
3. Fable (Apologue)
4. Satirical Tale

E. A. Kostyukhin categorized animal tales into the following genres:

1. Comic (Everyday) Tale about Animals
2. Magical Tale about Animals
3. Cumulative Tale about Animals
4. Novella-like Tale about Animals
5. Apologue (Fable)
6. Anecdote
7. Satirical Tale about Animals
8. Legends, Traditions, and Everyday Stories about Animals
9. Tall Tales

Propp, in his classification of animal tales by genre, attempted to base his system on formal characteristics. Kostyukhin, on the other hand, partially relied on formal traits but primarily categorized animal tales by their content. This approach allows for a deeper understanding of the diverse material in animal tales, showcasing the variety of structural constructions, stylistic diversity, and richness of content.

A third possible classification of animal tales is based on the target audience. Animal tales can be divided into:

1. Children's Tales
- Tales told for children.
- Tales told by children.
2. Adult Tales

Each genre of animal tales has its own target audience. Modern Russian animal tales are primarily aimed at children. As a result, tales told for children have a simplified structure. However, there is a genre of animal tales that is never intended for children—the so-called "mischievous" ("secret" or "pornographic") tale.

Approximately twenty plots of animal tales are cumulative tales. The principle of such composition lies in the repeated repetition of a plot unit. Thompson, Bolte, and Polivka, as well as Propp, identified tales with cumulative composition as a special group. Cumulative (chain-like) composition can be divided into:

1. With Endless Repetition:
- Tedious tales like "About the White Bullcalf."
- A text unit is embedded within another text ("The Priest Had a Dog").
2. With Finite Repetition:
- "The Turnip" – plot units build up into a chain until the chain breaks.
- "The Rooster Choked" – the chain unravels until it breaks.
- "For the Rolling Pin, the Duck" – the previous text unit is negated in the next episode.

Another genre form of animal tales is the structure of a magical tale ("The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats," "The Cat, the Rooster, and the Fox").

Comic tales hold a leading place in animal tales—stories about the antics of animals ("The Fox Steals Fish from a Sleigh (or Cart)," "The Wolf at the Ice Hole," "The Fox Smears Her Head with Dough (or Sour Cream)," "The Beaten Carries the Unbeaten," "The Fox Midwife," etc.), which influence other genres of animal epics, especially the apologue (fable). The core of a comic animal tale consists of a chance encounter and a trick (deception, according to Propp). Sometimes, multiple encounters and tricks are combined. The hero of a comic tale is a trickster (the one who performs tricks). The main trickster in Russian tales is the fox (in world epics, it is the hare). Its usual victims are the wolf and the bear. It has been observed that if the fox acts against the weak, it loses, but if it acts against the strong, it wins. This stems from archaic folklore. In modern animal tales, the victory or defeat of the trickster often carries a moral judgment. The trickster in the tale is contrasted with a simpleton. This could be a predator (wolf, bear), a human, or a naive animal like the hare.

A significant portion of animal tales consists of the apologue (fable), which features not a comic element but a didactic, moralizing one. However, the apologue does not necessarily have to include a moral in the form of an ending. The moral arises from the plot situations, which must be unambiguous to easily form moral conclusions. Typical examples of apologues are tales involving clashes between contrasting characters ("Who is More Cowardly Than a Hare?"; "Old Bread and Salt are Forgotten"; "A Splinter in the Bear's (Lion's) Paw"). Apologues can also include plots known in literary fables since ancient times ("The Fox and the Sour Grapes"; "The Crow and the Fox," and many others). The apologue is a relatively late form of animal tales, dating back to a time when moral norms were already established and sought a suitable form. In tales of this type, only a few plots with trickster antics were transformed, while some apologue plots (not without literary influence) were developed independently. A third path of apologue development is the expansion of paremia (proverbs and sayings). However, unlike paremia, the allegory in an apologue is not only rational but also emotional.

Next to the apologue stands the so-called **novella-like tale about animals**, identified by E. A. Kostyukhin. A novella in an animal tale is a story about unusual events with a fairly developed intrigue and sharp turns in the fate of the characters. The tendency toward moralization defines the fate of this genre. It has a more definite moral than the apologue, and the comic element is either subdued or completely removed. The mischief of the comic animal tale is replaced in the novella by a different content—entertainment. A classic example of a novella-like animal tale is "The Grateful Beasts." Most plots of folkloric animal novellas originate in literature and then transition into folklore. The ease of this transition is due to the fact that literary plots themselves are based on folklore.

Speaking of satire in animal tales, it should be noted that literature once gave impetus to the development of the satirical tale. The conditions for the emergence of satirical tales appeared in the late Middle Ages. The satirical effect in folkloric tales is achieved by attributing social terminology to animals ("The Fox Confessor"; "The Cat and the Wild Animals"). The plot "Ruff Ershovich" stands apart as a tale of literary origin. Having appeared late in folk tales, satire did not take root in them, as social terminology can easily be removed from satirical tales.

Thus, in the 19th century, satirical tales were unpopular. Satire within animal tales is merely an accent in an extremely small group of animal plots. Moreover, satirical tales were influenced by the laws of animal tales featuring trickster antics. Satirical undertones were preserved in tales where the trickster is central, while tales with complete absurdity became tall tales.

<h3>Fairy Tales</h3>

Fairy tales of the magical type include magical, adventurous, and heroic stories. At the core of such tales lies a wondrous world. This wondrous world is a tangible, fantastical, and boundless realm. Thanks to the boundless fantasy and the miraculous principle of organizing material in tales with a wondrous world, "transformations" become possible, astonishing in their speed (children grow not by the day but by the hour, becoming stronger or more beautiful with each passing day). Not only is the speed of the process unreal, but so is its very nature (from the tale "The Snow Maiden": "Suddenly, the Snow Maiden's lips turned pink, her eyes opened. Then she shook off the snow and emerged from the snowdrift as a living girl."). "Transformations" in fairy tales of the magical type typically occur with the help of magical beings or objects.

Generally, fairy tales are older than other types of tales, bearing traces of humanity's initial encounters with the world around them.

A fairy tale is based on a complex composition that includes an exposition, a plot setup, plot development, a climax, and a resolution.

The plot of a fairy tale revolves around overcoming a loss or lack with the help of miraculous means or magical helpers. The exposition of the tale consistently features two generations—the older generation (the king and queen, etc.) and the younger generation—Ivan and his brothers or sisters. The exposition also includes the absence of the older generation. An intensified form of absence is the death of the parents. The plot setup involves the main character or heroine discovering a loss or lack, or motifs of prohibition, the violation of the prohibition, and the ensuing misfortune. This marks the beginning of the opposition, i.e., the hero's departure from home.

The plot development revolves around the search for what has been lost or is missing.

The climax of a fairy tale consists of the main character or heroine battling an opposing force and always defeating it (the equivalent of battle is solving difficult tasks, which are always solved).

The resolution is the overcoming of the loss or lack. Usually, the hero (or heroine) "ascends to the throne" by the end—that is, attains a higher social status than they had at the beginning.

V.Ya. Propp reveals the uniformity of fairy tales at the plot level in a purely syntagmatic sense. He uncovers the invariance of a set of functions (actions of characters), the linear sequence of these functions, as well as a set of roles distributed in a certain way among specific characters and correlated with functions. The functions are distributed among seven characters:

• The antagonist (villain),
• The donor,
• The helper,
• The princess or her father,
• The dispatcher,
• The hero,
• The false hero.

Meletinsky, identifying five groups of fairy tales, attempts to address the question of the historical development of the genre as a whole and of plots in particular. The tale contains certain motifs characteristic of totemic myths. The mythological origin of the universally widespread fairy tale about marriage to a miraculous "totemic" being, which temporarily sheds its animal form and assumes a human appearance, is quite evident ("The Husband Seeks His Missing or Abducted Wife (the Wife Seeks Her Husband)," "The Frog Princess," "The Scarlet Flower," etc.). Tales about visiting other worlds to free captives held there ("The Three Underground Kingdoms," etc.). Popular tales about a group of children falling into the clutches of an evil spirit, monster, or ogre and being saved thanks to the resourcefulness of one of them ("Tom Thumb at the Witch's House," etc.), or about the slaying of a mighty serpent—a chthonic demon ("The Serpent Slayer," etc.). Family themes are actively developed in fairy tales ("Cinderella," etc.). Marriage in fairy tales becomes a symbol of compensation for the socially disadvantaged ("Sivka-Burka"). The socially disadvantaged hero (the youngest brother, a stepdaughter, a fool) at the beginning of the tale, endowed with all negative traits by their surroundings, is endowed with beauty and wisdom by the end ("The Little Humpbacked Horse"). The identified group of tales about wedding trials draws attention to narratives about personal destinies. The novella theme in fairy tales is no less interesting than the heroic one. Propp classifies the genre of fairy tales based on the presence of the main trial of "Battle—Victory" or the presence of "A Difficult Task—Solving the Difficult Task." The logical development of the fairy tale became the everyday tale.

<h3>Everyday Tales</h3>

A characteristic feature of everyday tales is their reproduction of ordinary life. The conflict in everyday tales often revolves around integrity, honesty, and nobility, masked by simplicity and naivety, opposing qualities that have always evoked sharp disapproval among the people (greed, malice, envy).

As a rule, everyday tales contain more irony and self-irony, since Good triumphs, but the emphasis is on the randomness or singularity of its victory.

Everyday tales are characterized by their diversity: social-everyday, satirical-everyday, novella-like, and others. Unlike fairy tales, everyday tales contain a more significant element of social and moral criticism; they are more definite in their social preferences. Praise and condemnation in everyday tales are more pronounced.

Recently, methodological literature has begun to mention a new type of tale—the mixed-type tale. Of course, tales of this type have existed for a long time, but they were not given much importance, as their potential in achieving educational, instructional, and developmental goals was overlooked. Generally, mixed-type tales are transitional tales. They combine features characteristic of both tales with a wondrous world and everyday tales. Elements of the miraculous also appear in the form of magical objects around which the main action is centered.

Tales, in various forms and scales, strive to embody the ideal of human existence. The tale's belief in the intrinsic value of noble human qualities and its uncompromising preference for Good are also based on a call for wisdom, activity, and genuine humanity.

Tales broaden horizons, awaken interest in the life and creativity of peoples, and foster a sense of trust in all inhabitants of our Earth engaged in honest labor.

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Classification of Fairy Tales. Characteristic Features of Each Type

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