ИСТИНА

Traditional storytelling continues in Scottish Gaelic culture and represents a living cultural ecology. Some local stories and personal accounts, with their distinct Gaelic flavour, often seem unique to Scotland, but once compared with the Northern European myths and legends, gradually reveal archaic and truly international features. All together these tales from the Northern Periphery of Europe form its precious and fragile heritage. The Russian North, however, though rightly perceived as an indispensible part of the Northern Europe, is rarely included into comparative studies. The present talk will show on several examples how the bulk of Russian material may change the whole view on established Gaelic subjects and characters and add towards our understanding of the earlier archaic strata.