Slavic Folklore: A Symposium

Edited with a Preface by Albert Bates Lord. This volume is evidence of the growing importance of Slavic studies in the United States. It is an indication of what this country can accomplish, and is accomplishing, in presenting the investigations of scholars in the field of Slavic folklore. Although the majority of contributors to this book are of Slavic descent, with but one exception they are all now residents of the United States. Our resources in this vast and significant segment of universal knowledge are great and are rapidly increasing. We are only beginning to feel our strength. It is, nevertheless, a source of real regret that more contributions from abroad are not included here. Although the work of men and women elsewhere, published in a variety of languages, is known to specialists who are competent in those languages, it deserves a wider public. One of the real services that we can perform is to make that work available in English. Preface / Albert Bates Lord vii Yaroslav the Wise in East-Slavic Epic Poetry / Dmitri Čiževsky 3 The Ossetian Tale of Iry Dada and Mstislav / George Vernadsky and Dzambulat Dzanty 18 Balladic 'Byliny' Recorded in the South Ladoga Basin / Roman Jakobson 38 Dostoevskij's Use of Russian Folklore / George Gibian 41 The Story of Van'ka Kain / Elisabeth Stenbock-Fermor 56 Harvest Festivals Among Czechs and Slovaks in America / Svatava Pirkova-Jakobson 68 Some Czech-American Forms of Divination and Supplication / Lawrence V. Ryan 83 Dance Relatives of Mid-Europe and Middle America: A Venture in Comparative Choreology / Gertrude Prokosch Kurath 88 The Mute Language in the Tradition and Oral Literature of the South Slavs / Branislav Rusić 101 Some Social Aspects of Bulgarian Folksongs / Boris Kremenliev 112 Avdo Međedović, Guslar / Albert Bates Lord 122