Morphology of the Folktale

Interesting Facts

• This work was the first in world scholarship to attempt a rigorous structural analysis of the fairy tale, where the author identified an unchanging sequence of character functions, like musical notes forming a single melody of narrative.
• The book reveals a remarkable principle: despite the endless variety of plots, all tales are built on a single skeleton, just as many trees grow from one seed.
• The author introduces the concept of the "function"—an elementary action of a character—and shows that there are only thirty-one, and it is these, like links in a chain, that connect all magical stories.
• The research inspired not only folklorists but also writers, screenwriters, and directors, becoming a kind of map for creating new plots and imaginative worlds.
• The book unveils to the reader the secret mechanism of the fairy tale, allowing one to see behind the whimsical images and fantastic events the strict logic and order hidden beneath the veil of magic.