Posts Tagged ‘Russian Folktales’
May
Russian Fairytale: Baba Yaga & The Wicked Geese
The girl kept on running and soon she saw an Apple-Tree and asked it if it had seen in what direction the Geese flew. The Apple-Tree answered: “Eat my wild forest apple and I will show you”. The girl responded rudely: “I won’t eat your wild apple. I don’t even eat good apples from my father’s garden.” The Apple-Tree didn’t answered her and did show her the direction.
The girl ran and ran and at last she saw was a Milk River with kissel [a kind of sweet starchy jelly] banks. The girl asked: “Milk River, kissel banks, could you tell me in what direction Baba Yaga’s Geese have flown carrying my poor little brother?”
The Milk River replied: “Eat my milk kissel and I will show you the direction.” “I don’t eat even cream at home,” the girl responded.
The girl ran in forests and fields and in the evening she saw a little hut that stood on chicken legs and turned itself around. Her little brother sat on the bench and played with silver apples. In the hut old Baba Yaga was spinning her yarn. The girl said: “Baba Yaga, let me rest and warm myself.” “Take the spindle and spin,” Baba Yaga replied.
After Baba Yaga had left the room the girl saw a little gray mouse. “Give me some grain and I will give you a piece of good advice,” said the little mouse. The girl gave it some grain and the mouse continued: “Baba Yaga has gone to stoke a stove, she is going to wash you, and then she is intending to roast you in the stove and eat you. Take your little brother and run and I will spin instead of you.”
The girl was very frightened and naturally followed the mouse’s advice. She took her brother and ran away.
Baba Yaga asked if the girl spun yarn and the mouse answered that she did. When Baba Yaga returned and found that the girl and her little brother disappeared, she ordered: “Baba Yaga’s Geese! Fly and catch that sister and her brother.”
The girl and her little brother reached the Milk River and noticed that Baba Yaga’s Geese were in pursuit of them.
“Dear Milk River, please hide us,” the girl entreated. “Eat my kissel.” The children ate kissel and the Milk River hid them under its kissel banks. The Baba Yaga’s Geese didn’t find them and the children went on running but soon they noticed the Baba Yaga’s Geese spotted them and were in hot pursuit.
They saw the Apple-Tree and the girl begged: “Dear Apple-Tree, please, hide us!” “Eat my wild forest apples.” The children ate the apples and thanked the Apple-Tree. The Apple-Tree covered them with its branches and Baba Yaga’s Geese didn’t notice them.
The girl and her brother continued running and this time when the Baba Yaga’s Geese saw them again the children nearly got caught. Fortunately at the right moment, the children saw the Stove and cried: “Stove, please, hide us!” “Eat my rye patty,” said the Stove. The children ate the patties and hid themselves inside the Stove. The Baba Yaga’s Geese could not catch the sister and her brother and they flew away. The children thanked the Stove and ran home.
At the exact moment that the children returned home, their parents came home from work. They praised their daughter for taking good care of her brother. They never found out what happened to them, because the girl vowed not to worry her parents with the events that happened that day. She also learned to listen to her parents, not to be naughty and feisty, and to have a respect to others.
Since then, everyone lived happily ever after.
Mar
Russian Fairytale: Ruslan and Ludmila
In days long since past, Prince Vladimir of Kiev held a magnificent feast in honor of the marriage of his daughter Ludmila and the knight Ruslan. Three jealous suitors looked on – Rogday, Farlaf, and Ratmir. The festivities lasted for hours and when they were over, Ruslan led his beautiful young bride to the waiting nuptial bed. Suddenly a light flashed through the night sky and a clap of thunder shook the ground. A strange mist appeared and from somewhere inside it a strange voice spoke. Ruslan turned to embrace his bride, but she had vanished without a trace.
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian Folklore, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: The Firebird and Princess Vassilissa
In a certain kingdom, in a thrice-ten realm that lay far away, beyond the thrice-nine lands, there once lived a mighty king. The king had an archer who was as brave as he was strong, and the archer had a horse that was as strong as it was fleet of foot. One day the archer got on his horse and rode off to the forest to hunt. (more…)
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: Tsar Saltan
Long ago in a faraway kingdom, three sisters were outside in the courtyard talking, imagining what they would do if they were married to Tsar Saltan. One said that she would prepare a great feast for the entire world. The next said that she would weave linen for the entire world. The third said that she would give the tsar “an heir, handsome and brave beyond compare.”
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: By The Pike’s Wish
In one village there lived three brothers. The two elder brothers were successful merchants, but the youngest brother was a fool named Emelya who slept on the stove all day long. Once it happened that when he went to the ice-hole for water and he caught a magic pike. The pike asked him to let her go free and promised him to grant any of his wishes. “Just say these magic words: ‘By the pike’s wish, at my command,’ and everything will be done” the pike said. Emelya agreed.
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: Tale of the Golden Cockerel
Somewhere in a Thrice-Nine kingdom there lived the famous Tsar Dadon. When he was young, he was fierce and brave, so, all his neighbors were afraid of him. But when he grew old he wanted to live in peace, to have a rest from wars, but then his neighbors began to make him much trouble often invading his kingdom. To defend the kingdom borders the Tsar had to maintain a mighty army, which fought day and night, led by the glorious chiefs practically without sleeping. Tsar Dadon and his army were so tired that the Tsar decided to ask for help the wise Astrologer, old eunuch from the east.
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: Tale of Baba Yaga (The Russian Witch)
Once upon a time an old man, a widower, lived alone in a hut with his daughter Natasha. Very merry the two of them were together, and they used to smile at each other over a table piled with bread and jam, and play peek-a-boo, first this side of the samovar, and then that. Everything went well, until the old man took it into his head to marry again.
Tags: Baba Yaga, Fairytales Russia, Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: The Great Turnip
Listen, please, listen how sometimes it can be…
Once the Grandpa has planted a Turnip. The Turnip has grown to be enormously huge. The Grandpa went to pick the Turnip. He pulls and pulls it out, but could not pull it out…
Then, the Grandpa called the Grandma, his wife, to help him to pull out the Turnip.
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: The Humpedback Pony
Once upon a time there was a peasant family that owned one wheat field. One morning they found that during the night, someone had been trampling around in the field and ruining the wheat. The two elder brothers stood guard during the next two nights, but because of storms and cold winds they left the field, and in the morning it was trampled down even more. On the third night the youngest brother Ivan, whom everyone thought was the fool in the family, managed to catch the wonderful mare that had been destroying the field.
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian FolktalesMar
Russian Fairytale: The Snow Maiden
Very, very long ago in an Old Russian village there lived an old couple: the woodcutter and his wife. They barely made the ends meet, owing to the old man who cut logs in the forest and carried them into the nearest town. They were poor and had no children, so as they grew older they became sadder and sadder. The old woman often asked, “Who will take care of us? We are so old.” Her husband used to answer, “Don’t worry, old woman. God will not leave us alone, he will help us, if necessary.”
Tags: Russian Fairytales, Russian Folktales