The article is devoted to the study of synonyms denoting the sea in ‘Beowulf’. The author analyses the synonyms which express the main idea of episodes, as well as other units of synonymic clusters, which are semantically close to the key word. Of particular interest for the author are those lines in which the key synonym (frequently used as the first element of a compound) outlines the plot of the narrative. The key words essential for the poetic text comprise the basis of the narrative and form a sharp contrast with the lexical units which (owing to their rare use) constitute the periphery of the synonymic system. The plotline is marked by the most frequently alliterating key words, which tend to be used as the first element of a compound. Weakening of distinctions in denotative meaning of first elements in compounds is compensated by the added function of marking the plotline. Successions of synonyms within the poem form semantic clusters whose function consists in intensifying meanings imparted by the narrative. Key synonyms can enter into semantic oppositions, in accordance with which other units of the synonymic system can be grouped. The most crucial semantic transformation essential for the plot affects the word mere whose meaning changes from ‘lake’ to ‘sea’ in epic narration. The semantic shift results in the intensive use of compounds with mere- as the first element in the central episodes of Beowulf.

The author analyses folk-ballad about water spirit and his human wife (“schöne Hannalee”). One of its versions is telling about merman threatening to split their child in two halves. Some motives and images (generally connected with children of merman and human) of the ballad are compared with those of folklore narratives. Some scholars had already suggested that the Ballad about Hannalee was inspired not only by the Danish ballad “Agnete and the Merman” but also by certain Slavic folksongs. The article inspects the motif of splitting the child in texts of Russian North and Slavic lands. The motif appears in texts of different genres in Asia and Europe, in Scandinavia, but it seems to be unknown in Denmark. In addition, the author notes that woman’s anxiety about the future of her children probably influenced the ballad’s plot as well as it probably have influenced mythological texts.

The problem of the relationship between the narrator and the observer in the text has traditionally been considered in relation to the material of fiction. Analysis of folklore texts shows that the observer as a text category has a universal character. This position is also quite relevant for the texts of the oral tradition, and the most diverse genres. The article examines the position of the observer in mythological narratives (in the modern and archaic narrative tradition), in spells and in lyric song on the example of the use of grammatical forms of the 1st person in these texts. The focus of attention is such a feature of the observer in the text as the movement of his position, that is, the switching of this function between the subjects. The linguistic means used to express the observer’s position in folklore texts is the grammatical forms of the 1st person. The subject of observation can change throughout the text, while the expression of the observer’s position by the forms of the 1st person is carried out throughout the entire text, and this becomes possible by switching grammatical modes.

The research concentrates on the celebration of The Village Day, which exists in Archangelskaya oblast’ since 1990. Analysis of the scenarios of this holiday from different villages indicates that they have typical structure and contents regardless of the place, or the organizers. The researcher analyzed 12 scenarios of the celebration from the Beloschel’e village (Leshuconian district); these scenarios include large amount of naive literature texts, which organizers took from the papers. The article shows how the image of the village is created, what are the principles of authorship in naive literature using examples of mentioned scenarios. The author of the article assumes that the choice of the vertical writing dictates lyrical way of comprehension of the world to the authors of naive literature. This way of comprehension appears to be the factor, which attracts the scriptwriters of the holiday.

The verses create rhetorical framework of holiday discourse, and this framework sets mechanisms of perception for both the past and the present of the village (or versions of them, which are translated by the scriptwriters. Analysis of the scripts and the holiday itself (it was recorded in 2018) indicates two ways of verbal reverence to the village: bow and praise. In the frame of the holiday discourse, the village itself and its inhabitants are represented as heroes: they are exceptional, highly cultured. Thus naive literature texts, which are included in the scenario, suggest not only the exceptionality of the village, but also the limited set of ways of emotional reaction to that fact.

Oryol region (Bryansk region nowadays) was occupied by the German army from August 1941 to October 1943. During this time some of the local people were forced to collaborate with the invaders. Despite the fact that nowadays this topic is a taboo, there are still a lot of stories of collaborationism and looting during the wartime that are often told in the former occupied territories. This article is based on materials collected in July-August 2020 during an expedition to the Novozybkovsky district of the Bryansk region. We noted that our interlocutors often call collaborators not only the real collaborators, but also the looters. In this article, we try to find out why residents of the former occupied territories still talk about collaborators and marauders. This fact might be explained by the social functions of such stories in a closed community. In a closed community looting is unacceptable as well as collaborationism in a public discourse. That makes local people use the name of collaborators as a label for any person who violates the rules of a social group.

The article is devoted to the description of the journey of the Severodvinsk monk Simeon Gavrilov to the north of the White Sea Karelia in 1896, the purpose of which was to study the origin of the Old Believers in the Topozero region. The subject of the analysis is the unpublished manuscript IV of the “Genealogy”, compiled by the traveler using the results of the trip. The chapters of the “Genealogy” under the title “Contrition of the Heart” and “Walking in Korela” are considered, where the author describes in detail his journey from Kem to Kizreka. The traveler’s observations of the way of life of the local population, which are first introduced into scientific circulation, are an important source of information about the way of life of the Kestenga (Topozero) Karelians of the late 19^th century. According to the notes, the Topozero region is a sparsely populated area with a predominantly Karelian population. The Russian language was spoken by men and, with rare exceptions, by women. The main mode of communication between settlements was movement along waterways or along forest/marsh paths with decking. The center of Topozero region was the village of Kestenga, in which there was an official church and a priest, as well as a board with a constable. Men were engaged in peddling in Finland, fishing, making money on timber rafting. The women ran the household. Reindeer breeding was developed in the region. The natural landscape was distinguished by a large amount of stone.

M.V. Krestovskaya (1862–1910) is an almost forgotten Russian writer whose creative activity occurred at the turn of the 19–20 centuries. Her works are a rich source of various information about this period, capturing current trends and fundamental changes in the cultural and socio-economic life of Russia and Europe. In particular, Krestovskaya’s creative biography is inextricably linked with the ideas of the contemporary emancipatory women’s movement and the problems it posed to the society at that time. Various facets of the “women’s question” (individual and psychological, family and household, socio-historical and philosophical) are reflected in the ideological-thematic, plot and figurative levels of the writer’s works, as well as in her literary behavior. The author of the article analyzes Krestovskaya’s views on various aspects of the “women’s question”, referring to her fiction prose, journalism and extensive diary heritage, reveals the characteristic features of her work, explores the typology of characters and draws attention to the forms of psychologism inherent in the writer’s art laboratory. The article shows that the focus on women’s topics is not a tribute to “fashion”, but one of the features that are organically inherent in Krestovskaya’s world view and writing, which are devoid of feminist intolerance, despite the writer’s sympathy for the ideas of the women’s movement.

In order to research and work with folklore texts, they are often classified, using character type as the basis. Animals as protagonists, if not the only protagonists, characterize animalistic folklore, widely represented in the traditions of the Mongolian peoples, for instance. However, the role of animals in the tradition of the Kalmyks, as part of the Western Mongolian people, has not been studied enough. T.G. Basangova has devoted a number of papers to this field of knowledge, analyzing the role of different animal characters. “A male/ female cat in Kalmykian folklore” (2019) or “The image of Hedgehog the Wise as a Cultural Hero in folklore tradition of Kalmyks and Oirats of Xinjiang” (2017), for instance.

The monograph under review explores how animals are represented as characters in mythology, poetry, folklore and literary tales, dances, ornaments and many other folklore texts. A whole stratum of material is being researched, some of which has been collected and researched by T.G. Basangova, and some was discovered in the course of reviewing archived expedition records, which was collected in the 19 century.

In order to work with the folklore texts, T.G. Basangova employs a comparative method involving general Mongolian stories, texts specific to certain Mongolian peoples, and narratives belonging to peoples neighboring the Kalmyks. A significant role is played by classifying the material, relating it to typologies of A. Aarne, V.Y. Propp.

The chapters of the monograph are structured as follows: the name of the animal, the meanings of the word in the Kalmyk language and the etymological hypotheses relating to it are given, and the role of the animal in various folklore texts and ethnographic sources are discussed, starting with those where it is most frequently mentioned. The analysis is accompanied by numerous references to the material collected and research studies listed at the end of each subsection of the chapter.

The monograph under review is the quintessence of many years of research taken by T.G. Basangova. It opens Kalmyk animalistic folklore to scholars and the general public alike.