The Great Snake

"The Great Snake"
Short story by Pavel Bazhov
Original titleПро Великого Полоза
TranslatorAlan Moray Williams (first), Eve Manning, et al.
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
Genre(s)skaz
Publication
Published inKrasnaya Nov
Publication typePeriodical
Media typePrint (magazine, hardback and paperback)
Publication date1936
Published in English1944
Chronology
SeriesThe Malachite Casket collection (list of stories)
 
Beloved Name
 
The Mistress of the Copper Mountain

"The Great Snake" or "The Great Serpent" (Russian: Про Великого Полоза, romanized: Pro Velikogo Poloza, lit. "Of the Great Serpent"[1]) is a folk tale (the so-called skaz) of the Ural region of Siberia collected and reworked by Pavel Bazhov. It was first published in the 11th issue of the Krasnaya Nov literary magazine in 1936 and later the same year as a part of the collection Prerevolutionary Folklore of the Urals. It was later released as a part of The Malachite Casket collection. The story was translated from Russian into English by Alan Moray Williams in 1944, and by Eve Manning in the 1950s.

In this skaz, two boys meet the legendary creature the Great Snake (also translated as Poloz the Great Snake;[2] Russian: Великий Полоз, romanized: Velikij Poloz).

The story of two brothers is then continued in "The Snake Trail", published in 1939.[3]

  1. ^ Balina, Marina; Rudova, Larissa (2013-02-01). Russian Children's Literature and Culture. Literary Criticism. Routledge. p. 264. ISBN 978-1135865566.
  2. ^ "The Malachite Casket: Tales from the Urals – Pavel Bazhov, Alan Moray Williams". Little White Crow. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Змеиный след" [The Serpent's Trail] (in Russian). FantLab. Retrieved 22 November 2015.