Ukrainian magical folklore in the archive collections of the RGO and OLEAE
In: Slavjanovedenie, Heft 5, S. 55-67
The article describes the found out archival collections of Ukrainian magical folklore from the funds of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) and the Society of Amateurs of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography (OLEAE). The author determines the history of the manuscripts and expresses ideas about their authorship, the available editions of these materials, the functional composition, the features of the content and poetic language of the charms included in the collections under consideration. Special attention is paid to the fact that in some of these collections, charms are juxtaposed with «small» forms of verbal magic, creating a complete picture of this fragment of folklore tradition. The expediency of publishing some of these manuscripts (the most complete and little-known) is due to their exclusivity, as well as to the fact that Ukrainian verbal magic is still the least known among the three Eastern Slavic traditions.