Flying Ship Explained

The Flying Ship (Ukrainian: летючий корабель; letuchiy korabel, Russian: летучий корабль; letuchiy korabl) is an East Slavic or Eastern European folk tale, considered a Ukrainian folk tale in some collections,[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] as well as a Russian folk tale in others.[8] [9] In retellings, it is also called The Ship That Flew,[10] Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, and The Fool and the Flying Ship.

Plot

An old man and old woman had three sons, two wise and one foolish. The two wise sons were treated better than the foolish son. When the tsar offered his daughter in marriage for any man who could make a ship fly, the two wise sons were allowed to leave while the foolish son was not. Undeterred, the foolish son convinced his parents to let him go, and they sent him away with a small amount of stale, flavorless food and some water. On his way, he met an old man. When the old man asked for food, the foolish son opened his sack and was surprised to discover that it was no longer stale and flavorless. The foolish son next discovered that the water turned to wine after he had offered it to the old man. The old man thanked the foolish son for the food and drink, then tells him how the foolish son can go into the forest, chop a tree down, and then lay down and go to sleep until woken up. The foolish son does as suggested, and awakes to discover a flying ship, into which he climbs and flies off.

While flying, the foolish son meets a number of people. While the characters are similar, their names differ by storyteller.

Finally, they arrive at the Tsar's feast and disembark from the flying ship. Viewing them as peasants, the tsar decides to give them five impossible tasks to avoid marrying his daughter to them.

Seeing this, the Tsar and his daughter were both satisfied.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified, in the East Slavic Folktale Classification (Russian: СУС|translit=SUS), as two tale types: SUS 513A, Russian: Шесть чудесных товарищей|translit=Shest' chudesnykh tovarishchey|lit=Six Wonderful Companions, and SUS 513B, Russian: Летучий корабль|translit=Letuchiy korabl'|lit=Flying Ship. In type SUS 513A, the hero finds companions with wonderful powers that help him win a princess. In type SUS 513B, the hero carves a ship that traverses both in land and sea.[11]

Adaptations

Books

Film and audio productions

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Zheleznova, Irina . Ukrainian Folk Tales . Dnipro Publishers . 1985 . Kyiv . 242–253.
  2. Book: Philip, Neil . Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe . Liber Press . 1991 . 1857340000 . England . 43–50.
  3. Book: V. Symchych and O. Vesey . The Flying Ship & Other Ukrainian Folk Tales . Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited . 1975 . 0039299503 . Toronto . 81–93.
  4. Web site: The Flying Ship and Other Ukrainian Folk Tales, by Ivan Franko . 2023-06-21 . Ukrainica . en.
  5. Web site: The Flying Ship. Ukrainian folk tale . 2023-06-21 . freebooksforkids.net.
  6. Web site: The-Fool-of-the-world-and-the-flying-ship-:-a-Ukrainian-folk-tale Queens Public Library . 2023-06-21 . queenslibrary.org.
  7. Web site: www.bibliopolis.com . Letiuchyi korabel i inshi ukrainski narodni kazky. chastyna I Flying ship and other Ukrainian folk tales. Part I by B. Danylovych on Rare Paper . 2023-06-21 . Rare Paper . en-US.
  8. Web site: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship . 2023-06-21 . The Story Museum . en.
  9. Web site: The fool of the world and the flying ship : a Russian tale WorldCat.org . 2023-06-23 . www.worldcat.org . en.
  10. Book: Oparenko, Christina . Oxford Myths and Legends: Ukrainian Folk-tales . Oxford University Press . 1996 . 0192741683 . Oxford . 77–89.
  11. Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 137.
  12. Web site: The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Yellow Fairy Book, by Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang . 2023-06-23 . www.gutenberg.org.
  13. Book: Ransome . Arthur . Old Peter's Russian Tales . Mitrokhin . Dmitrii Isidorovich . 2005-11-02 . English.
  14. Web site: ALA Caldecott Medal & Honor Books, 1938-Present . 2023-06-23 . www.ala.org.
  15. Web site: The Fool Of The World And The Flying Ship (1990) Movie Review from Eye for Film . 2023-06-23 . www.eyeforfilm.co.uk.
  16. Web site: Media Log: Children and Family Programming . 2023-06-23 . The National Endowment for the Humanities . en.