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Full of third sons, talking birds, enchanted places, beautiful women and impossible journeys, these charmingly illustrated stories have a magic-realist, almost absurd quality, and they are told and translated with enough shamanstvo to keep you reading. In his introduction and extensive accompanying gloss, Michael Berman skilfully locates them in their historical, religious, storytelling and shamanic contexts with a scholarship that is both thorough and accessible, making it complementary to the reader's enjoyment. A nice collection. David Ronder
Everything shifts in the Caucasus, blown by some of the strongest winds on earth. Even the ground moves, splintered by fault lines. In early Georgian myths, it is said that when the mountains were young, they had legs -- could walk from the edges of the oceans to the deserts, flirting with the low hills, shrouding them with soft clouds of love. But what about those aspects of life which remain relatively constant -- the traditional practices of the people, the practices that are reflected in their legends and their folklore? It is these constants that this book concentrates on accompanied with breathtaking images.
Author : Charles Colcock Jones Publisher : University of Georgia Press Page : 231 pages File Size : 40,99 MB Release : 2012-03-15 Category : Social Science ISBN : 0820343552
In 1888, Charles Colcock Jones Jr. published the first collection of folk narratives from the Gullah-speaking people of the South Atlantic coast, tales he heard black servants exchange on his family's rice and cotton plantation. It has been out of print and largely unavailable until now. Jones saw the stories as a coastal variation of Joel Chandler Harris's inland dialect tales and sought to preserve their unique language and character. Through Jones' rendering of the sound and syntax of nineteenth-century Gullah, the lively stories describe the adventures and mishaps of such characters as "Buh Rabbit," "Buh Ban-Yad Rooster," and other animals. The tales range from the humorous to the instructional and include stories of the "sperits," Daddy Jupiter's "vision," a dying bullfrog's last wish, and others about how "buh rabbit gained sense" and "why the turkey buzzard won't eat crabs."
As the first attempt to translate into English any part of the varied and interesting secular literature of the Georgian people, this little book may perhaps claim some attention from the public. A volume of sermons by Bishop Gabriel of Kutais was published by the Rev. S. C. Malan in 1867, but, with this single exception, I do not know of any other work in the Iberian tongue which has been offered to English readers. The state of comparative neglect into which Oriental studies in general have fallen of late among us, the rulers of the East, accounts, to some extent, for this fact; it is to be hoped that an improvement in this respect may soon be apparent. Some years ago, a book written by my brother first excited my interest in the Caucasus and its brave and beautiful inhabitants. A study of the classical literature, especially of the great epic poet, Shota Rusthaveli, of the twelfth century, has profitably occupied much of my time during the past two years, and it is my intention to give my countrymen an early opportunity of sharing in the pleasure I have derived therefrom. As a relaxation from these more arduous studies, I amused myself by turning into English the originals of the following stories. I showed the manuscript to Dr. E. B. Tylor, who told me that it presented many features of interest to folklorists, and advised me to publish it; it is, therefore, fitting that I should dedicate the book to the creator of the modern science of anthropology, and he has kindly given me permission to do so. The geographical position of Georgia, a region lying between East and West, forming a bridge along which a great part of the traffic in ideas as well as in commodities must pass, makes it a rich field of inquiry for the student. By their religious and political connection with Byzantium on the one hand, and by their constant intercourse with Persia and Turkey on the other, the Iberians have gained much from both Christendom and Islam, and among them may yet be found lost links in several chains of historical and literary investigations. The sources from which I have taken the stories are the following: Part I. is a collection edited by Mr. Aghniashvili, and published in Tiflis, in 1891, by the Georgian Folklore Society, under the title, Khalkhuri Zghaprebi. Part II. comprises the Mingrelian stories in Professor A. A. Tsagareli's Mingrelskie Etyudy, S. Pbg., 1880 (in Mingrelian and Russian). These were collected by Professor Tsagareli during the years 1876-79, chiefly in the districts of Sachichuo and Salipartiano, which lie almost in the centre of Mingrelia, far removed from foreign influence, and are famous for the purity of their Mingrelian idiom. The Mingrelian dialect is rapidly being replaced by pure Georgian throughout the country. Part III. is an anonymous collection, entitled Gruzinskiya Narodnyya Skazki. Sobr. Bebur B. S. Pbg., 1884. It will be found that, besides the differences due to geographical position, the three groups of stories are not of the same character. Part II. is more naive and popular than Part I., and Part III. exhibits more appreciation of the ridiculous than the rest of the book, and is of a more didactic nature. The points of resemblance between the following stories and those quoted by the late Mr. Ralston, in his well-known Russian Folk Tales, are so numerous, and so apparent, that I have not thought it necessary to refer to them in the notes. In conclusion, I must express my thanks to Prince Ivane Machabeli, of Tiflis, the Georgian translator of Shakespeare, for his kindness in reading my proofs, and to my brother, who did the Russian part of the work for me.
These tales range from the supernatural to the romantic and from the sacred to the secular. A celebration of American imagination, tradition, and manners, this collection of folktales reveals the spirit of people who responded to the demands of rural living with grace, good humor, and endurance.
Author : John A. Burrison Publisher : University of Georgia Press Page : 404 pages File Size : 18,61 MB Release : 1991 Category : Social Science ISBN : 9780820312675
Presents 260 of the rural South's best stories collected over a twenty year period, with their roots in Anglo-Saxon, African-American, and Native American traditions