Whence Truth and Grievance: Belarusian Folk Legends and True Stories

This publication opens up to the reader the world of Belarusian legends and folktales — narratives that have preserved the wisdom of ancestors and a unique vision of nature, society, and man. Each text is a living voice of a culture that continues to exist in the 21st century, despite technological changes. Some works can not only be read but also heard — thanks to audio and video recordings made by the compilers in various parts of Belarus.

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The publication includes legends and folktales as a special form of accumulating, preserving, and transmitting traditional knowledge about nature, the social environment, society, and man. Emphasis is placed on recordings from recent decades, which reveals the vitality and depth of the memory of oral culture even in our technocentric era. Some of them are published for the first time. The retelling of the plot in Russian and English expands the readership. The book is accompanied by audio or video recordings of selected texts, made by the compilers in various regions of Belarus, which are available on a YouTube channel. It is addressed to a wide range of readers.