COLLECTION OF MACEDONIAN FOLK TALES THE SUN’S SISTER IN AN INTERCULTURAL CONTEXT

The collection of twenty-two Macedonian folktales translated into Slovenian was a part of a student project in 2006 under a meaningful title The Sun’s Sister. The collection includes the following tales (in alphabetical order): About sons and money, Goodness for goodness, Logger who understood the language of animals, Mara the Cinderella, Shepherd and three fairies, Sun’s sister, The apple and two wives, The lost empress, The mole is a priest’s son, The three commandments that the father gave to his son, Three sisters, Three weavers, Tower of human heads, Three Fates and a child, Emperor and three sons, Emperor with three sons and three apples, Emperors daughter and drum, The Emperor’s daughter who refused to marry, The snake that was ungrateful to the shepherd and the shepherd who was ungrateful to the fox, Wisdom and happiness, Young man who wanted to learn about woman cunning, and The wolf. The collection represents an important contribution to the reception of Macedonian literature in Slovenia.


INTRODUCTION
Collections of Macedonian folk literature are, despite expectations, few in number in the Slovene language, literature and culture.One of the first collections is a translation of Macedonian Tales (1953), translated by Maks Robič who wrote a short accompanying word, designed by Jože Ciuha with initials and vignettes (75 fairy tales).The reprint is entitled Macedonian Folk Tales, and is illustrated by Irena Majcen, and was published in 1981 in the Golden Bird Fairy Tale Collection with a high circulation of 12,000 copies (75 fairy tales).The accompanying word was written by Dragi Stefanija, the translation is from 1953 (Maks Robič).In 1981, an individual fairy tale by Duško Naneski was published in the Čebelica Library collection, entitled The Chicken and the Twelve Chickens, translated by Ivan Minatti and illustrated by Dunja Furlani.In 1982, the Kondor Library published a collection for adults entitled Riding the Donkey, Looking for the Donkey: Macedonian Folk Tales.The selection and the accompanying text were written by Dragi Stefanija, and the texts were translated by Nada Carevska (86 fairy tales).The first Slovene translation was based on the original collection Makedonski narodni prikazni, Skopje, 1946 and1951, respectively, by Krum Tošev andVasil Iljoski, most of which had already been published in various anthologies in the 19 th century which was in fact a century of collection of (national) fairy tales and folk tales.
In the first two collections chapters are divided into tales, fables and humorous (tales).The division into chapters in the Riding the Donkey, Looking for the Donkey collection is of recent origin and is based on Antti Aarne (1910) and Thompson's (1928Thompson's ( , 1961) ) international classification of fairy tales (animal, fantastic, realistic, humorous, tricks, legend and tradition).In 2004, Hans Jörg Uther upgraded the classification formerly called AT which, after updating the Aarne and Thompson classification, is now called ATU, after the initials of the surnames of all three researchers.Marija Stanonik wrote about the Macedonian folklore narrative in Slovene (Stanonik 1984: 179). 1 The author comparatively analyzes Macedonian and Slovene folk tales and finds similarities between Pavliha and Cunning Peter or Nasredin Hoxha.
Based on available sources of information, these are almost all editions in Slovene, until 2006, when university lecturer Namita Subiotto decided on a student project entitled Sončeva sestra: makedonske ljudske pravljice (The Sun's Sister: Macedonian Folk Tales) and a translation of 22 Macedonian fairy tales.She also wrote an accompanying word entitled Macedonian Folk Fairytale Treats.

Hans-Jörg Uther
Polygenetic theories include Hans Jörg Uther's folkloristic theory and the international type index of fairy tales which is based on the theory of the Finnish scientist Antti Aarne (1910) and Stith Thompson (1928, 1961), and which is also applied by Dragi Stefanija in this collection.It was published in 2004 and 2011.Uther explains in the introduction that the classification of fairy tale types is flexible and that we should not look for all the elements in all types of fairy tales, but that these are the predominant features (events).In the introduction, he also explains that individual episodes in the same ATU (A[arne], T[hompson], U[ther]) type may also differ and that combinations of different types and/or episodes are possible.The International Fairy Tale Index is by nature a subject of study, a never-ending work because it is always possible to find new episodes, new combinations, and new variants.Nevertheless, it is an extremely useful scientific resource.In addition to the ATU number, each unit contains a short description of the fairytale type.This is followed by a brief list of sources and literature available to Uther.At the end of each unit is a list of variants or a list of cultures in which a particular fairy-tale type appears.Regardless of the fact that it is a never-ending work, the list of cultures in which a particular type occurs is polygenetic or intercultural.

ATU 311 -The Sun's Sister
The collection of (national) folk tradition began in the 19 th century, the most famous being the collection of fairy tales by J. and W. Grimm: Children's and Household Tales (1812/15).The trend continued in the 19 th and also in the 20 th century, with the motif of searching for typical national fairy tales.It turned out that the opposite was true, namely, all fairy tales, even if they have the subtitle in Italian, Macedonian, German, Russian, Slovenian, etc., have certain cultural elements specific to the culture in which they were created, but a more detailed analysis of types, combinations and variants (H.J. Uther), motifs, motif fragments and blind motifs (M.Lüthi), intertextuality (M.Juvan), memetics (J.Zipes), substantiates polygenetic theory.The title fairy tale The Sun's Sister can be included in ATU 311 (rescue by the sister): ATU 311 Rescue by the sister.The sisters, first one, then the other, fall under the influence of a demonic pursuer (cannibal, dragon, wizard, devil) who takes them to the (underground) castle (R11.1,T721.5).The sisters unlock a forbidden room full of corpses with a key (magic egg/apple) which becomes bloody, or they reject human flesh (C611, C237, C913).The demon kills them for disobedience.
The third (youngest) sister ingeniously escapes this fate.She finds the sisters and saves them by collecting their bones (R157.1).She hides them under the gold in a basket (bag) and convinces the demon to carry the basket home without looking into it (G561).Cf Type 1132.
The youngest sister pretends to marry the demon and leaves the skull (straw figure) dressed as a bride to dazzle him.He doesn't know he's carrying her sisters home in a basket.The sister has feathers smeared with honey and escapes like a "strange bird" (K525, K521.1).CF Type 1383, 1681.The demon burns in his own house or is killed in another way (Q211).Cf Type 312.
At the end of the ATU 311 unit, Uther lists expert sources that deal with this fairy-tale type.The next paragraph is important because it lists variants of the basic type in different cultures, listing more than fifty, e.g., Armenian, Chilean, Finnish, Jordanian, Norwegian, Palestinian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Sri Lankan, Tunisian, etc.The list of variants of this type does not list Macedonian variants, but in the international fairy tale index Uther lists almost three hundred Macedonian fairy tales based on the following sources: Undoubtedly, it would be necessary to update the international type-index with new variants and or new subtypes, e.g. as suggested by Monika Kropej Telban for the original Slovene fairy tales in the monograph Tipni indeks slovenskih pravljic.Živalske pravljice in basni (Type Index of Slovene Fairy Tales.Animal Fairy Tales and Fables, 2015).

Europeanness of Macedonian Fairy Tales
In the monograph, which already bears the intercultural or polygenetic title The European Folktale: Form andNature (1947, in Slovene 2011), Max Lüthi abstracts the specific characteristics of one culture and seeks Europeanization or European characteristics in all the fairy tales discussed.Already on the basis of the analysis of titles we can see that the selected fairy tales have typical characteristics of a European fairy tale defined by him, namely one-dimensionality, linearity, abstractness, isolation and universalization, sublimation and inclusion.All fairy tales are one-dimensional, which means that they are folk and not authorial (e.g.H.C. Andersen, O. Wilde, S. Makarovič, etc.) and are not two-dimensional, dichotomy of experiential and imaginary world, e.g.E. Peroci: Moj dežnik je lahko balon (My umbrella can be a balloon).
An essential feature of folk tales is one-dimensionality, which is also central to The Sun's Sister collection.That means that in selected tales there is no numinous wonder that everything happens on an imaginary or fairy-tale level, where animals speak, fairy-tale helpers perform, etc.At the same time, there are experiential and imaginary worlds, there are no transitions between them, they are sustainable.There is also linearity in fairy tales, the line of events is clear and predictable, without internal doubts, concerns, monologues of literary figures.The heroes (the emperor's daughter, a woodcutter, three sons, etc.) are presented in the abstract, precisely so that everyone can be identified.Heroes who face difficult trials are without depth of thought, difficult trials are self-evident, there is no question of "to be or not to be".In Macedonian fairy tales, as in all folk tales, there is no realism, adjectives are constant (beautiful girl, evil stepmother, young hero, etc.), there is metallization (gilded, silver, gold, Goldilocks, iron, etc.) and mineralization (precious stones, made of stone or glass).The line of action is set on a straight linedeparture from home, meetings with fairy-tale donors and the opponent, a difficult ordeal of the hero (which must not be missing according to V. Propp) and marriage/takeover of the kingdom or the end of the fairy tale.Fairy tales include typical fairy-tale objects (magic shoes), permanent forms or the law of duality (two wives, two rams, two brothers, two sisters, etc.), trinity (three sons, three sisters, three fairies, etc.), enhancing (the next day, the next morning, then, only then, he walked for a long time, such a long way, a long time, etc.).There are also dichotomies in fairy tales (sickhealthy, nearfar, goodbad, deephigh, beautifulugly, youngold, couragefear).The heroes are travelers (he left, he came, he went, etc.) and the action is a journey (he traveled, he traveled (for) days and nights, a long journey, you will travel one month, after months of travel, they will travel together, they traveled, etc.).The heroes accept difficult trials as self-evident, without wonder and curiosity, there are no lasting relationships between beings: "They married as the law commanded, and they rejoiced as befits an imperial marriage" (Subiotto 2006: 53).
A typical threefold repetition and isolated coincidences involved in the event occur, e.g., in fairy tales ATU 311 The Sun's Sister, ATU 501 Three Spinsters, ATU 510 Cinderella Mara, etc., intercultural motif fragments (e.g.Arab, King Midas) and intercultural blind motifs (lion, horn) appear.Max Lüthi explains the difference between a motif fragment (golden apple to the most beautiful girl) and a blind motif (the motif of the Sun is the motif of Helios, the motif of the [sun] carriage): "Scientists have so far not distinguished between 'motif fragment' and 'blind motif', as both designations have been used for the same meaning.Nevertheless, the specialization of two different terms seems necessary from the point of view of a fairy tale.I call a 'blind motif' only an element that is completely devoid of function.Motives that are not completely without function in the fairy tale, but in one way or another remain unconnected, I call the 'motif fragment'" (Lüthi 2012: 70).

Jack Zipes
In The Irresistible Fairy Tales: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), American professor Jack Zipes upgraded the theory of memetics and cultural evolution, published in 2006 in the monograph Why Fairy Tales Stick: the Evolution and Relevance of a Genre.In the field of fairy tale theory, Zipes develops the theory of memetics and cultural evolution and argues that only some fairy tales or fairy-tale memes, in his opinion there are from 50% to 75% of them, are capable of surviving cultural evolution, namely only those memes that are repetitive and memorable and relevant.Zipes defines the fairy-tale meme as a unit of cultural transmission, which can be a simple idea, story, phrase or essential information related to the fairy tale (e.g., Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog King, The Gnome, The Wishing-Table , and Town Musicians of Bremen, etc.) (Bešter 2013: 4). 7utations in the fairy-tale meme are creative, which can be traced in the Uther index in the category of episodes, combinations, and variants, because they enable the search for new possibilities and cultural combinations.An essential feature of the fairy-tale meme and the combination of memes that is a condition for its dissemination/dissemination is its relevance, then repetitiveness and memorability of the meme (Zipes, 2012).
In the present collection of Macedonian fairy tales, there are typical examples of relevant fairy tale memes or fairy tale types that deal with individualized universal human issues.

METHODOLOGY
The analysis of the Macedonian collection of fairy tales The Sun 's Sister (2006) is a qualitative and quantitative analysis of twenty-two fairy tales and an analysis of key words or ATU index in context.

RESEARCH AND RESULTS
The analysis of types (ATU 311 The Sun's Sister), motifs, motif fragments (camel) and blind motifs (sun chariot), which can be called intertextual elements in the theory of intertextuality (Juvan 2000), are indicators of the original Macedonian tradition and the simultaneous influence of other cultures (God, god, dervish, soul, devil, bread and salt, priest, sherbet, etc.), also Indo-European (motif of [holy] cow), antiquity (lower and upper world, motif of Argonauts, motif of beautiful Helena [golden apple most beautiful, motif of god Helios, etc.], dragon motif), etc. 1) Emperor and three sons -a typical beginning ("There once lived…") and a typical starting point situation (the dying emperor wants to leave the empire to one of his three sons).This is followed by testing the characters and solving the task, in this case the search for the original bird "Intizal bulbul".The fairy tale is related to the motif of a golden bird/fruit, it is a Christianized (Lord) folk tale, it contains cannibalism, an original metaphora foam bridge.In addition to the golden bird motif, a lion motif appears.We can also infer interculturality on the basis of this (ancient) motif fragment.The tale also features an oriental blind motif of forty brothers (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves).
2) The emperor, who had a horn on his heada macedonianized ancient motif about King Midas states: "What the Lord did not hide away, a man can not hide!"This Macedonian fairy tale is a clear indicator of interculturality with the Greek myth of King Midas, which changed into the fairy tale motif ATU 782 Midas and the Donkey's Ears through a millennium, with the difference that the Greek King Midas had long ears in the myth and a horn in the Macedonian version, giving the text a new ambiguity.The tale does not end tragically as the myth about King Midas, but rather by making a flute that sings/plays a phrase, or as a metaphor that great secrets are also a great substance for artistic treatment and that it is also the purpose of art to reflect and/or criticize society.
3) Emperor with three sons and three apple trees -Golden Apple (the youngest son), Arab (Oriental motif) and one of the common fairy tale variants about the golden apple/bird is a common motif.
4) Emperor's daughter and drumin the fairy tale there is an intercultural blind motif of the desert, a motif of a scale and a flintstone (Fisherman and ghost from the collection of Arabian fairy tales 1001 nights or the motif of Aladdin's lamp in the mouth of a fish)similar to the Pinocchio motif etc., drumto drummedieval motif.The flintstone is a blind motif of Prometheus' light, as well as "the king of wolves (Europeanized motif), the godmother fox, hidden in four fish, and a golden apple".
5) The Emperor's daughter who refused to marry is a variant of the fairy tale Petrosinella by Giambattista Basile (1634), Grimms' fairy tale Rapunzel 1812 (first part).In the second part, there is a motif of footwear (shoes) and clothes (shirt), (similar to Andersen's The Swineherd, 1841) and an original motif of a silver and gold clog.A motif of the sea appears in the text, which also means that it is an intercultural fairy tale.
6) Goodness for goodnessa typical fairy tale, with the purpose of socialization, where good deeds are rewarded with goodness.For the most part, good deeds are attributed to the lower social classes, where poverty is equated with goodness.The fairy tale features typical European elements (firewood, coin, dog, spindle), as well as Oriental (Arabic), ancient ring motif (Giges ring), Christianization (baptism).It is a blind motif of polygamy or an oriental motif from the collection of Arabian fairy tales One Thousand and One Nights, ending "happily" with a marriage to the second and not the first daughter.Psychoanalytic analysis of fairy tales would interpret this marriage as a marriage with the mature first daughter, who in the language of symbols is externalized as the second daughter or alter ego of the first daughter.7) A woodcutter who understood the language of animalsin the text there is a motif of an ungrateful snake and patriarchy (a man beats his wife).The woodcutter saves the snake from the fire, which therefore endows him with a magical power and an understanding of the animal's language.Magical gifts bring him advancement to a higher social and economic class than in most fairy tales, even if they promote kindness, honesty, poverty, modesty.In some, even in the present tale, there is a demonization of women who are attributed negative attributes as a result of punishing non-traditional women who, if not submissive, are stigmatized as evil/crooked.The fairy tale can also be understood as a metaphor about the meaning of multilingualism, the understanding of the inner language (soul).
8) The Lost Empressthe fairy tale includes the following motifs: mirror, kidnapping of the Empress (dragon), Friday, army, court, animals (cat, mouse, puppy, Danube, river, fish, etc.), motif of grateful animals, son rescues mother, dragon, belly, golden box, golden chickens, underworld, spring, two rams, ancient motif of golden fleece (dragon, ram, golden chicken, etc.), army, the emperor's son returned to his father with his mother and army.9) Apple and two wivesthe initial situation of a couple without children is often the starting point in many fairy tales.This is followed by the help of a donor (an old woman and an apple [symbol of fertility]).The husband sets out on a journey of trials.We find oriental influences, such as a blind motif of a rock or a stone door (Open sesame), voyeurism (observing through a lock), descendant, balcony, the help of an old woman, a healing apple (stone), Christianization (angels, lord, soul, thank God) A woman who wants to conceive must eat a whole apple (with highlighted pips), peel the apple and throw the peels away.In nine months, she gives birth to a daughter, while another woman who ate the peels gives birth to a son.The fairy tale is a mosaic composed of already known elements from the collection of Arabic fairy tales One Thousand and One Nights (stone door, four times), Christianized elements (Angel, God), Indo-European elements (matriarchy).A rich woman breaks the rules and does not eat the whole apple (with seeds), which is a discreet allusion to the Immaculate Conception.The fairy tale is very complex and contains a reconcilable conclusion, as the daughter of a rich woman and the son of a poor woman eventually marry after all the vicissitudes.The fairy tale is picturesque and does not contain elements of violence.
10) The snake that was not grateful to the shepherd and the shepherd that was not grateful to the foxa typical motif also appears in this taleeach is innocent until proven guilty, and the act is repeated three times.In the beginning, the fairy tale is related to the fairy tale Goodness for Goodness, but here the shepherd who saved the serpent of certain death wants to kill the snake as a sign of ingratitude (the motif of punished ingratitude).The typical Slavic element "bread and salt" often appears.Trials follow in terms of finding a fair solution.For advice on justice, a shepherd and a snake ask different characters (ox, donkey, sheep, fox).In essence, this tale belongs to a group called formula tale or cumulative tale, a subtype of chains tale, based on a repetitive sequence of animals (ox, donkey, sheep, fox).The tale tells of an ungrateful shepherd who did not achieve individuation, but only initiation, and in the end kills the savior fox for 30 groszy (motive of ingratitude).The mere mention of the currency grosz (formerly Austrian money) is a specific cultural element which confirms the hypothesis that fairy tales are also of a genre-mixed kind, because they have narrative elements and (indirectly) definable time and space.
11) The mole is a priest's sonan orthodox priest is a Christianized motif of a greedy person in an etiological fairy tale -how a mole came into being (from a priest's son) or why priests have beards.The fairy tale discreetly criticizes religion or priests in the (Orthodox) Church through the language of symbols, but indirect criticism of religions can be traced almost everywhere, with narrators and/or scribes having to code it first as a fairy tale and second as a fairy tale for children.In essence, it is a distant biblical motif of child sacrifice, Abraham and Isaac, which ends tragically.Due to the father's/priest's/orthodox priest's desire to appropriate the farmer's/poor man's field/real estate, the priest's son, involved in fraud and hidden in a hole as a personified field (crown proof), turns into a mole when the field is declared as "priest's".These are the metamorphoses of man into an animal from the first written records of Apuleius' Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass.There are many motives of greedy rich people, priests, and people from the (highest) social class in the Bible, ancient myths, fables, legends, fairy tales, and also in a children's game called "How to steal land" (Vogelnik 1989: 34-35).
12) Young man who wanted to learn about woman cunningin the fairy tale are presented motifs or the stereotype of female cunning, lies, and the motif of recording sins (a notebook with sins).In this witty tale, a woman is stigmatized with a constant attributea twisted woman, but in the present tale this quality is perceived positively and brings good deeds to both male and female literary characters and the latter changes from an antagonist to a counselor, a donor of advice: "But I advise you to throw away your notebook and not to waste one more day.Go home after your business, get married, that's the way to go.If Luck is on your side, it will favor you with a bride who will follow God's law.But if you come across a woman devil, woe to you, for you'll never tame her" (Subiotto 2006: 43).
13) About sons and moneya complex fairy tale with an oriental motif of a lost camel and the conclusion that the camel is one-eyed, lame and tailless.The motif of food (lamb) and an illegitimate child is important.The tale originates from Middle Eastern culture, the starting point is the motif of a dying father who sends his sons to a friend to share his inheritance with them.After the father's death, the sons travel to the father's friend and interesting twists take place along the way.These are based on the law of the trinity; three questions arise to which the sons answer on the basis of inference.These are extremely interesting Indo-European motifs.The motif of a camel (tailless, one-eyed and limping camel) can be found in many fairy tales and also in U. Eco's book The Name of the Rose, and in the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.The basis is a cause-and-effect reasoning and meeting with a man looking for a lost camel.The fairy tale is also cumulative, and in addition to the first line of events with a camel, there is a second line of eventsdinner and cause-and-effect reasoning (woman cook, lamb, married child).An extremely interesting fairy tale which also includes the biblical motif of "unclean women", which is an extremely rare element because fairy tales avoid allusions to sexuality ("I [was] not pure").These are precisely the examples of the "unconscious worded in language" according to S. Žižek and Lacan or confirmation of the hypothesis.Fairy tales are also characterized by being "a text for children, a context for adults" (Seifert 2006: 45).
14) Shepherd and three fairiesan example of interculturalism with fairy tales Shepherd, Fairies, Three peas, etc. Due to the definable place and time, this text is also a narrative (the village of Kuškundalevo, the flying saddle, three mountains).The following motifs appear: magic flight, Sleeping Beauty and burning (fairy) clothes.The present tale is a typical European tale about (three) fairies.In Macedonian fairy tales, the heroes are often woodcutters, farmers, tailors, millers, shepherds, herders, carpenters, poor men, etc., especially people of lower social status who work hard, as opposed to the higher classes which are characterized by idleness.In Macedonian fairy tales, fairies dance the circle dance because it is a specific cultural element, as is "leb i sol" (bread and salt).The tale ends with the marriage of a shepherd and a fairy who, like Psyche in Apuleius' myth of Cupid and Psyche, marks Cupid with a drop of candle, while in other variants he throws his animal skin into the fire and thus loses it.In the present fairy tale, it is precisely this motif -the burning of a fairy's dress, that enables the peaceful life of the shepherd and the fairy, and the birth of three beautiful girls.The burning of fairy costumes intertextually refers to the burning of the beast's dress/fur from many variants of Beauty and the Beast, which is itself only a variant of Cupid and Psyche.
15) Wisdom and happinessquarrel, 12 horses (motif fragment -12 apostles, 12 months, 12 brothers, etc.), precious stone, 20 bags x 50 kg + 10 end, 100 kg, wife loves her husband's feet (Biblical motif).An interesting allegory or (Socratic) dialogue between mind and happiness.Allegedly, fairy tales are also a means of socialization, so that the poor are not promoted to a higher social and economic class, but to be satisfied with intelligence, while emperors are more associated with the attributes of happiness than intelligence.Eventually, the mind settles into the shepherd, who is threatened with hanging, but is saved by a clever thought.In the end, the text is Christianized.Interestingly, the motif of the captain, sailors and (sea) carriers appears.
16) Cinderella Marawe find the motif of spinning, Indo-European motif of a cow as a sacred animal, then the motif of a bunch of leeks (specific cultural element), cannibalism (daughter did not want to eat sacred animals), fireplace, mother's bones, shoes, etc.The fairy tale entitled Cinderella Mara is a fairy tale type ATU 510 Cinderella which has three subtypes.The tale is interculturally rich, with an Indo-European motif of the (sacred) cow which is the alter ego of the deceased mother.The tale is Christianized in the sense of "the last shall be first" and gives readers, especially female readers, the hope to patiently endure neglect, at the end or in another life (marriage to the emperor) all their suffering, humiliation will be "repaid" by promotion in higher economic and social class.The Cinderella motif is extremely popular in all cultures, as the (small) foot motif came from China, where even today in some provinces, despite the official ban, they have a traditional culture of bounded feet.17) The Sun's Sisterpool with sherbet, jug, dishes, eggshells, gilded apple, Sun, girl, iron sandals, mother of the sun, her son, daughter, bread and salt, old womanimage in a fountain, gypsy (Roma).The Sun's Sister is a fish with golden fins, a fish bone (for cleaning teeth), from it grows a golden apple tree, a bread oven, Zlata, burning a woman at the stake (wrapped in resinous and tar mat)burned alive.In the well-known type ATU 311, the Macedonian fairy tale The Sun's Sister is assimilated into culture, so specific cultural elements appear, e.g.cannikin (steamed bread with milk), bread and salt (three times), sandals, sherbet.The metallized elementiron, also goldspeaks of a very old origin.Although the Macedonian variant differs from the basic type, e.g., the "gypsy" motif, it also contains the Sun Garden and a girl named Zlata Pozlačena.In the present tale, the role of an evil stepmother and/ or mother-in-law is played by a "gypsy" who is burned alive, which is a medieval motif fragment of burning witches.
18) Tower of human headsthe fairy tale is extremely complex and interesting.At the beginning of the fairy tale, which is more of a story, there is a typical motif of prohibition (not to fall asleep but to stay awake) intertextually connected with an actual tower made from skulls (Macedonian: Ćele kula) or ossuary which is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List.Motif of three travelers (tailor, clerk, carpenter); the progress is that in addition to craftsmen, the intellectual profession is also included, namely a clerk.Three travelers sleep and for three nights one of them is on the watch each evening.In order not to fall asleep, the carpenter makes a doll out of a piece of wood, the tailor sews her a dress, and the scribe gives her a soul.It is a motif of the creation of the world, similar to the biblical motif, also Aesop's fable about Prometheus, who created man from clay and because he ran out of water, he finished the clay creature with tears.
Here we also find intertextual connections with the motif of animism (C.Collodi, Pinocchio, 1881).It's about three travelers wondering why a chair is made of human heads instead of stones.These are the heads of grooms who wanted to marry the emperor's daughter, under the condition that they would make her speak.Because no one succeeded, they were all killed.The motif of a dumb princess who refuses/cannot/doesn't know how to speak is common.The emperor locks all three travelers in his daughter's room, first the clerk, then the tailor and carpenter.On the first night, the scribe, a symbol for the educated, drops the doll, created by all three, into a vase.The doll is a symbol of the soul with which the emperor's daughter speaks.The scribe speaks to the silent emperor's daughter in the language of symbols; it is a discourse of whether the image (wood), appearance (dress) or soul of the doll is important.The emperor's daughter remains silent.In the end, the daughter speaks out against injustice and defends the concept that the soul is most important.
19) Three sistersthe fairest (bone of contention motif), the figure of the Sun (youngest daughter), wheat bread for the soul of the deceased, motifs of candles, lambs, Slavic motif of cooked wheat (gift for the mother's soul), Snow White motif, glass coffins, etc.The fairy tale is interculturally and intertextually related to the beginning of the Trojan War and the quarrel between three people, in this fairy tale between three sisters, to the question of which is the fairest.The Sun appears as the judge who gives the attribute of being the fairest to the youngest sister.
Here the fairy tale departs from the myth into a fairy tale of Slavic origin (bread and boiled wheat, donation of food for the deceased).The fairy tale is a combination of different episodes, e.g., Snow White, Three Brothers, Three Sisters, Wedding Tours, etc. 20) Three Sisters Spinstersthe motif of the army, which is fed with one bowl, is intertextually related to the motif of Moses.This is followed by the of the birth of a boy with a star on his forehead (marking), the archetype of a child, the birth of a girl with a moon on her neck (they plant a puppy, a kitten), the evil sisters put the child in a chest, in the river… mill, miller, 12-13 years, maker of halva, cow rumen (boy hides a star on his forehead), goose shepherd (grazes geese and turkeys), and finally a punishment for the wickedquartering.The motif of a child with a star on his forehead is an archetype of a child which is also common in Grimm's fairy tales, e.g.Twelve brothers, Mary's child, Three little birds.The motif of three sisters who would like to marry the emperor (the first would clothe his entire army, the second would saturate his army, the third would give birth to his daughter and son with a star and moon).It is also a common motif in Slovene folk tradition (Kresnice, Spevaj nama, Katica, etc.).21) Three Fates and a child -9 daughters, the 10 th child is a son, the visit of three Fates, the son is eighteen, (snake and tree, sister and brother), Adam and Eve, the transformation of a sister into a stone (motif of Niobe's stone), iron sandals, stony as a tombstone, iron rod, medicine for a sister, pear, fountain, sun, three wax candles, motif of Fates (Kropej 2008: 237).These are fairies who predicted the future or fate at the birth of a child.Zipes connects the creation of Fates with midwives who helped with the birth of children as the fate and life of the child depended on them and their skills (Zipes 2012: 28).Monika Kropej (Kropej, 2008: 237) associates Fates with Greek moirai.According to folk religious beliefs, Fates are fairies who shape and predict the future of a child at the time of his/her birth, therefore people wanted to please them and placed cakes and wines on the table just before or at the time of birth of a child.People believed that the first, third or seventh night after the birth of a child three beautiful, tall and slender wives come and foretell the fate of the newborn.The prophecy of the latter was said to be decisive.According to some other traditions, the firstdressed in whiteforetold good events, the secondin brownsad events and the thirdin blackdeath.According to other narratives, the first predicted childhood, the second adulthood, and the third old age and death.The latter is supposed to be dressed in white, and the other two in red or blue (Kropej, 2008: 237).
22) The three commandments the father gave to his son 1. Do not associate with scoundrels.2. Do not befriend a mighty man in court.
3. Do not trust your wife.
At the end, the fairy tale has another version, in which a specific cultural element (Pasha's son) appears.The father's commandments are intertextually and interculturally reminiscent of the Ten Commandments, including the Three Sons and similar motifs.In many fairy tales, according to Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (2005), prohibition and violation of prohibition are at the beginning.In this tale we also find Aristotle's golden mean and avoidance of extremes, as well as the Indo-European motif of the intransigence of castes (social classes).The symbolic dichotomy of villagecity (do not be intimate with city youths) is also discreetly present.The text also shows a violation of the commandments and the victimization of women.The motif of the ram is very present in the present selection of Macedonian fairy tales, which in some fairy tales associatively approaches and departs from the motif of the golden fleece in the ancient myth of the Argonauts.
23) The Wolfthe fairy tale features personified animals, a hungry wolf, two rams, a mule (with a document), a donkey (to skip a donkey), a fox (grabbed by the legs and not by the roots).The fairy tale belongs to the group of formula tales and the subgroup of cumulative fairy tales or chain stories, where the fairy tale character meets different animals (ram, mule, donkey, pig, fox) on the event line.The fairy tale is Christianized (godfather, devil, baptism).Specific rituals (roasted ox) appear.Interestingly, the tale ends tragically for a hero who is in fact an antihero, not only a perpetrator who wants to eat animals, but also a symbol for a foolish (giant) who eventually realizes his stupidity: "So, now I will died of starvation.These words were uttered by the godfather wolf, who broke his neck and died" (Subiotto 2006: 78).

CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis of Macedonian and intercultural elements in The Sun's Sister collection, based on the analysis of fairy tales and the analysis of keywords in context, we can confirm Zipes' hypothesis that fairy tales are of polygenetic origin.In Macedonian folk tales we can find specific cultural elements in the following areas, which are typical for the European space, but in these tales, there is a great influence of oriental motifs, which confirm Propp's hypothesis in the Morphology of the Folktale that functions (actions, events) are constants, while the agents of action are variables.The collection of Macedonian fairy tales reflects society, social standard, way of life, habits, intercultural elements (e.g., Arab, King Midas, [Orpheus'] flute, orthodox priest, etc.), culture (e.g., halva, camel, bread and salt, steamed bread with milk, sherbet, etc.), which represent an excellent selection, and some would be worthy of inclusion in the anthology of European fairy tales.
The collection of twenty-two Macedonian folk tales, translated into Slovene, is part of a 2006 student project with the significant title The Sun's Sister.Twenty-two fairy tales are included in the collection.The collection represents an important contribution to the reception of Macedonian literature in Slovenia.
Collections of Macedonian folk literature, despite their rich intertextuality and interculturality, are rare in Slovene.In 2006, Namita Subiotto decided on a valuable student project to translate twenty-two Macedonian fairy tales, titled The Sun's Sister: Macedonian Folk Tales, with an accompanying word.From the point of view of youth literature, it would make sense to continue the project, publish certain fairy tales in the form of a picture book and/or translate contemporary Macedonian youth authors or representative texts and complement them with illustrations, perhaps in collaboration with students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design.