The Mistress of the Copper Mountain (fairy tale)

"The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" (Russian: Медной горы хозяйка, tr. Mednoj gory hozjajka),[1] also known as "The Queen of the Copper Mountain" or "The Mistress of the Copper Mine",[2] is a folk tale (the so-called skaz) of the Ural region of Russia collected and reworked by Pavel Bazhov. It was first published in the 11th issue of the Krasnaya Nov literary magazine in 1936 and later the same year as a part of the collection Prerevolutionary Folklore of the Urals.[3][4]

"The Mistress of the Copper Mountain"
AuthorPavel Bazhov
Original title"Медной горы хозяйка"
TranslatorAlan Moray Williams (first), Eve Manning, et al.
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
SeriesThe Malachite Casket collection (list of stories)
Genre(s)skaz
Published inKrasnaya Nov
Publication typePeriodical
Media typePrint (magazine, hardback and paperback)
Publication date1936
Preceded by"The Great Snake"
Followed by"The Manager's Boot-Soles"

It was later reprinted as a part of the collection The Malachite Box in 1939.[5] In 1944 the story was translated from Russian into English by Alan Moray Williams and published by Hutchinson.[6] In the 1950s another translation was made by Eve Manning.[7][8] The story was published in the collection Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov, published by Penguin Books in 2012. It was translated by Anna Gunin.[9] It was included in James Riordan's collection of stories The Mistress of the Copper Mountain: Tales from the Urals, published in 1974 by Frederick Muller Ltd.[10] Riordan heard the tales from a headteacher when he was bedridden in Sverdlovsk. After returning to England he rewrote the tales from memory, checking them against Bazhov's book. He preferred not to call himself "translator", he believed that "communicator" was more appropriate.[11]

Background

Bazhov's stories are based on the oral lore of the miners and gold prospectors.[12] The mythical creatures such as the Great Snake or the Mistress of the Copper Mountain were well known to Bazhov from the tales that were told by his own family members (Pavel Bazhov was born at the village near the Sysert Mining Plant[13]) and by the old men at the plant. Those old people were experienced workers, who worked in the industry for all their lives, but were eventually exhausted by many years of hard work. They were sent to do light-duty work, such as guard the place, etc. They were the story-tellers who knew a lot of legends about the plants and the miners' lives.[14] From a very young age Bazhov used to write down the local folk tales.[13]

Geographically, the folk tales came from the old The Sysert Mining District, which included five mining plants, i. e. Sysert (Sysertsky), the head plant of the district, Polevskoy (also known as Polevaya or Poleva), Seversky (Severna), Verkhny (Verkh-Sysertsky), and Ilyinsky (Nizhve-Sysertsky).[15] The most famous copper mine of the Ural Mountains, the Gumeshevskiy mine or "Gumeshki", was located next to the Polevskoy plant. It was also called "The Copper Mountain" or simply "The Mountain".[15][16] Most folk tales were connected with this place.[14]

Publication

This skaz was first published together with "The Great Snake" and "Beloved Name" in the 11th issue of Krasnaya Nov in 1936.[4] "Beloved Name" was published on the pages 5–9, "The Great Snake" on pp. 9–12,[17][18] and "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" on pp. 12–17.[4] These tales are the ones that follow the original Ural miners' folklore most closely.[14] Bazhov was actually credited as the original author of these texts.[19] The stories were included in the collection Prerevolutionary Folklore of the Urals (Russian: Дореволюционный фольклор на Урале, tr. Dorevoljucionnyj folklor na Urale), released later the same year by Sverdlovsk Publishing House.[3] In this book, Bazhov was mentioned as the one who collected the texts.[19]

Bazhov himself tried to avoid the question of authorship, joking that "questions such as these should be left to scholars".[13] Nowadays Bazhov's tales are generally accepted as his "literary work based on the Urals folklore", because, firstly, although he did not change the plots of the folk tales, the book conveys certain ideological concepts common for that time period, and secondly, the manuscripts demonstrate that a huge amount of professional work were done on the composition, images, language etc.[13]

Plot summary

In this skaz, a young factory worker Stepan meets a woman in the unusual clothing. He realizes that the woman is actually the legendary Mistress of the Copper Mountain. She orders Stepan to tell his bailiff, the "stinking goat", to get out of the Krasnogorsk mine. Stepan does as he is told and pays the price: he is flogged and sent to a mine face. He is then saved by the Mistress herself. She brings Stepan to her domain, shows him her riches and proposes marriage. Stepan honestly replies that he already promised to marry another girl, Nastyona. The Mistress is delighted by his reply. She reveals that her proposal was a test of Stepan's honesty and integrity. She presents a malachite casket filled with jewellery for Nastyona and lets the man go, making one final request that Stepan would forget about her. Unfortunately, Stepan cannot do that. He marries Nastyona and lives with her for many years, but he is unhappy. One day he goes away and doesn't come back. His body is later found lying by a rock. The tale concludes with the words: "It's a chancy thing to meet her [The Mistress], it brings woe for a bad man, and for a good one there's little joy comes of it".[20]

Reception and legacy
The Mistress of the Copper Mountain and other characters from The Malachite Casket collection in the 2004 Russian stamps (from left to right): Danilo and the Mistress ("The Stone Flower"), the Mistress and Tanyushka ("The Malachite Casket"), and the hunter Ailyp and his ladylove Golden Hair ("Golden Hair").

"The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" is considered to be one of the best stories in The Malachite Casket collection.[13] The Mistress became a popular character in Soviet art.[21] She was recreated on stage, in paintings and sculptures.[14] The character was compared to Mephistopheles, because a human needs to wager his soul with her in order to get the ultimate knowledge.[22] Many noted the eroticism of the story and questioned whether the characters developed a sexual relationship. The Mistress was interpreted as the manifestation of the female sexuality. "The Mistress exudes sexual attraction and appears as its powerful source".[19] Bazhov confessed that he had heard an "adult" version of the folk tale at the Urals.[23] All sexual references in Pavel Bazhov's stories are very subtle, owing to Soviet puritanism.[24] Lyudmila Skorino believed that she represented the nature of the Urals, which inspires a creative person with its beauty.[25] The style of the story was praised.[26]

During Soviet times, every edition of The Malachite Box was usually prefaced by an essay by a famous writer or scholar, commenting on the creativity of the Ural miners, cruel landlords, social oppression and the "great workers unbroken by the centuries of slavery".[27] The critics focused on the motives of social oppression.[28] The Mistress was presented as the protector of the oppressed. Maya Nikulina comments that one editor wrote that the Casket was given to Stepan to remind him "of hard work and persistence".[29] The later scholars focused more on symbolism, the relationship of the characters with nature, the Mountain and the mysterious in general.[30] Nikulina believed that the Mistress is neither the rescuer nor the defender, does not protect the oppressed, she tests them, and there is not reason to picture her as an advocate of social justice. The landlord is punished for being greedy and stupid, not for being the landlord.[29] Lidiya Slobozhaninova notes that Stepan was not happy after he bought his freedom from the landlord. He should be happily married, but he dies of love and separation, not of unbearable working conditions or severe punishments. Slobozhaninova states that this is not class conflict, but the classical literary conflict between emotions and obligations.[28]

Marina Balina wrote that a contact with the Mistress is a symbolic manifestation of death. A contact with the Mistress is a symbolic manifestation of death. As one of the "mountain spirits", she does not hesitate to kill those who did not pass her tests, but even those who had been rewarded by her do not live happily ever after, as shown with Danilo in "The Stone Flower".[19] The Mistress was also interpreted as the manifestation of female sexuality. "The Mistress exudes sexual attraction and appears as its powerful source".[19] Mark Lipovetsky commented that she is the most terrifying characters of the stories. She is a beautiful girl and a demonic dangerous creature at the same time. He claims that she is characterized by three major Freudian motives: the sexual power, the death drive and the castration anxiety (loss of power).[31] She persistently and spitefully provokes the local administration, forcing the protagonist to relay the offensive message.[32]

Yelena Prikazchikova commented that union between the mountain spirit and the mortal is bound to be unhappy, because stone and living matter cannot join.[33]

Denis Zherdev commented that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain's female domain is the world of chaos. Although the characters are so familiar with her that the appearance of the Mistress is regarded as almost natural and even expected, the female domain collides with the ordered factory world, and brings in randomness, variability, unpredictability and capriciousness. Direct contact with the female power is a violation of the world order and therefore brings destruction or chaos.[34] He also pointed out that the most important value in most Bazhov's early stories is family. It serves as the criterion of normality in the characters' lives, e.g. the man who is married lives "correctly". However the family happiness is either flawed, as in this story, unattainable ("Beloved Name", "Yermak's Swans"), or short-lived ("The Twisted Roll", "Sinyushka's Well").[34]

The Mistress appeared in many other tales from The Malachite Casket: "The Malachite Casket", "The Stone Flower", ""The Manager's Boot-Soles"", "Sochen and His Stones", "The Master Craftsman", "The Two Lizards", "A Fragile Twig", "The Grass Hideaway", and "Tayutka's Mirror".[35]

Adaptations

In 1941 Alexander Fridlender composed the ballet The Mountain Fairy Tale (Russian: Горная сказка, tr. Gornaja skazka), based on the story.[36]

The animated film The Mistress of the Copper Mountain was released a part of the animated film series made at Sverdlovsk Film Studio[37][38] from the early 1970s to early 1980s, on time for the 100th anniversary since the birth of Pavel Bazhov. The series included the following films: Sinyushka's Well (1973), The Mistress of the Copper Mountain (1975), The Malachite Casket (1976), The Stone Flower (1977), Podaryonka (based on "Silver Hoof", 1978[39]), Golden Hair (1979), and The Grass Hideaway (1982). This film is a stop motion animated film directed by Oleg Nikolaevsky, with screenplay by A. Dobrovich and Alexander Timofeevsky.[37]

Stepan's Remembrance, a 1976 Soviet film, is the adaptation of the tales "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" and "The Malachite Casket".

The Stone Flower, a 1946 Soviet film,[40] incorporates plot elements from this story.

The Book of Masters, a 2009 Russian language fantasy film, is loosely based on Bazhov's tales, mostly "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain"[41] and "The Stone Flower".[42][43]

The 2012 opera The Malachite Casket, based on "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" and "The Malachite Casket", was created by Dmitry Batin.[44]

References
  1. Bazhov 1950s, p. 9.
  2. "The Malachite Casket: Tales from the Urals – Pavel Bazhov, Alan Moray Williams". Little White Crow. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  3. Bazhov 1952, p. 240.
  4. "Mednoj gory hozjajka" (in Russian). FantLab. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  5. "The Malachite Box" (in Russian). The Live Book Museum. Yekaterinburg. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  6. The malachite casket; tales from the Urals, (Book, 1944). WorldCat. OCLC 1998181. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  7. "Malachite casket : tales from the Urals / P. Bazhov ; [translated from the Russian by Eve Manning ; illustrated by O. Korovin ; designed by A. Vlasova]". The National Library of Australia. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  8. Malachite casket; tales from the Urals. (Book, 1950s). WorldCat. OCLC 10874080. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  9. Russian magic tales from Pushkin to Platonov (Book, 2012). WorldCat.org. OCLC 802293730. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  10. "The mistress of the Copper Mountain : tales from the Urals / [collected by] Pavel Bazhov ; [translated and adapted by] James Riordan". Trove. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  11. Lathey, Gillian (July 24, 2015). Translating Children's Literature. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 9781317621317.
  12. Yermakova, G (1976). "Заметки о киноискусстве На передовых рубежах" [The Notes about Cinema At the Outer Frontiers]. Zvezda (11): 204–205. ... сказы Бажова основаны на устных преданиях горнорабочих и старателей, воссоздающих реальную атмосферу того времени.
  13. "Bazhov Pavel Petrovitch". The Russian Academy of Sciences Electronic Library IRLI (in Russian). The Russian Literature Institute of the Pushkin House, RAS. pp. 151–152. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  14. Bazhov 1952, p. 241.
  15. Bazhov, Pavel (1939). "Foreword to the Skazy". Oktyabr (in Russian). Moscow: The Union of Soviet Writers (5–6): 158. ISSN 0132-0637.
  16. Blazhes, V. V. "Рабочие предания родины П. П. Бажова" (PDF) (in Russian). The Ural State University. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  17. "Dorogoe imjachko" (in Russian). FantLab. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  18. "Pro Velikogo Poloza" (in Russian). FantLab. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  19. Balina, Marina; Rudova, Larissa (2013-02-01). Russian Children's Literature and Culture. Literary Criticism. Routledge. pp. 263–273. ISBN 978-1135865566.
  20. Bazhov 1950s, p. 20.
  21. Meshcherova, K.; Gerasimova A. (20 June 2014). "Legendy i mify Urala glazami khudozhnikov" Легенды и мифы Урала глазами художников [Legends and Myths of the Urals by the Eyes of the Artists] (PDF). Materials Collection of the 5th International Scientific Conference (in Russian). Scientific center Aksioma (Nauchnye diskussii o tsennostjah sovremennogo obshhestva [Научные дискуссии о ценностях современного общества], lit. "Scientific discussions about our society's values"): 32–33.
  22. Budur, Naralya (2005). "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain". The Fairy Tale Encyclopedia (in Russian). Olma Media Group. p. 285. ISBN 9785224048182.
  23. Zherdev, D. V. (2003). "Бинарность как элемент поэтики бажовских сказов" [Binarity as the Poetic Element in Bazhov's Skazy] (PDF). Izvestiya of the Ural State University (in Russian). The Ural State University (28): 46–57.
  24. Lipovetsky 2014, p. 218.
  25. Bazhov 1952, p. 232.
  26. Eydinova, Viola (2003). "O stile Bazhova" О стиле Бажова [About Bazhov's style]. Izvestiya of the Ural State University (in Russian). The Ural State University. 28: 40–46.
  27. Nikulina 2003, p. 76.
  28. Slobozhaninova, Lidiya (2004). "Malahitovaja shkatulka Bazhova vchera i segodnja" “Малахитовая шкатулка” Бажова вчера и сегодня [Bazhov's Malachite Box yesterday and today]. Ural (in Russian). Yekaterinburg. 1.
  29. Nikulina 2003, p. 80.
  30. Nikulina 2003, p. 77.
  31. Lipovetsky 2014, p. 217.
  32. Lipovetsky 2014, p. 222–223.
  33. Prikazchikova 2003, p. 16
  34. Zherdev, Denis. "Poetika skazov Bazhova" Поэтика сказов Бажова [The poetics of Bazhov's stories] (in Russian). Research Library Mif.Ru. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  35. "Уральские сказы" [Tales from the Urals] (in Russian). FantLab. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  36. "Фридлендер Александр Григорьевич" [Fridlender Alexander Grigoryevitch] (in Russian). The Union of Composers of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  37. "The Mistress of the Coppery Mountain". Animator.ru. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  38. "The list of animated films" (in Russian). Soyztelefilm. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  39. "A Little Present". Animator.ru. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  40. "The Stone Flower (1946)" (in Russian). The Russian Cinema Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  41. Mezenov, Sergey (30 October 2009). "Книга мастеров" [The Book of Masters] (in Russian). Newslab.ru. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  42. Sakharnova, Kseniya (21 October 2009). ""Книга мастеров": герои русских сказок в стране Disney" [The Book of Masters: the Russian fairy tale characters in Disneyland] (in Russian). Profcinema Co. Ltd. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  43. Zabaluyev, Yaroslav (27 October 2009). "Nor have we seen its like before…" (in Russian). Gazeta.ru. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  44. "Малахитовая шкатулка" [The Malachite Casket] (in Russian). The Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre. Retrieved 15 December 2015.

Sources
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