--- title: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15 — Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Musc… · full text with trees description: Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15, «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: On she dashed in pursuit, chased and chased. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/) [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 15 # Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15 Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 15 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 188 sentences and 2579 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/pg22373/33/page/2/) - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/1/) — On she dashed in pursuit, chased and chased. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/2/) — Just a little more, and it would be impossible for him to escape! - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/3/) — But Vertogor spied the witch, laid hold of the very highest of all the mountains, pitched it down all of a heap on the road, and flung another mountain right on top of it. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/4/) — While the witch was climbing and clambering, Prince Ivan rode and rode, and found himself a long way ahead. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/5/) — At last the witch got across the mountain, and once more set off in pursuit of her brother. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/6/) — By-and-by she caught sight of him, and exclaimed: - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/7/) — "You sha'n't get away from me this time!" - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/8/) — And now she is close, now she is just going to catch him! - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/9/) — At that very moment Prince Ivan dashed up to the abode of the Sun's Sister and cried: - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/10/) — "Sun, Sun! open the window!" - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/11/) — The Sun's Sister opened the window, and the Prince bounded through it, horse and all. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/12/) — Then the witch began to ask that her brother might be given up to her for punishment. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/13/) — The Sun's Sister would not listen to her, nor would she give him up. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/14/) — Then the witch said: - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/15/) — "Let Prince Ivan be weighed against me, to see which is the heavier. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/16/) — If I am, then I will eat him; but if he is, then let him kill me!" - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/17/) — This was done. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/18/) — Prince Ivan was the first to get into one of the scales; then the witch began to get into the other. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/19/) — But no sooner had she set foot in it than up shot Prince Ivan in the air, and that with such force that he flew right up into the sky, and into the chamber of the Sun's Sister. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/20/) — But as for the Witch-Snake, she remained down below on earth. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/21/) — \[The word \_terem\_ (plural \_terema\_) which occurs twice in this story (rendered the second time by "chamber") deserves a special notice. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/22/) — It is defined by Dahl, in its antique sense, as "a raised, lofty habitation, or part of one--a Boyar's castle--a Seigneur's house--the dwelling-place of a ruler within a fortress," &c. The "terem of the women," sometimes styled "of the girls," used to comprise the part of a Seigneur's house, on the upper floor, set aside for the female members of his family. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/23/) — Dahl compares it with the Russian \_tyurma\_, a prison, and the German \_Thurm\_. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/24/) — But it seems really to be derived from the Greek +teremnon+, "anything closely shut fast or closely covered, a room, chamber," &c. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/25/) — That part of the story which refers to the Cannibal Princess is familiar to the Modern Greeks. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/26/) — In the Syriote tale of "The Strigla" (Hahn, No. 65) a princess devours her father and all his subjects. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/27/) — Her brother, who had escaped while she was still a babe, visits her and is kindly received. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/28/) — But while she is sharpening her teeth with a view towards eating him, a mouse gives him a warning which saves his life. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/29/) — As in the Russian story the mouse jumps about on the strings of a lute in order to deceive the witch, so in the Greek it plays a fiddle. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/30/) — But the Greek hero does not leave his sister's abode. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/31/) — After remaining concealed one night, he again accosts her. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/32/) — She attempts to eat him, but he kills her. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/33/) — In a variant from Epirus (Hahn, ii. p. 283-4) the cannibal princess is called a Chursusissa. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/34/) — Her brother climbs a tree, the stem of which she gnaws almost asunder. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/35/) — But before it falls, a Lamia comes to his aid and kills his sister. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/36/) — Afanasief (viii. p. 527) identifies the Sun's Sister with the Dawn. - [37](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/37/) — The following explanation of the skazka (with the exception of the words within brackets) is given by A. de Gubernatis ("Zool. - [38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/38/) — Myth." i. 183). " - [39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/39/) — Ivan is the Sun, the aurora \[or dawn\] is his \[true\] sister; at morning, near the abode of the aurora, that is, in the east, the shades of night \[his witch, or false sister\] go underground, and the Sun arises to the heavens; this is the mythical pair of scales. - [40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/40/) — Thus in the Christian belief, St. Michael weighs human souls; those who weigh much sink down into hell, and those who are light arise to the heavenly paradise."\] - [41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/41/) — As an illustration of this story, Afanasief (\_P.V.S. - [42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/42/) — \_ iii. - [43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/43/) — 272) quotes a Little-Russian Skazka in which a man, who is seeking "the Isle in which there is no death," meets with various personages like those with whom the Prince at first wished to stay on his journey, and at last takes up his abode with the moon. - [44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/44/) — Death comes in search of him, after a hundred years or so have elapsed, and engages in a struggle with the Moon, the result of which is that the man is caught up into the sky, and there shines thenceforth "as a star near the moon." - [45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/45/) — The Sun's Sister is a mythical being who is often mentioned in the popular poetry of the South-Slavonians. - [46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/46/) — A Servian song represents a beautiful maiden, with "arms of silver up to the elbows," sitting on a silver throne which floats on water. - [47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/47/) — A suitor comes to woo her. - [48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/48/) — She waxes wroth and cries, - [49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/49/) — Whom wishes he to woo? - [50](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/50/) — The sister of the Sun, The cousin of the Moon, The adopted-sister of the Dawn. - [51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/51/) — Then she flings down three golden apples, which the "marriage-proposers" attempt to catch, but "three lightnings flash from the sky" and kill the suitor and his friends. - [52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/52/) — In another Servian song a girl cries to the Sun-- - [53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/53/) — O brilliant Sun! - [54](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/54/) — I am fairer than thou, Than thy brother, the bright Moon, Than thy sister, the moving star \[Venus?\]. - [55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/55/) — In South-Slavonian poetry the sun often figures as a radiant youth. - [56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/56/) — But among the Northern Slavonians, as well as the Lithuanians, the sun was regarded as a female being, the bride of the moon. " - [57](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/57/) — Thou askest me of what race, of what family I am," says the fair maiden of a song preserved in the Tambof Government-- - [58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/58/) — My mother is--the beauteous Sun, And my father--the bright Moon; My brothers are--the many Stars, And my sisters--the white Dawns. - [59](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/59/) — \[223\] - [60](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/60/) — A far more detailed account might be given of the Witch and her near relation the Baba Yaga, as well as of those masculine embodiments of that spirit of evil which is personified in them, the Snake, Koshchei, and other similar beings. - [61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/61/) — But the stories which have been quoted will suffice to give at least a general idea of their moral and physical attributes. - [62](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/62/) — We will now turn from their forms, so constantly introduced into the skazka-drama, to some of the supernatural figures which are not so often brought upon the stage--to those mythical beings of whom (numerous as may be the traditions about them) the regular "story" does not so often speak, to such personifications of abstract ideas as are less frequently employed to set its conventional machinery in motion. - [63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/63/) — FOOTNOTES: - [64](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/64/) — \[72\] "Songs of the Russian People," pp. - [65](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/65/) — 160-185. - [66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/66/) — \[73\] In one story (Khudyakof, No. 117) there are snakes with twenty-eight and twenty-nine heads, but this is unusual. - [67](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/67/) — \[74\] Afanasief, ii. - [68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/68/) — No. 30. - [69](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/69/) — From the Chernigof Government. - [70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/70/) — The accent falls on the second syllable of Ivan, on the first of Popyalof. - [71](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/71/) — \[75\] \_Popyal\_, provincial word for \_pepel\_ = ashes, cinders, whence the surname Popyalof. - [72](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/72/) — A pood is about 40lbs. - [73](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/73/) — \[76\] On slender supports. - [74](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/74/) — \[77\] \_Pod mostom\_, \_i.e.\_, says Afanasief (vol. v. p. 243), under the raised flooring which, in an \_izba\_, serves as a sleeping place. - [75](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/75/) — \[78\] \_Zatvelyef\_, apparently a provincial word. - [76](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/76/) — \[79\] The Russian word \_krof\_ also signifies blood. - [77](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/77/) — \[80\] The last sentence of the story forms one of the conventional and meaningless "tags" frequently attached to the skazkas. - [78](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/78/) — In future I shall omit them. - [79](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/79/) — Kuzma and Demian (SS. - [80](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/80/) — Cosmas and Damian) figure in Russian folk-lore as saintly and supernatural smiths, frequently at war with snakes, which they maltreat in various ways. - [81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/81/) — See A. de Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," vol. ii. p. 397. - [82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/82/) — \[81\] Afanasief, Skazki, vol. vii. p. 3. - [83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/83/) — \[82\] \_Chudo\_ = prodigy. - [84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/84/) — \_Yudo\_ may be a remembrance of Judas, or it may be used merely for the sake of the rhyme. - [85](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/85/) — \[83\] In an Indian story ("Kathasaritsagara," book vii. chap. - [86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/86/) — 42), Indrasena comes to a place in which sits a Rakshasa on a throne between two fair ladies. - [87](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/87/) — He attacks the demon with a magic sword, and soon cuts off his head. - [88](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/88/) — But the head always grows again, until at last the younger of the ladies gives him a sign to split in half the head he has just chopped off. - [89](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/89/) — Thereupon the demon dies, and the two ladies greet the conqueror rapturously. - [90](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/90/) — The younger is the demon's sister, the elder is a king's daughter whom the demon has carried off from her home, after eating her father and all his followers. - [91](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/91/) — See Professor Brockhaus's summary in the "Berichte der phil. hist. - [92](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/92/) — Classe der K. Saechs. - [93](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/93/) — Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften," 1861. pp. - [94](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/94/) — 241-2. - [95](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/95/) — \[84\] Khudyakof, No. 46. - [96](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/96/) — \[85\] Afanasief, vol. i. No. 6. - [97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/97/) — From the Chernigof Government. - [98](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/98/) — The \_Norka-Zvyer'\_ (Norka-Beast) of this story is a fabulous creature, but zoologically the name of Norka (from \_nora\_ = a hole) belongs to the Otter. - [99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/99/) — \[86\] Literally "into \_that\_ world" as opposed to this in which we live. - [100](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/100/) — \[87\] This address is a formula, of frequent occurrence under similar circumstances. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/33/page/2/) - ← previous: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/32/) - next →: [Chapter II. MYTHOLOGICAL, part 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/34/) - ↑ back to [Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/)