SPOILERS
| Added | Wed, 06/01/2021 |
| Release date | 1832
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| Original title | Ночь перед Рождеством
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| Феномены | |
| References |
"The Night before Christmas" is a novel by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, which is part of the cycle "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". The time of writing the story is determined differently by different researchers-although in the general framework of the period from 1830 to the winter of 1831-1832.
The story was first published in 1832 in the publication " Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The story, published by the Beekeeper Rudim Panicum. The second book", published in St. Petersburg and printed in the printing house of A. A. Pluchart .
Сюжет повести "Ночь перед Рождеством" в моменте полета на чёрте "в Петербург, прямо к царице", напоминает популярный франко-канадский фольклорный сюжет "Заколдованное каноэ", где после пьянки, длившейся всю новогоднюю ночь, приятели-лесорубы, находящиеся на далекой лесной стоянке, желают навестить своих оставшихся дома подруг. Единственный способ преодолеть расстояние в почти 500 километров и обратно, чтобы утром успеть выйти на работу, — это воспользоваться «заколдованным каноэ», то есть заключить договор с дьяволом, и тогда их каноэ сможет перелететь по воздуху в нужное место на волшебной скорости.
The action of the story is chronologically timed to the episode of the reign of Catherine II, the last deputation of the Cossacks, held in 1775 and related to the work of the Commission for the abolition of the Zaporozhye Sich.
The plot of the work takes place in the Ukrainian village of Dikanka.
Nobody noticed, in the sky, circling two people: a witch on a broomstick, which is in the sleeve the stars, and the devil, who hides in his pocket a month, thinking that the coming darkness will keep the house of a rich Cossack Chub Cornia invited to clerk Osip Nikiforovich in the pudding, hell and hated the blacksmith Vakula (painted on the Church wall painting of the last judgment and hell porabljenega) will not dare to come to the daughter of the Chub, Oksana.
Chub and his godfather do not know whether to go to the deacon in such darkness, but they decide and leave. The beautiful Oksana stays at home. Vakula comes. Oksana mocks him. Chub, who has lost his way, knocks at the door, without a godfather, who decided to return home because of the blizzard arranged by the devil. However, after hearing the blacksmith, Chub decides that he has come to the hut of the lame Levchenok. Chub goes to Vakula's mother, Solokha, who is the witch who stole the stars from the sky.
Oksana is visited by her friends. Oksana notices on one of them gold-embroidered cherevichki (shoes). Oksana proudly declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her cherevichki, " which the queen wears."
Meanwhile, the devil, who was usefully spending time with Solokha, was frightened by the head, who did not go to the clerk on kutya. The devil climbs into the bag left in the middle of the hut by Vakula, and soon the head climbs into the other, because the clerk came to Solokha. The clerk who flirted with Solokha also has to climb into the bag, because the Forelock comes. However, soon Chub climbs into the same bag, avoiding a meeting with the returned Vakula. While Solokha is talking in the garden with the Cossack Kasyan Sverbyguz, who came after the blacksmith, Vakula takes the bags away, explaining their weight to himself by his depressed state after meeting Oksana.
In the crowd of carolers Smith again meets Oksana, who repeats his promise about cervicek. Out of grief, Vakula decides to drown himself, throws all the bags except the smallest one, and runs away.
Slightly calmed down, Vakula wants to try another remedy: he comes to the Cossack Potbellied Patsyuk, who is "a little akin to the devil", and receives a vague answer that the devil is behind him. Anticipating a glorious prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith's neck, promises him Oksana that night. The cunning blacksmith, seizing the devil by the tail and threatening to cross him, becomes the master of the situation and tells the devil to take himself "to Petersburg, straight to the tsarina."
Once in St. Petersburg, the blacksmith comes to the Cossacks, whom he met in the fall, when they passed through Dikanka. With the help of the devil, he achieves that he was taken to the reception of the queen. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful painting, the blacksmith appears before the queen, accompanied by Potemkin, and asks her for the royal shoes. Touched by such simplicity, Catherine II draws the attention of Fonvizin, who is standing at a distance, to this passage, and gives Vakula shoes.
In the village at this time, the village women are arguing about exactly how Vakula killed himself. These gossips confuse Oksana, she can't sleep all night, and by morning "fell head over heels in love with the blacksmith." The returning blacksmith takes out a new hat and belt from the chest and goes to the Forelock with a request to give Oksana for him. Chub, seduced by the gifts and annoyed by Solokha's treachery, agrees. He was echoed by Oksana, ready to marry the blacksmith "and without Slippers."
Having got a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a devil, but "so nasty that everyone spat when they passed by."
Phenomena in artwork: Witchcraft
The witch in the story turns out to be an ordinary resident of a forty-year-old farm named Solokha. She goes to church, dates men, and generally leads a normal life. At the same time, she also does not refuse the courtship of the devil. Her abilities are described rather poorly, only indicated that she flies on a broomstick and steals stars from the sky:
At this point, smoke billowed out of the chimney of one of the huts and spread like a cloud across the sky, and along with the smoke rose a witch riding on a broomstick.
...
Meanwhile, the witch had risen so high that she was only a black speck above. But wherever a speck appeared, the stars, one after another, disappeared in the sky.
The story also describes the classic occupation of a witch – "milking a cow" (a witch goes to other people's houses at night and takes milk from cows). This activity is described from the words of the shepherd Timish:
. before Petrovka himself, when he lay down to sleep in the stable, with straw under his head, he saw with his own eyes that the witch, with her braid loose, in only her shirt, began to milk the cows, and he could not move, he was so bewitched; after milking the cows, she came to him and anointed his lips with something so disgusting that he spat all day after that.
It is believed that only one Sorochinsky assessor can see the witch.
In addition to Solokha, a sorcerer can also be called a Pot-bellied Cossack Patsyuk, who treats conspiracies, and also, they say, knows all the devils. Patsyuk he has the ability to move objects at a distance:
Patsyuk opened his mouth, looked at the dumplings, and opened his mouth even more. At this time, the dumpling splashed out of the bowl, slapped into the sour cream, turned over to the other side, jumped up and just hit him in the mouth. Patsyuk ate and opened his mouth again, and the dumpling went again in the same order. He only took the trouble to chew and swallow.
Phenomena in artwork: Heck
The author describes the trait as follows:
... the speck, increased, began to stretch, and was no longer a speck. Short-sighted, at least put on the nose instead of glasses wheels from the Commissar's britzka, and then would not recognize what it is.
The front was completely German (as any stranger was called): a narrow, constantly twirling and sniffing everything that came across, the muzzle ended, like our pigs, in a round snout, the legs were so thin that if Jareskovsky had had such a head, he would have broken them in the first kozachka.
But behind it was a real provincial solicitor in uniform, because he hung the tail, as sharp and long as present uniformed coattails; only perhaps at the goat's beard under the muzzle, a small rozhkam jutting out from the head, and that was no whiter than a chimney sweep, you can guess that he is not a German and the provincial solicitor, but just damn, which last night remained to wander through the white light and to learn the sins of good people.
Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, with his tail between his legs, to his den.
The devil can fly. He is going to steal the moon from the sky as revenge for the blacksmith Vakula, who painted a very offensive picture for the devil on the walls of the church. However, touching the month burns the devil's fingers.
The devil is able to cause a blizzard, throwing up snow. He is afraid of the crucifixion and the sign of the cross:
the devil sneezed and coughed as he took the cypress cross from his neck and held it up to him. Deliberately he raised his hand to scratch his head, and the devil, thinking that he was going to be baptized, flew even faster
Also, the devil is able to shrink in size and turn into animals:
The devil, flying over the barrier, turned into a horse, and the blacksmith saw himself on a dashing runner in the middle of the street.
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