Into the Folklore Stacks
A TBR list to help me write by Middle Grade Russian Fantasy "The Immortal Shadow"
Hello everyone!
This is a slightly different post but not in the way you’d expect. As is usual, this is a TBR post but the subject is something I haven’t really talked about here on Substack and have mainly mentioned/shown on Instagram.
As you may have guessed, most bookstagrammers are involved in some sort of writing project of their own to a certain extent – whether it’s writing their own books or poetry or the like. In my case, I have two main WIPs – my middle grade Russian folklore fantasy and my adult dark academia. Today’s post will be about my middle grade Russian folklore fantasy and I wanted to share some books that I’ve added to my TBR to help with writing this book and developing the world and lore.
Here’s a bit of background:
This WIP is pitched as Percy Jackson x Russian fairytales/Slavic folklore x The Spiderwick Chronicles x Narnia. I started this as a story for my little sister Aleesa and that is who the main character is based on and named after. The next bit is my tentative synopsis!
Synopsis:
When her big sister Lilia disappears moments before she’s set to walk down the aisle on her wedding day, Aleesa’s whole world seems to collapse. Strange dreams, and even stranger people and they all seem connected to Skazki, the fairytales that Lilia used to read to her every night. With the help of her older cousin Nasrin and her sister’s fiancé Niklas in the real world and various characters in Skazki, Aleesa and her cousin Darya must travel to the Land of Skazki and save Lilia from the immortal shadow: Koschei the Deathless.
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So that’s the synopsis and I hope that’s intrigued you just a bit (and perhaps enough to consider subscribing on here as well as other places such as YouTube and Instagram?) and now I’ll just dive a little into the books I’ve placed on a TBR list for this book to, again, help me with the worldbuilding and especially the lore.
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Русские народные сказки с женскими архетипами – Russian Fairy Tales with female archetypes
Русские народные сказки с мужскими архетипами – Russian Fairy Tales with male archetypes
Монстры и волшебные существа – Monsters and Magical creatures
These are a collection of books in Russian that focus on Russian fairy tales through different lenses – one book follows the heroines of Russian fairy tales, one follows the heroes and one is specifically about, you guessed it, monsters and magical creatures. I figured this would be good ones to add just to have general overviews of specific fairy tales.
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In a Certain Kingdom: Fairy tales of Old Russia
In a Certain Kingdom: Epic Heroes of the Rus
These two are by the same author, Nicholas Kotar who appears later as well, and one, clearly focuses on specific fairy tales and the other on the heroes of Old Rus. I chose these two to add to the list because the author actually translates the stories himself. I read the fairy tales book a few years back and really enjoyed it – it was a fresh translation that equally gave a feeling of nostalgia. I haven’t read Epic Heroes yet but seeing as the plan is to have some Epic Hero show up in my novel, I figured it would be a good idea to add it in as well.
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Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov
This is one of those random Penguin Classics books that I found while looking for other books and then when I attempt to acquire it through easier means as a Canadian (such as a local bookstore), it seems next to impossible to get it. Well. I finally have a copy and I’m excited to get through it. That being said, there are actually a couple of specific stories that I want to focus on for my book but I will be reading through the entire book regardless. Perhaps I’ll do a separate reading post about this one specifically?
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Сказки, А. С. Пушкин – Fairy tales, A.S. Pushkin
So, Pushkin, the father of Russian poetry, is already on the list because of the book above but given that it’s Pushkin, he’s obviously going to re-appear. In this case, the reason he reappears is simply because this is a book in Russian of Fairy Tales that he composed. These include The Tale of Ruslan and Ludmila, The Tale of the Tsar Saltan and plenty of others.
Русская история, Н. И. Костомаров – Russian history, N. I. Kostomarov
This one comes as a recommendation from my friend Brie who recommended it to me after I asked if she has any good books about specifically Kievan Russia. This is basically a history of Russia from the very, very beginning, starting the Rurik dynasty. It’s not going to be easy to read it or dissect enough to be able to translate not only into English but also into my story but I’m nevertheless excited to give it a shot.
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An Anthology of Russian Folktales, Jack V. Haney
An Introduction to Russian Folktale, Jack V. Haney
The Complete Folktales of A.N. Afanas’ev vol. 1-3, Jack V. Haney
Long, Long Tales from the Russian North, Jack V. Haney
I think based on the titles, the reason why I chose these are self-explanatory. Unfortunately, Haney passed in 2015 otherwise I would have attempted to contact him to chat with him but his The Complete Tales of A.N. Afanas’ev continues to be one of the most complete editions of Russian fairytales in English that we have to date. The others are more the same, just books with various folktales and the like that I’d like to read through.
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Myths and Folk-Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars, Jeremiah Curtin
This one feels self-explanatory but it’s basically an anthology of a bunch of folktales from the area. A lot of the anthologies on this list will obviously repeat certain stories because there are a couple that overlap and all that but I still want to get to all the renditions, so to speak, to get the biggest scope of the tales as possible.
Baba Yaga the Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales, Sibelan Forrester
Again, self-explanatory but this one focuses specifically on the ever enigmatic character of Baba Yaga who does, in fact, appear in my book.
Russian Fairy Tales/ Old Peter’s Russian Tales, Arthur Ransome
This one is one of the first anthologies of Russian tales that were translated/collected in English.
How to Survive a Russian Fairy Tale, Nicholas Kotar
This one is less so an anthology of stories and more of a fun read for inspiration with the types of situations I can plop my characters in.
The Russian Folktale by Vladimir Yakovlevuch Propp
So this is actually the English translation of Propp’s book which was based on a seminar that he taught on Russian Folktales at Leningrad State University.
Russia Folk Belief by Linda J. Ivanits
I think this is one I found while browsing the world wide web but it felt useful because it explores different facets of Russian folk belief including paganism and Christianity and since Skazki is set in a time (compared to real world Russian history) wherein paganism and the Old Gods and Christianity are interacting with each other, I figured it would be a useful one to check out.
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Well, that’s it for this post. I hope you enjoyed reading through this list and if you’re interested about following my rather slow but I hope interesting writing journey as I attempt to satisfy this seemingly impossible task of finishing this book, consider subscribing and following me via the usual places. All linked down below as usual!
Love,
Mila