Fairy Tale and Myth: Secrets of Folk Beliefs

Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826–1871) – a Russian collector of folklore, ethnographer, and literary scholar.
The texts of the collection "Fairy Tale and Myth: Secrets of Folk Beliefs" are part of a large study on the mythopoetics of Slavic culture and analyze the possible connection between Slavic beliefs and Indo-European folklore, which A. N. Afanasyev later systematized in the main work of his life – "The Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature".
The context shows the ambiguous perception of A. N. Afanasyev's research approach: his contemporaries criticized him for excessive poeticization, mixing his own arguments with existing facts, and a tendency towards the ideas of cabinet mythology.
This collection includes articles: "The Sorcerer and the Witch", "Zoomorphic Deities in the Slavs: Bird, Horse, Bull, Cow, Snake, and Wolf", "Fairy Tale and Myth", "Folk Poetic Representations of the Rainbow", "Mythical Connection of the Concepts of Light, Vision, Fire, Metal, Weapons, and Bile" and "Notes on the Afterlife According to Slavic Traditions."