News
20/11/2025. The Chronicle of Läkkölä: Ethnic Fantasy in Karelian Style
The National Library of Karelia held a meeting with Marina Babalyk, an author writing in the ethnic fantasy genre who seamlessly combines folklore traditions and the author's own fiction.
Marina Babalyk presented her new fairy-tale novel The Chronicle of Läkkölä. The Crystal of the Magic Side. The ethnic fantasy as a literary genre is particularly valuable because it does not simply borrow elements of mythology, but creates own artistic world where ancient beliefs take on a new meaning. This is precisely how Läkkölä's world is constructed: Karelian mythology becomes the living fabric of the narrative, and traditional images are reimagined through the author's imagination.
The writer told the story of the book's creation to the students of the Petrozavodsk Presidential Cadet School. She explained how the beauty and mysteries of Karelia was used as a source of inspiration – local landscapes, legends, and atmosphere became the foundation for a fictional world with its own laws and inhabitants.
At the meeting, the author introduced the audience not only to the spirits of Karelian mythology, carefully recreated from folklore sources, but also to fictional magical creatures. These characters are seamlessly woven into the narrative and help the heroes overcome trials while maintaining a connection to the traditional worldview.
The writer’s dedication to her grandmother, Vera Chukhonkina, gives particular depth to the work. During her childhood, Marina Babalyk heard from her granny a plenty of stories about Karelian heroes, spirits, and customs. These orally told stories became the living source from which the ethnic fantasy The Chronicle of Läkkölä has grown: there are echoes of folk tales, but also it creates a completely new, original world, where tradition meets the author's imagination.
