Radost (Joy) in East Slavic Folklore

Abstract

The word radost (joy) and its derivatives are presented in most genres of East Slavic folklore (in Russian epics, calendar songs, fu­neral and wedding lamentations, songs and sentences, folk lyrics, sayings, incantations, spiritual poetry, etc.). In folklore contexts radost forms a part of set phrases indicating ways, methods, pur­poses, reasons and emotional states related to the performance of certain actions. The meanings of the folklore word radost, changing from genre to genre, are quite diverse. Radost as a ‘feeling of pleas­ure’ is realised in almost all genres, except for funeral and recruit­ment lamentations and, to some extent, spiritual poetry. A large place in folklore is occupied by contexts where radost acquires the meaning of a certain value. In a wide variety of genres, radost is correlated with the birth, the appearance of a new person — the Infant Christ or an ordinary newborn baby. In calendar folklore, radost is associated with “material” values — koryst (profit) and dary (gifts) — and materialises in such events and objects as children’s weddings (promising an addition to the family), the offspring of cattle, etc. In epics and weddings, radost is understood as a certain “objectified” event and means a feast (and especially a wedding feast), treats, reception of guests, or, finally, just a holiday. Projected onto the axiological scale, in the overwhelming majority of cases deriva­tives of East Slavic rad- are associated with a complex of positive meanings, although in some genres (mythological stories, spiritual poetry, sayings) radost can gravitate towards the opposite pole, where it is perceived as a consequence of a person’s unrighteousness, ac­companying his sinful behaviour, is induced by Satan and his min­ions, or is even attributed to the devil.