A fairy tale about a hen for the little ones. A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it... who laid golden eggs

I’ve been reading this fairy tale to my daughter for days now and I’m indignant! What kind of stupid chicken couldn’t lay a normal egg right away? Why was it so difficult? In a fit of anger, so to speak, I was puzzled by the question of what exactly is the moral of this fairy tale. The first link that Google gave me was very informative)) I quote:

I’ve been telling my child a bedtime story about the chicken Ryaba for six months, and every time I’m tormented by guesses as to what its moral is.

Finally, I decided to do a little research on this topic. And here is the result!

Firstly, I learned that there are a lot of variations on the theme of the fairy tale about the hen Ryaba. Here are examples:

Attempts to interpret its meaning are also very broad, from simple statements like “what we have, we don’t keep; if we lose it, we cry,” “we haven’t lived richly, so there’s nothing to start with,” or “old age is not a joy: they have two less strength left, than a mouse” to entire parables, for example, about love: “5 years ago, when I was a student, a certain aunt-professor told me that the golden egg is Love, which my grandparents did not save. The grandfather beat and drank, walked..., the grandmother beat and walked, did not wash the floors and did not wash the shirts. A mouse is a little nasty thing like gossip or some household trifle. Like, if you beat Love for a long time and diligently, then in order to completely smash it, a little thing is enough. Well, a simple egg is a habit that my grandfather and grandmother received instead of love. Chicken Ryaba, respectively, Fate or Supreme Intelligence. And she is pockmarked because she is pockmarked, i.e. black and white, i.e. combines both the black and white sides of life” or about the ecological end of the world:

Here are a few more interpretations:

Perhaps all these interpretations are not without meaning, but the most plausible decoding (as it seems to me) is offered by E. Nikolaeva in the book “111 tales for child psychologists” « (if you don’t have the strength to read the whole thing, pay attention to at least the last 5 paragraphs):

“Once upon a time there lived Grandfather and Baba. And they had Chicken Ryaba. The hen laid an egg. Yes, not simple, but golden. Grandfather beat and beat, but did not break. Baba beat and beat, but she didn’t break it. The mouse ran, waved its tail - the egg fell and broke. Grandfather is crying, Baba is crying, and the Chicken is clucking: “Don’t cry, Grandfather, don’t cry, Baba. I will lay another egg for you - not a golden one, but a simple one.”

Ask your parent to tell you this story. It's hard to find a person who doesn't know her. You can start by asking whether the parent has read this fairy tale to the child. If you read it, let him retell it. If there is a hitch in the story, you can help. And when the parent tells the whole story, it’s worth asking a few questions.

Grandfather and Baba wanted to break an egg?
If you wanted to, then why did you cry?
Why didn’t Grandfather and Baba pawn the shells at the pawnshop if they were gold?
What was in the testicle when it broke?
How often has a parent thought about the situation when telling a fairy tale to a child?
Why does a parent read this particular fairy tale to a child if it is full of contradictions?
What can we expect from reading this fairy tale?

Moral: often, when communicating with a child, we do not think about what we are really doing, and therefore we offer him something to which we ourselves do not know the answer.

Comment: Most parents will report that they have never thought about the content of the fairy tale. Those who say that they were always confused by its contents will add that they never found an explanation for the strange behavior of Grandfather and Baba. Here it is worth paying attention to the fact that, remaining perplexed, we often do not change our behavior and do not trust the child, for example, after consulting with him about the content of a fairy tale. After all, you could just ask the child about what Grandfather and Baba are doing, why are they crying?

It is quite possible that the psychologist will hear a parent’s counter-question about how one can consult with a one-and-a-half-year-old child to whom the parent read a fairy tale? Then you can simply ask, how often does the parent even ask for the child’s opinion? And this in itself can be a separate topic for conversation.

However, if the parent remains confused about the previous one (that is, the psychologist clearly grasped the context of the unconscious), then it is better to develop the “fairytale” direction further, rather than rise again to the level of consciousness.

We can say that the parent just retold this fairy tale word for word, because he remembered it not when he read it to the child, but when his parents read it to him, still a child. Information received in early age, we store our whole life and perceive it without criticism, because at this age we have not developed critical thinking. Therefore, when reading a fairy tale as an adult, we continue to treat it without a shadow of doubt.

But a fairy tale is only an excuse for discussing what a parent is doing when reading a fairy tale or otherwise interacting with a child. When communicating, the child remembers all the statements of the parents and, just like a fairy tale, treats them uncritically. Therefore, already as an adult, a person sees in the mirror not himself, but the image that he formed under the influence of the words of people significant to him: “You are such and such. You won’t amount to anything” or: “You will grow up, work hard and achieve everything you want.” These words and the attitude towards a child under 5 years old form a scenario that entangles a person with invisible threads and forces adults to act not in accordance with the real situation, but in accordance with those ideas about themselves and their purpose that were formed in childhood.

When we read a fairy tale to a child, he reacts not to it, but to our attitude towards it.

A fairy tale told in childhood allows us to understand many features of adult behavior. In addition, this fairy tale is not an everyday one, it is not easy to interpret. It differs from others in that it is told to all children of our culture, therefore it bears the imprint of this culture.

The version of “The Ryaba Hen,” which the parent will most likely remember, appeared in the 19th century, when the great teacher K. D. Ushinsky for some reason took away the ending from this very ancient fairy tale. And the ending can be found in the three-volume work by A. N. Afanasyev “Russians folk tales" When reading this version, it turns out that after Grandfather and Baba cried, the granddaughters came, found out about the egg, broke the buckets (they went for water), and spilled the water. The mother, having learned about the egg (and she was kneading the dough), broke the kneading bowl, the father, who was in the forge at that moment, destroyed the forge, and the priest, who was passing by, demolished the bell tower. And the peasants, having learned about this event, in different versions of the tale, hanged themselves or drowned.

What kind of event is this, after which no stone was left unturned?

Most likely, such details will confuse the parent, so you can continue that repeated different corners world events, actions and heroes participating in them, K. Jung called archetypes - ancient ideas. They are transmitted through fairy tales to people of the same culture. At a moment of extreme stress, a person begins to behave in a way that is not characteristic of his personality, but exhibits behavior common to a given people. If we take into account that this fairy tale is not an everyday tale, but carries the characteristics of our culture, then we can read it differently.

Someone gave Grandfather and Baba something they had never encountered. The egg as an archetype, which is regularly found in myths and fairy tales of all nations, is a symbol of the birth of something. It is golden because it does not look like what the Hen was carrying before. That is why Grandfather and Baba do not run to the pawnshop to pawn a golden shell and then buy a mountain of ordinary eggs. Gold, like the egg itself, is only a symbol here. But the old people are trying to destroy something that they have never encountered before in their lives. But you could wait, put it aside and see who will hatch from it. But they don’t do that, and are in a hurry to destroy this new thing. And here another archetypal hero appears in the story - the Mouse. We write her name with capital letters, because this is also not a small rodent, but a symbol. It is not without reason that in many Russian fairy tales she is the key subject who resolves the problems that arise. The mouse as an archetype is a substitute for God. And then the one who gave takes away what people do not know how to use. And then another archetype arises in the fairy tale.

But it will be better if the psychologist does not simply say what kind of archetype this is, but helps the parent feel its existence. The psychologist may tell him that he would like to prove the existence of this archetype, and not just report it. After all, it was precisely to introduce it into the unconscious of every child of a given culture that this fairy tale was created, and for this reason it is passed on from generation to generation.

The psychologist asks the parent to completely trust him for two minutes, close his eyes, listen to his voice and compare what he hears with what is happening at that moment in his soul. If the parent agrees to such an experiment, then the psychologist, in a slow, clear voice appropriate for suggestion, says: “Imagine that there is Someone about whom you know that any word he says will surely come true. And now this Someone comes in and tells you: “From this moment on, nothing new will ever, EVER happen in your life. Just an eternal repetition of what you have already experienced. Never anything new. The eternal cycle of already accomplished events."

What do you feel? - you ask your parent in a normal voice. Obviously, he will say that he either didn’t believe you (the worst case scenario), or that he felt scared, unpleasant, or bad (you succeeded). Then you say that right now a person felt the reality in himself of the most important archetype, which all people of the same culture pass on to each other from generation to generation - this is the archetype of Miracle. We live because we know for sure that if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, a miracle will definitely happen to us. Everyone has their own. But for everyone it is extremely attractive.

There is one difference between the Russian archetype of a miracle and the similar archetype of other nations (and everyone has it, since it is this that allows us to survive when there is simply no hope, when life drives us into a dead end). For many Russian speakers, this miracle happens for nothing, “for free,” since many of our fairy tales tell how a miracle happens without any effort on our part. And here the psychologist has the opportunity to talk about how a miracle will definitely happen to the child and to any other person, but not for free, but through teamwork. This long haul- creating a miracle, but very effective. If you manage to conduct such a mini-training with a parent, then future cooperation with him is guaranteed.”

“It’s a quiet Ukrainian night, but the lard needs to be hidden,”

Working with archives, I find a lot of interesting things and try to introduce them to my readers. So this time, I want to offer a short sketch on the history of peoples and their mentality. I have not communicated with the reader for a long time, due to extreme workload and interesting research in which I am immersed from morning to morning. I hope that it will turn out to be an interesting miniature, because what I found in the archives simply blows my mind. But more on that in a moment, but for now the tale of the Ryabey chicken and the desire to remind the reader of yourself. And I will begin the reminder by quoting a letter from the commandant of the military garrison of Orsk, Major Tsurupa, who served the Russian Tsar in the 19th century:
“...one day it was decided to make dumplings,” favorite dish Shevchenkos,” as he argued, assuring the ladies that he would eat a whole hundred of them. The ladies, having agreed among themselves, made dumplings, if possible, larger and, in order to make it difficult for the eater to win the bet, several of them were stuffed with one mustard or one pepper. Having failed, as one would expect, with all the hundred, Shevchenko, nevertheless, bit through each of them.”
This is where the famous joke came from: “It’s not all about him, but about the skin” - author’s note.
You know, reader, sometimes reading the scientific thoughts of Western scientists, I am at a loss about their origin. No, we are not talking about Darwinian evolution or the cosmic essence of the origin of life in the European House. I am surprised by the unpredictable impudence of these orphans and beggars from natural science. It seems that from time to time they plunge into the Russian hinterland in order to search for new ideas. Moreover, they do not even hesitate to look into our cesspools, rightly believing that the profession of a goldsmith is associated with goods acquired by back-breaking labor. For any of the readers who don’t know, I inform you that the goldsmith in Rus' had two interpretations. The first is a gold jeweler or generally a person associated with gold, including a banker. And the second interpretation speaks of a gold cart, spreading indescribable odors from pumped out sewage.
Quite recently, in one of the high scientific magazines in Germany, I read with surprise about the invention of temporary latrines, in this advanced country, like our country closets. As evidenced by the serious university laboratory from Munich that produced this unique creation creative thought of German scientists, a cesspool does not harm the ecology of the planet, while dry toilets pose a threat to the planet due to the chemicals necessary for the technological cycle of this complex process. By the way, our village katukh is on with good reason received a patent and from now on its construction without a license is punishable by EU laws.
Unwittingly, the author, familiar with the life of Ukrainian villagers, came up with a mischievous idea regarding further European development of this State, in light of the removal of waste substances from internal organs. Something tells me that Ukrainians will soon have to pay for these natural needs. Of course, I mean rural residents - the city has long been paying for the right to push on a white friend. In my opinion, the city toilet is the most drug-addicted needle of modern city dwellers, which is so difficult to get off.
In general, Europe is still the light of learning!
What I read literally today plunged me into complete prostration. I could never have imagined that the majority of villagers, ready to share European values, illegally own a unique Dutch refrigerator. famous brand Groundfridge.
Dutch designers have presented an underground refrigerator called Groundfridge, which operates without electricity. As the Correspondent writes, the technological version of the underground storage facility made of fiberglass allows you to maintain the temperature within +10...+12 degrees throughout the year. Such conditions are not enough for storing meat, but they are quite suitable for vegetables.
In addition, you can keep any other supplies in the “refrigerator”, for which a cool, dry room will be enough. The creators of Groundfridge suggest that it will be convenient to use in remote public institutions and as part of an autonomous home. To install a cellar, it is most convenient to dig a hole using an excavator, but if necessary, you can do it manually.
However, from May 2016, this operation of manufacturing a refrigerator will already have an official character and will be strictly taken into account by the country’s authorities. The design agency intends to extend its copyright on this product to the entire jurisdiction of the EU and the USA within three months.
Please note, gentlemen, that the Groundfridge refrigerator, created by the labor and intelligence of an advanced technological group of Dutch buggers, is declared as a significant breakthrough in nanotechnology and security environment. However, the author of this miniature dares to claim that he has been familiar with such a refrigerator since childhood and can even remind the reader of an episode from the musical “Wedding in a Robin,” where Popandopulo from Odessa crawls out of the Groundfridge as soon as the Reds retreated from Malinovka. A wonderful episode in a wonderful film
Oh, mommies! Europe invented the cellar!
Gentlemen, they still don’t know about the pile, the cellar, the underground, the glacier, the locker and other Russian bells and whistles. In another glacier you can sit out until the best hours without a freezing program.
I have a friend who is a core soldier in the Moscow region, a retired general. So he set up an office for himself in the glacier. The army grandfather does not tolerate the heat well, so in the summer he climbs into the cellar in felt boots and a quilted jacket, and in a fur coat. There he writes, sitting in the natural air conditioning. It makes for good memoirs. I read. Cheerful!
What does he need? If you're full of turnips, and there are plenty of them there, clean them and enjoy life!
The commander has reached 80 years! I'm afraid of one thing. The adjutants of this grandfather will forget there and end up at his desk with a pen in one hand and a turnip in the other hand. How about without a license? Not allowed without a license!
And now again to Ukraine. The local authorities came to a new conclusion, they say, the village needs to refuse gas. It will be expensive to heat at the new prices. Even their minister said on TV that the refusal of gas by the villagers is a step towards progress. I suspect that the next step in the same direction will be a kerosene lamp! Moreover, this is an invention. purely Lviv, and belongs to Lviv pharmacists. So, what's there? It's time to take advantage of the discovery, just don't forget to buy a license. Europeans.
Do you think the author of the feuilleton is exaggerating? Here is the official comment from the Deputy Prime Minister of this strange country, whose last name is Rosenko.
“For residents of rural areas, giving up gas is promising in terms of energy saving. Yes, this is a radical step... but it is necessary to think about giving up gas consumption.”
Needless to say, the prospect is promising, in the spirit of Khrushchev’s version of corn. I remember back then, there was almost a famine in the country.
It seems that with the next change of the next arch-Jew in the Ukrainian government, the lobbied companies changed: the previous one imposed plastic windows and gas boilers on Ukrainians, but the new one decided differently - “peremoga” for boilers using straw and dung. Because, as far as I know, most of Ukraine is a steppe territory and there are no forests there. And almost all of the Carpathians were cut down during the period of independence, and what remained was privatized long ago. So, the conversation is not about firewood! Namely about straw and dung. However, there are also solar panels, but I can’t imagine them on the Little Russian huts or on the wooden huts of the Carpathian highlanders. They haven't paid off the loans for the windows yet.
Today, you can often hear that the government of Ukraine is led by the United States and the Rothschilds. This may be true, but these people can’t interfere in almost everything? The general guidance is clear, but, as a rule, the zealous owner understands the details. Judging by the economy of Ukraine, its owners are far from crayfish. Something tells me that all the successes of the current leadership are, after all, the work of their own hands. Of course, Clinton, in pursuit of the dream of taking revenge on Bill in the Oval Office of the White House, could well have suggested such steps to the Ukrainian elite, but my observation of this Bush hen leads me to believe that she is not capable of such pearls. Here you need to know the mentality of Ukrainians, who respectfully call each other dudes, not understanding that this word is translated from Yiddish as ram, and not a simple steep-horned stag in a felted fleece, but a castrated dude, indifferent to the continuation of his family. Today in Ukraine, there are more and more dudes and chicks. Agree that the argotic coloring for a word meaning a girl is more than strange.
Among the pro-Western youth of various Slavic communities, the word dude has the following meaning: “a person who respects high American culture.” Let me not decipher the dude, reader. There it is! The chick is still better!
And against this background, the Russian BABA almost sounds like an insult! And this despite the numerous stone sculptures of ancestors in the steppes of the Black Sea region, and sources from chronicles where Mary the Mother of God is called a woman?! Amazing self-deprecation Slavic peoples. I now understand why Putin didn’t kill bandits in toilets. He did not have a European license for this. Well, I would soak it in cellars, in sheds, for example. You never know how many unlicensed buildings we have in Rus'. You'll be tired of counting one taiga at a time.
Yeees! The grandfather and woman with their pockmarked chicken look somehow unsightly, against the backdrop of the triumph of dudes and dudes.
I had a chance to read a review of this Russian fairy tale by a Dutch professor. He turned out to be an amazingly meticulous person. Looked into explanatory dictionaries and was taken aback:
The meaning of the word Ryaboy according to Ushakov’s dictionary:
PITCHED
pockmarked; pockmarked; pockmarked, pockmarked, pockmarked. 1. Having rowan on a smooth surface (see rowan 2 in 1 meaning). Pockmarked with pollen. Pockmarked girl. 2. Having spots of a different color against a background of one color, not monochromatic, motley (colloquially). Speckled cow. Face pockmarked with freckles. Speckled hen.
The man was completely exhausted, imagining the hen Ryaba laying golden eggs. The thing is that genetics rejects such a metamorphosis, due to the fact that the speckled chicken carries the most regular eggs. And little does the professor know that the problem here is not the pockmarked coloring of the chicken. This is stupidity imposed on us by an artist in the 20th century, who drew illustrations for the fairy tale about the Ryabey hen. Are you a reader, and why do you imagine her like that too? Meanwhile, if you know the Russian language, speak it, understand its words, and take an interest in its turns of phrase, then everything will fall into place. Chicken Ryaba, not really a chicken. It's a hazel grouse! A commercial game bird that was well known to Russian travelers. Fairy tales were told about her, in which she laid golden eggs. Much like the peacock – the firebird.
Ruffed grouse are small birds. Their body length is 20-40 cm, and their weight is up to half a kilogram. Sandgrouse live in Europe, Asia and North Africa. For living, sandgrouse chooses mainly arid places, deserts. Externally, the hazel grouse has a dense build, a small head and a short neck. The color of the plumage is not bright, with a predominance of sand, grayish, beige and ocher tones. Sandgrouse are game birds and are hunted. Basically, hazel grouses shoot at watering places. Number of birds in Lately decreases.
Sandgrouse are social birds and live in flocks. But during the breeding season, the flock is divided into small families, within which the birds choose their partners. Sandgrouse are monogamous. The nest is made directly on the ground, in a small dug hole. The bedding for the nest is either not used at all, laying eggs in sandy soil, or it is very thin and scarce. A clutch of hazel grouse usually contains 3 eggs (less often 2-4 eggs). The eggs are speckled GRAYish-YELLOW, sometimes GOLDEN - this color allows them to be invisible against the background of sandy soil. Both parents hatch the offspring.
So the hen hazel grouse is called Ryaba. And its eggs have a hard shell.
And then a thought struck me: shouldn’t I compare the Ukrainian and Russian versions of the fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba. I turned to the documents and found the two oldest versions of this tale. They are so entertaining that I invite the reader to read them for themselves and compare them with what Soviet propaganda gave us in childhood. And at the same time open the mentality of the Russian and Ukrainian people. I warn you that both fairy tales are from the 17th century and I have adjusted them to a modern style, without changing the essence of the story.
So, the Soviet fairy tale we know:

The Tale of the Chicken Ryaba

Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and a woman. And they had Ryaba chicken.
The hen laid an egg, but not an ordinary one - a golden one.
Grandfather beat and beat, but did not break.
The woman beat and beat, but did not break.
And the mouse ran, waved its tail, the egg fell and broke.
The grandfather is crying, the woman is crying, and the chicken is clucking:
- Don’t cry, grandfather, don’t cry, woman: I will lay you an egg, not a golden one - a simple one!

This is a simple children's fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba from Soviet times. Most Small child Chicken Ryaba knows the fairy tale. A fairy tale that is easy to read. All politically incorrect phrases have been removed from it. But there are other options. For example, the Russian version of this tale from the Kaluga province.

Egg (Hen Ryaba)
Russian folktale

Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and a woman, they had a chicken, Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail. The grandfather is crying, the woman is crying, the chicken is clucking, the gates are creaking, wood chips are flying from the yard, the top of the hut is shaking!
The priest's daughters went to fetch water, asked the grandfather, asked the woman:
-What are you crying about?
- How can we not cry! - Grandfather and woman answer. - We have chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail.
When the priest’s daughters heard this, out of great grief they threw the buckets to the ground, broke the rocker arms and returned home empty-handed.
- Oh, mother! - they say to the priest. - You don’t know anything, you don’t know anything, but there’s a lot going on in the world: a grandfather and a woman live, they have a chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail. That’s why the grandfather cries, the woman cries, the chicken cackles, the gates creak, wood chips fly from the yard, the top of the hut is wobbly. And while we were going to fetch water, we threw the buckets and broke the rocker arms!
At that time, the priest was crying, and the hen was cackling, and immediately, out of great grief, she knocked over the kneading bowl and scattered all the dough on the floor.
The priest came with a book.
- Oh, father! - the priest tells him. - You don’t know anything, you don’t know anything, but there’s a lot going on in the world: a grandfather and a woman live, they have a chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail. That’s why the grandfather cries, the woman cries, the chicken cackles, the gates creak, wood chips fly from the yard, the top of the hut is wobbly! Our daughters, going for water, threw the buckets, broke the rocker arms, and I kneaded the dough and, out of great grief, scattered everything on the floor!
The priest sunbathed and tore his book to shreds.

As you can see, there is no question of any golden egg in the Russian fairy tale. But a priestly book appears - the Bible, previously unknown in Rus'. And you can see the attitude of the people towards her and the priests.
And here is the Ukrainian (Little Russian version) from Western and Central Ukraine. The same option, but with the participation of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, also exists in the Southern region. Pay attention, reader, to the change in the meaning of the text and the title itself.

About the chicken
who laid golden eggs
Ukrainian folk tale

Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and a woman, and they had a Ryaba chicken. They fed the chicken for three years and expected eggs from it any day now.
Exactly three years later, the hen laid an egg for them, and that egg was not an ordinary one, but a golden one. The grandfather and woman are rejoicing, they don’t know what to do with this egg, they don’t believe their eyes that the hen laid a golden egg.
We tried to break it, but it was so strong that it didn’t break. The grandfather beat and beat, but did not break, the woman beat and beat, but did not break. They put the egg on the shelf; A mouse was running, its tail touched it, an egg fell on the table and broke. The grandfather is crying, the woman is crying, and the chicken is clucking:
- Don’t cry, grandfather, don’t cry, woman, I’ll bring you something else, not a simple one, but a golden one, just wait three years.
The grandfather and woman picked up the golden shells and sold them to the Jews. We received little money. They wanted to build a new hut, but there wasn’t enough money, they had to wait another three years to get enough for the hut. They waited a week, waited a second, waited a third, it seemed to them a painfully long time, they were tired of waiting.
So the grandfather says to the woman:
- You know what, old woman? Why should we wait three whole years? Let us immediately slaughter the chicken and get the golden egg out of it. Yes, apparently there is more than one of them, maybe there are three, or even four of them. Then we’ll live, we’ll have a new house, we’ll buy some land and we won’t bow to anyone.
- Oh, really, grandpa, let's kill him! They slaughtered a chicken, but not a single one was in the middle of the testicle. Grandfather and grandmother began to cry again.
The mouse stuck its head out of the hole and said:
- Don’t cry, grandfather, don’t cry, woman, bury your chicken in the kindergarten, at the crossroads, wait three years, and then dig up a treasure in that place. Let it be written on your nose so that you remember until your death that everything you wish for does not happen right away.
The woman buried the chicken near the garden at the crossroads, right next to the overgrowth, and stuck a stick in as a sign. They wait for a year, wait for a second - they don’t have enough patience, they wanted to quickly dig up the treasure. The third year has already arrived, and they are still waiting. So the woman says to the grandfather:
- Let’s take a look, grandpa.
“Don’t rush, old woman, we’ll wait a little, there’s not much left.” We waited longer, now we have less to wait.
- No, old man, we won’t touch anything, we’ll just see if our treasure is pecked there.
- Take care, old woman, so as not to spoil the whole thing.
- Don’t be afraid, grandpa, nothing bad will happen.
They went into the garden with a spade. They dug and dug and dug up a whole bunch of gold beetles. The beetles buzzed and scattered in all directions.
So the grandfather and woman were left to live in the old hut; they did not have a chance to build a new one.
And the mouse stuck its head out of the hole and said:
- You are already old, but stupid. Why didn't you wait until you were three years old? If only you had a big pile of gold, but now they have all scattered.

Well, reader, he gets it right. Do you still not understand what is happening in Ukraine and Russia? I think that old tale can explain a lot, you just need to carefully read what was bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Read, study and take care, otherwise you will have to buy a lot of things in the West under license. And something tells me that a Ukrainian grandfather and his grandmother cannot live in a new house. The hen that laid the golden eggs was killed, the golden shells were sold to the Jews, and there was no harvest of golden chervonets.
Not in the eyebrow, but in the eye.

Everyone has known the fairy tale about the Ryaba Hen since childhood.
This tale is perhaps the very first to be told.
Because of the simplicity and unpretentiousness of the plot?
Let's wait to answer this question.
The meaning of the Ryaba Hen has worried me for a long time. It always seemed to me that this fairy tale was full of omissions.
Recently, I started studying Ryaba Hen once again and I again had a suspicion that Ryaba Hen is not talking about what we all think about.
I decided to delve into the issue and immediately came across the fact that a truncated, adapted version of the fairy tale is published in children's books.
In fact...

There lived an old man and an old woman. And they had an old hazel hen. She laid an egg in the canopy on a shelf, on rye straws. Wherever the mouse came from, it split this egg. Grandfather crying, woman grieves magpie broke my leg tyn got loose, oak I knocked off the leaves.

Popov's daughter I went for water, broke the buckets, and came home without water. Popadya asks: “Why are you daughter, did you come without water?” She says: What grief is upon me, how great is it upon me: “Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. And they had an old hazel hen. She laid an egg in the canopy on a shelf, on rye straws. Wherever the mouse came from, it split this egg. The grandfather is crying, the woman is grieving, the magpie has broken her leg, the backbone has become loose, the oak tree has knocked off its leaves. And I went for water, broke the buckets, broke the rocker. At least leave the pies out of the window out of grief!” Popadya out of grief and threw the pies out the window.

The priest goes: “What are you doing, priest?” And she replies: “What a grief it is for me, how great it is for me. There lived an old man and an old woman. And they had an old hazel hen. She laid an egg in the canopy on a shelf, on rye straws. Wherever the mouse came from, it split this egg. The grandfather is crying, the woman is grieving, the magpie has broken her leg, the backbone has become loose, the oak tree has knocked off its leaves. Our daughter went to get water, broke the buckets, and broke the rocker. And out of grief, I left all the pies out the window. And you, priest, at least hurt yourself on the doorframe out of grief!” Pop ran up and hit the doorframe! That's where he died. They began to bury the priest and celebrate a wake. What an expensive egg!
* Fairy tale “Dear egg”, Fairy tales of the Saratov region. Saratov, 1937.

Fairy tale "Chicken"

Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman, they had a Tatar hen, she laid an egg in the closet under the window: motley, colorful, boney, tricky! I put it on the shelf; The mouse walked, shook its tail, the shelf fell, and the egg broke. The old man is crying, the old woman is sobbing, the stove is on fire, the top of the hut is shaking, the girl-granddaughter hanged herself out of grief.

Mallow comes and asks: Why are they crying so much? The old people began to retell: “How can we not cry? We have a Tatar hen that laid an egg in the hut under the window: motley, bright, boney, tricky! I put it on the shelf; The mouse walked, shook its tail, the shelf fell, and the egg broke! I, an old man, am crying, the old woman is sobbing, the stove is on fire, the top of the hut is shaking, the girl-granddaughter hanged herself out of grief.” When the breadmaker heard it, she broke all the bread and threw it away.
The sexton comes up and asks the breadmaker: why did she throw away the bread?
She told him all the grief; the sexton ran to the bell tower and broke all the bells.
The priest comes and asks the sexton: why did you break the bells? The sexton recounted all the grief to the priest, and the priest ran and tore up all the books.
* “Russian folk tales”, Afanasyev A.N.

After reading a fairy tale about a chicken in full version, I think I finally understand its meaning.
But I wondered if there were any other versions of the interpretation of the fairy tale.
Surprisingly, it was not only me who was interested in the question of the meaning of the Ryaba Hen)).
Here are some interesting versions.

Vladimir Toporov (the founder of the “theory of the main myth”) raised the plot of the fairy tale to the motif of the World Egg, which splits mythological hero. This motif was reconstructed by V. N. Toporov from the texts fairy tale type(plot 301 - “Three kingdoms: gold, silver and copper”) and those close to it. It was assumed that the motif of the split World Egg and the origin of the world as a whole or its individual parts (sky, earth, etc.) from it is common to the mythological ideas of many peoples, including the Slavs, the Baltic Finns, the ancient Greeks, and the inhabitants of China, India, Indonesia, Oceania, Australia, Africa, etc.
Toporov believed that the fairy tale “Ryaba Hen” is an extreme degenerate version of the above mythological concept.
According to L. G. Moshchenskaya, “Ryab the Hen” reflects a deep layer of mythopoetic ideas; the fairy tale contains a cosmogonic model of the world, divided into the upper, middle and lower worlds. At the same time, the middle world (Earth) is embodied by a grandfather, a woman and a pockmarked hen, the lower world (underworld) is embodied by a mouse, and the upper world is a golden cosmic egg. The ambivalent nature of the central acting heroes fairy tales, mice and chickens, allows us to consider the plot in two keys: positive, creative (breaking an egg is the creation of a starry sky) and negative, destructive.

Boris Zakhoder believed that “The Ryaba Hen” is a fairy tale about human happiness: “Happiness is a golden egg - people beat it this way and that, and a mouse ran by and waved its tail...” This interpretation meets with support: “Try to tell happiness and the ease of losing it somehow more clearly, more imaginatively, more holistically... Everyone understands that this is what the fairy tale is about.”

Mr. Strelnikov (Proza.ru website) believes the following:
“Thus, by the end of the tale, the most plausible version of its meaning emerges. It boils down to the following: the Ryaba hen laid an egg that looks like a golden one: with a special shell structure (less likely, with a gilded shell). Grandfather and woman, seeing a beautiful egg, decided that it must have an extraordinary taste and began to beat it to try it. But, since the egg was a little stronger than a simple one, and the grandfather and woman had little strength left in their old age, they were unable to break the golden egg. When they laid the egg aside, a mouse ran by, dropped the egg on the floor with its tail, and it broke. Grandfather and woman cried because they could not taste this egg and because they realized their old age and weakness. The hen Ryaba began to console them, promising to lay not a golden egg, but a simple one. Ryaba the hen apparently wanted to please her grandfather and grandmother with the golden egg, but she saw that it only caused them grief. Chicken Ryaba decided that a simple egg, although not so beautiful, at least, will not bring grief: it can be safely broken and eaten.
So, in all likelihood, the meaning of “The Tale of the Ryaba Hen” can be indicated by the Russian proverb “old age is not joy.”

M.E. Vigdorchik in the article “Analysis of the Russian fairy tale “The Ryaba Hen” in the theory of object relations” writes: “The golden egg laid by the hen is a symbol of a child that has special significance for his parents. […] This interpretation is consistent with the subsequent part of the fairy tale, where we're talking about about how both grandfather and woman beat an egg. They beat - they educate, they try to bring the egg into line with their ideas, and the bitterness of disappointment sets in when at one moment a certain “mouse” achieves what they themselves could not achieve in relation to the egg. Who is she, this mouse? And her symbolic meaning and her actions (wagging her tail) indicate that this is a woman (daughter-in-law) who is perceived by her son’s parents as a rival who behaves frivolously. Parents can find consolation only in the “Ryaba Hen” that remains with them and her reproductive function.”

S.Z.Agranovich bases his analysis on psychoanalysis: “Grandfather and grandmother are elderly people (not by chance!); they also embody the human collective (after all, they are a heterosexual couple).
The egg is the personification of life.
Gold is a symbol of death (in myths, gold and wealth are found precisely in the kingdom of the dead, in Slavic fairy tales— Koschey, representative kingdom of the dead, always associated with gold).
The golden egg that the grandfather and woman received is “anti-life, a black mark.”
Having received a golden egg, the grandfather and woman perceive it as a sign of approaching death. They take turns trying to break the egg, but nothing works.
The mouse is an intermediary between the world of the living (earthly) and the dead (underground). This is a creature that serves two worlds and acts unpredictably. The mouse is two-faced and can do both good and evil.
The priest's family is a model of both the human family and sacred society.
An egg broken by a mouse scares everyone. The world begins to fall apart, social madness occurs. The reason for the collapse is unknown. Nobody knows what will happen next. They are unable to explain the mouse’s action due to its two-faced nature.
The denouement comes: the hen promises to lay a SIMPLE egg, which means to give LIFE. Of course everyone is happy! They are saved!
Thus, a “children's fairy tale” turns out to be a story about life and death, about society, and how the struggle for life develops. The fairy tale about Ryaba the chicken conveys the emotions of a life-threatening situation: anxiety, fear, despair, and in the end - joy and jubilation.

Surprisingly, I didn’t find my version.
Although, it seems to me, it explains a lot.
In my opinion, the fairy tale teaches (instills from childhood) that everything depends on everything.
I remember Bradbury's butterfly - yes, that very incident.
Accidentally broken egg entails a whole series of catastrophes, casualties and natural disasters.
The fairy tale says in clear text- be careful, think over your actions, they can change everything around you, including yourself.
The fairy tale reminds: beware of random, unmotivated actions, they can bring serious consequences.And this is not even the notorious fingers in a socket and jumping with an umbrella from the 5th floor. This is much more serious and global!
The egg was often the object of various magical rituals. Eggs were often used for treatment - it was believed that the egg could draw illnesses and damage out of a person. But not everyone who wanted could cast a spell, but only initiates who clearly knew the entire sequence of actions.
Of course, the fairy tale shows how a mouse (an unreasonable creature) accidentally reproduced a magical ritual (which neither the grandfather nor the grandmother wanted to perform - that’s why they cried).
But it was already too late.
Just as a broken egg cannot be put back into its shell, so are the consequences produced by chance. magical rite, it is almost impossible to eliminate.
That is why the fairy tale about the chicken is one of the first to be told to children - children, first of all, must understand how interdependent everything is in the world, how important it is not to unknowingly break these connections and not upset the existing balance.

The grandfather is crying, the woman is crying, and the chicken is clucking:

- Don’t cry, grandfather, don’t cry, woman: I will lay you an egg, not a golden one - a simple one!

Fairy tale Chicken Ryaba (Option 2)

The priest's daughters went to fetch water, asked the grandfather, asked the woman:

-What are you crying about?

- How can we not cry! - Grandfather and woman answer. — We have chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail.

When the priest’s daughters heard this, out of great grief they threw the buckets to the ground, broke the rocker arms and returned home empty-handed.

- Oh, mother! - they say to the priest. “You don’t know anything, you don’t know anything, but there’s a lot going on in the world: a grandfather and a woman live, they have a chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail. That’s why the grandfather cries, the woman cries, the chicken cackles, the gates creak, wood chips fly from the yard, the top of the hut is wobbly. And while we were going to fetch water, we threw the buckets and broke the rocker arms!

At that time, the priest was crying, and the hen was cackling, and immediately, out of great grief, she knocked over the kneading bowl and scattered all the dough on the floor.

The priest came with a book.

- Oh, father! - the priest tells him. “You don’t know anything, you don’t know anything, but there’s a lot going on in the world: a grandfather and a woman live, they have a chicken Ryaba; laid an egg under the floor - motley, bright, boney, tricky! The grandfather beat him but didn’t break him, the woman beat him but didn’t break him, but the mouse came running and crushed him with his tail. That’s why the grandfather cries, the woman cries, the chicken cackles, the gates creak, wood chips fly from the yard, the top of the hut is wobbly! Our daughters, going for water, threw the buckets, broke the rocker arms, and I kneaded the dough and, out of great grief, scattered everything on the floor!

The folk tale about the chicken Ryaba is known to everyone since early childhood. It is easy to remember, children love it very much.

What is this tale about?

She talks about how one day a chicken that lived with her grandfather and woman suddenly laid a golden egg. The grandfather and woman could not break it, despite many attempts. But the mouse was able to do this by accident. All she had to do was wave her tail. But instead of being happy, for some reason the grandfather and woman were very upset. The hen calmed them down and said that they would have a new egg, an ordinary one, not a golden one.

However, this story has several variations. Some of them have new ones characters: pop and priest.

The meaning of the fairy tale

This is, at first glance, a simple story. But what about the chicken Ryaba? This question is of interest to many. Some people believe that the fairy tale has no meaning at all. Most people are unlikely to agree with this statement. Fairy tales have long been told not only for fun, but also to teach something good. The meaning of this tale remains to be understood.

The main contradiction of the fairy tale is that the grandfather and grandmother are crying because the golden egg has broken. But they wanted it so bad! Perhaps the egg turned out to be empty, and the grandparents were disappointed. Maybe they just wanted to eat, and an egg accidentally broken by a mouse spilled across the floor? It is possible that it was not golden, but simply with a golden shell, but the old people thought that it was especially tasty.

Hidden meanings

Some researchers of the fairy tale have devoted many years to find its connection with mythology. Often the fairy tale is associated with ancient myths about the World Egg, from which either the entire Universe, or part of the world, or one of the gods is born. The image of a mouse is also symbolic. The myths of many peoples say that this animal was born from the earth. Thus, the fairy tale is associated with myths about the creation and end of the world.

In some more full versions fairy tales, after the egg broke, some misfortune happened to everyone who found out about it.

There is an opinion that the fairy tale has a connection with pagan rituals. In this case, the egg is compared to the moon or the sun. The golden egg is the sun. The image of a gray mouse - evening. Broken golden egg - sunset. A simple egg is the moon.

M. E. Vigdorchik’s interpretation of the fairy tale is interesting. He believes that the golden egg represents a symbol of a child. Trying to break an egg is a symbol of raising a child. But the grandfather and grandmother didn’t succeed, but the mouse did. The mouse is a symbol of a frivolous daughter-in-law, who for her husband’s parents seems to be some kind of rival. They are offended that she was able to raise a child, but they were not.

Supporters of psychoanalysis (for example, S.Z. Agranovich) believe that the egg in the fairy tale plays the role of a savior, it is a kind of symbol of life. Gold symbolizes death. That's why the old people tried so hard to break it. But when the mouse did this, they were afraid, because they did not know what to expect next. The mouse is an intermediary between the world of the living and world of the dead, she can do both good and bad deeds. At your own discretion. And when the hen says that she will lay an ordinary egg, everyone rejoices, since the future has become clearer. Life has won.

The relevance of the fairy tale in our time

Children's stories are a collection folk wisdom, albeit not in the form of a lesson. The tale about the chicken Ryaba is no exception. However, times are changing, new realities are emerging. Many authors try to tell a well-known legend in their own way. A very interesting tale about the chicken Ryaba on new way Olga Akhmetova. In her interpretation, the mouse, seeing the egg, wanted to steal it; she envied the fact that her grandfather and grandmother “would become rich,” but she, too, “worthy of a million.” They, in turn, thought for too long about what to do with the wealth that had fallen on their heads. As a result, the egg broke and no one got it. The meaning of this fairy tale is that everyone can have a lucky chance in life, but they need to use it wisely.

Another tale about the chicken Ryaba tells that the egg turned out not to be golden, but just a kinder surprise. In Igor Shandra’s fairy tale, Ryaba demolished it and took it to the bank for safekeeping so that it certainly wouldn’t break. But even in this version, tears awaited the grandparents. But the computer mouse turned out to be to blame: it “wagged its tail,” and the entire bank disappeared. And Ryaba consoled her with the fact that the fake had disappeared, and the real egg was safe and sound.

Like these ones interesting stories, and this is only a small part. Everything suggests that in our time the fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba arouses interest not only among children, but also among adults.

Disputes about the moral of the tale

Serious research into fairy tales commands respect, but is unlikely a common person will look hidden meanings. But what does this story teach? What is the moral of the story about the chicken Ryaba?

Everyone can understand it in their own way. There is an opinion that the egg is a symbol of love that the grandfather and grandmother could not protect. Speckled chicken- a symbol of the Higher Mind, which is why it is black and white, since it combines both good and evil. The mouse is some kind of gossip. If you break love for a long time, then the relationship may end because of some little thing like gossip. And a simple egg is not love, but a habit that appeared over time. Moral - we must value relationships, cherish love.

Some people think that the fairy tale says that one should not be stupid and envious. After all, the grandfather and grandmother did not even understand why they wanted to break the egg, and when the mouse did it, they simply envied her. Moral - you need to think about your actions and not be envious.

Perhaps the golden egg represents a symbol of wealth, which one does not need to strive for so desperately. Grandfather and grandmother struggled for a long time to achieve material goods, but then the mouse (by chance) showed them by breaking the egg that there was nothing special about it. A simple egg, which the chicken later promised, is a symbol eternal values. Moral - you can be happy without the desire to accumulate wealth.

There is also a version that the fairy tale teaches not to plan life down to the smallest detail. There is always room for chance.

Is the child able to understand this fairy tale?

It is not for nothing that they say that through the mouth of a baby Despite many interpretations, the fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba is still a children's work.

Grandfather and grandmother, according to many children, are crying because they themselves could not break the golden egg. This is where so many worries come from.

Of course, later parents can offer their child their own version of what this fairy tale teaches. It would be a good educational conversation.