Shukhevych Volodymyr.Hutsulshchyna. Part 5.Lviv, 1908

“...in one respect, it can be used as the primary and sole source.” Vasyl Shchurat on the fifth part of “Hutsulshchyna”

Hutsulshchyna / written by Prof. Volodymyr Shukhevych. Fifth part.

In Lviv: from “Zahalna Drukarne,” Akademichna Street, No. 8, 1908. — 300 pp.

Later binding: spine and corners of brown cloth, sides covered with paper featuring a marbled pattern in green and brown tones. Inside, both original covers of blue-green paper are preserved: the front cover repeats the title page, while the back cover contains an announcement from the bookstore of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, with a list of all five parts of “Hutsulshchyna,” their contents, page counts, and prices in crowns. The back cover is attached to the text block with a strip of paper along the spine; near the spine of the front cover, there is a strip of old adhesive. The covers, title page, and last leaf show wavy water stains along the top and side edges, with large stains also on the lower part of the front cover. The paper of the text block shows natural yellowing and occasional spots on the title page. The cloth binding has minor wear along the top edge, and there is a small stain on the back paste-down. Condition: restored.

First and lifetime edition. The book has historical and cultural value as the final part of a classic monograph on Ukrainian ethnography.

INFORMATION

The fifth and final part of Volodymyr Shukhevych’s “Hutsulshchyna” is the richest in the oral literature of the Hutsuls: apocryphal legends, fairy tales, stories about the oprishky and Oleksa Dovbush, accounts of “earthly gods”—leshy, nymphs, mamuny, witch-opiry, molfars, vovkuny, and hail-makers. This is followed by sections on shepherds, Hutsul medicine, beliefs about plants and animals, riddles, and a glossary of Hutsul words. A significant portion of the prose was recorded in Holovah by the teacher Luka Harmatiy.

Volodymyr Shukhevych (1849–1915) was an ethnographer, folklorist, and educator, one of the founding members of the Ethnographic Commission of the NTSh, and a full member of the Society; he was the grandfather of Roman Shukhevych. He collected materials for “Hutsulshchyna” for about thirty-five years—himself and through a network of rural correspondents—recording carols and songs on a phonograph. During the Soviet era, his name was removed from scientific circulation, particularly through his grandson.

The first four parts were published between 1899 and 1904 in the NTSh series “Materials for Ukrainian-Russian Ethnology,” while the fifth appeared in 1908 as a separate book—at the expense of Tadey Didushytskyi, owner of the Didushytskyi Museum in Lviv, who also supported a Polish-language edition of the work. The second edition of all five parts appeared only ninety years later, in Verkhovyna (1997–2000).