As a child, each of us believed in the existence of Santa Claus, Snow Maiden and even Baba Yaga. However, as adults, we flatly abandoned these childhood fantasies. And it never occurred to anyone that at least some of the fairytale heroes once really existed or still live among us.
The same Munchausen
Karl Friedrich Jerome von Munchausen - that is his full name - is not only a literary hero, but also a completely historical person. He was born and lived in the 17th century, first in Germany and then in Russia. It is known that he took part in many military battles on the Russian side, having risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Having retired in 1752, he settled on his German estate, where, communicating only with his neighbors, he told them amazing stories about his life in Russia. These include such subjects as the entry into St. Petersburg on a wolf harnessed to a sleigh, a horse cut in half, a horse on the top of a church, a furious fur coat and a tree growing on a deer's head. The stories of the baron-dreamer became so popular among his entourage that they were used by the German writer R. E. Raspe, even during the life of the lieutenant colonel, who became excited.adding stories with their own fictional plots, which infuriated the prototype itself. According to some reports, the restless baron even went to court with a complaint against the writer, who created the image of Munchausen in the form of a complete liar. However, he lost the trial, since Raspe published his book anonymously, and, moreover, referring to the translation of a similar English edition.
Pinocchio and Duremar prototypes
A few years ago, archaeologists from the United States discovered near the grave of Carlo Collodi, the author of the story about a wooden man, a granite slab with the name that struck them - Pinocchio Sanchez. Believing that such an unusual similarity was not accidental, they, with the consent of the authorities, exhumed. And that's what it turned out - the late Pinocchio had wooden limbs and a wooden nose, and one of the prostheses bore the name of the master who made them … Carlo Bestulgi. Shocked archaeologists found in the local archives a mention of the fact that in 1760 a boy was born in the Sanchez family, who did not grow at all and even in adulthood was no more than a 6-year-old child. Nevertheless, he fought as a drummer, but returned home completely crippled. However, the master Carlo made wooden prostheses for him, and Pinocchio became the artist of the fair booth,demonstrating to others his new acquisition …
Now a few words about Duremar from A. Tolstoy's story "The Golden Key". It turns out that this character also had its own prototype. Collodi does not have it in his tale, but Tolstoy introduced it, and it was not at all by chance, since at the end of the 19th century in Moscow, a doctor from France named Jacques Boulemard was widely known. The doctor was a promoter of hirudotherapy, and in a simple way - leech therapy. The strange Frenchman caught these blood-sucking creatures himself, which aroused great curiosity among the local children, who called him, distorting his surname, Duremar. All this, of course, was well known to A. Tolstoy, who introduced Duremar into the tale of the wooden man.
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Santa Claus is the most alive
The prototype of the Russian Father Frost and his brother Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Mirlikia, who lived 1,700 years ago in the provincial town of Patara on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Despite the fact that the future Santa Claus spent all his life in a Mediterranean climate, where there is no trace of winter or snow, he is considered a living embodiment of this coldest time of the year. The only thing for which he was named after the now-well-known fabulous New Year's creature is his everlasting affection for children, for whom Bishop Nicholas felt truly paternal love. From childhood, he helped everyone who was in a difficult situation, and all his life he did good deeds. According to legend, he threw gifts for children into the chimney, which fell into shoes that were drying here, then into stockings. It was from here that the custom began to put gifts for Christmas in boots or in socks that children hang by their beds …
In the city of Myra (now Demre), which belongs to Turkey, where he was elected archbishop, there is still a church that has preserved fragments of frescoes from the 3rd century. Local residents call it in Turkish Baba Noel Kilise, that is, the Church of Santa Claus …
Saint Nicholas himself is buried in the city of Bar, which is located in Italy. In the course of time, Saint Nicholas was also called in English - Santa Claus. He was also a revered saint in Russia, under the name of Nicholas the Pleasant or Nicholas the Wonderworker. He is the patron saint of sailors and naval commanders, and the peasants have prayed to him since the 11th century, when cattle fell ill, in case of drought or other disasters, but at first neither one nor the other associated him with the New Year or Christmas. This fashion, like the fashion for everything foreign, came to our country about 200 years ago, and the final transformation of St. Nicholas into a secular Father Frost took place only in Soviet times.
Uncle Stepa's grave has been discovered
She was found in the Tver region near the village of Teremets by local children. While wandering in the forest in search of brushwood for a fire, the children came across the ruins of some hut and a gravestone near it, on which the words: "Stepan Silov rests here." As it was later established, Stepan Silov was a district policeman, distinguished by gigantic growth and great physical strength. Being a favorite of local children and a thunderstorm of criminals whom he caught with his bare hands, he abruptly gave up his post, retiring to the forest thicket and not meeting people, where he lived for several years until his death. Until now, it remains a mystery what is the reason for such a hermitage, who supplied Uncle Styopa with food and who buried him.
Alice is not from Wonderland
This girl, taken by Lewis Carroll as the prototype for his famous fairy tale through the looking glass, was indeed called Alice. But the miracles behind her, something was not noticed, because she was an ordinary girl, the daughter of a teacher at Oxford College, Henry Liddell, who is a friend of Carroll. The young lady herself demanded from the writer that he write a fairy tale about her, where these miracles would take place. As a result, a world masterpiece came out, and the manuscript was presented to that very Alice. Evil tongues said that Carroll subsequently proposed to his grown-up pet, but received a categorical refusal, since Alice hoped for a marriage with Queen Victoria's son, Leopold. However, the ending of this story was not fabulous at all - they parted with the prince. Rejected Alice, despite her popularity,who came to her with the publication of the famous book, she never appeared at literary evenings dedicated to book Alice again, and did not even mention Carroll's name in her memoirs, offended by him for some unknown reason.
Arkady Vyatkin