Folklore motif is an analytical tool created for the particular kind of research. Our purpose is to reveal routes of the interregional exchange of ideas in different periods of the past. The dissemination of ideas can be followed when we study material (archaeological sites) and non-material (traditional narratives) objects created because of particular ideas adopted by people. Ideas are copied and disseminated unconsciously. The folklore motif is any unit of replication (most often an episode or an image) registered in two or more traditions. The tradition is a totality of narratives recorded for a particular ethnic group or across a particular territory. Motifs can be classified according to thematic groups that approximately correspond to genres of those narratives from which they are selected. The author analyses the results of computing trickster motifs with animal and anthropomorphic actors. The area configuration of the selected interaction spheres suggests that the spread of the motifs with anthropomorphic actors took place mostly from the late Antique period to the early New Time, and the spread of the animal tales - during the Middle Age and earlier. The influence of the Great Steppe on East Europe is noticeable for the Middle Age with the emergence of the borderline between Christian Europe, and the Asian-Africa interaction sphere is a characteristic trait of the early New Time. China is outside of this opposition.

The article deals with the problem of a cross-genre approach to studying the structure, semantics and pragmatics of the folklore motif. The interpretation of the relations between the “deep” and “surface” levels of the traditional text is based on the postulates of the Russian structural-semiotic school. Three main functions of the folklore motif are classification, narration and indexation. The author discusses the thesis that concrete pragmatic models and stylistic shapes of the folklore texts are formed on the basis of the dominant function of the motif and thereby are preserved by the genre system of a particular tradition and exploited by its users. The question of the correlation between archetypal and culturally related levels of the traditional text is discussed on the material of the motif “Animated from the bones” represented by the world wide folklore traditions. The article summarizes the results of various studies based on different methods, obviously tied by limitations of genre, ethnocultural or regional nature. The cross-genre and cross-cultural study of proverbs, demonological narratives, etiological, eschatological and hagiographic legends, fairy tales, calendar rituals, medical charms - with a common motif of “collecting bones” - promotes the effective approach for integrating achievements of particular methods as well as for solving complex folkloristics problems.

The article is devoted to the main motives of the nine so-called “sister books” that were created at the turn of the 12^th-13^th centuries in the Dominican convents for women in the south of the German-speaking region and were highly mythologized monastic chronicles. The mystical-ascetic practices of medieval Western monasticism were built on the basis of several (marriage, passion, Christmas) motifs developed by the Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux in a cycle of sermons on the biblical Song of Songs of King Solomon. Created in the middle of the 12^th century, these motifs subsequently descended into the environment of common piety at the turn of the 13^th and 14^th centuries. In these three motives - marriage (nuptial), passionate (passionate) and Christmas (natal) - the mystical union of the soul of man and God (unio mystica) is allegorically described. Launched into circulation by Bernard of Clairvaux as conditional metaphors that accompanied discursive theological reasoning, these motifs passed through several stages in their development, until they finally became behavioral scenarios played out by Dominicans in everyday life, in the process of unfolding spontaneous performative practices. Through the efforts of the inquisitors (John Nider and others), such scenarios were rethought in the middle of the 15^th century as constituent elements of witch cults.

Numerous texts of Slavic folklore, including the folk fairy tale, reflect ideas concerning the demonic properties of non-agricultural professions. These include, in particular, the hero of this analysis, namely the blacksmith.The primary research objective involves illustrating the specificity of the fairy tale image of a blacksmith. The peculiarities of his behaviour, forms of interaction with other characters, the attributes of the craft he mastered, the functions he performs, as well as his posthumous status will be taken into account.The fairy tale image of the blacksmith largely corresponds to his reception in traditional culture, in which he was classified as “stranger among his own” due to his specialized knowledge and skills. Therefore, the protagonist of these considerations practises magic, parleys with impure forces, abuses alcohol, and also excessively strives for material goods. Moreover, he shows a disrespectful attitude towards death, preventing it from fulfilling its duty. Because death is seen as a guarantee of harmony and balance, the blacksmith’s behaviour should be considered particularly dangerous, disruptive to the divine order of the world. A fairy tale blacksmith is characterized by the features of a mythological trickster who uses deception to defeat his opponent or gain access to certain goods. As a fraudster and devilish collaborator gaining earthly wealth through the aid of forces from the beyond, the craftsman fits into the rural image of a condemned sinner, which affects his posthumous status. Variants of the T 330A “Kowal i diabli (Śmierć na gruszy)” («Кузнец и черти (Смерть на груше)»; ATU 330 “The Smith and the Devil”) fairy tale plot were used as the source for the analysis.

The paper examines the legends and votive practices that exist around one of the graves at the Colon cemetery in Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Amelia Goyri de Adot (nee Amelia Goyri de la Hoz) was buried in this cemetery in 1901. In 1909 on her grave a tombstone was erected, which became an object of religious veneration for both Cubans and visitors from other countries. Pilgrims perform a certain ritual near the monument and leave votive tablets with gratitude to Amelia, worshiped as a saint with the name of La Milagrosa. Nowadays, the legend that has developed around this burial is actively circulating on the Internet, transforming and acquiring new details. Virtual practices of worship are also appearing, markedly different from those performed in the cemetery.

The article deals with votive paintings of the Alpine region. These attractive works of folk art (and the religious culture of the Catholic South of Europe as well) are observed from the point of view of their functional aims as testimonies of a miracle that happened in human life. Votive paintings are interesting first of all as visualized stories, therefore it’s worthy of representing the perspective of the comparison between their narrative strategies and the narrative strategy of folklore legends. The author notes that the inclusion of a special inscription in the first person is optional for the picture. Moreover, Italian masters often use only formal inscriptions; they try to translate their customer’s stories into a drawing completely. However, the examination of some examples which show a parallel transmission of the event via words and images demonstrates remarkable differences in narrative strategies. It is significant that the visualization of a miracle as a divine intervention into the circumstances of a person’s life is mostly a result of the traditional iconography scheme followed by the painter; while the words of the person participating in the event are primarily focused on the reality and tiny details of what happened.

This article provides the author’s typology of a specific and underresearched genre of sacred art - Andachtsbilder, which in some cases was influenced by the iconography of votive images. From the fourteenth century onwards, pocket or home sacred images were used in Germany for piety. They were called Andachtsbilder, literally - “prayer images”. Commonly, they were images of saints and could be engravings, miniatures, or even appliqués. Andachtsbilder’s motifs were usually associated with the images of the Holy Family or mystical allegories, but there was another type of Andachtsbilder, in particular, images representing a scene of some miracle. Their prototypes were often originally votive objects (wax, silver, etc.) or votive images (Votiftafel), i.e. images created as a vow to God or saints. Some of the votive objects appeared on the votive images (Votiftafel). Further, the most famous votive images could be copied onto Andachtsbilder. Votive images copied onto Andachtsbilder, according to my hypothesis, could have a magical function, like the well-known Schluckbildchen. The paper presents a cross-section of the main Andachtsbilder typologies and provides examples of images that migrated from votive practices into the practice of domestic, “pocket” piety. The cultural and anthropological analysis of these phenomena follows.