Functions and Actualisation of the Hero Character in Fairy Tales from the Neretva Valley

Abstract

Seven manuscript collections contain folklore material collected through field research by the employees of the former Institute of Folk Art Zagreb in the middle of the last century in the Neretva Valley. The two manuscript collections by Maja Bošković-Stulli (1956 and 1964) are the only ones to contain fairy tales, along with other prose forms, whereas only the manuscript collections by Nikola Bonifačić Rožin and Ivan Ivančan contain legends, anecdotes, and legendary tales collected in the aforementioned area. An examination of the material has shown that the two manuscript collections by Maja Bošković-Stulli are relevant for the selection of the material studied in this paper. A total of twenty fairy tales can be identified in both collections: of these, eight feature a young man as the hero, and twelve have a heroine, or a girl, as the main character. Due to the format of the paper in the journal, the study will focus on a young man who fulfils the functions of the fairy tale hero. The paper focuses on the principles and methods of the hero’s realisation in overcoming tasks and challenges, as well as on the hero’s attributes. They are realised through physical strength, strength of mind/cunning, and magical help. Specific motives for the realisation of the young man as a hero of a fairy tale will be studied in order to determine the ways in which these three different paths of the hero are realised. The analysis of character functions will use the cultural-historical method to show the laws of shaping the hero’s world in the context of the feudal Middle Ages, the socio-historical method to study the way in which the hero’s character achieves a rise on the social ladder with a focus on the psychoanalytic and mythological approach to attempt to point out motifs of archetypal value in the context of psychoanalytic reading of fairy tales.