Identical tales arising at opposite ends of Europe raise the travel-versus-independent question

Evidence

Italy’s ‘Body-without-Soul’ and Russia’s ‘Koschei the Deathless’ are the SAME tale — a monster whose life is hidden in nested layers, defeated with the help of grateful animals. They arose at opposite ends of Europe. Use the ‘Many Tellings’ lens: does this prove the tale traveled across the continent, or that the same idea arose independently? How could a scholar tell? What does the match reveal about a shared European (even Eurasian) story-world? — , A Year of World Stories, 14038

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘Many Tellings’ lens established across this whole volume, and to the earlier cyclops/Tepegoz and Odysseus/Puss parallels. — connects to: Collectors’ biases shape which non-European tales survive and how they sound — , A Year of World Stories, 17; Uncontacted peoples on opposite sides of the earth independently created culture-hero stories — , A Year of World Stories, 15276; The escalating-lie cautionary tale-shape recurs across unrelated world folklore — , A Year of World Stories, 3692 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Uncontacted peoples on opposite sides of the earth independently created culture-hero stories #corroborates (0.85) — , A Year of World Stories, 15276
• The escalating-lie cautionary tale-shape recurs across unrelated world folklore #corroborates (0.80) — , A Year of World Stories, 3692
• A single lost-fairy-wife tale recurs across Italy, Persia, and Norway #corroborates (0.80) — , A Year of World Stories, 14264