#slavic tales

[russianfolklore]

Palekh painting on a small box with illustration of "Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" tale.

Palekh miniature is a Russian folk handicraft of a miniature painting, which is done with tempera paints on varnished articles made of papier-mâché (including the creation of small boxes, cigarette cases, and powder cases).

[rann-poisoncage]

[vintage-russia]

Russian fairytale "The Frog Princess" (1914)

[zu-is-here]

The Frog Princess ✧ Your Culture Day

Dream & Nightmare by jokublog

Cross from xtaleunderverse by jakei95

[inkyami]

I’ve made a deck for the slavic themed Mafia game — each character is from classic fairytales and epics. Part 2 of ? (Not really supposed to reveal the whole deck)

𖧷 Tugarin Zmeevich (Tugarin the Serpent) 𖧷 Finist the Falcon 𖧷 Tsarevna Nesmeyana (the Unsmiling) 𖧷 Kikimora

[Part I]

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[entnoot]

Baba Yaga’s hut, my beloved 🐓🏠

[allyouneediswall]

She-bear

[khaarl-i]

WTF is a “čert”

-a guide from a bilingual Czech

while English has words like devil and demon, čert is a slavic mythical creature, that doesn’t have an accurate name in other languages

Czech has three (common) words:

Ďábel - THE devil, ruler of hell, usually interchangeable with Lucifer

Démon - demon, used when talking about other creatures from other mythologies

(and the enigma) Čert

Čerti (plural) are the devil's minions. They either work directly in hell or are sent on earth (often as a punishment) to make deals with sinners and drag them into hell. However they’re commonly depicted as silly idiots or playful, mischievous tricksters. And selling them one’s soul is seen as confirmation of their own foolishness (make stupid choices, win stupid prizes).

They look like humans (mostly men, but you can come across a lady here and there), with added goat features- horns, tails and sometimes even hooves. Their clothes are haggard, often featuring furs, they’re covered in soot and other dirt.

While in old tales are seen as an actual threat, nowadays (in mostly atheistic czech society) they’re depicted as pathetic little meow meows- comedic relief characters, laughable villains and even love interests for princesses (turned into humans for their good behavior)

They can be found in basically every other czech TV fairy tale. While I have seen people suggest to just use the word krampus in english, because of the surface level similarities between the two creatures, I wouldn’t recommend it. Because A)they have widely different vibes B)some czech (and other slavic) might punch you in a fit of patriotism

Disclaimer: while creatures like this are in many (if not all) slavic folklores, under varying names, this post is centered around the czechoslovak version, because that’s what I’m familiar with

[aqua-regia009]

Flying Carpet, 1880 - oil on canvas. — Viktor Vasnetsov (Russian, 1848-1926)

[lauras-whimsy-nook]

Credit to @/ Astrid Sheckels Art

[burningpinkcandle]

Фильм: Алиса в Зазеркалье

[russianfolklore]

Viktor Britvin's illustration for russian tale "The Flying Ship".

[rann-poisoncage]

[vintage-russia]

"The Russian Story Book" illustrated by Frank C.Papé (1916)

[madcat-world]

Mavka - IrenHorrors

[erebus0dora]

so, um, my friends and i do this podcast thing that might be useful if one wishes to create a story with weird elements of Russian folklore, but doesn't know where to look for legit tales/research/analysis

usually we ask a native English speaker to narrate a tale or a fragment of a tale; in this case, our narrator chose the tale himself

(i tried to talk him out of it, it's enormous compared to most tales, and it's i n s a n e)

so, yeah, now we have this tale about death, gambling, and a wildly unexpected Jesus

p.s. adding the artwork just for a good measure