Russian Fairy Tales (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)

by Afanas'Ev, Aleksandr

  Creak, my paw,

  Creak, limewood!

  The water sleeps,

  And the earth sleeps,

  The townsmen sleep,

  The villagers sleep;

  Only one woman is awake,

  Sitting on my skin,

  Spinning my fur,

  Cooking my flesh!

  The old man and his wife were terrified. He hid on the shelf and covered himself with a trough, and she hid on the stove and covered herself with some black shirts. The bear entered the room. From fear the old man groaned under the trough, and the old woman coughed under the black shirts. The bear found them and ate them.

  THE SPIDER

  IN DAYS OF YORE, in very, very olden times, one lovely spring, one hot summer, a great plague spread over the world: mosquitoes and midges in great swarms began to bite people and drink their blood. Then a spider came, a brave knight, and he began to twist his legs and weave his webs in the paths of the mosquitoes and the midges. A dirty fly fell into the spider’s web, and the spider began to beat her, torment her, strangle her. The fly implored the spider: “Little father spider, do not beat me, do not kill me; I would leave behind many orphans who would fly into all the yards and annoy the dogs.” The spider let her go. She flew away buzzing and announced to all the mosquitoes and midges: “Hey, you mosquitoes and midges, hide under the aspen tree root; a spider has come who twists his legs and weaves his webs in the paths of mosquitoes and midges; he’ll catch you all.”

  They flew away, hid under the aspen tree root, and lay as though dead. The spider called together a cricket, a beetle, and a wood bug: “You, cricket, sit on a cabbage and smoke a pipe of tobacco; you, beetle, beat a drum; and you, wood bug, go to the aspen tree root, and spread the news that I, the valiant spider, the brave knight, am no longer alive. Say that I was sent to Kazan, that in Kazan my head was cut off on the block and the block was cleft asunder.” The cricket sat on a cabbage and smoked a pipe of tobacco; the beetle beat a drum, and the wood bug went to the aspen tree root, and said: “Why do you hide, why do you lie as though dead? The valiant spider, the brave knight, is no longer alive; he was sent to Kazan, and in Kazan his head was cut off on the block and the block was cleft asunder.” They cheered and rejoiced, made the sign of the cross, flew away, and all fell into the spider’s webs. He said: “You’re nice little things! You should visit me more often, drink beer and wine, and treat yourselves fine!”

  BABA YAGA AND THE BRAVE YOUTH

  ONCE UPON A TIME there lived a cat, a sparrow, and a brave youth. The cat and the sparrow went to the forest to chop wood and said to the brave youth: “You keep the house, but mind you: if Baba Yaga comes and counts the spoons, do not say a word, keep quiet!” “Very well,” said the brave youth. The cat and the sparrow went away, and the brave youth sat on the stove behind the chimney. Suddenly Baba Yaga came in, took the spoons, and began to count them: “This is the cat’s spoon, this is the sparrow’s spoon, and this is the brave youth’s spoon.” The brave youth could not restrain himself and cried: “Baba Yaga, don’t touch my spoon!” Baba Yaga seized the brave youth, sat on the mortar, and flew off; she drove the mortar, spurring it with the pestle and sweeping away her tracks with her broom. The brave youth shouted: “Cat, run! Sparrow, fly!” They heard him and rushed to his help. The cat began to scratch Baba Yaga and the sparrow to peck at her; thus they rescued the brave youth.

  The next day the cat and the sparrow again prepared to go to the forest to chop wood, and told the brave youth: “Mind you, if Baba Yaga comes, do not say anything; today we are going far away.” As soon as the brave youth had sat down on the stove behind the chimney, Baba Yaga came again, and again began to count the spoons: “This is the cat’s spoon, this is the sparrow’s spoon, and this is the brave youth’s spoon.” The brave youth could not restrain himself and shouted: “Baba Yaga, don’t touch my spoon!” Baba Yaga seized the brave youth and dragged him along with her. The brave youth shouted: “Cat, run! Sparrow, fly!” They heard him and rushed to his help. The cat began to scratch and the sparrow to peck at Baba Yaga. Thus they rescued the brave youth. Then they all went home.

  The third day the cat and the sparrow prepared once more to go to the forest and chop wood, and they said to the brave youth: “Mind you, if Baba Yaga comes, be silent; today we are going even farther.” The cat and the sparrow left, and the brave youth sat on the stove behind the chimney. Suddenly Baba Yaga again took the spoons and began to count them: “This is the cat’s spoon, this is the sparrow’s spoon, this is the brave youth’s spoon.” The brave youth did not say a word. Baba Yaga counted again: “This is the cat’s spoon, this is the sparrow’s spoon, and this is the brave youth’s spoon.” The brave youth did not say a word. Baba Yaga counted a third time: “This is the cat’s spoon, this is the sparrow’s spoon, and this is the brave youth’s spoon.” The brave youth could not restrain himself any longer and cried loudly: “Don’t touch my spoon!” Baba Yaga seized the brave youth and dragged him along with her. He cried: “Cat, run! Sparrow, fly!” But his brothers did not hear him. Baba Yaga took him home, put him in the wooden shed by the stove, made a fire in the stove, and said to her eldest daughter: “I am going to Russia. Meanwhile, roast this brave youth for my dinner.” “Very well,” said the daughter.

  The stove grew hot and the girl told the brave youth to come out of the shed. He came out. “Lie down on the roasting pan,” said the girl. He lay down, held up one of his feet so that it touched the ceiling, and put the other on the floor. The girl said: “Not that way, not that way!” The brave youth said: “How then? Show me.” The girl lay down on the roasting pan. The brave youth quickly seized an oven fork, pushed the pan with Baba Yaga’s daughter on it into the oven, and went back into the shed to wait for Baba Yaga. Suddenly she ran in and said: “Now I am going to feast and regale myself on the brave youth’s bones!” The brave youth answered her: “Feast and regale yourself on your own daughter’s bones!” Baba Yaga was startled and looked into the oven. She found her daughter all roasted, and roared: “Aha, you cheat, just wait, you won’t get away!” She ordered her second daughter to roast the brave youth and went away.

  Her second daughter made a fire in the stove and told the brave youth to come out. He came out, lay on the pan, put one foot on the ceiling and the other on the floor. The girl said: “Not that way, not that way!” “Show me how.” The girl lay on the pan. The brave youth shoved her into the oven, went back to the shed, and sat there. Suddenly he heard Baba Yaga crying: “Now I am going to feast and regale myself on the brave youth’s bones!” He answered: “Feast and regale yourself on your own daughter’s bones!” Baba Yaga flew into a rage: “Eh,” she said, “just wait, you won’t get away!”

  She ordered her youngest daughter to roast him, but to no avail; the brave youth shoved her into the oven too. Baba Yaga flew into an even greater rage: “Now,” she said, “this time I swear you won’t get away!” She made a fire in the stove and cried: “Come out, brave youth, lie on the pan!” He lay down, touched the ceiling with one foot, the floor with the other, and thus could not be got into the oven. Baba Yaga said: “Not that way, not that way!” And the brave youth still pretended that he did not know how. “I don’t know how,” he said. “Show me.” Baba Yaga at once curled up and lay on the pan. The brave youth quickly shoved her into the oven, ran home, and said to his brothers: “That’s what I did with Baba Yaga!”

  PRINCE IVAN AND PRINCESS MARTHA

  FOR MANY YEARS a certain tsar had kept under lock and key a little peasant all made of copper, with iron hands and a steel head—a cunning man, a wizard of a man! Prince Ivan, the tsar’s son who was still a little boy, walked by the prison. The old man called him and began to beg: “Prince Ivan, please give me a drink!” Prince Ivan did not know anything yet, he was very little, so he drew some water and gave it to him; with the help of the water the old man vanished from the prison. This was reported to the tsar, who ordered Prince Ivan to be driven from the kingdom.
The tsar’s word was law. Prince Ivan was banished and he left home not knowing where to go.

  He walked for a long time; at last he arrived in another kingdom, presented himself to the king, and asked to be taken into his service. The king accepted him and appointed him stableboy. But all he did in the stable was sleep; he did not tend the horses, and the stable master beat him more than once. Prince Ivan bore all this patiently. Meanwhile another king had asked for the hand of this king’s daughter, was rebuffed, and declared war. The king departed with his troops, and Princess Martha, his daughter, was left to rule the kingdom. Even before this she had noticed that Prince Ivan was not of lowly origin; now she appointed him governor of one of her provinces.

  Prince Ivan left for his province and governed it. One day he went hunting; he had no sooner left the town than the peasant all made of copper, with iron hands and a steel head, appeared from nowhere. “Good day, Prince Ivan!” he said. Prince Ivan returned his greeting. The old man said: “Come, pay me a visit.” They walked together. The old man led him into a rich house and called to his little daughter: “Hey, give us food and drink and a half-gallon cup of wine!” They began to eat; suddenly the daughter brought in a half-gallon cup of wine and presented it to Prince Ivan. He refused, saying: “I cannot drink all that!” The old man told him to try. The young prince took the cup and suddenly felt great strength in him; in one draught he drank all the wine. Then the old man asked him to go for a walk with him; they came to a stone that weighed about twenty thousand pounds. The old man said: “Lift that stone, Prince Ivan!” He thought: “I surely cannot lift that stone, but I will try.” He picked it up, tossed it easily, and said to himself: “Whence comes all this new strength? Probably the old man has given it to me with the wine.”

  They walked some time, then returned home. The old man told his second daughter to bring a gallon of wine. Prince Ivan boldly took the cup and drank it in one draught. Then again they went for a walk and came to a stone that weighed forty thousand pounds. The old man said to Prince Ivan: “Try to toss this stone.” Prince Ivan snatched it at once, tossed it, and thought to himself: “What strength there is in me!” Again they returned home, and the old man told his youngest daughter to bring a gallon and a half of green wine. Prince Ivan drank that, too, in one draught, went again to walk with the old man, and this time easily tossed a stone that weighed sixty thousand pounds. Then the old man gave him a self-serving tablecloth and said: “Now, Prince Ivan, you have such strength that no horse will carry you! Have the porch of your house made over, else it will not support you; you also need other chairs, and more rafters under the floor. God speed you!”

  All the people laughed when they saw the governor returning from the hunt on foot and leading his horse by the bridle. He came home, had supports put under the floors, had his chairs made over, dismissed all his cooks and chambermaids, and lived alone like a hermit. Everyone wondered how he could live without eating: no one cooked for him, for he was fed by his self-serving tablecloth. He ceased visiting anyone, because none of the chairs in other people’s houses could support his weight.

  The king returned from his campaign, learned that Prince Ivan was governor of a province, ordered that he be replaced, and again made him a stableboy. There was nothing Prince Ivan could do about it, and he began once more to live as a stableboy. One day the groom ordered him to do something and struck him; Prince Ivan could not restrain himself; he struck back and knocked off the groom’s head. This affair reached the ears of the king; Prince Ivan was brought before him. “Why did you kill the groom?” asked the king. “He struck me first; I hit back, not very hard, but somehow his head fell off.” The other stableboys said the same thing—that the groom had hit first and that Prince Ivan had not hit him back hard. No punishment was meted out to Prince Ivan; but he was sent from the stables to the army and began to live as a soldier.

  A short time afterward a little man no bigger than a nail, with a beard a cubit long, came to the king and handed him a letter from the Water King with three black seals on it. The letter ran as follows: “If the king does not put his daughter, Princess Martha, on such and such an island on such and such a day to be given in marriage to the Water King’s son, he will kill all the people and burn the whole kingdom, and a three-headed dragon will come for Princess Martha.” The king read this letter, and wrote a letter to the Water King saying that he would give him his daughter; he politely escorted the little old man to the door of the palace, then summoned his senators and councilors to hold council as to how they might defend his daughter against the three-headed dragon. If he failed to send her to the island, the Water King would devastate the whole kingdom. A call was issued: “Will someone volunteer to rescue Princess Martha from the dragon?” To him the king would give her in marriage. A boastful nobleman responded to the call, took a company of soldiers, and brought Princess Martha to the island; he left her in a hut, and he himself waited for the dragon outside.

  Meanwhile Prince Ivan learned that Princess Martha had been taken to the Water King, so he too armed himself and went to the island. He came into the hut and found Princess Martha weeping. “Don’t weep, princess,” he said to her. “God is merciful.” He lay on a bench, put his head on Princess Martha’s knees, and fell asleep. Suddenly the dragon appeared and water rushed in after him to a height of three yards. When the water began to rise, the boastful nobleman who was stationed there with his soldiers ordered: “March to the woods!” All the soldiers hid in the woods. The dragon came out and made straight for the hut. Princess Martha saw the dragon coming for her and awakened Prince Ivan. He jumped down from the bench, in one stroke cut off all the three heads of the dragon, and left. The nobleman took Princess Martha home to the king, her father.

  After a short time, the little old man no bigger than a nail, with a beard a cubit long, again came out of the water and brought a letter from the Water King with six black seals on it, summoning the king to put his daughter on the same island, to be taken by a six-headed dragon; if the king refused to surrender her, the Water King threatened to flood the whole kingdom. The king wrote in answer that he agreed to surrender Princess Martha. The little old man left. The king issued a call, and messengers were sent everywhere: could not a man be found to rescue the princess from the dragon? The same nobleman presented himself again, saying: “Your Majesty, I will rescue her; only give me a company of soldiers.” “Don’t you need more than a company? This time it is a dragon with six heads.” “No, a company is enough, I don’t need more.”

  The party gathered and they took Princess Martha away. When Prince Ivan learned that the princess was again in danger, remembering the kindness that she had done him by appointing him governor, he went to the island; again he found Princess Martha in the hut, and entered. She was waiting for him and rejoiced to see him. He lay down and fell asleep. Suddenly the six-headed dragon began to emerge, and six yards of water rushed in. This time the nobleman and his soldiers had posted them selves in the woods immediately. The dragon entered the hut, and Princess Martha awakened Prince Ivan. The dragon and Prince Ivan came to blows, and fought and fought; Prince Ivan cut off one head of the dragon, a second, a third, and finally all six heads, and cast them into the water, and went away as though nothing had happened. The nobleman and his soldiers came out of the woods, and went home and reported to the king that God had helped them to rescue Princess Martha. And it seems that this same nobleman threatened the princess in some manner, for she did not dare to say that it was not he who had rescued her. The nobleman began to insist upon marrying her, but Princess Martha told him to wait. “Let me recover from my fear,” she said. “I was terribly frightened!”

  Suddenly once more the same little old man no bigger than a nail, with a beard a cubit long, emerged from the water and brought a letter with nine black seals, demanding that the king straightway send Princess Martha to such and such an island on such and such a day, to be carried off by a nine-headed dragon, and threatening, if he did not s
end her, to flood the whole kingdom. Again the king wrote in answer that he agreed, and began to seek a man who could rescue the princess from the nine-headed dragon. The same nobleman again presented himself and left with a company of soldiers and Princess Martha. Prince Ivan heard about it, armed himself and went to the island too, and Princess Martha was waiting for him. She was overjoyed to see him and began to question him as to his place of birth, his father’s name, and his own name. He did not answer, but lay down and fell asleep. The nine-headed dragon began to emerge, and brought with him a flood of water nine yards high. Again the nobleman ordered the soldiers to march to the woods, and they hid there. Princess Martha began to rouse Prince Ivan, but could not awaken him. The dragon was nearing the threshold. She wept, but still could not awaken Prince Ivan. The dragon began to crawl close, ready to snatch Prince Ivan, but still he slept. Princess Martha had a penknife, and with it she cut Prince Ivan’s cheek. He awoke, jumped up, and began to shout insults at the dragon. Now the dragon began to have the upper hand in the fight. Out of nowhere appeared the little peasant all made of copper, with iron hands and a steel head, and he gripped the dragon; the two together cut off all his heads, cast them into the water, and left. The nobleman was happier than ever, came rushing out of the woods, went home to his kingdom, and began to press the king to celebrate the wedding. Princess Martha refused. “Wait a little while, let me recover,” she said. “I was terribly frightened.”