A “contemptible” character of Northern Europe fairy tales

The article examines the essence of the character inherent to most folk fairy tales of Scandinavian countries. Such characters are referred to the category of “contemptible” or “giving no hopes” protagonists. The most common fairy tales of Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were used as a research material of the study. The researcher identifies key characteristic features of the “contemptible” character: he is the youngest of three brothers, he comes from an extremely poor family, he has a rather repulsive looks at the beginning of the fairy tale, and he behaves strangely (has a habit of sitting behind the fireplace in the box filled with the ashes), is very passive. The fact that the protagonist of the fairy tale is the youngest child in the family is conditioned by the dominance of patriarchy, when all inherited property was concentrated in the hands of older children. The youngest son always remained in the most disadvantageous position. The author of the study provides evidence proving that this character is the later transformation into the figure of shaman. According to this theory, the hero’s untidiness, ashes on his clothes and messed up hair are echoes of the ritual assimilation with the dead. Such repulsive looks of the “contemptible” character is a precursor of his future resurrection in the frames of the shaman initiation practice. A deliberate passivity exhibited by the character at the very beginning of the fairy tale speaks of the need for conscious isolation required for the emersion into a deep trance.