Ioannis Valavanis

Ioannis Valavanis Thursday, June 8, 2023 I've digitized quite a few tales from Arheion Pontou volumes 6 and 7 (1935 and 1937). They're not all uploaded yet (a couple are longer than the database can handle so I need to find ways around that), but I need to shift focus. So let's take a look at Ioannis Valavanis, who collected the tales published in AP 7. According to the Enkyklopaideia tou Pontiakou Ellinismou, young Ioannis was born in Kerasunta in 1830. Having studied at the local school and then enrolling in the Frontistirion of Trebizond, he became an educator in his hometown for a few years. Then, wanting to broaden his education, he headed to Athens and studied in the Philosophiki Skholi of the Univiersity of Athens while working at the state ministry of Education. He graduated in 1880 and went to teach in the American College in Merzifounta and then in Samsounta/Amisos, returning to Kerasounta in 1896. Two of his studies of folklore won prizes from the Ellinikos Filologikos Syllogos of Constantinople and the Syllogos Coraes.  He was one of the first scholars, Pontian or otherwise, to collect Pontic folktales in a serious way. Twenty-nine have been published from Amisos/Samsounta (2), Ano Amisos (4), Argyroupolis (5), Kerasounta (16), Nikopolis (1), and Oinoe (1).  He collected a variety of types of tales: animal tales (3), magical adventures (21), mythos (1), a story about a woman/man, tales of xenitia (one of these is also a magical adventure) (2), and a tall tale.  Brief note: the first published Pontic folktales date from 1870, in Savvas Ioannides' Istoria kai statistiki tis Trapezountas. They are all mythoi or animal tales.