--- title: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: _Principal Incarnations of Evil. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collecti…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/) / Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1 # Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1 Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 1 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 126 sentences and 2578 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 2 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/1/) — \_Principal Incarnations of Evil. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/2/) — \_ - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/3/) — The present chapter is devoted to specimens of those skazkas which most Russian critics assert to be distinctly mythical. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/4/) — The stories of this class are so numerous, that the task of selection has been by no means easy. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/5/) — But I have done my best to choose such examples as are most characteristic of that species of the "mythical" folk-tale which prevails in Russia, and to avoid, as far as possible, the repetition of narratives which have already been made familiar to the English reader by translations of German and Scandinavian stories. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/6/) — There is a more marked individuality in the Russian tales of this kind, as compared with those of Western Europe, than is to be traced in the stories (especially those of a humorous cast) which relate to the events that chequer an ordinary existence. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/7/) — The actors in the \_comediettas\_ of European peasant-life vary but little, either in title or in character, wherever the scene may be laid; just as in the European beast-epos the Fox, the Wolf, and the Bear play parts which change but slightly with the regions they inhabit. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/8/) — But the supernatural beings which people the fairy-land peculiar to each race, though closely resembling each other in many respects, differ conspicuously in others. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/9/) — They may, it is true, be nothing more than various developments of the same original type; they may be traceable to germs common to the prehistoric ancestors of the now widely separated Aryan peoples; their peculiarities may simply be due to the accidents to which travellers from distant lands are liable. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/10/) — But at all events each family now has features of its own, typical characteristics by which it may be readily distinguished from its neighbors. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/11/) — My chief aim at present is to give an idea of those characteristics which lend individuality to the "mythical beings" in the Skazkas; in order to effect this, I shall attempt a delineation of those supernatural figures, to some extent peculiar to Slavonic fairy-land, which make their appearance in the Russian folk-tales. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/12/) — I have given a brief sketch of them elsewhere. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/13/) — \[72\] I now propose to deal with them more fully, quoting at length, instead of merely mentioning, some of the evidence on which the proof of their existence depends. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/14/) — For the sake of convenience, we may select from the great mass of the mythical skazkas those which are supposed most manifestly to typify the conflict of opposing elements--whether of Good and Evil, or of Light and Darkness, or of Heat and Cold, or of any other pair of antagonistic forces or phenomena. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/15/) — The typical hero of this class of stories, who represents the cause of right, and who is resolved by mythologists into so many different essences, presents almost identically the same appearance in most of the countries wherein he has become naturalized. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/16/) — He is endowed with supernatural powers, but he remains a man, for all that. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/17/) — Whether as prince or peasant, he alters but very little in his wanderings among the Aryan races of Europe. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/18/) — And a somewhat similar statement may be made about his feminine counterpart--for all the types of Fairy-land life are of an epicene nature, admitting of a feminine as well as a masculine development--the heroine who in the Skazkas, as well as in other folk-tales, braves the wrath of female demons in quest of means whereby to lighten the darkness of her home, or rescues her bewitched brothers from the thraldom of an enchantress, or liberates her captive husband from a dungeon's gloom. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/19/) — But their antagonists--the dark or evil beings whom the hero attacks and eventually destroys, or whom the heroine overcomes by her virtues, her subtlety, or her skill--vary to a considerable extent with the region they occupy, or rather with the people in whose memories they dwell. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/20/) — The Giants by killing whom our own Jack gained his renown, the Norse Trolls, the Ogres of southern romance, the Drakos and Lamia of modern Greece, the Lithuanian Laume--these and all the other groups of monstrous forms under which the imagination of each race has embodied its ideas about (according to one hypothesis) the Powers of Darkness it feared, or (according to another) the Aborigines it detested, differ from each other to a considerable and easily recognizable extent. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/21/) — An excellent illustration of this statement is offered by the contrast between the Slavonic group of supernatural beings of this class and their equivalents in lands tenanted by non-Slavonic members of the Indo-European family. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/22/) — A family likeness will, of course, be traced between all these conceptions of popular fancy, but the gloomy figures with which the folk-tales of the Slavonians render us familiar may be distinguished at a glance among their kindred monsters of Latin, Hellenic, Teutonic, or Celtic extraction. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/23/) — Of those among the number to which the Russian skazkas relate I will now proceed to give a sketch, allowing the stories, so far as is possible, to speak for themselves. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/24/) — If the powers of darkness in the "mythical" skazkas are divided into two groups--the one male, the other female--there stand out as the most prominent figures in the former set, the Snake (or some other illustration of "Zoological Mythology"), Koshchei the Deathless, and the Morskoi Tsar or King of the Waters. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/25/) — In the latter group the principal characters are the Baba Yaga, or Hag, her close connection the Witch, and the Female Snake. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/26/) — On the forms and natures of the less conspicuous characters to be found in either class we will not at present dwell. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/27/) — An opportunity for commenting on some of them will be afforded in another chapter. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/28/) — To begin with the Snake. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/29/) — His outline, like that of the cloud with which he is so frequently associated, and which he is often supposed to typify, is seldom well-defined. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/30/) — Now in one form and now in another, he glides a shifting shape, of which it is difficult to obtain a satisfactory view. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/31/) — Sometimes he retains throughout the story an exclusively reptilian character; sometimes he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent and partly man. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/32/) — In one story we see him riding on horseback, with hawk on wrist (or raven on shoulder) and hound at heel; in another he figures as a composite being with a human body and a serpent's head; in a third he flies as a fiery snake into his mistress's bower, stamps with his foot on the ground, and becomes a youthful gallant. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/33/) — But in most cases he is a serpent which in outward appearance seems to differ from other ophidians only in being winged and polycephalous--the number of his heads generally varying from three to twelve. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/34/) — \[73\] - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/35/) — He is often known by the name of Zmei \[snake\] Goruinuich \[son of the \_gora\_ or mountain\], and sometimes he is supposed to dwell in the mountain caverns. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/36/) — To his abode, whether in the bowels of the earth, or in the open light of day--whether it be a sumptuous palace or "an \_izba\_ on fowl's legs," a hut upheld by slender supports on which it turns as on a pivot--he carries off his prey. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/37/) — In one story he appears to have stolen, or in some way concealed, the day-light; in another the bright moon and the many stars come forth from within him after his death. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/38/) — But as a general rule it is some queen or princess whom he tears away from her home, as Pluto carried off Proserpina, and who remains with him reluctantly, and hails as her rescuer the hero who comes to give him battle. - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/39/) — Sometimes, however, the snake is represented as having a wife of his own species, and daughters who share their parent's tastes and powers. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/40/) — Such is the case in the (South-Russian) story of - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/41/) — IVAN POPYALOF. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/42/) — \[74\] - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/43/) — Once upon a time there was an old couple, and they had three sons. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/44/) — Two of these had their wits about them, but the third was a simpleton, Ivan by name, surnamed Popyalof. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/45/) — For twelve whole years Ivan lay among the ashes from the stove; but then he arose, and shook himself, so that six poods of ashes\[75\] fell off from him. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/46/) — Now in the land in which Ivan lived there was never any day, but always night. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/47/) — That was a Snake's doing. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/48/) — Well, Ivan undertook to kill that Snake, so he said to his father, "Father, make me a mace five poods in weight." - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/49/) — And when he had got the mace, he went out into the fields, and flung it straight up in the air, and then he went home. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/50/) — The next day he went out into the fields to the spot from which he had flung the mace on high, and stood there with his head thrown back. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/51/) — So when the mace fell down again it hit him on the forehead. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/52/) — And the mace broke in two. - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/53/) — Ivan went home and said to his father, "Father, make me another mace, a ten pood one." - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/54/) — And when he had got it he went out into the fields, and flung it aloft. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/55/) — And the mace went flying through the air for three days and three nights. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/56/) — On the fourth day Ivan went out to the same spot, and when the mace came tumbling down, he put his knee in the way, and the mace broke over it into three pieces. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/57/) — Ivan went home and told his father to make him a third mace, one of fifteen poods weight. - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/58/) — And when he had got it, he went out into the fields and flung it aloft. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/59/) — And the mace was up in the air six days. - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/60/) — On the seventh Ivan went to the same spot as before. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/61/) — Down fell the mace, and when it struck Ivan's forehead, the forehead bowed under it. — checked by a teacher - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/62/) — Thereupon he said, "This mace will do for the Snake!" - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/63/) — So when he had got everything ready, he went forth with his brothers to fight the Snake. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/64/) — He rode and rode, and presently there stood before him a hut on fowl's legs,\[76\] and in that hut lived the Snake. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/65/) — There all the party came to a standstill. - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/66/) — Then Ivan hung up his gloves, and said to his brothers, "Should blood drop from my gloves, make haste to help me." - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/67/) — When he had said this he went into the hut and sat down under the boarding. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/68/) — \[77\] - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/69/) — Presently there rode up a Snake with three heads. - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/70/) — His steed stumbled, his hound howled, his falcon clamored. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/71/) — \[78\] Then cried the Snake: - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/72/) — "Wherefore hast thou stumbled, O Steed! hast thou howled, O Hound! hast thou clamored, O Falcon?" - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/73/) — "How can I but stumble," replied the Steed, "when under the boarding sits Ivan Popyalof?" - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/74/) — Then said the Snake, "Come forth, Ivanushka! - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/75/) — Let us try our strength together." - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/76/) — Ivan came forth, and they began to fight. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/77/) — And Ivan killed the Snake, and then sat down again beneath the boarding. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/78/) — Presently there came another Snake, a six-headed one, and him, too, Ivan killed. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/79/) — And then there came a third, which had twelve heads. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/80/) — Well, Ivan began to fight with him, and lopped off nine of his heads. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/81/) — The Snake had no strength left in him. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/82/) — Just then a raven came flying by, and it croaked: - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/83/) — "Krof? - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/84/) — Krof!" - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/85/) — \[79\] - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/86/) — Then the Snake cried to the Raven, "Fly, and tell my wife to come and devour Ivan Popyalof." - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/87/) — But Ivan cried: "Fly, and tell my brothers to come, and then we will kill this Snake, and give his flesh to thee." - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/88/) — And the Raven gave ear to what Ivan said, and flew to his brothers and began to croak above their heads. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/89/) — The brothers awoke, and when they heard the cry of the Raven, they hastened to their brother's aid. - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/90/) — And they killed the Snake, and then, having taken his heads, they went into his hut and destroyed them. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/91/) — And immediately there was bright light throughout the whole land. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/92/) — After killing the Snake, Ivan Popyalof and his brothers set off on their way home. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/93/) — But he had forgotten to take away his gloves, so he went back to fetch them, telling his brothers to wait for him meanwhile. - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/94/) — Now when he had reached the hut and was going to take away his gloves, he heard the voices of the Snake's wife and daughters, who were talking with each other. - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/95/) — So he turned himself into a cat, and began to mew outside the door. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/96/) — They let him in, and he listened to everything they said. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/97/) — Then he got his gloves and hastened away. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/98/) — As soon as he came to where his brothers were, he mounted his horse, and they all started afresh. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/99/) — They rode and rode; presently they saw before them a green meadow, and on that meadow lay silken cushions. - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/100/) — Then the elder brothers said, "Let's turn out our horses to graze here, while we rest ourselves a little." **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/19/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/18/) - next →: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/20/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)