--- title: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Having entered into the service of this master, the Prince began to ask what was going on in that country. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/) [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 3 # Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 3 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 122 sentences and 2576 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/1/) — Having entered into the service of this master, the Prince began to ask what was going on in that country. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/2/) — And his master replied: "Our two princes--for the third one has disappeared--have brought away brides from the other world, and want to marry them, but those brides refuse. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/3/) — For they insist on having all their wedding-clothes made for them first, exactly like those which they used to have in the other world, and that without being measured for them. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/4/) — The King has called all the workmen together, but not one of them will undertake to do it." - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/5/) — The Prince, having heard all this, said, "Go to the King, master, and tell him that you will provide everything that's in your line." - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/6/) — "However can I undertake to make clothes of that sort; I work for quite common folks," says his master. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/7/) — "Go along, master! - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/8/) — I will answer for everything," says the Prince. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/9/) — So the tailor went. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/10/) — The King was delighted that at least one good workman had been found, and gave him as much money as ever he wanted. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/11/) — When the tailor had settled everything, he went home. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/12/) — And the Prince said to him: - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/13/) — "Now then, pray to God, and lie down to sleep; to-morrow all will be ready." - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/14/) — And the tailor followed his lad's advice, and went to bed. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/15/) — Midnight sounded. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/16/) — The Prince arose, went out of the city into the fields, took out of his pocket the eggs which the maidens had given him, and, as they had taught him, turned them into three palaces. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/17/) — Into each of these he entered, took the maidens' robes, went out again, turned the palaces back into eggs, and went home. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/18/) — And when he got there he hung up the robes on the wall, and lay down to sleep. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/19/) — Early in the morning his master awoke, and behold! there hung such robes as he had never seen before, all shining with gold and silver and precious stones. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/20/) — He was delighted, and he seized them and carried them off to the King. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/21/) — When the princesses saw that the clothes were those which had been theirs in the other world, they guessed that Prince Ivan was in this world, so they exchanged glances with each other, but they held their peace. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/22/) — And the master, having handed over the clothes, went home, but he no longer found his dear journeyman there. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/23/) — For the Prince had gone to a shoemaker's, and him too he sent to work for the King; and in the same way he went the round of all the artificers, and they all proffered him thanks, inasmuch as through him they were enriched by the King. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/24/) — By the time the princely workman had gone the round of all the artificers, the princesses had received what they had asked for; all their clothes were just like what they had been in the other world. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/25/) — Then they wept bitterly because the Prince had not come, and it was impossible for them to hold out any longer, it was necessary that they should be married. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/26/) — But when they were ready for the wedding, the youngest bride said to the King: - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/27/) — "Allow me, my father, to go and give alms to the beggars." - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/28/) — He gave her leave, and she went and began bestowing alms upon them, and examining them closely. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/29/) — And when she had come to one of them, and was going to give him some money, she caught sight of the ring which she had given to the Prince in the other world, and her sisters' rings too--for it really was he. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/30/) — So she seized him by the hand, and brought him into the hall, and said to the King: - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/31/) — "Here is he who brought us out of the other world. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/32/) — His brothers forbade us to say that he was alive, threatening to slay us if we did." - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/33/) — Then the King was wroth with those sons, and punished them as he thought best. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/34/) — And afterwards three weddings were celebrated. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/35/) — \[The conclusion of this story is somewhat obscure. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/36/) — Most of the variants represent the Prince as forgiving his brothers, and allowing them to marry two of the three princesses, but the present version appears to keep closer to its original, in which the prince doubtless married all three. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/37/) — With this story may be compared: Grimm, No. 166, "Der starke Hans," and No. 91, "Dat Erdmaenneken." - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/38/) — See also vol. iii. p. 165, where a reference is given to the Hungarian story in Gaal, No. 5--Dasent, No. 55, "The Big Bird Dan," and No. 56, "Soria Moria Castle" (Asbjoernsen and Moe, Nos. - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/39/) — 3 and 2. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/40/) — A somewhat similar story, only the palaces are in the air, occurs in Asbjoernsen's "Ny Samling," No. 72)--Campbell's "Tales of the West Highlands," No. 58--Schleicher's "Litauische Maerchen," No. 38--The Polish story, Wojcicki, Book iii. - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/41/) — No. 6, in which Norka is replaced by a witch who breaks the windows of a church, and is wounded, in falcon-shape, by the youngest brother--Hahn, No. 70, in which a Drakos, as a cloud, steals golden apples, a story closely resembling the Russian skazka. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/42/) — See also No. 26, very similar to which is the Servian Story in "Vuk Karajich," No. 2--and a very interesting Tuscan story printed for the first time by A. de Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," vol. ii. p. 187. - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/43/) — See also ibid. p. 391. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/44/) — But still more important than these are the parallels offered by Indian fiction. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/45/) — Take, for instance, the story of Sringabhuja, in chap. xxxix. of book vii. of the "Kathasaritsagara." - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/46/) — In it the elder sons of a certain king wish to get rid of their younger half-brother. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/47/) — One day a Rakshasa appears in the form of a gigantic crane. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/48/) — The other princes shoot at it in vain, but the youngest wounds it, and then sets off in pursuit of it, and of the valuable arrow which is fixed in it. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/49/) — After long wandering he comes to a castle in a forest. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/50/) — There he finds a maiden who tells him she is the daughter of the Rakshasa whom, in the form of a crane, he has wounded. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/51/) — She at once takes his part against her demon father, and eventually flies with him to his own country. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/52/) — The perils which the fugitives have to encounter will be mentioned in the remarks on Skazka XIX. - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/53/) — See Professor Brockhaus's summary of the story in the "Berichte der phil. hist. - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/54/) — Classe der K. Saechs. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/55/) — Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften," 1861, pp. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/56/) — 223-6. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/57/) — Also Professor Wilson's version in his "Essays on Sanskrit Literature," vol. ii. pp. - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/58/) — 134-5. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/59/) — In two other stories in the same collection the hero gives chase to a boar of gigantic size. - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/60/) — It takes refuge in a cavern into which he follows it. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/61/) — Presently he finds himself in a different world, wherein he meets a beauteous maiden who explains everything to him. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/62/) — In the first of these two stories the lady is the daughter of a Rakshasa, who is invulnerable except in the palm of the left hand, for which reason, our hero, Chandasena has been unable to wound him when in his boar disguise. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/63/) — She instructs Chandasena how to kill her father, who accordingly falls a victim to a well-aimed shaft. - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/64/) — (Brockhaus's "Maehrchensammlung des Somadeva Bhatta," 1843, vol. i. pp. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/65/) — 110-13). - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/66/) — In the other story, the lady turns out to be a princess whom "a demon with fiery eyes" had carried off and imprisoned. - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/67/) — She tells the hero, Saktideva, that the demon has just died from a wound inflicted upon him, while transformed into a boar, by a bold archer. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/68/) — Saktideva informs her that he is that archer. - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/69/) — Whereupon she immediately requests him to marry her (ibid. vol. ii. p. 175). - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/70/) — In both stories the boar is described as committing great ravages in the upper world until the hero attacks it.\] - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/71/) — The Adventures of a prince, the youngest of three brothers, who has been lowered into the underground world or who has ascended into an enchanted upper realm, form the theme of numerous skazkas, several of which are variants of the story of Norka. - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/72/) — The prince's elder brothers almost always attempt to kill him, when he is about to ascend from the gulf or descend from the steeps which separate him from them. - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/73/) — In one instance, the following excuse is offered for their conduct. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/74/) — The hero has killed a Snake in the underground world, and is carrying its head on a lance, when his brothers begin to hoist him up. " - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/75/) — His brothers were frightened at the sight of that head and thinking the Snake itself was coming, they let Ivan fall back into the pit." - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/76/) — \[90\] But this apology for their behavior seems to be due to the story-teller's imagination. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/77/) — In some instances their unfraternal conduct may be explained in the following manner. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/78/) — In oriental tales the hero is often the son of a king's youngest wife, and he is not unnaturally hated by his half-brothers, the sons of an older queen, whom the hero's mother has supplanted in their royal father's affections. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/79/) — Accordingly they do their best to get rid of him. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/80/) — Thus, in one of the Indian stories which correspond to that of Norka, the hero's success at court "excited the envy and jealousy of his brothers \[doubtless half-brothers\], and they were not satisfied until they had devised a plan to effect his removal, and, as they hoped, accomplish his destruction." - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/81/) — \[91\] We know also that "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children," because he was the son "of his old age," and the result was that "when his brethren \[who were only his half-brothers\] saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him." - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/82/) — \[92\] When such tales as these came west in Christian times, their references to polygamy were constantly suppressed, and their distinctions between brothers and half-brothers disappeared. - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/83/) — In the same way the elder and jealous wife, who had behaved with cruelty in the original stories to the offspring of her rival, often became turned, under Christian influences, into a stepmother who hated her husband's children by a previous marriage. - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/84/) — There may, however, be a mythological explanation of the behavior of the two elder brothers. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/85/) — Professor de Gubernatis is of opinion that "in the Vedic hymns, Tritas, the third brother, and the ablest as well as best, is persecuted by his brothers," who, "in a fit of jealousy, on account of his wife, the aurora, and the riches she brings with her from the realm of darkness, the cistern or well \[into which he has been lowered\], detain their brother in the well,"\[93\] and he compares this form of the myth with that which it assumes in the following Hindoo tradition. " - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/86/) — Three brothers, \_Ekata\_ (\_i.e.\_ the first), \_Dwita\_ (\_i.e.\_ the second) and \_Trita\_ (\_i.e.\_ the third) were travelling in a desert, and being distressed with thirst, came to a well, from which the youngest, Trita, drew water and gave it to his brothers; in requital, they drew him into the well, in order to appropriate his property and having covered the top with a cart-wheel, left him in the well. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/87/) — In this extremity he prayed to the gods to extricate him, and by their favor he made his escape." - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/88/) — \[94\] This myth may, perhaps, be the germ from which have sprung the numerous folk-tales about the desertion of a younger brother in some pit or chasm, into which his brothers have lowered him. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/89/) — \[95\] - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/90/) — It may seem more difficult to account for the willingness of Norka's three sisters to aid in his destruction--unless, indeed, the whole story be considered to be mythological, as its Indian equivalents undoubtedly are. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/91/) — But in many versions of the same tale the difficulty does not arise. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/92/) — The princesses of the copper, silver, and golden realms, are usually represented as united by no ties of consanguinity with the snake or other monster whom the hero comes to kill. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/93/) — In the story of "Usuinya,"\[96\] for instance, there appears to be no relationship between these fair maidens and the "Usuinya-Bird," which steals the golden apples from a monarch's garden and is killed by his youngest son Ivan. - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/94/) — That monster is not so much a bird as a flying dragon. " - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/95/) — This Usuinya-bird is a twelve-headed snake," says one of the fair maidens. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/96/) — And presently it arrives--its wings stretching afar, while along the ground trail its moustaches \[\_usui\_, whence its name\]. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/97/) — In a variant of the same story in another collection,\[97\] the part of Norka is played by a white wolf. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/98/) — In that of Ivan Suchenko\[98\] it is divided among three snakes who have stolen as many princesses. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/99/) — For the snake is much given to abduction, especially when he appears under the terrible form of "Koshchei, the Deathless." - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/100/) — Koshchei is merely one of the many incarnations of the dark spirit which takes so many monstrous shapes in the folk-tales of the class with which we are now dealing. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/21/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/20/) - next →: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/22/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)