The wisdom of the central character, revealing itself unexpectedly to those around him, is also characteristic of the monument of hagiographic literature, which was originally formed, apparently, at the end of the 15th century - “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia.”
One of the most outstanding monuments of ancient Russian hagiography and literature in general, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia,” like “The Life of Mikhail Klopsky,” arose from local material (Peter and Fevronia were saints of the Murom principality), but acquired a nationwide literary distribution.
The question of the origin of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is complex and has caused controversy in the scientific literature. At present, it can apparently be considered established that the written text of the Tale that has reached us dates back to no earlier than the middle of the 16th century. and was created by the writer-publicist of this era Ermolai-Erasmus.
However, already in the 15th century. There was a church service for Peter and Fevronia, where the main motives of the story were mentioned - Peter's victory over the serpent, his marriage to Fevronia and their joint burial. It is quite possible, therefore, that Ermolai, like other medieval hagiographers, subjected a stylistic treatment to an already existing hagiography. We will turn to the story of Ermolai-Erasmus later; For now, let’s outline the main plot of the life.
The plot of the life of Peter and Fevronia is not like most hagiographic stories. Here there is neither suffering for the faith, nor the martyrdom of the heroes, confirming their holiness. The heroes of the story have very little connection with history; attempts to establish their historical prototypes are questionable; for the XV-XVI centuries. these heroes, in any case, were characters of the distant past.
In the center of the story is the peasant girl Fevronia, who agreed to heal Prince Peter, who fell ill from the snake blood that spilled on him. As a reward for this, Fevronia demands that the prince marry her. At the beginning, Peter tries to “tempt” Fevronia: while washing in the bathhouse before being cured, he sends Fevronia a piece of flax and demands that she weave “srachitsa and ports and ubrusets” out of it.
But Fevronia acts as befits a folk cunning person who is being fooled (cf., for example, Akira at the court of the Egyptian king): she responds with absurdity, agreeing to fulfill Peter’s request on the condition that the prince prepares a loom for her from a sliver of wood.
The healed prince’s attempt to simply break his promise ends just as unsuccessfully: Fevronia prudently ordered to smear all his ulcers (received from snake blood), except one, and Peter’s treachery leads to the fact that from “that scab many scabs began to disperse on his body”; For a final cure, Peter has to fulfill his promise.
After the death of his brother, Peter takes the throne of the Murom principality. When the rebellious boyars decide to expel the peasant princess from Murom, she agrees to leave if she is allowed to take with her what she asks. The boyars agree, and the princess asks “only for my husband, Prince Peter.” Peter follows her.
In the end, Peter and Fevronia safely “rule” in Murom; after the “death of the bath” (simultaneous death) and separate burial, they nevertheless find themselves reunited “in a single tomb.”
The connection of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” with oral folk art and the reflection of “world” folklore motifs in it are very significant and have been repeatedly noted in the scientific literature. However, the existing records of fairy tales and legends about these saints are late (not earlier late XIX c.) and were already formed under the influence of the written hagiographic tradition (although, perhaps, they also include genuine folklore motifs).
The plot of the Tale combines two main fairy-tale plots - a magical tale about fighting with a snake and a novelistic tale about a wise peasant girl who marries a noble man and undergoes difficult trials. The hero of the life, Peter, falls ill after defeating the snake; Fevronia cures him of ulcers.
This plot brings the Tale closer to the Celtic legend and the medieval Western novel about Tristan and Isolde: like Fevronia, Isolde heals Tristan, who fell ill from the blood of the dragon; The theme of the reunion of the heroes after death also coincides with “Tristan and Isolde” (in the Tale the heroes miraculously find themselves in a single coffin; in the legend of Tristan, a thorn bush grows from his grave, connecting it with Isolde’s grave).
The combination of the plot of an unequal marriage of a peasant woman and a noble man with the motive of healing the groom is not typical for the Russian fairy tales known to us, but the same combination is inherent in Boccaccio’s short story about Gillette of Narbonne (“Decameron”, day 3, short story 9) and Shakespeare’s comedy “All is well that ends well,” probably such a contaminated plot existed in Russian folklore of the 15th century.
The plot of the life of Peter and Fevronia, therefore, belongs to the number of the most popular plots of world literature. We will turn to its specific development in Old Russian writing in a further presentation, in connection with the development of narrative literature of the 16th century.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
Subject:
Target :
Ensure the ability to determine the genre of a work through the knowledge acquired in grades 5-7.
To ensure the development of students' reading culture through introducing students to the 16th century writer Ermolai - Erasmus and his work; ; improving skills monologue speech, students’ ability to reproduce text and analyze what they read: express their own judgment, impression, and also reveal the author’s attitude towards characters and events; improve monologue speech skills; synthesize acquired knowledge through the ability to draw conclusions
Foster respect for the culture of your native country and native language;
Equipment: presentation
During the classes
“The touching tale of Peter and Fevronia is one of the pearls of ancient Russian literature.”
G.P. Fedotov
I
Org. moment.(Psychological preparation for the perception of works of ancient Russian literature) (SLIDE 4-9)
Many of you guys have been to church. Let's once again plunge into the atmosphere of the temple and peer into the faces of the saints
(Church chants are heard. On the slides are reproductions of ancient Russian icon painting.)
Vocabulary work (SLIDE 10-11)
- ICON, -y, w. For Orthodox and Catholics: the object of worship is a pictorial image of God, a saint or saints, an image.
2.Saint
3. 1. Face- image of the saint’s face on the icon.
2. Face - the image of a saint in Orthodoxy.
4. Metropolitan
5. “Great Chetya-Minea”
6. Pious
7. Righteous, righteous - a saint who was not in monasticism, but in normal conditions family and social life.
8. Monasticism - literally “solitary, solitary living,” monasticism;Enoch - Orthodox monk.
9. Canonization - canonization.
The history of Christianity contains the names of many people who became famous for their kindness, honesty, firmness in faith and courage in suffering.
Today we will touch on the work of Ancient Russia - the pearl of ancient Russian literature, the heroes of which are Peter and Fevronia.
III . Conversation. Repetition of what has been covered on the topic “Old Russian Literature”:
Tell us about the emergence of the Old Russian literature.(It is associated with the advent of writing and dates back to the 10th century. The first works were translated liturgical books and chronicles).
Name the works of ancient Russian literature known to you - ry (“The Tale of Bygone Years”, “The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh”)
What did the ancient scribes write about? The chronicles tell about the origin of the Russian land, about the first Russian princes and the most important historical events. In the "Instruction" Vl - r Monomakh enlightens his descendants.
IV. Learning new material
The history of the creation of the story.
Teacher's word.
Who wrote this work? Who is the author of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”? (SLIDE 12) Unfortunately, the author is not indicated in the textbook, but he was a worthy man of his time, a writer and publicist of the 40-60s of the 16th century Ermolai – Erasmus .
In the 40s, Ermolai lived in Pskov and was a priest. At the end of the 40s, Ermolai, at the invitation of Metropolitan Macarius (since 1542, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'), moved to Moscow and received the position of archpriest of the Moscow court church. It was at this time, on the instructions of the Metropolitan, that church writers worked on chronicle collections "Great Four - Menaion" (monthly readings) - a grandiose collection of the lives of all Russian saints in 12 volumes (according to the number of months), representing the history of Russia as single state. It was to this work that Metropolitan Macarius attracted the most educated writer Ermolai .(SLIDE 13)
However, the writer Ermolai - Erasmus wrote not only the lives of saints. Many journalistic works also came from his pen. The most important is the treatise “To the kindly kings, the ruler and land surveying", which he sends to the Tsar (Ivan the Terrible) with a proposal to carry out social reforms. According to Ermolai, the peasantry suffers unbearable hardships and is greatly oppressed by the boyars. And Ermolai calls on the tsar to act for the good of society - "to the well-being of all those who exist under him, not just the nobles who walk on foot, but also to the last », that is, the author shows himself as a real citizen who is not afraid to point out to the tsar himself that he must think about the well-being of not only nobles, but also peasants.
“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” in the author’s handwritten collection is called a “life”, since it was written in connection with the canonization, that is, with the canonization of the new Murom miracle workers in 1547-49. The full title of the work is: “The Tale of the lives of the holy new wonderworkers of Murom, the blessed, and venerable, and praiseworthy Prince Peter, called in monasticism David, and his wife, the blessed, and reverend, and praiseworthy princess Fevronia, called in monasticism Euphrosyne. Bless, Father." (translation)
The source for this work was the Murom legends for which Murom was famous. And this folklore basis had a strong influence on Ermolai. Researchers believe that the prototype of the hero of the story, Prince Peter, could be Prince David Yuryevich, who ruled Murom at the beginning of the 13th century, immediately before the invasion of Batu’s hordes.
It is significant that the “Tale...” was not included in the “Great Hours - Menaion” of Metropolitan Macarius, because the highest church authorities were dissatisfied. And ordinary readers multiplied the lists and read with interest.
In the 60s, the writer became a monk under the name Erasmus and left Moscow. Why he did this is not known for certain. Didn't he fall into disgrace, like other government and church figures from Ivan IV's entourage? Or did you decide to prevent your disgrace? Perhaps this meager information can be replenished by reading the “Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”: here is reflected internal appearance author.
At home you read the work in the version in which it is presented in the textbook. But, unfortunately, the text is not given in full. There is no introduction in the school version, which is essentially a real theological treatise: about God, the creation of the world and man, Christ and baptism. The main text, and it is almost completely presented in the textbook, is nothing more than an adaptation of folklore.
Genre of the work(teacher's story and analytical conversation)
- “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is a special work. It is known that Metropolitan Macarius still did not include the life he commissioned in the “Collection of Great Chet-Minea.” Why? We will find the answer to this question by considering the features of the genre of this work.
I will remind you of the full title of this work, “The Tale of the Lives of the Holy New Wonderworkers of Murom, the Blessed, and Reverend, and the Most Praiseworthy Prince Peter, called David in monasticism, and his wife, the Blessed, and Reverend, and the Most Praiseworthy Princess Fevronia, called in monasticism Euphrosyne. Bless, Father."
Tell me, what two genres are stated in the very title of the work? (story, life)
Tell me which works of oral folk art does this look like a piece? (fairy tale)
So, what genres are present in the work? (fairy tale, story, life)
What types of fairy tales do you know? (magical, everyday, about animals)
3.Group work(filling out the table on the board and in the notebook)
(The class is divided into 3 groups. Each of the groups receives the task of finding in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” features of the genres present in the work.
After students answer, they fill out the table. (Slide 14-20)
Group 1 – fairy tale
A fairy tale is a folklore work with a fictional attitude.
Features of the tale:
Thus, the features we have identified that are characteristic of fairy and everyday fairy tales allow us to classify “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” as a folklore genre.
But it should be noted that as the plot develops, the images of Peter and Fevronia increasingly begin to acquire the features of Russian saints.
2nd group - life
Hagiographic literature was very popular in Rus'. The word "life" means "life." Lives were works that told about saints - statesmen and religious figures, whose lives and actions were regarded as exemplary. That is, the life is a biography of the saints.
The lives had a certain structure:
Introduction, which explained the reasons that prompted the author to begin the story.
The main part is a story about the life of the saint, his death and posthumous miracles.
The life ended with praise to the saint.
“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is written in the form of a hagiography - it is an artistic biography of people canonized by the church as saints.
Features of the hagiographic genre:
Miracles that the heroes perform (for example, Fevronia heals the sick, bread crumbs turned into incense, dead stumps became lush trees in the morning).
The story uses vocabulary characteristic of spiritual literature: blessed, giving alms, commandments of the Lord, loving children, etc.
But, as we can note, in the story there is no structure of the work traditional for the hagiographic genre (only the ending is a classic example of hagiography).
Group 3 - story b
The genre of the work is defined in the title: “Tale”. During the study, we identified the following genre features:
Heroes of the story - real people.
Details.
Theme of social inequality
The story of boyars striving for power who killed each other in civil strife.
Thus, this work contains elements of a historical story.
So, what is the genre of this work? Can this work be called a hagiography?
4. Conclusion(SLIDE21)
A conclusion is drawn based on the definition of the genre (entry in a notebook): this work contains elements of fairy tales, elements of hagiography, and elements of a historical story.
This is a hagiographic story with elements of a folk-fairy tale character.
That is why this work was not included in the collection. The unconventional nature of the hagiography “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, folklore motifs, its laconicism, the lack of etiquette features made it obviously unsuitable for the hagiographic canons of the 16th century. (At first glance, the border between biography and hagiography is barely perceptible. But in the Christian tradition it is no coincidence It is customary to talk not about the biographies of saints, but about hagiography. In this word we recognize the same root as in the word “biography” - graphy(write ), but, unlike the word bios(life), agios in Greek it means holy. Therefore, hagiography is a description of holiness.)
V . Reflection.
Did I manage to arouse your interest in ancient Russian literature today?
How was today's lesson useful and interesting for each of you personally?
Did anyone want to continue getting acquainted with this work and with other works of “deep antiquity”?
VI .Homework
Group work
1gr. - characteristics of Peter
3.gr - vocabulary work
References
Zolotareva I.V., Anikina S.M. Lesson developments in literature. 7th grade. - M.: VAKO, 2005
Uzhankov A.N. The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2005.- No. 4.-p.138
Krupina N.L. The story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom. IX grade ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2000.-№5.-p.78-82
4. Malyukova V.F. Lesson on “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” VII grade ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2008.- No. 9.-p.37-39
5. Internet resources
View presentation content
"Peter and February are mine"
Literature lesson in 7th grade
Genre originality of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”
MKOU "General Educational School No. 14"
Zvezdina Olesya Vyacheslavovna,
teacher of Russian language and literature
Miass urban district, 2013
- Find out facts from the biography of the 16th century writer and publicist Ermolai-Erasmus.
2. Determine the genre of the work “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia.”
The touching tale of Peter and Fevronia is one of the pearls of ancient Russian literature.
G.P. Fedotov
Vocabulary work
ICON,-y, w. For Orthodox and Catholics: the object of worship is a pictorial image of God, a saint or saints, an image.
Saint- one who spent his life in consecration to God and after death is recognized by the Christian Church as the patron saint of believers
Face-1. image of the saint's face on the icon.
2. Face - the image of a saint in Orthodoxy
Metropolitan – in Russian Orthodox Church a clergyman of the highest level, subordinate to the head of the church (patriarch).
"Great Fourth Menaion" - a collection of the lives of all the saints of the Orthodox Church.
Pious - a person who honors God and keeps his commandments.
Righteous, righteous - a saint who lived not in monasticism, but in ordinary conditions of family and social life.
Monasticism - literally “solitary, lonely residence”, monasticism; Enoch - Orthodox monk.
Canonization - canonization. Canonization means that the Church testifies to the closeness of these people to God and prays to them as its patrons.
Genre originality of “The Tale...”
Fairy tale
Life
Tale
FAIRY TALE
an epic genre of oral folk art, an oral story about fictional events, which depicts the confrontation between good and evil, embodying folk ideas about beauty, justice, and human dignity.
LIFE -
biography of people declared saints by the Christian Church.
STORY -
(between a story and a novel)
epic genre,
which presents a number of episodes from the life of the hero (heroes).
Features of a fairy tale
- The beginning of the story is reminiscent of a fairy tale: “There is a city in the Russian land... Once upon a time a prince named Pavel ruled in it...”
- The story begins with an event that, undoubtedly, came here from a fairy tale: the Serpent began to fly to the wife of Prince Paul and seduce her.
- The first part is similar to a fairy tale about a hero - a snake fighter, the second - to everyday fairy tale about the wise maiden. As in all fairy tales, there is fairy tale hero- serpent Tempter.
- According to the laws fairy tale Good always overcomes evil: Peter defeated the serpent.
- There are riddles that fairy tale heroes often have to guess. For example: “It’s bad when the house has no ears and the room has no eyes.”
- Tricky test tasks (Peter's task to sew a shirt from a bunch of flax and Fevronia's task to make a loom from a log)
- Magical objects (for example, Agrikov’s sword, on which the Serpent dies)
- Constant epithets (“the crafty serpent”, “the wise virgin”).
Life features
- The author glorifies the saints by creating ideal images. (Peter - pious, saint; Fevronia - saint, reverend, blessed).
- There is a word of praise to the saints: “Let us, according to our strength, give praise to them... Rejoice, venerable and blessed ones, for after death you invisibly heal those who come to you with faith!..”
- The heroes' love for God, the heroes' reverence for the Bible.
- Miracles that the heroes perform (Fevronia heals the sick, bread crumbs turned into incense, dead stumps became lush trees in the morning).
- Unusual death and posthumous miracles (faithful spouses not only died on the same day and hour, but also did not separate after death; at the place of their burial, believers receive healing from the most serious illnesses).
Features of the story
- Specific locations of action are indicated: the city of Murom, Ryazan land, the village of Laskovo. This gives the story credibility.
- The heroes of the story are real people. The prince, before starting treatment, wants to test Fevronia’s wisdom and gives her impossible tasks. In a fairy tale, such tasks are completed with magical speed. Not so in the story. Fevronia responds to a crafty task with no less crafty ones.
- Details. For example, Fevronia wraps a thread around a needle: “...At that time she was finishing embroidering that holy air: only one saint’s mantle had not yet been finished, but she had already embroidered the face; and she stopped, and stuck her needle in the air, and wound the thread with which she was embroidering around it...” This detail shows amazing peace of mind Fevronia, with whom she decides to die with her loved one. The author said a lot about her with just this gesture.
- The personality of the peasant woman comes to the fore
- Theme of social inequality
Conclusion:
“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is a hagiographic tale with elements of a folk-fairy tale nature.
Homework
Work in groups:
1.gr. - characteristics of Peter
2.gr. – characteristics of Fevronia
3.gr - vocabulary work
"The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom" written by a native of Pskov, archpriest of the palace cathedral in Moscow, and later by monk Ermolai-Erasmus for the “Great Menaions” of Metropolitan Macarius. However, this text was not included in the code, because in a number of ways it differed sharply from the classical hagiographic tradition.
Biographical information about Ermolai-Erasmus is very scarce. It is known that in the middle of the 16th century. he came to Moscow from Pskov and was the archpriest of the palace cathedral in Moscow by the beginning of the 60s. became a monk (under the name Erasmus) and may have left the capital. Ermolai-Erasmus paid tribute to journalistic literature, which was developing extremely actively in the 16th century. Here, his most significant work was the treatise “The Ruler and Land Surveying for the Benevolent Tsars,” which introduces the idea of the peasantry as the basis of society and proposes to firmly determine the size of peasant dues and protect the peasants from the oppression of state land surveyors and collectors, which should, from the author’s point of view, lead to a reduction in peasant unrest.
Along with journalistic monuments, Ermolai-Erasmus also created hagiographic ones - “The Tale of the Ryazan Bishop Vasily” and “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”. The last of these texts will be the subject of our
A number of plot points make "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia" similar to different types folk fairy tale. The opening fragment of the story is reminiscent of serpent-fighting motifs: Prince Peter frees the wife of his brother Pavel from the were-serpent with the help of Agrikov’s sword. The appearance of the peasant girl Fevronia, who healed Peter from the scabs that covered his body from the blood of the serpent splashed on him, introduces into the narrative the tradition of fairy tales about a wise maiden who amazes those around her with her ingenuity.
And yet, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” was an adaptation of hagiographic legends about the Murom saints and therefore contains a number of traditional hagiographic motifs, most of them closely intertwined with fairy tales. The serpent tempting the wife of Prince Paul is sent by the devil, and this moment recalls the fall of Eve, who was also tempted by the serpent-devil. Prince Peter, repeatedly called “the faithful” in the Tale, acquires Agrikov’s sword not with the help of force or cunning, like a fairy-tale hero, but through prayer, since “he has the custom of walking around churches in solitude,” and the sword is in the altar wall of the monastery church in the name of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. Thus, the magic sword simultaneously turns out to be sent to the hero by Divine providence. Fevronia’s agreement to heal Peter on condition of marrying her can also be interpreted in two ways: as the desire of the fairy-tale heroine to achieve happiness at all costs and as the providence of her saint future destiny. The miracles in the “Tale” are unusual: the boyars’ wives complain about the penny-pinching behavior of the Murom princess, seeing this as a consequence of her peasant origin: “From every table she comes without rank: never having time to get up, she takes the crumbs into her hand, as if she were smooth.” I immediately remember the bones and wine that Vasilisa the Wise hid in her sleeve and turned into a lake with swans. However, the crumbs in Fevronia’s hand undergo a very specific transformation. “Prince Peter took me by the hand and, spreading it, I saw good-smelling frankincense and incense,” that is, bread crumbs turn into incense and incense, used in Orthodox worship. With Fevronia’s blessing, the twigs she stuck into the ground turn into flowering trees overnight, which, according to D.S. Likhachev, testifies to how great the power of her life-giving love is. The ending of the story is quite traditional for life, telling how Peter and Fevronia, before their death, took monasticism under the names of David and Euphrosyne.
In addition to folklore and hagiographic traditions, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” traditionally features a number of motifs that bring it closer to medieval love novels that existed in the West and East. Largest quantity common features can be found when comparing the story with the Western European novel about Tristan and Isolde. Like Peter, Tristan defeats the serpent, but falls ill, and then Isolde, who turns out to be an experienced healer, comes to his aid. The Murom boyars rebel against the love of Peter and Fevronia, becoming like the vassals of King Mark. After death, the heroes remain inseparable: Peter and Fevronia are buried in the same coffin, despite people’s attempts to violate their will, and from Tristan’s tomb a thorn bush grows, spreading to Isolde’s grave, which no one manages to destroy. At the same time, these works differ quite significantly from each other, primarily in the interpretation of the theme of love. Tristan and Isolde accidentally drink a love drink and find themselves obsessed with love-passion for the rest of their lives, a spontaneous and all-consuming feeling, while the life of Peter and Fevronia, sanctified by Christian marriage, is distinguished by a special “psychological peace” (D.S. Likhachev’s term). In addition, Peter in the Russian story turns out to be much more passive than his Western European prototype.
A number of observations about the relationship between “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” and some works of medieval Western European literature were made by F.I. Buslaev. The motif of the miraculous acquisition of a sword is extremely common: Prince Peter finds it in the altar wall of the temple; Sigmund, the hero of the Wölzunga Saga, takes it out of the sacred tree; The Wallachian knight Vilish prays for nine days at four stone pillars, after which he acquires a sword. The god Thor and the Anglo-Saxon hero Beowulf die from the poisonous blood of the defeated serpent. The healing of Peter by Fevronia can be compared with the episode of the Elder Edda, which tells how Bryngilda taught Zigurd healing runes.
F.I. Buslaev interestingly compared the story of a hare jumping in front of Fevronia’s loom with the German legend about the founding of Quedlinburg. The legend tells how Matilda, the daughter of Emperor Henry III, enters into an alliance with the devil in order to get rid of her father's criminal tendencies and loses her former beauty. However, the sale of the soul will take place only if the girl falls asleep even for a moment for three nights. “To keep herself from sleeping, she sat behind the bedspreads and wove precious fabric, like our Fevronia, and in front of her a little dog jumped, barked and waved its tail... This little dog was called Wedl or Quedl, and in her memory Matilda named the abbey she later founded Quedlinburg".
In "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia" there is no longer that storm of passions that is familiar to readers of the hagiographic works of Epiphanius and Pachomius the Serb. Passions are replaced by quiet peace and self-absorption. Fevronia has enormous internal strength and will, but this strength and will very rarely manifests itself in external affectation. Examples external manifestation this inner strength only indirectly allow the reader to guess about it (trees that grew overnight, crumbs that turned into incense and incense, the ability to read people’s thoughts). Love in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is least all-consuming human passion(as in the novel about Tristan and Isolde). Researchers wrote that Fevronia’s love for Prince Peter is invincible precisely because it has already been internally defeated by herself, subordinated to her mind. In "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia" the theme of love turns out to be extremely closely correlated with the theme of the mind, human wisdom - also one of the main themes of ancient Russian literature. In the strength of her love, in the wisdom, as if suggested to her by this love, Fevronia turns out to be superior to her ideal husband, Prince Peter. But not only is wisdom inherent in love, but love is also inherent in wisdom. There is no conflict, no struggle, no contradiction between feeling, mind and will.
Eromolaus-Erasmus is a master of beautiful, clearly visible descriptions. This is, for example, the first appearance in the story of the girl Fevronia: a messenger from Prince Peter finds her in a simple peasant hut, in a poor peasant dress, busy with needlework: Fevronia sits at a weaving mill and weaves linen, and a hare gallops in front of her. The hare is an image that goes back to folklore, which also serves as a complex characteristic of the heroine, symbolizing her merging with nature, her maiden purity and at the same time - her future wedding.
D.S. Likhachev admired the description of Fevronia's dying gesture: when Peter sent to her for the third time to say that it was time to die, she stuck a needle into the bedspread and wrapped a gold thread around it. In those conditions when not much space is given to everyday life and detailed descriptions in literature, “Fevronia’s gesture is precious, like the gold embroidery that she sewed for the Holy Chalice” (D.S. Likhachev).
Thus, the most striking feature of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is the close interweaving of folklore and hagiographic motifs in it. The element of folklore introduced everyday concreteness into the text of the story, which is not characteristic of contemporary literary monuments. The unconventional nature of the hagiographic “Tale of Peter and Fevronia” made it obviously unsuitable for the hagiographic canons of the 16th century. Although it was created simultaneously with the final version of the “Great Mena of the Chetii”, it was not included in their composition. The folklore motifs of the story, its laconicism, the absence of etiquette features - all this made it alien to the hagiographic school of Metropolitan Macarius.
Criteria for assessing the defense of a student presentation Contents (maximum – 30 points): The research topic and problematic question are formulated, the information is accurate, complete, useful and relevant, the research results are clearly presented and structured, illustration of the research results, expression of one’s opinion on the problem, literacy (spelling and punctuation). Design (maximum – 20 points): Readability of the text, use of animation effects, color scheme, illustrations are interesting and correspond to the content. Presentation defense (maximum – 20 points): Fluency in the topic of the project, the ability to briefly and competently present the essence of the work, monologue of speech, use of scientific terminology.
5. There are riddles that heroes of fairy tales often have to guess 6. Cunning test tasks (Peter’s task to sew a shirt from a bunch of flax and Fevronia’s task to make a loom from a log) 7. Magic objects (for example, Agrikov’s sword) 8. Constant epithets (crafty serpent, wise maiden).
“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is written in the form of a hagiography. In the course of our work, we identified the following features of the hagiographical genre: The author glorifies the saints, creating ideal images. (Peter - pious, holy; Fevronia - holy, reverend, blessed) The heroes’ love for God, the heroes’ veneration of the Bible
3. 3. Miracles that the heroes perform Unusual death and posthumous miracles There is a word of praise for the saints The story uses vocabulary characteristic of spiritual literature: blessed, doing alms, the commandments of the Lord, loving children, etc.
During the research, we identified the following genre features: 1. Specific locations of action are indicated: the city of Murom, Ryazan land, the village of Laskovo. This gives the story credibility. 2. The heroes of the story are real people. The genre of the work is defined in the title: “Story”
“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” arose in its core no later than the second quarter of the 15th century, but received its final design at the beginning of the 16th century under the pen of Ermolai Erasmus and is closely connected with folklore.
This is a story about the love of Prince Peter and the peasant girl Fevronia - strong and invincible love, “until the grave.”
The first appearance in the story of the girl Fevronia is captured in a visually distinct image. She was found in a simple peasant hut by an envoy of the Murom prince Peter, who fell ill from the poisonous blood of the snake he had killed. In a poor peasant dress, Fevronia sat at a loom and was doing a “quiet” job - weaving cloth, and a hare was jumping in front of her, as if symbolizing a merger with nature. Her questions and answers, her quiet and wise conversation, clearly show that she is smart. Fevronia amazes the messengers with her prophetic answers and promises to help the prince. Well-versed in healing potions, she heals the prince.
Despite social obstacles, the prince marries the peasant girl Fevronia. Their love does not take into account the opinions of others. The swaggering wives of the boyars disliked Fevronia and demanded her expulsion. Prince Peter renounces the principality and leaves with his wife.
The life-giving power of Fevronia’s love is so great that the poles stuck into the ground, with her blessing, blossom, turning into trees. Crumbs of bread in her palm turn into grains of sacred incense. She is so strong in spirit that she can unravel the thoughts of the people she meets. In the strength of her love, in the wisdom, as if suggested to her by this love, Fevronia turns out to be superior to her ideal husband - Prince Peter.
Death itself cannot separate them. When Peter and Fevronia felt the approach of death, they asked God to let them die at the same time, and prepared a common coffin for themselves. After that they became monks in different monasteries. And so, when Fevronia was embroidering “air” (the cover for the holy cup) for the temple of the Mother of God, Peter sent her to tell her that he was dying, and asked her to die with him. But Fevronia asks to give her time to finish the bedspread. Peter sent to her a second time, ordering her to say: “I won’t wait long enough for you.” Finally, sending her for the third time, Peter tells her: “I already want to die and I’m not waiting for you.” Then Fevronia, who had only one robe left to finish, stuck a needle into the bedspread, wrapped a thread around it and sent it to tell Peter that she was ready to die with him.
After the death of Peter and Fevronia, people placed their bodies in separate coffins, but the next day their bodies ended up in a common, pre-prepared coffin. People tried to separate Peter and Fevronia for the second time, but again their bodies ended up together, and from then on they no longer dared to separate them.
The images of the heroes of this story, whom neither the boyars nor death itself could separate, are surprisingly psychological for their time. Their psychological nature is outwardly manifested with great restraint.
Let us also note the restraint of the narrative, as if echoing the modesty of the manifestation of feelings. The gesture of Fevronia, sticking a needle into the bedspread and wrapping a golden thread around the stuck needle, is as laconic and visually clear as Fevronia’s first appearance in the story.
To appreciate this gesture of the heroine, we must remember that in ancient Russian literary works no everyday life, no detailed descriptions. In these conditions, Fevronia’s gesture is precious, like the gold embroidery that she sewed for the holy cup.
