Специфіка образу чарівниці в Pумунських та Yкраїнських легендах і казках

 The image of a witch in the folklore of each nation is special and appears under different designations. In Romanian fairy tales and legends, it is a fairy, in Ukrainian fairy tales and legends, it is a mavka, a mermaid, a witch. The article analyses the specifics of the image of the fairy, who is the heroine of legends and fairy tales recorded by Alexandru Mitru, and makes a typological comparison of this character with the image of the mavka in fairy tales and Ukrainian beliefs (in the records of Volodymyr Shukhevych, Stepan Pushyk, and Elizaveta Revytska). There are functionally different female mythological images in Romanian and Ukrainian folk prose. The Romanian legends under analysis recorded by Alexandru Mitru, depict a dominant image of a good fairy capable of self-sacrifice for love (The Fairy Lake, The Drowned City). The loss of immortality is perceived by the heroines as a fair price for the opportunity to be close to one’s beloved. The tragedy in both legends is caused by the inability of fairies to resist fatal, boundless evil, which appears in the image of the cruel hunter Zegan (The Fairy Lake) and the stone god of trade (The Drowned City). In the fairy tale The Little Green Snake, the central image is an evil fairy who can only be overcome by a human (the girl Ana, a type of Amazon heroine). In the Romanian legends and fairy tales examined, fairies have such features as courage (Manga), heroism (Alina), and wisdom (the good fairy in the fairy tale The Little Green Snake). They are often kind, and the image of the goddess – the patroness of nature, the archetype of the positive Anima – is projected onto them. The Ukrainian mavka, mana, lisnytsya, and mermaid are often personifications of demonic, destructive beauty. Mavkas can make a man lose his way in the forest, seduce him, and subordinate him to their will. From a psychological point of view, men’s fear of female beauty is objectified in the image of the mavka-mana (which is associated with charms), the fear of losing a clear vision of reality and the ability to think soberly because of passion (The Tale of the Magical Bird, the tale Shtefanko and the Mana). The image of the mavka as the patron goddess of nature appears in the Ukrainian fairy tales The Golden Egg and Mermaids and the Evil Sorceress. The heroines of these fairy tales are semantically similar to the images of Romanian good fairies. The article analyzes the symbolism of flowers, the sun, eyes, eagles, larks, dwarfs, and snakes. It also explains the motif of metamorphosis.