Ivasyk-Telesyk
Ukrainian folk tale of a wooden boy and a snake.
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Ivasyk-Telesyk is a Ukrainian folk tale about a boy carved from a log who outwits a snake and is rescued by a goose. The tale is classified within the East Slavic Folktale Classification as types SUS 327C and 327F, and is popular in Ukraine according to folklorist Petro Lintur.
Background
The tale begins with an old man and old woman who have no children. The old woman asks the old man to carve a log from a tree, which she places in a cradle; the next day the log becomes a real boy named Ivasyk-Telesyk. When the boy grows up, he asks his father to make him a boat and oar so he can fish and feed his parents. An evil snake along the shore tries to deceive him by imitating his mother's voice, first failing, then after forging a new voice at a blacksmith, succeeds in tricking the boy into swimming to shore, where the snake grabs him and carries him to its home.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Ivasyk-Telesyk (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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