Russian folktale about a man who returns to his own village?
February 7, 2023 2:55 PM Subscribe
This post on the blue reminded me of my ongoing search for what I believe was a retelling of a Russian folktale that I read when I was very young.
It would've been in one of those "Literature" anthologies you might have had for 3rd - 8th grade English or Reading class in the US. The story follows a man who leaves his village on foot to visit another. He sleeps alongside the road, but first points his shoes in the direction he had been traveling in order to keep himself straight. Someone switches the shoes in the night, and in the morning he returns to his own village, but believes it to be a somewhere new, though identical to his own village. Everyone knows him, but cannot convince him that he is who they know him to be. He believes there must have been another of him who will soon return. My googling fails me.
Anyone know it? Or have an idea where I could poke at? Bonus points for anyone who knows of some catalog or list of all those old Reading books I would've had, just for nostalgia and further nit-scratching.
It would've been in one of those "Literature" anthologies you might have had for 3rd - 8th grade English or Reading class in the US. The story follows a man who leaves his village on foot to visit another. He sleeps alongside the road, but first points his shoes in the direction he had been traveling in order to keep himself straight. Someone switches the shoes in the night, and in the morning he returns to his own village, but believes it to be a somewhere new, though identical to his own village. Everyone knows him, but cannot convince him that he is who they know him to be. He believes there must have been another of him who will soon return. My googling fails me.
Anyone know it? Or have an idea where I could poke at? Bonus points for anyone who knows of some catalog or list of all those old Reading books I would've had, just for nostalgia and further nit-scratching.
Depending on your age, do you recognize any of the distinctive covers of 1970s or 1980s Houghton Mifflin readers?
posted by nonane at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2023
posted by nonane at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2023
Response by poster: 9 minutes flat! Amazing, nonane. Funny how I had the plot points right, but the peoples involved all wrong. Warsaw, not Russia! 15 minutes ago if you'd said the main character was Boris, I would have believed you. Thank you, and double thank you for the Google image search results. Memory lane...
posted by AbelMelveny at 3:19 PM on February 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by AbelMelveny at 3:19 PM on February 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: WISE MAN of Chelm, I feel obliged to point out, which is meant Amelia Bedelia style. They're fun, enjoy!
posted by atomicstone at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2023
posted by atomicstone at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2023
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posted by nonane at 3:04 PM on February 7, 2023 [7 favorites]