Konkurs realioznawczy - Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle to tytułowy bohater najbardziej znanej amerykańskiej bajki autorstwa XIX-wiecznego pisarza Washingtona Irvinga oraz bardzo znana postać w kulturze amerykańskiej. Poczciwy mieszkaniec podnóża gór Catskill, który wyrusza na górskie wędrówki z psem, by odpocząć od gderliwej żony, gdzie po spotkaniu z tajemniczym karzełkiem, upojony magicznym napojem przesypia 20 lat i budzi się w niepodległych Stanach Zjednoczonych. 

A long time ago, in a village at the foot of the misty and mysterious Catskill Mountains in New York lived a man named Rip Van Winkle. He was a kind and well-liked neighbour who was always quick to help other people. He was married to a fierce and nagging woman who often made his life miserable. He also had kids: a son named Rip, who was his father’s spitting image, and a daughter. Rip Van Winkle also had a dog Wolf who often accompanied his master on his long hikes in the Catskill Mountains.

One day, Rip and Wolf went for a walk up the mountains, and as he was about to go back home, he heard someone shouting his name. He turned around and saw a small figure walking toward him. It was a dwarf with a grey beard, wearing old-fashioned Dutch clothes. He was carrying a barrel on his shoulder and asked Rip to help him carry it. Rip agreed and followed the dwarf. 

They walked and walked, higher and higher into the misty mountains, and deeper and deeper into the dark woods. Finally, they came to a clearing where Rip saw other dwarves in funny old clothes who were playing ninepins. They opened the barrel, which was full of a strange, dark liquid. The little men poured the liquid into cups and offered one to Rip. The drink was so sweet and so good that he drank a few cups if it. His head began to nod, his eyes began to close, and soon, Rip Van Winkle was asleep.

When he woke up, he was lying on the ground at the foot of the mountains. The strange little man was no longer there. Rip thought to himself that he must have slept here all night long, and he was afraid that his wife would be very angry. 

Rip called out for his dog, but Wolf did not return. As he started walking back home, he saw his village down below, but somehow it looked different. When Rip entered the village, he saw faces he did not recognise. The people were also dressed in clothes that seemed strange to him. Even the buildings were different. Rip rubbed his chin, and to his astonishment, he found he had grown a long beard overnight. Then he looked at his clothes and realized that they were in tatters. 

Rip van Winkle walked to the place where his home had once stood, but it was no longer there. The building had fallen apart, it had no roof, and the windows were all broken. He heard a dog bark, and he thought it was Wolf, but the animal growled at Rip, as if it did not know who he was. Sad and confused, Rip went back into the village. There the villagers gathered around him, staring and pointing at him. Then Rip spotted a man who looked very much like himself and asked him what was his name. The young man replied that his name was Rip van Winkle. Rip's own son, who was a child when he had left, was an adult now! There was also a young woman who looked familiar, and he asked her who she was. She said that her father, Rip Van Winkle, had left the house twenty years before and never returned. Rip told her that he was her lost father.

The people of the village looked closer at Rip. Indeed, the man did look like the Rip Van Winkle of old. The man whom they had not seen for twenty years had finally returned! That night the villagers gathered in order to give Rip Van Winkle a warm welcome after all the long years he had spent sleeping in the misty, mysterious Catskill Mountains.

Rip Van Winkle is probably the most famous American fairy tale with elements of magic. Interestingly, there are also some hidden symbols in the story. For example, Rip van Winkle went to sleep before 1776, when the American colonies were still ruled by the British, and woke up after the American War of Independence, to an entirely different reality.  Some people also think that it is not a coincidence that the main character was named Rip. 'The acronym 'R.I.P.' stands for Rest In Peace, because when America became an independent country, the old ways were dead and gone for good.