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OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America SEPTEMBER 1997 Editor: TAMARA STADNYCHENKO FROM RIDDLES AND POPULAR SAYINGS TO MODERN BALLADS INSPIRED BY UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE TEACHING TOOLS FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES by h £ i _E n e t u k e w ic z - s a n k o Riddles and sayings constitute the most basic forms of oral literature in any culture, providing a condensed form of wisdom transmitted from one generation to another. They assure the invitation of the new generation into the fold of ancient tradition strongly ruled by a definite language. Play on sounds, play on words, personification, and metaphors are often associated with the landscape, the flora and fauna of the country and offer a whole rhetorical system based on the spoken language directed towards the people who speak it. Classical literature pays homage to these forms of oral literature when it records sayings and molds them into “proverbs” or creates “maxims”; the oral literature reaches even greater heights when a poet decides to write a ballad on a popular theme from the oral tradition. A riddle in any language should be taken very seriously as a teaching tool. This teaching device has very ancient roots: the Bible, ancient Greek mythology, Norse mythology. It is said that King Lycerus of Babylon and King Nectanebo of Egypt waged a war of riddles. Lycerus is supposed to have won with the aid of Aesop, author of the well-known Fables. The riddle is very unique because it presents a problem, an enigma that must be solved. It imposes a certain discipline of the mind as listeners try to seek the right answer. Riddles have always been popular. The earliest riddles were represented by ancient oracles and bards. The ancients made riddles about the sun, the moon, the rainbow and especially the wind: “What flies forever and rests never?” In Greek mythology, a Sphinx confronts Oedipus with this famous riddle: “What has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two- footed and three-footed?” Oedipus guessed the answer, “Man” who crawls on all fours when a baby, learns to stand and walks with a cane in old age. Pedagogically speaking riddles offer wonderful opportunities to stimulate the minds of youngsters and invite them to be attentive to their surroundings. There are many examples of riddles based on the observation of traditional surroundings. Some of the most interesting are associated with the traditional Ukrainian vegetables (or kitchen) garden which has inspired oral as well as classical literature. There are no adjectives which adequately describe a Ukrainian traditional kitchen garden in which all the ingredients necessary to make borshch or red beet soup are invariably at arm’s length. With its great variety of plants and herbs a Ukrainian garden is a work of art, where the gardener with a green thumb can create something that can be compared to a quilt with colors dominated by greens, yellows and reds. This garden is also the source of riddles with which parents or grandparents can entertain their children and grandchildren, teasing their minds in the most imaginative ways. What follows is a collection of such riddles, drawn from the wealth of Ukrainian folklore and made available in a series of books entitled “Zahadky”, compiled by Ukrainian-Canadian Andrew Fedchuk. A teacher and poet, Fedchuk
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