The material world in Karelian fairy tales: analyzing fairy tales recorded between 1937 and 1958

This article explores the innovative elements present in the material world depicted in Karelian fairy tales collected between 1937 and 1958 in the Kalevala, Medvezhegorsk, and Segezha districts, primarily from storytellers over the age of forty. The compilation was made by Unelma Konkka, a Karelian researcher, and published in her 1963 collection titled Karelian Folk Tales , the first of the two volumes with the fairy tales of this region. By conducting a thorough analysis, this article identifies various objects in the tales that reflect the ongoing transformations in everyday life (subscription, jacket), scientific and technological progress (photograph, telephone wires), and the growing influence of urban environment (apartment, premises). During the analysis, it was discovered that 10 out of the 39 analyzed fairy tales contained new elements, suggesting a gradual change in the everyday world depicted in Karelian fairy tales. These new realia of the twentieth century penetrated into the tales and often replaced their predecessors without losing the underlying semantics. This finding indicates the ability of folk tales to incorporate contemporary elements while maintaining their core themes and values.