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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 2 (188), 557—566

UDK 398.3:27-534.3](477.46-2=161.2)”185/194″:821.161.2-95.09″193″

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 06.03.2026
  • Accepted: 24.03.2026
  • Published: 27.04.2026

FOLK PRAYERS OF THE MIDDLE DNIEPER REGION FROM THE ZVENYHORODSHCHYNA OF THE LATE 19TH — EARLY 20TH CENTURIES, PUBLISHED BY ACADEMICIAN AGATANGEL KRYMSKY

HUNCHYK Ihor

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6448-5461
  • Ph.D. of Sciences in Philology, Associate Professor, 
  • the Department of Ukrainian Folklore Studies named after Academician Filaret Kolessa,
  • Ivan Franko National University of Lviv,
  • 1, Universytetska str., 79000, Lviv, Ukraine, 
  • Contacts: e-mail: hunchyki@gmail.com

Abstract. The article first makes sense of interesting and original folklore and ethnographic material, the basis of which is folk prayers from Zvenyhorodshchyna — a component of the Central-Eastern historical and ethnographic region of Ukraine, which belongs to the Middle Dnieper region. They were included in the little-known work of Agatangel Krymsky «Zvenyhorodshchyna. Shevchenko’s homeland from an ethnographic and dialectological point of view», which in the early 30s of the twentieth century during the period of the «Shooted Renaissance» was banned and not published in mass circulation. This is the relevance of the study. The author of the article aimed to prove that the folklore tradition of performing folk prayers has long existed and has been preserved until recently not only in the territory of other historical and ethnographic regions of Polissya and the South-Western region, but also in the central lands of Ukraine, in particular among the inhabitants of the Dnieper region. To this end, the following main tasks were implemented in the article: among all the materials, 16 folklore prayers were found and identified; these texts were systematized according to the corresponding thematic groups (family, industrial and economic, medical, individual and protective); their belonging to certain functional varieties was clarified; a typology of mythological divine characters was carried out according to their hierarchy, etc. 

According to the author of the article, folk prayers from A. Krymsky’s work «Zvenyhorodshchyna…» belong to lyrical plotless or epic plot works with traditional formulas from appeal to invitation and a nominal formula of the addressee. Only one prayer about the dream of the Most Holy Theotokos has a dramatic form with elements of dialogism. Most of these utilitarian-magical formations have a poetic structure with partial rhyme in the lines. Almost half of all prayer texts are identified by the respondents themselves with the genre of prayer. As a conclusion, the author claims that the collection of folk prayers for the collection of academician A. Krymsky was an ad hoc process, and not a specially planned scientific project in advance. Therefore, the records of a relatively small number of folk prayers recorded here reflect the real average statistical picture of their distribution in the oral tradition of the Zvenyhorod region and, apparently, among the population of the entire Middle Dnieper region. 

Keywords: folk prayer, Zvenyhorodshchyna, folklore, Middle Dnieper region, mythological divine characters, thematic group, functional variety.

REFERENCES

  • Hunchyk, I. (2011). Ukrainian magical-sacred folklore: text structure and features of functioning. Lviv: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv [in Ukrainian].
  • Hrushevsky, M.S. (1891). Essay on the history of the Kiev land from the death of Yaroslav to the end of the XIV century. Kyiv: Printing House of the Imperial University of St. Vladimir [in Russian].
  • Kyrchiv, R., & Pavlyuk, S.P. (Ed.). (1994). Ethnographic zoning of Ukraine. Ukrainian ethnology. Lviv: Phoenix [in Ukrainian].
  • Ponomarev, A.P. (1994). Ukrainian ethnography. Kyiv: Lybid [in Ukrainian].
  • Krymsky, A.Yu., & Chaban, A.Yu. (2009). Zvenygorod region. Shevchenko’s homeland from an ethnographic and dialectological point of view. Cherkasy: Vertical [in Ukrainian].
  • Ohienko. I. (2011). English-Ukrainian Parallel Bible. Ukrainian Bible Society. [in Ukrainian].
  • Tuptalo, Dmytro, & Shevchuk, V. (2008, October). The Life of the Saints (Vol. 2). Lviv: Svichado [in Ukrainian].
  • Tuptalo, Dmytro, & Shevchuk, V. (2007, December). The Life of the Saints (Vol. 4). Lviv: Svichado [in Ukrainian].
  • Tuptalo, Dmytro, & Shevchuk, V. (2007, November). The Life of the Saints (Vol. 3). Lviv: Svichado [in Ukrainian].
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