How far back into the darkness of the centuries do the roots of a magical folk tale go? What hidden original meaning did the actions of its heroes have, so long ago that millennia have erased it from popular memory, leaving only fairy-tale plots? Why, in truth, did Ivan the Fool—or Prince Ivan—set off for the Kingdom of the Far, Far Away? Who is the mysterious Baba Yaga from the no less mysterious hut standing on chicken legs? The importance of the book “Historical Roots of the Magic Fairy Tale” for folklore studies is hard to overestimate. In the work by V.Ya. Propp—translated into many languages (from English to Japanese) and repeatedly reissued—readers are invited to peer into the misty ancient past and figure out how meanings and archetypes move through time.