ON ONE PROSE VERSION OF “A LAD FROM PARAVANI”
Abstract
There are 16 variants of the folk ballad “A Lad from Paravani” which are available for us. However, we came across the prose version of it in the third part of writings of Javakheti Travelling (”One Part of Javakheti) by the 19th century famous person Ilia Alkhazishvili (1853-1921) (periodically was published in “Iveria”, “Droeba” and other Georgian press). Ilia Alkhazishvili’s recordings focus on folklore and ethnography spread in villages, abandoned villages and Javakheti. His works are not interesting scientifically according to folklore since a place, time, identity of a recorder and age are not often kept. The prose version of “The Lad of Tavparavani” does not follow this rule. The inhabitant of the village _ Koteli, which was described in Alkhazishvili’s companion E. Rostomashvili’s narration, tells about the name of abandoned village _ Khumrisi existing near lake Tbatskuri. In this narration there is not a witch and there is only a story of two lovers, which ended with the girl’s joke. The same story was made up about “Lake of Paravani” by I. Alkhazishvili, where the boy died of the girl’s betrayal.
The mentioned prose narration was probably created by the author-speaker himself to explain the foundation of the village Khumrisi and represents a kind of transformation of a folk ballad.
Key words: Ilia Alkhazishvili, Khumrisi, Parvana, A lad from paravani.
