#Ukrainian fairytales

[theophan-o]

Graceful Cossack heroes by the Ukrainian contemporary artist and illustrator, Tereza Prots (Тереза Проць).

An illustration to the Ukrainian folk tale Matusya (Матуся)*.

*Matusya is a nickname of a boy here;-)

It is a fan&didactic account, existing only for the Cossack Heroes glory and promoting Ukrainian heritage worldwide. Copyright belongs to the Artist/Museum.

[piroshky]

The Ukrainian folktale Kyrylo the Tanner, illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko.

[bezkinechnanudga]

Actually, I like how creative Ukrainian fairytales are, but it's a pity that I'm not able to read all symbols that were there.

[vyvilha]

ukrainian fairytales illustrated by kateryna shtanko

[theophan-o]

@wanderer-on-the-steppe, thank you for sharing it! Both the horse and the Cossack rider are so perfectly in Bohun's world style! What a beauty, the real masterpiece!

Katerina Shtanko Illustration “Ukrainian Fairytales”

[panimoonchild]

The Big Book of Fairies and Princesses

We got it. Ukrainian lives are not fairytale.

[folkcorewitch]

A closer look on the sleeves of this blouse I entirely embroidered by hand, and then sewn. The embroideries patterns are based on a vintage vyshyvanka blouse I saw on pinterest. I became obsessed with these colors and shapes, and spent 100+ hours embroidering all the sleeves. And now I just want to make another one 😂 because it was such a great experience!! On the photos I'm wearing the blouse with a traditional ukrainian vest.

[kosmos-fantastika]

Korney Chukovsky - Buzzy-Wuzzy Busy Fly (Ukrainian SSR, USSR, 1991)

artist: Oksana Ignaschenko

[solbit-fox]

Filly Butterfly: Rainbow edition, Europe (Ukraine)

Egmont's Filly Magazine in Germany was releasing Rainbow Butterfly toys in late 2022. Now, besides Glitter Butterfly the same magazine covered, Rainbow Butterfly also comes to Europe, starting with Ukraine!

We have another round of some new characters (who are, yet again, recolours of Butterflys from 2014), their names are completely new and unique: Lulu (Tia's recolour), Pia (Alyssa's recolour), Nicki (Bea's recolour?), Ninel (Nina's recolour and names are similar), Valerie (Toby's recolour), Colette (Rhett's recolour), Amara (Jack's recolour? even Water group's mark is intact, which shouldn't be the case for Heart group...), Heidi (Lotus' recolour), Catriona (Freya's recolour).

Scarlet of course is kept, she's special character. Emma from Friendship Group and Sara from Flower Group are also remaining Butterflys from ~2014+ collection(s).

~2014+ series, for comparison

Also yes, Dracco does just 'remakes' of old characters with additional design elements now, at least since last Blue Ocean magazines in ~2021. Though for European 2023+ editions they at least change colours lol. I get it, it's hard to be a small toy company with financial struggles. At least they continue still~

As for the text of 2023+ flyer, it reads

''During magical hour in Papillia's forest, on most sunny day of the year, a special magical rainbow appears. If you follow it, Filly Butterfly come to Water Palace where Princess Scarlet makes special celebration for them. Fluttering near the rainbow, Fillys wings fill with various colours. That's how magical transformation into Rainbow Filly Butterfly happens! The celebration lasts whole day! Each pretty Filly dances - one after another - going in rounds, fluttering in the palace, showing their multicoloured wings! Incredible rainbow wings have magical power. They spread beams of happiness and luck for everyone the Filly meet on their way! Join Rainbowy Filly Butterfly and learn what magical surprises their new magic wings bring!''

No Filly Funtasia references this time

Okay, that's all for now! Be Filly!

[theophan-o]

Breathtaking Cossack's image from the Ukrainian fairy tale (Казка про Лугая) by Vladyslav Yerko (Владислав Єрко, b. 1962), one from the greatest contemporary Ukrainian artists-book illustrators.

It is a fan account, existing only for the Cossack glory, promoting Ukrainian & Polish Cultures. Copyright belongs to the Artist/Museum.

[piroshky]

The Tales of Foggy Albion, Vladyslav Yerko, 2003.

[bezkinechnanudga]

I've been researching about Ukrainian fairytales, and there is so much really ancient stuff based on hunters' rituals. Most of the animal stories, like Tale about Cat and Rooster, Koza-Dereza, and even Kolobok, are telling us about these rituals.

The main motif of these tales is the ritualistic justification of hunting as an action. People were considering it as self-defence or revenge and, therefore, not a behavior that can enrage the spirits of the forest.

For example, "Cat and Rooster" tells a story about the fox, who steals the rooster thrice, and only after that cat who saved the rooster previous two times decided to kill the fox (and her children in some variations 😀).

Funnily enough, the most popular villain in these tales is fox, known for her trickery. In early childhood, I was kinda obsessed with the image of cunning fox, "forest girlboss."

[vyvilha]

english fairytale illustrations by ukrainian artist vladyslav yerko

[retrowaving1]

HELL YEAH!!

I had an illustrated book of fairytales and it had this picture, but also many other amazing illustrations by different authors. That definitely played a role in shaping my tastes later in life.

I found some illustrations that i remembered on the internet, sorry that I don't know the authors, but I have to share the paintings:

I just learned that you can order one in Poland through allegro. Neat.

Kateryna Shtanko (Ukrainian, 1951- ) Illustation to Ukrainian children's folk tale "Яйце-райце"

[parasolyaa]

Hi!! How are you doing?

I saw your post inviting asks and something I've been wondering is, if you could tell me about some things from Misha's childhood that are unique to Ukraine which he might feel nostalgic for as a young adult (snacks, toys, kids tv shows, etc)?

Thank you for the informative posts you make, you're awesome ☺️

hi!! i'm doing good tysm!!! couldn't be otherwise after getting an ask from the most legendary artist in this fandom, i adore your ricky art!! i'll use this post as an excuse to yap endlessly about random media that will mostly be irrelevant, but also a peak into that time and place. sort of.

the epithome of ukrainian childhood nostalgia is zhyvchyk: both a drink and a tv show (which is just an advertisement for that drink). it’s a bubbly apple soda, in other words - a drink of gods.

(also fun fact: after russia occupied crimea, they tried to make their own version of zhychyk there. they called it zhyvunchik and the only design change was that they ??cut off the arms of the mascot?? since zhyvchyk basically means “lively guy”, it was kinda ironic)

other drinks he’d definitely miss would be kvas and kompot (obligatory laughing and giggling when he calls it cumpot).

starting off with more traditional snacks, i envision young misha with a necklace of booblycks (obligatory laughing and giggling when he calls it booblicks)

also any roshen candy! (obligatory laughing and giggling when he mentions the nut out chocolates) (they indeed are called that) (they are pretty recent tho). the undying classic is crazy bee and shypuchka/fizzy boom (the darker green design is the older one).

also there are some fancy sets, associated with holidays or family gettogethers. strila/arrow, kyiv evening and kyiv cake

the thing misha would DEFINETELY love and miss is flint ?bread chips?, this is an unmatched snack. once again, darker green design is the older one, and also with a pretty wild taste. there is a big variety of those.

ukrainian childhood cartoons were mostly distributed among three channels - pixel, plusplus and malyatko tv (disney, nickelodeon and cartoon network were here too, but no point in talking abt them now). the first two usually broadcastered whatever cartoons from around the world were relevant at the time (ukrainian dub for ducktales was unmatched!!), and also a few ukrainian things. i will highlight "abetka tivi" (alphabet tv) from pixel. it was, well, a show about learning the alphabet. "auntie owl’s lessons" was another one, and there were much more episodes, usually about famous art, world history and etiquette.

on plusplus, there was a show called "fairytale with dad", in which male celebrities read out fairytales to children. something about healing daddy issues with this one. also there is a whole plusplus cinematic universe, because this show sometimes intervened with another original show of theirs about ??shapes going on adventures??. and there was a show called useful suggestions, which was universally disliked by kids for being too on the nose about the life lessons they were trying to teach.

and then there was malyatko tv. when it stopped broadcasting in 2023, everyone weeped and so did i. there were vibrant music videos, eg "turtle aha", "helper boy" (self PR for my fic with that name. sorry.) and other. and, even though this wasn’t original ukrainian content, i feel the need to mention this: malyatko tv often showed some old anime cartoons - "haidi", "pocahontas" and others. ukrainian opening dubs were ethereal. to me.

there also were old cartoon classics (broadcasted on a creepy channel called children's world, an ugly sibling of malyatko tv) - the “how cossacks�� series and “there once was a dog", but there were tons more.

(also this made me remember another long-gone channel called Qtv. basically what the cool kids watched, it also shows up in every tiktok #ukrainechildhood #nostalgia #2000s video. it's showed simpsons and stuff and had cheeky editing, eg in an advertisement for death note they only showed spongebob clips to make it look like he was kira. pretty funny imo)

peak nostalgia is the show "країна у" (country u? krayina u? untranslatable title), which is a dumb sketch show consisting of shows on its own about people from different regions of ukraine. bringing this up because odesa was one of them, and, no matter if misha disliked this show or not, this definetely impacted his childhood. the schtik about "once upon in odesa" was that there were four guys in odesa and uuuuh that's it? i don't remember much about it tbh ...

there were also popular reality tv shows and stuff, i really really wanna highlight "the world inside out". it's a travel show about this dude dmytro komarov getting to most remote an unique places in the world. don't get me wrong, he was being an idiot half the time, but it was peak entertainment. he uploaded old episodes with english dub on youtube and now does charity work. props to him

back to cartoons, "fox mykyta" was a nice, more modern cartoon. it's vaguely based on ivan franko's book with the same name, which in turn is vaguely based on "the blue jackal". speaking of books, ukrainian school literature programe is traumatising asf, and i just need to mention "fedko-brigand". it's a short story about a young boy who misbehaved but only lied once, when he took the blame for pushing a rich boy in the river, which he didn't do. it's also the reason why ukrainian 5th graders all spent at least one night crying, and since rereading it, i just keep thinking about misha. i feel like he'd relate

i'm convinced every ukrainian child had this specific "abetka"(alphabet) book with rhymes to every letter. the "а-ба-ба-га-ла-ма-га" publishing house never fails with their illustrations.

also probably the most popular children's books are the ones by vsevolod nestayko, eg "toreadors from vasyukivka" and "wonderful adventures in the forest school".

about games and toys, i honestly can't recall any ukraine specific ones except "this thing but slavic!" (monopoly ukraine, stuff like that). motanka dolls count as an original toy. out of computer games, maybe the most popular one at the time - "stalker: shadow of chornobyl"? some irony in that. real life games tho? the only difference between the games of tag and kvach is the name. "сossacks and bandits" maybe... there's a bl comic with the same name btw, and i also think that's the only place where you can find the rules for it in english lol. or google translate the wikipedia page.

misha lived by the sea, so he probably played a lot of games on water, other than that - all the same things american kids experience. generally my main advise when thinking about misha's childhood is to remember he had all the same things people in uranium did, excluding canada specific media. after auntie owl's lessons came ninja turtles, and after eating flint bread chips it was only natural to sip coca cola.

also i can advise to just look up "ukraine nostalgia"/"дитинство ностальгія" on tiktok. half the time it will be uncomprehensive stuff, and the other half might be something that'd help shape the view of what it was like. this is an invitation to ask more specific things and also for my ukrainian mutuals to add on because i only scratched the surface. hope it was useful or somewhat interesting xd

[folkcorewitch]

Folkcore beret hand embroidered by me, inspired by traditional ukrainian embroideries.