A fairy tale about a ryaba hen in a new way or an emerald egg and a magic ring thymin konstantin. The Tale of Ryaba the Chicken and Its Meaning

For half a year I tell my child a fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba for the night, and each time I am tormented by guesses, what is her morality.

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 plot of the fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba. Here are some examples:

Attempts to interpret its meaning are also very broad, from simple sayings such as “we don’t keep what we have, we cry when we lose it”, “we didn’t live richly, and there’s nothing to start” or “old age is not a joy: they have less strength left for two than a mouse” to whole parables, for example, about love: “About 5 years ago, when I was a student, a certain aunt-professor told me that the golden egg is Love, which my grandfather and grandmother did not save. Grandfather beat - drank, walked ..., grandmother beat - walked, did not wash floors and did not wash shirts. A de mouse is such a small muck like gossip or some household trifle. Like, if Love is beaten for a long time and diligently, then in order to finally chop it up, a trifle is enough. Well, a simple testicle is a habit that grandparents got instead of love. Hen Ryaba, respectively, Fate or the Higher Mind. And Ryaba is because it is pockmarked, i.e. black and white, i.e. combines both black and white sides of life” or about the ecological end of the world: http://barmalei.livejournal.com/87435.html

Here are a few more interpretations: http://www.mirovozzrenie.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=215

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 in full, pay attention at least to the last 5 paragraphs):

“Once upon a time there were Grandfather and Baba. And they had Ryaba Hen. The hen laid an egg. Yes, not simple, but golden. Grandfather beat-beat - did not break. Baba beat-beat - did not break. The mouse ran, waved its tail - the testicle fell and broke. Grandfather cries, Baba cries, and the Hen cackles: “Don't cry, Grandfather, don't cry, Baba. I will lay you another testicle - not golden, but simple.

Ask a parent to tell you this story. It is difficult to find a person who does not know her. You can start by asking if the parent has read the story to the child. If you read it, then let it retell. If there is a hitch in the story, you can help. And when the parent tells the whole story, it is worth asking a few questions.

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

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

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

It is quite possible that the psychologist will hear the 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 one can simply ask, how often does a parent even ask about a 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, and not rise again to the level of consciousness.

It can be said that the parent just retold this 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 keep our whole life and perceive it without criticism, because at this age we do not have developed critical thinking. Therefore, when reading a fairy tale in an adult state, we continue to relate to it without a shadow of doubt.

But a fairy tale is only a pretext for discussing what a parent does when he or she reads a fairy tale or otherwise interacts 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 has developed under the influence of the words of people significant to him: “You are such and such or such and such. Nothing will come of you” or “You will grow up, you will work hard and achieve everything you want.” These words and the attitude towards a child under 5 form a scenario that entangles a person with invisible threads and makes adults act not in accordance with the real situation, but in accordance with the ideas about oneself and one's destiny 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 makes it possible to understand many features of an adult's behavior. Besides this fairy tale not domestic, it is not easy to interpret. It differs from others in that it is told to all the children of our culture, because it bears the imprint of this culture.

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

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

Most likely, such details will confuse the parent, so we can continue that repeated in 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 the moment of extreme stress, a person begins to behave not as characteristic of his personality, but shows what is common to him. given people behavior. If we take into account that this fairy tale is not everyday, but carries the features of our culture, then it can be read differently.

Someone gave Grandfather and Baba something that they had never met. An egg as an archetype, which is regularly found both in myths and in fairy tales of all peoples, is a symbol of the birth of something. It is golden, because it does not look like what the Hen was carrying earlier. That is why Grandfather and Baba do not run to the pawnshop to pawn a golden shell in order to buy a mountain later simple eggs. Gold, like the egg itself, is only a symbol here. But the old people are trying to destroy what they have never met before in their lives. But you could wait, put it aside and see who hatches from it. But they do not act like this, but are in a hurry to destroy this new one. And here another archetypal hero appears in the story - the Mouse. We write her name with capital letter, because this is also not a small rodent, but a symbol. It is not for nothing that in many Russian fairy tales she is a key subject, which solves the problems that have arisen. The mouse as an archetype is God's substitute. And then the one who gave, he takes away what people do not know how to use. And then another archetype appears in the tale.

But it will be better if the psychologist does not simply say what kind of archetype it is, but helps the parent to feel its existence. The psychologist can tell him that he would like to prove the existence of this archetype, and not just report it. After all, it was precisely for its introduction into the unconscious of every child of a given culture that this fairy tale was created, for the sake of it it is passed down 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, befitting suggestion, says: “Imagine that there is Someone about whom you know that any of his words will come true for sure. And now this Someone comes in and says to you: “From now on, nothing new will ever, NEVER 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 the parent in a normal voice. Obviously, he will say that either he did not believe you (worst case), or he felt scared, unpleasant, bad (you succeeded). Then you say that right now a person has felt the reality in himself of the most important archetype that all people of the same culture pass on to each other from generation to generation - this is the archetype of the Miracle. We live because we know for sure that if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, but a miracle will surely 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 a similar archetype of other peoples (and everyone has it, since it is he who 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 the fact that a miracle will definitely happen to a child, and to any other person, but not for free, but thanks to joint work. It's a long way to create a miracle, but a very effective one. If it is possible to conduct such a mini-training with the parent, then further cooperation with him is guaranteed.”

Since childhood, everyone knows the fairy tale about Hen Ryaba.
This tale is perhaps the first to be told.
Due to the simplicity and unpretentiousness of the plot?
Let's wait to answer this question.
The meaning of Hen Ryaba worried me for a long time. It always seemed to me that this fairy tale is full of omissions.
Recently, I started to study Chicken Ryaba once again and I again had a suspicion that Hen Ryaba is not talking about what we all think about.
I decided to dig into the issue and immediately came across the fact that a truncated, adapted version of the fairy tale is printed in children's books.
In fact...

An old man lived with an old woman. And they had a chicken ryabushechka, an old old woman. She laid an egg in the porch on a shelf, on a rye straw. No matter where the mouse came from, it cracked this testicle. grandfather crying woman mourns magpie broke her leg tyn shattered, oak knocked off the leaves.

Popov's daughter went for water, broke buckets, came home without water. Popadya asks: “Why are you a daughter, did you come without water?” She says: What a grief for me, what a great one for me: “An old man lived with an old woman. And they had a chicken ryabushechka, an old old woman. She laid an egg in the porch on a shelf, on a rye straw. No matter where the mouse came from, it cracked this testicle. The grandfather is crying, the woman is grieving, she has broken her leg, the tyn has become loose, the oak tree has knocked off its leaves. And I went for water, broke the buckets, broke the yoke. Even if you are a priest, leave the pies out the window with grief! Popadya with grief and threw the pies out the window.

Pop goes: "What are you, bottoms, doing?" And she replies: “What a grief for me, what a great one for me. An old man lived with an old woman. And they had a chicken ryabushechka, an old old woman. She laid an egg in the porch on a shelf, on a rye straw. No matter where the mouse came from, it cracked this testicle. The grandfather is crying, the woman is grieving, she has broken her leg, the tyn has become loose, the oak tree has knocked off its leaves. Our daughter went for water, broke the buckets, broke the yoke. And with grief I left all the pies out the window. And you, priest, at least hurt yourself on the jamb with grief! Pop run up, but how it hits the jamb! Here he died. They began to bury the priest and celebrate the wake. What an expensive egg!
* Fairy tale "Dear egg", Tales of the Saratov region. Saratov, 1937.

Fairy tale "Hen"

Once upon a time there was an old man with an old woman, they had a Tatar hen, she laid an egg in a kuta under the window: colorful, vostro, bone, tricky! She put it on the shelf; the mouse walked, shook its tail, the shelf fell, the testicle broke. The old man cries, the old woman weeps, she burns in the oven, the top of the hut staggers, the granddaughter girl strangled herself with grief.

There is a mallow, asking: why are they crying like that? The old people began to retell: “How can we not cry? We have a Tatar hen, she laid an egg in a kut under the window: colorful, vostro, bone, tricky! She put it on the shelf; the mouse walked, shook its tail, the shelf fell, the testicle broke! I, an old man, cry, the old woman sobs, burns in the oven, the top of the hut staggers, the granddaughter girl strangled herself with grief. As she heard the prosvirnya, she broke all the prosvirs and threw them away.
The deacon comes up and asks the prosvira: why did she leave the prosvira?
She told him all the grief; The deacon ran to the bell tower and broke all the bells.
The priest comes and asks the sexton: why did you interrupt the bells? The deacon retold all the grief to the priest, and the priest ran, tore up all the books.
* "Folk Russian Tales", Afanasyev A.N.

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

Vladimir Toporov (the founder of the "theory of the main myth") erected the plot of a fairy tale to the motif of the World Egg, which splits mythological hero. This motif was reconstructed by V. N. Toporov based on texts of a fairy-tale type (plot 301 - “Three Kingdoms: Gold, Silver and Copper”) and 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 (heaven, earth, etc.) from it is common to the mythological representations 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 the Hen" is an extreme degenerate version of the above mythological representation.
According to L. G. Moshchenskaya, the Ryaba Hen reflects a deep layer of mythopoetic ideas, the 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 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 ways: positive, creative (breaking an egg is the creation of a starry sky) and negative, destructive.

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


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


M.E. Vigdorchik, in his article "Analysis of the Russian Fairy Tale "Ryaba Hen" in the Theory of Object Relations" writes: "A golden egg laid by a chicken is a symbol of a child that is of particular importance to his parents. […] This interpretation is consistent with the subsequent part of the fairy tale, which deals with that both the grandfather and the woman beat the egg, they beat and educate, they try to bring the egg in line with their ideas, and the bitterness of disappointment comes when at one moment a certain "mouse" achieves what they could not achieve on their own in relation to the egg. she, this mouse? symbolic meaning and her actions (wag her tail) indicate that this is a woman (daughter-in-law), who is perceived by her son's parents as a rival, behaving frivolously. Parents can find consolation only in the “Ryaba Hen” that they have left and its childbearing function.


S.Z.Agranovich bases his analysis on psychoanalysis: “Grandfather and woman are elderly people (not by chance!); they also embody the human team (after all, this is a heterosexual couple).
The egg is the personification of life.
Gold is a symbol of death (in myths, gold and wealth are located precisely in the realm of the dead, in Slavic fairy tales— Koschey, representative realms of the dead, is always associated with gold).
The golden egg that the grandfather and the woman received is "anti-life, a black mark."
Having received a golden egg, the grandfather and the 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, can create both good and evil.
The priest's family is a model of both the human family and the sacred society.
An egg broken by a mouse scares everyone. The world begins to disintegrate, there is a madness of society. The reason for the collapse is unknown. Nobody knows what will happen next. They are unable to explain the act of the mouse because of its duplicity.
The denouement is coming: the hen promises to lay a SIMPLE egg, which means to give LIFE. Of course everyone is happy! They are saved!
Thus, the "children's fairy tale" turns out to be a story about life and death, about society, and about how the struggle for life develops. The tale of the chicken Ryaba conveys the emotions of a life-threatening situation: anxiety, fear, despair, and at the end - joy and jubilation.

Surprisingly, I did not find my version in.
Although I think it explains a lot.
In my opinion, a fairy tale teaches (impresses from childhood) that everything depends on everything.
I remember the butterfly at Bradbury - yes, that very case.
By chance broken egg entails a whole series of catastrophes, human casualties and natural disasters.
The tale speaks in plain text - be careful, think over your actions, everything around you, including yourself, can change from them.
The tale reminds: beware of random, unmotivated actions, they can bring serious consequences.And this is not even the notorious fingers in the socket and a jump with an umbrella from the 5th floor. This is much more serious and global!
The egg was often the object of various magical rites. With the help of an egg, they were often treated - it was believed that the egg was able to draw illness and spoilage from a person. But not everyone who wanted to could tell fortunes, but only the initiates, who clearly knew the whole sequence of actions.
Of course, the fairy tale shows how a mouse (an unreasonable creature) accidentally reproduced a magical rite (which neither grandfather nor grandmother wanted to perform - that's why they cried).
But it was already too late.
Just as a broken egg cannot be put back in its shell, so the consequences produced by accidental magical rite 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 everything is interdependent in the world, how important it is not to break these ties unknowingly and not to disturb the existing balance.

Perhaps every Russian heard this tale in childhood, and years later he himself told it to his children and grandchildren. At the same time, few people can say what the story about the chicken and the egg is really about. We do not analyze fairy tales, we do not look for morality in them, and, as a rule, we read in a version adapted for children, where the editor removed everything “unnecessary” and “incomprehensible”. But after all, every detail of the fairy tale was invented by our distant ancestors not by chance and has importance which, unfortunately, is not easy for us to understand. So what is this tale about?

What we see: Grandfather and Baba are not a boy and a girl, not a young man and a girl; Grandfather and Baba are not grandfather and grandfather, not a woman and a woman, but heterosexual beings - that is, humanity in an exhaustive form. Next comes the golden egg. Any normal person of our time, it will immediately think about where to lay it ... Anything, but just do not break it. And Grandfather and Baba are just starting to break the egg! They beat them, they didn't break them. But the Mouse ran, waved its tail - and broke it. What Grandfather and Baba wished so much happened. But they do not rejoice, but begin to weep. Then the Ryaba Hen appears, promises to lay an ordinary testicle, and Grandfather and Baba rejoice.

In the extended (not edited) version, very strange things happen before the second appearance of Ryaba. Exist different variants, but with one common message: everything is upside down. The gates and the bridge are collapsing, the birds and animals are crying ... The old people tell about everything that happened to the prosvirna (a woman baking the prosvirs) - that the roof of their house is staggering, the granddaughter girl strangled herself with grief, etc. The prosvirnya threw all the prosvirs, broke and told the story to the deacon's family. He heard this and ran to the bell tower, where he broke all the bells. The priest, having learned about the golden egg and the Mouse, cut off his hair, that is, cut his hair (removed clergy), tore the sacred books and burned the church. And the priest's wife poured out the dough and began to wash the floor with it ... And then, we know, Ryaba Hen laid an ordinary egg, and everything became fine again ...

So why were Grandfather and Baba so afraid of the golden egg? What is it? The fact is that a long time ago the egg was not perceived as something generated by the living. It was in the concept of ancient people a kind of mineral. Then something living was born from an inanimate egg. So the egg became a symbol of life. In the mythology of some peoples, at the beginning of the world, there was a Great Egg that cracked, and then the first living being appeared from it or all living things were formed (there are other similar options). Now about gold. Long before this a precious metal became a symbol of wealth, it was associated exclusively with death, as it was associated with underworld. Let's remember Greek god underworld Aida - he owns gold. Our Koschey is also "withering over gold." And then an egg, a symbol of life, suddenly appears as a sign of imminent death. Here the reaction of Grandfather and Baba becomes clear, whose advanced age brings them closer to death every day. In addition, they symbolize all of humanity. An apocalyptic picture emerges logically: chaos sets in, the world dies.

But then the Mouse appears - a magical creature that lives in two worlds: in the world of the living (earthly) and world of the dead(underground). Therefore, in fairy tales, the mouse is an intermediary between these two worlds, it can do both good and bad. And what she, possessing supernatural powers, managed to crack a golden egg - no wonder. But no one knows what this could mean, since the mouse has two faces. However, the denouement is joyful: Ryaba Hen promises to lay an ordinary testicle, everyone rejoices, the end of the world is canceled, the world is saved ...

It turns out that the children's fairy tale about Hen Ryaba is not as simple and meaningless as it might seem at first glance. In this case, this is a story about life and death, about the fear of the unknown, about the interconnection of everything that exists.

About the fairy tale

The fairy tale "Ryaba the Hen" is a classic of folk tales

Who does not know the famous Russian fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba? FROM early childhood all the kids of grandparents, moms or dads tell this interesting story about the magic chicken ryabushka.

On a page with vivid illustrations, text and images of real works of art are laid out. They accompany the story, and children will be able to vividly imagine acting characters and scenes from a Russian fairy tale. The beginning of the story is decorated with an egg, on which a richly dressed merchant and merchant's wife proudly hold a golden hen with a basket of her precious gifts. The picture marks the Easter holiday, when all Orthodox paint eggs in bright golden colors.

The heroes of the fairy tale are familiar to parents, and now it's time to introduce them to children:

Grandfather - according to a fairy tale, a simple peasant, whose wealth is only a grandmother and speckled hen. Grandpa loves his little crotch very much, cares for it and cherishes it. When the mouse broke the golden egg, he cried and lamented, but the magic hen consoled him and promised to lay a new simple egg.

Woman - grandfather's wife, also loves a good ryabushka. Feed her with selected barley, and water her with spring water so that the hen would lay large testicles. Without eggs, the grandmother will not be able to knead the dough and bake a tall ruddy loaf.

Hen Ryaba - a magic wand. She lays eggs not simple, but golden. Only such testicles cannot be broken and not put into the dough, there is little sense from them when you want to eat. And you can’t sell it, it’s fragile like glass and, when it breaks, it turns into small fragments. Ryaba wanted to give wealth to her grandfather and grandmother, but it turned out that simple eggs in the household are much more important!

Gray mouse - a small pest. She climbs into barns and haylofts, drags everything that does not lie well and gnaws at bags with winter supplies. The mouse let down the grandfather and grandmother when she brushed off the testicle with her tail. She deprived the old people of wealth, for which she received a big grandfather's boot.

fairy tale ending with deep meaning! The hen gave the old people a simple, not a golden egg. Because happiness in the house is not built on wealth, but on harmony, love and respect.

More about illustrations and Russian folk crafts

Children's fairy tale about Ryabushka is intended for family discussion and reading at night. Through each line of the book there are images with Gzhel coasters, nesting dolls from Fedoskino, black lacquer miniature from Mstera and figurines from the village of Kholui. Parents will be able to acquaint children with ancient works folk art and plunge for a few minutes into the richness of Russian literature.

In conclusion, you can put headphones on your baby and give them. A measured narrative will allow the imagination to run wild, calm the child after a hard day and inspire a good healthy sleep. with slides will demonstrate a peasant hut and all the events that took place in an old fairy tale. Acquaintance with Russian folk art will strengthen your knowledge of the language and love for your native land!

For several days now I have been reading this fairy tale to my daughter and I am indignant! Well, what a stupid chicken, couldn’t immediately lay a normal egg? It was so difficult. In a fit of anger, so to speak, I was puzzled by the question, what is the moral of this fairy tale. The first link that Google gave me was very informative)) I quote:

For half a year I tell my child a fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba for the night, and each time I am tormented by guesses, what is her morality.

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 plot of the fairy tale about the chicken Ryaba. Here are some examples:

Attempts to interpret its meaning are also very wide, from simple statements like “what we have - we don’t keep, if we lose it - we cry”, “we didn’t live richly, and there’s nothing to start” or “old age is not joy: they have less strength left for two, than a mouse” to whole parables, for example, about love: “About 5 years ago, when I was a student, a certain aunt-professor told me that the golden egg is Love, which my grandfather and grandmother did not save. Grandfather beat - drank, walked ..., grandmother beat - walked, did not wash floors and did not wash shirts. A de mouse is such a small muck like gossip or some household trifle. Like, if Love is beaten for a long time and diligently, then in order to finally chop it up, a trifle is enough. Well, a simple testicle is a habit that grandparents got instead of love. Hen Ryaba, respectively, Fate or the Higher Mind. And Ryaba is because it is pockmarked, i.e. black and white, i.e. combines both black and white sides of life” or about the ecological end of the world:

Here are some 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 in full, pay attention at least to the last 5 paragraphs):

“Once upon a time there were Grandfather and Baba. And they had Ryaba Hen. The hen laid an egg. Yes, not simple, but golden. Grandfather beat-beat - did not break. Baba beat-beat - did not break. The mouse ran, waved its tail - the testicle fell and broke. Grandfather cries, Baba cries, and the Hen cackles: “Don't cry, Grandfather, don't cry, Baba. I will lay you another testicle - not golden, but simple.

Ask a parent to tell you this story. It is difficult to find a person who does not know her. You can start by asking if the parent has read the story to the child. If you read it, then let it retell. If there is a hitch in the story, you can help. And when the parent tells the whole story, it is worth asking a few questions.

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

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

Comment: Most parents will report that they never thought about the content of the story. Those who say that they were always embarrassed by its content 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 at a loss, we often do not change our behavior, do not trust the child, for example, after consulting with him about the content of the tale. After all, one could simply ask the child about what Grandfather and Baba are doing, why are they crying?

It is quite possible that the psychologist will hear the 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 one can simply ask, how often does a parent even ask about a 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, and not rise again to the level of consciousness.

It can be said that the parent just retold this 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. The information received at an early age, we keep all our lives and perceive it without criticism, because at this age we do not have developed critical thinking. Therefore, when reading a fairy tale in an adult state, we continue to relate to it without a shadow of doubt.

But a fairy tale is only a pretext for discussing what a parent does when he or she reads a fairy tale or otherwise interacts 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 has developed under the influence of the words of people significant to him: “You are such and such or such and such. Nothing will come of you” or “You will grow up, you will work hard and achieve everything you want.” These words and the attitude towards a child under 5 form a scenario that entangles a person with invisible threads and makes adults act not in accordance with the real situation, but in accordance with the ideas about oneself and one's destiny 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 makes it possible to understand many features of an adult's behavior. In addition, this tale is not everyday, it is not easy to interpret. It differs from others in that it is told to all the children of our culture, because it bears the imprint of this culture.

That version of “Ryaba the 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 book by A. N. Afanasyev “Russian Folk Tales”. When reading this option, it turns out that after Grandfather and Baba cried, the granddaughters came, found out about the testicle, broke the buckets (they went for water), spilled the water. The mother, having learned about the testicle (and she was kneading the dough), broke the kneading pot, the father, who at that moment was in the forge, smashed the forge, and the priest, passing by, demolished the bell tower. And the peasants, having learned about this event, in different versions of the tale, hanged themselves or drowned themselves.

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

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

Someone gave Grandfather and Baba something that they had never met. An egg as an archetype, which is regularly found both in myths and in fairy tales of all peoples, is a symbol of the birth of something. It is golden, because it does not look like what the Hen was carrying earlier. That is why Grandfather and Baba do not run to the pawnshop to pawn a golden shell, so that later they can buy a mountain of simple eggs. Gold, like the egg itself, is only a symbol here. But the old people are trying to destroy what they have never met before in their lives. But you could wait, put it aside and see who hatches from it. But they do not act like this, but are in a hurry to destroy this new one. And here another archetypal hero appears in the story - the Mouse. We write her name with a capital letter, because this is also not a small rodent, but a symbol. It is not for nothing that in many Russian fairy tales she is a key subject, which solves the problems that have arisen. The mouse as an archetype is God's substitute. And then the one who gave, he takes away what people do not know how to use. And then another archetype appears in the tale.

But it will be better if the psychologist does not simply say what kind of archetype it is, but helps the parent to feel its existence. The psychologist can tell him that he would like to prove the existence of this archetype, and not just report it. After all, it was precisely for its introduction into the unconscious of every child of a given culture that this fairy tale was created, for the sake of it it is passed down 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, befitting suggestion, says: “Imagine that there is Someone about whom you know that any of his words will come true for sure. And now this Someone comes in and says to you: “From now on, nothing new will ever, NEVER 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 the parent in a normal voice. Obviously, he will say that either he did not believe you (worst case), or he felt scared, unpleasant, bad (you succeeded). Then you say that right now a person has felt the reality in himself of the most important archetype that all people of the same culture pass on to each other from generation to generation - this is the archetype of the Miracle. We live because we know for sure that if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, but a miracle will surely 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 a similar archetype of other peoples (and everyone has it, since it is he who 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 the fact that a miracle will definitely happen to a child, and to any other person, but not for free, but thanks to joint work. It's a long way to create a miracle, but a very effective one. If it is possible to conduct such a mini-training with the parent, then further cooperation with him is guaranteed.”