Grandfather Frost and Snegurochka are not relatives, and most likely Grandfather Frost “stole” his grandson, children’s literature specialist Ekaterina Asonova, head of the laboratory of sociocultural educational practices at the Moscow City Pedagogical University (MSPU), told socialbites.ca. .
“We can say that Santa Claus took or “stole” the Snow Maiden from another fairy tale. Her image itself is harsh and scary, so the figure of the Snow Maiden was introduced, which “softened” Father Frost. She was included in the script as an intermediary between Santa Claus and children: Methodologists believed that a girl character would instill more confidence in children. Often, Soviet creators took two unrelated characters and combined them,” Asonova explained.
According to the expert, the prototype of the Snow Maiden was a character from an old fairy tale in which a childless pair of grandparents made a snow girl and named her Snow Maiden, but in the summer the girl melted.
Alexander Ostrovsky described his interpretation of history in the play “The Snow Maiden” (1873). In it, Frost and his wife Vesna-Krasna had a daughter named Snegurochka. However, such an alliance angered the god Yarilo and he killed the girl with sunlight, melting her. This image of an ice girl began to circulate in various children’s works, including Christmas ones. In them, children often found the Snow Maiden in the snow on Christmas Eve and brought her home to warm her by the fire, but she always melted.
Outside of Ostrovsky’s play, the names Moroz and Snegurochka have never been found nearby, although in 1937 they still appeared together as grandfather and granddaughter on the first Soviet Christmas tree.
“The explanation for why Snow Maiden is a granddaughter and not a daughter lies on the surface. Frost is a little old to have such a young girl. Even in the fairy tale, we perceive the Snow Maiden as her granddaughter. Fairy tales always say “once upon a time, there was a grandfather, there was a woman”, and although it is actually a symbol of poverty and distress, people perceive it as a grandfather and grandmother. “Therefore, family ties have an effect on age perception, there is no other reason,” he said.
Read more about who is the prototype of Santa Claus, why he does not have a wife and how he was resurrected in Soviet times – material “socialbites.ca”.
Previously Asonova explainedwhy in Russian fairy tales there are grandmothers and grandfathers, but there are no parents.