Divine Justice. Bulgarian legends and tales. The Balkan substrate and their Christian influences Volume 4

Fairy tales and legends are an important part of every culture so their study becomes to some extent indispensable. Through fairy tales and legends, each people presents its perceptions on basic aspects of human existence such as cosmogony, birth and death, relationship with the metaphysical world, moral values, etc. They also prepared people for the difficulties of life, warned them of the dangers and reassured them, as in most of them good prevails in the end. A key feature of fairy tales is the magical element, where metaphysical phenomena and supernatural creatures interact with humans in either a positive or negative way. With the Christianisation of the Slavic world, it is observed that this magical element in traditional tales is not eliminated but either coexists with or is embodied in the Christian tradition. Thus, the purpose of this publication is to collect, study and analyse traditional Bulgarian narratives (tales and legends) in order to identify the influence of Christianity on the one hand and its degree and extent on the other.