--- title: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 7 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 7, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: As to the king, he was delighted to see Prince Ivan again, and when he had learnt all about the treachery of his --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/) [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 7 # Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 7 Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 7 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 122 sentences and 2588 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/pg22373/25/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/1/) — As to the king, he was delighted to see Prince Ivan again, and when he had learnt all about the treachery of his brothers, after the wedding feast had been solemnized, he banished the two elder princes, but he made Ivan heir to the throne. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/2/) — In the story of "Prince Arikad,"\[117\] the Queen-Mother is carried off by the Whirlwind,\[118\] instead of by Koshchei. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/3/) — Her youngest son climbs the hill by the aid of iron hooks, kills Vikhor, and lowers his mother and three other ladies whom he has rescued, by means of a rope made of strips of hide. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/4/) — This his brothers cut to prevent him from descending. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/5/) — \[119\] They then oblige the ladies to swear not to betray them, the taking of the oath being accompanied by the eating of earth. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/6/) — \[120\] The same formality is observed in another story in which an oath of a like kind is exacted. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/7/) — \[121\] - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/8/) — The sacred nature of such an obligation may account for the singular reticence so often maintained, under similar circumstances, in stories of this class. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/9/) — In one of the descriptions of Koshchei's death, he is said to be killed by a blow on the forehead inflicted by the mysterious egg--that last link in the magic chain by which his life is darkly bound. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/10/) — \[122\] In another version of the same story, but told of a Snake, the fatal blow is struck by a small stone found in the yolk of an egg, which is inside a duck, which is inside a hare, which is inside a stone, which is on an island \[\_i.e.\_, the fabulous island Buyan\]. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/11/) — \[123\] In another variant\[124\] Koshchei attempts to deceive his fair captive, pretending that his "death" resides in a besom, or in a fence, both of which she adorns with gold in token of her love. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/12/) — Then he confesses that his "death" really lies in an egg, inside a duck, inside a log which is floating on the sea. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/13/) — Prince Ivan gets hold of the egg and shifts it from one hand to the other. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/14/) — Koshchei rushes wildly from side to side of the room. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/15/) — At last the prince breaks the egg. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/16/) — Koshchei falls on the floor and dies. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/17/) — This heart-breaking episode occurs in the folk-tales of many lands. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/18/) — \[125\] It may not be amiss to trace it through some of its forms. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/19/) — In a Norse story\[126\] a Giant's heart lies in an egg, inside a duck, which swims in a well, in a church, on an island. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/20/) — With this may be compared another Norse tale,\[127\] in which a \_Haugebasse\_, or Troll, who has carried off a princess, informs her that he and all his companions will burst asunder when above them passes "the grain of sand that lies under the ninth tongue in the ninth head" of a certain dead dragon. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/21/) — The grain of sand is found and brought, and the result is that the whole of the monstrous brood of Trolls or \_Haugebasser\_ is instantaneously destroyed. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/22/) — In a Transylvanian-Saxon story\[128\] a Witch's "life" is a light which burns in an egg, inside a duck, which swims on a pond, inside a mountain, and she dies when it is put out. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/23/) — In the Bohemian story of "The Sun-horse"\[129\] a Warlock's "strength" lies in an egg, which is within a duck, which is within a stag, which is under a tree. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/24/) — A Seer finds the egg and sucks it. — checked by a teacher - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/25/) — Then the Warlock becomes as weak as a child, "for all his strength had passed into the Seer." - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/26/) — In the Gaelic story of "The Sea-Maiden,"\[130\] the "great beast with three heads" which haunts the loch cannot be killed until an egg is broken, which is in the mouth of a trout, which springs out of a crow, which flies out of a hind, which lives on an island in the middle of the loch. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/27/) — In a Modern Greek tale the life of a dragon or other baleful being comes to an end simultaneously with the lives of three pigeons which are shut up in an all but inaccessible chamber,\[131\] or inclosed within a wild boar. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/28/) — \[132\] Closely connected with the Greek tale is the Servian story of the dragon\[133\] whose "strength" (\_snaga\_) lies in a sparrow, which is inside a dove, inside a hare, inside a boar, inside a dragon (\_ajdaya\_) which is in a lake, near a royal city. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/29/) — The hero of the story fights the dragon of the lake, and after a long struggle, being invigorated at the critical moment by a kiss which the heroine imprints on his forehead--he flings it high in the air. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/30/) — When it falls to the ground it breaks in pieces, and out comes the boar. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/31/) — Eventually the hero seizes the sparrow and wrings its neck, but not before he has obtained from it the charm necessary for the recovery of his missing brothers and a number of other victims of the dragon's cruelty. — checked by a teacher - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/32/) — To these European tales a very interesting parallel is afforded by the Indian story of "Punchkin,"\[134\] whose life depends on that of a parrot, which is in a cage placed beneath the lowest of six jars of water, piled one on the other, and standing in the midst of a desolate country covered with thick jungle. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/33/) — When the parrot's legs and wings are pulled off, Punchkin loses his legs and arms; and when its neck is wrung, his head twists round and he dies. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/34/) — One of the strangest of the stories which turn on this idea of an external heart is the Samoyed tale,\[135\] in which seven brothers are in the habit, every night, of taking out their hearts and sleeping without them. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/35/) — A captive damsel whose mother they have killed, receives the extracted hearts and hangs them on the tent-pole, where they remain till the following morning. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/36/) — One night her brother contrives to get the hearts into his possession. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/37/) — Next morning he takes them into the tent, where he finds the brothers at the point of death. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/38/) — In vain do they beg for their hearts, which he flings on the floor. " - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/39/) — And as he flings down the hearts the brothers die." - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/40/) — The legend to which I am now about to refer will serve as a proof of the venerable antiquity of the myth from which the folk-tales, which have just been quoted, appear to have sprung. - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/41/) — A papyrus, which is supposed to be "of the age of the nineteenth dynasty, about B.C. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/42/) — 1300," has preserved an Egyptian tale about two brothers. - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/43/) — The younger of these, Satou, leaves the elder, Anepou (Anubis) and retires to the Valley of the Acacia. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/44/) — But, before setting off, Satou states that he shall take his heart and place it "in the flowers of the acacia-tree," so that, if the tree is cut down, his heart will fall to the ground and he will die. - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/45/) — Having given Anepou instructions what to do in such a case, he seeks the valley. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/46/) — There he hunts wild animals by day, and at night he sleeps under the acacia-tree on which his heart rests. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/47/) — But at length Noum, the Creator, forms a wife for him, and all the other gods endow her with gifts. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/48/) — To this Egyptian Pandora Satou confides the secret of his heart. - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/49/) — One day a tress of her perfumed hair floats down the river, and is taken to the King of Egypt. - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/50/) — He determines to make its owner his queen, and she, like Rhodope or Cinderella, is sought for far and wide. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/51/) — When she has been found and brought to the king, she recommends him to have the acacia cut down, so as to get rid of her lawful husband. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/52/) — Accordingly the tree is cut down, the heart falls, and Satou dies. - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/53/) — About this time Anepou sets out to pay his long-lost brother a visit. - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/54/) — Finding him dead, he searches for his heart, but searches in vain for three years. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/55/) — In the fourth year, however, it suddenly becomes desirous of returning to Egypt, and says, "I will leave this celestial sphere." - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/56/) — Next day Anepou finds it under the acacia, and places it in a vase which contains some mystic fluid. - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/57/) — When the heart has become saturated with the moisture, the corpse shudders and opens its eyes. - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/58/) — Anepou pours the rest of the fluid down its throat, the heart returns to its proper place, and Satou is restored to life. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/59/) — \[136\] - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/60/) — In one of the Skazkas, a \_volshebnitsa\_ or enchantress is introduced, whose "death," like that of Koshchei, is spoken of as something definite and localized. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/61/) — A prince has loved and lost a princess, who is so beautiful that no man can look at her without fainting. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/62/) — Going in search of her, he comes to the home of an enchantress, who invites him to tea and gives him leave to inspect her house. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/63/) — As he wanders about he comes to a cellar in which "he sees that beautiful one whom he loves, in fire." - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/64/) — She tells him her love for him has brought her there; and he learns that there is no hope of freeing her unless he can find out "where lies the death of the enchantress." - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/65/) — So that evening he asks his hostess about it, and she replies: - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/66/) — "In a certain lake stands a blue rose-tree. - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/67/) — It is in a deep place, and no man can reach unto it. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/68/) — My death is there." - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/69/) — He sets out in search of it, and, aided by a magic ring, reaches the lake, "and sees there the blue rose-tree, and around it a blue forest." - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/70/) — After several failures, he succeeds in plucking up the rose-tree by the roots, whereupon the enchantress straightway sickens. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/71/) — He returns to her house, finds her at the point of death, and throws the rose-bush into the cellar where his love is crying, "Behold her death!" and immediately the whole building shakes to its foundations--"and becomes an island, on which are people who had been sitting in Hell, and who offer up thanks to Prince Ivan." - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/72/) — \[137\] - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/73/) — In another Russian story,\[138\] a prince is grievously tormented by a witch who has got hold of his heart, and keeps it perpetually seething in a magic cauldron. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/74/) — In a third,\[139\] a "Queen-Maiden" falls in love with the young Ivan, and, after being betrothed to him, would fain take him away to her own land and marry him. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/75/) — But his stepmother throws him into a magic slumber, and the Queen-Maiden has to return home without him. - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/76/) — When he awakes, and learns that she has gone, he sorrows greatly, and sets out in search of her. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/77/) — At last he learns from a friendly witch that his betrothed no longer cares for him, "her love is hidden far away." - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/78/) — It seems "that on the other side of the ocean stands an oak, and on the oak a coffer, and in the coffer a hare, and in the hare a duck, and in the duck an egg, and in the egg the love of the Queen-Maiden." - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/79/) — Ivan gets possession of the egg, and the friendly witch contrives to have it placed before the Queen-Maiden at dinner. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/80/) — She eats it, and immediately her love for Ivan returns in all its pristine force. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/81/) — He appears, and she, overjoyed, carries him off to her own land and there marries him. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/82/) — \* \* \* \* \* - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/83/) — After this digression we will now return to our Snakes. - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/84/) — All the monstrous forms which figure in the stories we have just been considering appear to be merely different species of the great serpent family. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/85/) — Such names as Koshchei, Chudo Yudo, Usuinya, and the like, seem to admit of exchange at the will of the story-teller with that of Zmei Goruinuich, the many-headed Snake, who in Russian storyland is represented as the type of all that is evil. - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/86/) — But in the actual Russia of to-day, snakes bear by no means so bad a character. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/87/) — Their presence in a cottage is considered a good omen by the peasants, who leave out milk for them to drink, and who think that to kill such visitors would be a terrible sin. - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/88/) — \[140\] This is probably a result of some remembrance of a religious cultus paid to the household gods under the form of snakes, such as existed of old, according to Kromer, in Poland and Lithuania. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/89/) — The following story is more in keeping with such ideas as these, than with those which are expressed in the tales about Koshchei and his kin. - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/90/) — THE WATER SNAKE. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/91/) — \[141\] - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/92/) — There was once an old woman who had a daughter; and her daughter went down to the pond one day to bathe with the other girls. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/93/) — They all stripped off their shifts, and went into the water. - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/94/) — Then there came a snake out of the water, and glided on to the daughter's shift. - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/95/) — After a time the girls all came out, and began to put on their shifts, and the old woman's daughter wanted to put on hers, but there was the snake lying on it. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/96/) — She tried to drive him away, but there he stuck and would not move. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/97/) — Then the snake said: - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/98/) — "If you'll marry me, I'll give you back your shift." - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/99/) — Now she wasn't at all inclined to marry him, but the other girls said: - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/100/) — "As if it were possible for you to be married to him! **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/25/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/24/) - next →: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/26/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)