Across the borders of languages and cultures: tales of the Don Kalmyks recorded by I.I. Popov

This article offers a comparative analysis of the tales of the Don Kalmyks recorded by I.I. Popov and the fairy-tale tradition of the Russian people. The folklore of the Don Kalmyks, who lived on the border of the nomadic Kalmyk Khanate, reflects the contact with the Russian population and provides examples of interaction in the frame of the oral tradition. This question was not previously the subject of particular interest. The fairy tales recorded by Popov add new information on the fairy-tale tradition of the Kalmyks. Through these texts I trace the poly-stadiality of fairy-tale stories, historical development and progress in borrowing stories. The tale of Ivan Tsarevich was borrowed from the oral tradition of the Russian people. The storyteller probably listened to the tale from the speakers of the oral tradition: the fairy tale was transmitted much close to the original text, using Russian words. The reproduced plot included the realities of everyday life and the traces from the oral tradition of the Kalmyk people, while maintaining the original structure. The Kalmyk storyteller reinterpreted the plot and narrative through the prism of nomadic culture, by using poetic means and stable poetic constructions, introducing poetical images of the Kalmyk fairy tale tradition, which is persistent in the final text. At the same time, the storyteller saved characteristic images of the indigene Kalmyk oral tradition. Along with the traditional formulas of the Kalmyk fairy tale, I note the final formula, taken from the repertoire of the Russian people, when the narrator claimed that she was present at the feast and was eyewitness to the final scenes of the fairy tale. I need to note that the endings of a humorous nature, not related to the plot, are not typical for the texts of Kalmyk fairy tales.