ENGLISH BALLADS TRANSLATED BY VS.A.ROZHDESTVENSKY: "THE HEIR OF LINNE"
The paper for the first time presents generalised materials connected with early work of Vs.A.Rozhdestvensky (1895-1977) as a translator of English folk and literary ballads. The translations were published partially at the turn of 1910-1920 and in the modern age. They partly preserved in the form of editorially revised typescripts in the publishing house «Academia»’s fund in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (fund 629, list 1, unit of issue 1784). These works indicate considerable interest displayed by Vs.A.Rozhdestvensky in the earliest years of his career to the traditional English culture and history. If his translations of literary ballads by R. Southey and ballads about Robin Hood were published soon after their creation, then the overwhelming majority of English folk ballads translated by Vs.A.Rozhdestvensky had to wait for the publication for many decades until 2000 when the book “Anthology of English poetry” by L.I.Volodarskaya was issued. The book includes archival materials edited by N.S.Gumilyov. But this book is not an exhaustive code of materials on the subject; it does not comprise the translations of “Old Maitland”, “The Heir of Linne”, “The Cotter”, “The Daemon Lover”, “The Marriage of Sir Gawain”, “The Twa Corbies”, “Hop-o’-my-thumb life and death”. The paper presenting the general concept of the balladic works translated by Vs.A.Rozhdestvensky in the earliest years of his career offers the prospects of extensive analytical research on this topic. It also presents the translation of ballad “The Heir of Linne” for the readers which is well-known in Russia in other later interpretations.