Game song “Horse-radish” in Komi and north Russian traditions: variants and transformations

Observations on the variability of one of the folklore song plots occurring in the European North in Russian and Komi traditions - the game song “Horse-radish” - are presented in article. Material for the research has been revealed in the Folklore Archive of Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University, in the collections of Komi and Russian folklore. Single variants from the Russian traditions have been written down in the lower Vychegda (Lensk and Vilegodsky districts of the Arkhangelsk region) and the lower Pechora (the Nenets Autonomous Area of the Arkhangelsk region). Numerous records have been made in the South of the Komi Republic (the basins of the Sysola and Letka). The ethnic Komi borrowed and creatively assimilated this plot. The comparative textual analysis of the variants of the game song “Horse-radish” plot has been carried out. The variants which occurred in the Komi tradition are notable for adding the dance tune motives to the plot. It has ensured their popularity and longevity in the Komi game culture. In the Russian traditions, the recollections of this song’s existence have been rarely recorded. A peculiar “transformed” variant of the song has been found in the round dances repertoire of Ust-Tsilma “hill” (the tradition of the Russians in Pechora). The plot of purchasing “radish” from a “grandmother” is related to a group of “Horse-radish” works. This plot accompanied an ornamental round dance. The Komi and the Russian (Ust-Tsilma) variants differ from the “classical” variant of this song. They reflect the results of the poetic text adaptation both in its native and the other national environment, as well as its inclusion into a new functional and household context.