--- title: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees · page 2 description: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: "Arise, Prince Ivan! the mares are at home now." --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/page/2/) [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 5 # Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 5 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/101/) — 3 and 46, also the notes in Bd. iii. pp. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/102/) — 8, 76, 324.) - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/103/) — Less familiar than these is, probably, the story of "Die eisernen Stiefel" (Wolf's "Deutsche Hausmaerchen," 1851, No. 19), in which the hero opens a forbidden door--that of a summer-house--and sees "deep down below him the earth, and on the earth his father's palace," and is seized by a sudden longing after his former home. - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/104/) — The Wallachian story of "The Immured Mother" (Schott, No. 2) resembles Grimm's "Marienkind" in many points. - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/105/) — But its forbidden chamber differs from that of the German tale. - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/106/) — In the latter the rash intruder sees "die Dreieinigkeit im Feuer und Glanz sitzen;" in the former, "the Holy Mother of God healing the wounds of her Son, the Lord Christ." - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/107/) — In the Neapolitan story of "Le tre Corune" (Pentamerone, No. 36), the forbidden chamber contains "three maidens, clothed all in gold, sitting and seeming to slumber upon as many thrones" (Liebrecht's translation, ii. - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/108/) — 76). - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/109/) — The Esthonian tale of the "Wife-murderer" (Loewe's "Ehstnische Maerchen," No. 20) is remarkably--not to say suspiciously--like that French story of Blue Beard which has so often made our young blood run cold. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/110/) — Sister Anne is represented, and so are the rescuing brothers, the latter in the person of the heroine's old friend and playmate, Toennis the goose-herd. - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/111/) — Several very curious Gaelic versions of the story are given by Mr. Campbell ("Tales of the West Highlands," No. 41, ii. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/112/) — 265-275). - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/113/) — Two of the three daughters of a poor widow look into a forbidden chamber, find it "full of dead gentlewomen," get stained knee-deep in blood, and refuse to give a drop of milk to a cat which offers its services. - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/114/) — So their heads are chopped off. - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/115/) — The third daughter makes friends with the cat, which licks off the tell-tale blood, so she escapes detection. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/116/) — In a Greek story (Hahn, ii. p. 197) the hero discovers in the one-and-fortieth room of a castle belonging to a Drakos, who had given him leave to enter forty only, a magic horse, and before the door of the room he finds a pool of gold in which he becomes gilded. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/117/) — In another (Hahn, No. 15) a prince finds in the forbidden fortieth a lake in which fairies of the swan-maiden species are bathing. - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/118/) — In a third (No. 45) the fortieth room contains a golden horse and a golden dog which assist their bold releaser. - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/119/) — In a fourth (No. 68) it imprisons "a fair maiden, shining like the sun," whom the demon proprietor of the castle has hung up within it by her hair. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/120/) — As usual, all these stories are hard to understand. - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/121/) — But one of the most important of their Oriental equivalents is perfectly intelligible. - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/122/) — When Saktideva, in the fifth book of the "Kathasaritsagara," comes after long travel to the Golden City, and is welcomed as her destined husband by its princess, she warns him not to ascend the central terrace of her palace. - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/123/) — Of course he does so, and finds three chambers, in each of which lies the lifeless form of a fair maiden. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/124/) — After gazing at these seeming corpses, in one of which he recognizes his first love, he approaches a horse which is grazing beside a lake. - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/125/) — The horse kicks him into the water; he sinks deep--and comes up again in his native land. - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/126/) — The whole of the story is, towards its termination, fully explained by one of its principal characters--one of the four maidens whom Saktideva simultaneously marries. - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/127/) — With the version of this romance in the "Arabian Nights" ("History of the Third Royal Mendicant," Lane, i. 160-173), everyone is doubtless acquainted. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/128/) — A less familiar story is that of Kandarpaketu, in the second book of the "Hitopadesa," who lives happily for a time as the husband of the beautiful semi-divine queen of the Golden City. - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/129/) — At last, contrary to her express commands, he ventures to touch a picture of a Vidyadhari. - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/130/) — In an instant the pictured demigoddess gives him a kick which sends him flying back into his own country. - [131](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/131/) — For an explanation of the myth which lies at the root of all these stories, see Cox's "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," ii. - [132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/132/) — 36, 330. - [133](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/133/) — See also Professor de Gubernatis's "Zoological Mythology," i. 168.\] - [134](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/134/) — We will now take one of those versions of the story which describe how Koshchei's death is brought about by the destruction of that extraneous object on which his existence depends. - [135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/135/) — The incident is one which occupies a prominent place in the stories of this class current in all parts of Europe and Asia, and its result is almost always the same. - [136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/136/) — But the means by which that result is brought about differ considerably in different lands. - [137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/137/) — In the Russian tales the "death" of the Evil Being with whom the hero contends--the substance, namely, the destruction of which involves his death--is usually the last of a sequence of objects either identical with, or closely resembling, those mentioned in the following story of-- - [138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/138/) — KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS. - [139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/139/) — \[112\] - [140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/140/) — In a certain country there once lived a king, and he had three sons, all of them grown up. - [141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/141/) — All of a sudden Koshchei the Deathless carried off their mother. - [142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/142/) — Then the eldest son craved his father's blessing, that he might go and look for his mother. - [143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/143/) — His father gave him his blessing, and he went off and disappeared, leaving no trace behind. - [144](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/144/) — The second son waited and waited, then he too obtained his father's blessing--and he also disappeared. - [145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/145/) — Then the youngest son, Prince Ivan, said to his father, "Father, give me your blessing, and let me go and look for my mother." - [146](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/146/) — But his father would not let him go, saying, "Your brothers are no more; if you likewise go away, I shall die of grief." - [147](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/147/) — "Not so, father. - [148](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/23/148/) — But if you bless me I shall go; and if you do not bless me I shall go." 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