The Historical Roots of the Fairy Tale

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (1895-1970) - an outstanding domestic philologist, folklorist, professor at Leningrad University, who gained worldwide fame.
"The Historical Roots of the Fairy Tale" (1946) - a continuation of the book "Morphology of the Fairy Tale", the second part of an unparalleled classical study devoted to the analysis of the most popular folklore genre.
A fairy tale is not just an invented world where wonders occur and justice prevails: evil is punished, and the hero is saved. It reflects the distant past of humanity with its pagan rituals, initiation rites, ancestor worship, and a mystical awe before the afterlife. The fairy tale attracts us with its mystery, but what lies behind this magic?
In this book, the reader will learn who is hidden behind the images of Koschei and Baba Yaga, why the burning of Ivan in the furnace is a trace of the initiation rite, and why the rescue of the girl who is sacrificed to the monster represents the overcoming of primitive pagan thinking and the transition to humanistic ideals.