The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise

The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise (Russian: Морской царь и Василиса Премудрая, Morskoi Tsar i Vasilisa Premudraya) is a Russian fairy tale published by author Alexander Afanasyev in his collection of Russian Fairy Tales, numbered 219. The tale features legendary characters Tsar Morskoi and Vasilisa the Wise.

The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise
The Tsarevitch selecting Vasilisa among her identical sisters.
Folk tale
NameThe Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise
Data
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 313 ("The Magical Flight")
RegionRussia
Published inRussian Fairy Tales by Alexander Afanasyev
Related

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 313, "The Magical Flight" ("Girl Helps the Hero Flee") or "The Devil's (Ogre's/Giant's) Daughter".

Summary
The eagle throws the Tsar into the sea to teach him a lesson. Illustration from a French-language Russian storybook (1931).

A human king helps an injured eagle that, in return, takes the king on a journey and gives him two magical caskets. The human king opens the caskets and cannot close them, until the Sea Tsar offer his help. The Sea Tsar offers to help in exchange for the thing "uoi do not know is in your own house." What the king does not know, is that he now has a newly born son.

The king arrives at home and discovers the terrible mistake he made: he unwittingly surrendered his own son to the creature. Years later, the prince is informed of this. The king takes him to the sea shore to leave for the Sea Tsar. The prince wanders off into a forest and meets a witch (Baba Yaga), who informs him that the daughters of the Sea Tsar come to bathe in a lake in bird form (the animals vary between versions).

The Tsarevitch spies on the maidens and hides the garment (featherskin) of the youngest one. Her sisters fly off back home, but she stays and asks the youth to come out of hiding. He gives the garment back and she departs.

Some time later, the Tsarevitch arrives at the underwater realm of the Morskoi Tsar ("Sea King" or "Water King") to fulfill his father's deal. The Sea King, then, commands the boy to perform three difficult tasks, one on each day. The prince reveals his woes to Vasilisa the Wise, the Sea Tsar's youngest daughter, and she assuages him that their tasks shall be done.

The Tsarevitch meets the Morskoi Tsar in the underwater kingdom. Illustration from a Russian storybook (1894).

After the tasks are done, the Sea Tsar congratulates the Tsarevitch and bids him choose a wife out of his twelve daughters. Vasilisa the Wise conspires with the human prince to cheat on the choice.

After they marry, the Tsaretvitch confesses to his wife his wish to visit his parent again, but Vasilisa warns that, it they escape, the Sea Tsar will chase them. They make their way to "Holy Russia", the Tsarevitch's homeland, but twice the Sea Tsar sends a hunting party after them. Vasilisa the Wise uses her powers to hide her and his husband with magical disguises to fool her father's allies.

The third time, the Sea Tsar himself goes hot in pursuit. So Vasilisa transforms into a duck and him into a drake. The Sea Tsar arrives at the lake and, shapeshifted into an eagle, tries to grab the two waterfowls with its claws, but they submerge into the lake to avoid the attack.

The Sea Tsar gives up and returns to his underwater realm, while Vasilisa and the Tsarevitch go home safely and celebrate their wedding.

(In some variants, the magic maiden says he should not kiss anyone in the palace, lest he forgets about her. When he does so, she is forgotten by the prince. Some time later, the prince announces his marriages to another princess, and the magic maiden arrives at the ceremony to make her beloved remember.)

Translations

The translations of the tale's title are many: Vassilissa the Cunning, and The Tsar of the Sea,[1] The King of the Sea and Melania, the Clever,[2] The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise,[3] and The King of the Sea and Vassilissa the Wise.[4]

Analysis

The Magic Flight

The beginning of this tale merges the ATU tale type 222, "The Battle of the Birds" or "War of Quadrupeds and Birds", and ATU 537, "The Helpful Eagle (Etana)".[5][6] This combination usually marks the tale type ATU 313B, "Girl helps in hero's flight" with introduction "The Forbidden Box".[7] Professor Jack V. Haney stated that this combination of AT 222* and AT 313 was more common in the East Slavic area (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus).[8]

The ending of some variants of the tale falls under the category ATU 313C, "The Magical Flight" with ending "The Forgotten Fiancé", with motif "Kiss of Oblivion". As noted by professor Dean Fansler, the "Kiss of Oblivion" incident occurs because the hero breaks a taboo that the maiden warns against ("usually a parental kiss"). The hero's true memory only reawakens on the day of the wedding with the new bride.[9][10]

Slavicist Karel Horálek remarked that the episode of the "Forgotten Bride" "occurs more frequently as the final part in the AaTh 313 type" and its combination with the starting episode of Eastern European and Celtic variants (e.g., the episode of the box and the eagle) would indicate a very old connection.[11]

The rescued eagle

Russian scholarship has also noted that in Russian variants of the tale type 313, the youth is promised to the underwater king, and most begin with the episode of the eagle (called "Eagle-Tsarevich") and the dispute between the mouse and the sparrow.[12]

Lithuanian folklorist Jonas Balys (lt), in his analysis of Lithuanian folktales (published in 1936), index 22 Lithuanian tales of type *320, Nuostabus erelis ("The Marvellous Eagle") – a type not indexed at the international classification, at the time. In these tales, a hunter spares an eagle, helps it recover and flies with him; at the end of the tale, he receives a wonderful casket from the eagle and opens it: a manor springs from the casket, until a devil promises to lock the manor inside the casket in exchange for the man's son.[13]

In his revision of the international folktale index, folklorist Stith Thompson indexed this narrative as type AaTh 537, "The Marvelous Eagle Gives the Hero a Box". In this type, a hunter tries to shoot an eagle, but it begs to be spared. The hunter helps the eagle restore its health and later flies with the bird to distant lands. The eagle visits its relatives and, at the end of the journey, gives the hunter a box, which he must not open. The hunter opens it and a castle jumps out of it; a devil appears to help him shut the box in return for the man's son.[14]

Horálek also summarized a Latvian and a Belarusian variants that show mostly convergent plot points: the dispute between a mouse and a little bird, the injury of the large bird (an eagle in the Latvian tale, a "Meeresfalke" in the Belarusian), and the hunter's journey on the bird's back.[15]

The bird maidens

The bird maidens are related to the mythological character of the swan maiden. The king's sons spies on the bird maidens bathing and hides the garment (featherskin) of the youngest one, for her to help him reach the kingdom of the villain of the tale (usually the swan-maiden's father).[16] The swan is the typical species, but they can transform into "geese, ducks, spoonbills, or aquatic birds of some other species".[17]

According to linguist Horace Lunt, the terms in the original Russian text, kólpik and kólpica, are taken to show closely related meanings in the Slavic languages, denoting "a large white bird": 'swan', 'spoonbill' (although he disagreed with this one), 'Swan-Maiden', 'Swan-Maiden (in fairy tales)' and 'young female swan' (which he considered to be the best translation).[18]

Professor Joanna Hubbs also associated the character of the bird maidens with the Rusalki of Slavic folklore, a group of supernatural maidens described in folktales as "daughters of a sea or bird king".[19]

The Sea Tsar
Sadko at the underwater court of the Sea Tsar.

The Morskoi Tsar ("Sea Tsar"; "Sea King";[20] "The Marine or Water King")[21] of Slavic folklore appears as the antagonist of the tale: a king with magical powers that forces the protagonist to perform difficult tasks, which the prince does with the help of the Sea Tsar's youngest daughter.[22][23] The Sea Tsar or Sea King also appears in Slovak and Slovene folklore with the name Morskog Kralja or Morski kralj,[24][25] and is reported to exist in Belarussian mythology as Car-Mora.[26] He is also described as "a mighty and wealthy" regent who rules "in the depths of the sea",[27] but he may also live "in the depths of the lake, or the pool".[28]

The Sea Tsar has also been compared to an obscure Slavic deity named Korab, whose name means 'boat' and who is possibly associated with the sea, navigation and fishing.[29]

The character of the Tsar Morskoi also appears in the epic bylina of Sadko, about the titular merchant and gusli musician that delights the Sea Tsar with his music playing in the underwater kingdom.[30]

Variants

British scholar William Ralston Shedden-Ralston noted "a very striking ... likeness" between this Russian tale and the Scottish fairy tale The Battle of the Birds.[31]

Russia

Eight variants of the tale were collected by Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev in the 19th century, numbered 219–226. Out of these variants, tales number 219–221 and 224 begin with the hero's father (soldier, hunter, archer) meeting the eagle, flying on its wings and receiving a magical casket that he cannot close. Very soon, the antagonist of the tale appears to help the man close the box in exchange for his son.[32][33]

In a translation of a Russian variant, titled Die Entenjungfrau ("The Duck Maiden"), a mouse and a sparrow fight and summon all creatures of land and air for a battle. An eagle becomes a casualty of war and is rescued by a farmer. After its health improves, the eagle takes the man on a aerial journey and gives him a golden box with a golden key. When he arrives on land, the farmer opens the box and a large golden city jumps out of the box and into the Czar's lands. This Czar, a sovereign of "pagan lands", orders the man to give him the golden city, or what he does not know he has at home (his newborn son). Eighteen years pass, and the farmer's son decides to go to the Czar's palace. On his way, he stops at the shores of the Danube River and sees twelve gray ducks arriving and shedding their birdskins to become maidens.[34]

Ukraine

In a Ukrainian variant, the name of the Sea Tsar's daughter is Maria, and she is cursed into frog form. Her story follows the tale type ATU 402, "The Animal Bride", akin to Russian The Frog Princess: a king shoots three arrows, the arrow representing the youngest son falls next to Maria the Frog. The prince marries the frog maiden and his father, the tsar, sets three tasks for his daughters-in-law. The tsar announces a grand ball to which his sons and his wives are invited, and Maria takes off her frog skin to appear as human. While she is in the tsar's ballroom, her husband hurries back home and burns the frog skin. When she comes home, she reveals the prince her cursed state would soon be over, says he needs to find Baba Yaga in a remote kingdom, and vanishes from sight in the form of a cuckoo. He meets Baba Yaga and she points to a lake where 30 swans will alight, his wife among them. He hides Maria's feather garment, they meet again and Maria tells him to follow her into the undersea kingdom to meet her father, the Sea Tsar. The tale ends like tale type ATU 313, with the three tasks.[35]

In a Ukraine variant translated into Hungarian with the title A varázstojás ("The Magic Egg"), a sparrow and a mouse argue over their respective shares of the harvest, then all animals war against each other. An eagle is hurt in the assault and found by a human hunter, who restores it back to full health. In gratitude, the eagle takes the man to a journey to the animal's three sisters and gives him a magic egg. After landing, the man opens the egg and things start to pour out of it, until a dragon appears to offer its help in closing it, in exchange for the first thing the hunter does not know he has at home (his son). Years later, the hunter's son decides to go to the dragon. Once there, the creature forces him to do impossible chores, which he does with the help of the dragon's daughter, who aids him after he promises to marry her. The tale continues with the "Magic Flight" episode (hero and heroine transform into different things) and concludes with the "Forgotten Fiancé" episode.[36]

Lithuania

According to folklorist Bronislava Kerbelyte, out of 132 variants of type ATU 313 (including its subtypes A, B and C) in Lithuania, 46 are reported to contain the sequence with the rescued eagle and the hunter gaining a box he must not open.[37]

Estonia

According to Estonian scholarship, type ATU 537, Lend tänuliku linnu seljas ("The Flight on the Grateful Bird"), "on most occasions" leads directly into type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight". In the Estonian variants, the male character heals a bird, takes an aerial journey on its back and receives a box he must not open. However, he does, and, in order to close it, must promise his son to a grey old man (the Evil One).[38]

Finland

Karel Horálek reported that the Finnish variants also "followed the Russian variants", albeit lacking the war between animals. In some variants, the hunter finds a grouse that begs for its life. The bird takes the man on a journey to its three sisters, each in a castle of copper, of silver and of gold. The bird agrees to give the hunter a gift, and he insists on getting the box.[39][lower-alpha 1]

Mari people

In one variant from the Mari people (either from the Russians or from the Finnish, Karel Horálek supposed), a mouse and a sparrow argue over the food. The mouse complains to the king of land animals, the lion, and the sparrow to the king of the birds, the eagle. In a fight, the lion hurts the eagle and the bird hides one a branch for some time. The eagle is found by a hunter, is brought home, convalesces and takes the man on a journey to its sisters. The hunter receives a present from the eagle and opens it.[41] A large palace springs out of the box, and a grey-bearded man with shaggy appearance offers to close the box in return for the man's son.[42]

Kalmyk people

Collector I. I. Popov found a tale from the Kalmyk people. In this tale, the mouse and the sparrow fight over the crop, the eagle (called Garuda Khan) is hurt and found by a hunter. Later, Garuda Khan carries the hunter on a journey to its sisters and forbids the hunter to drink water from a freshly dug well. The tale segues into type 313.[43]

Adaptations

The tale was adapted in the book Bric-a-Brac Stories as the tale the Samovar tells a boy and other household appliances. In this story from "his native Russia", the characters are named Prince, Merman and Vasilissa.[44]

The tale is also known in Russian compilations as "Морской царь и Елена Премудрая" or The Sea Tsar and Elena, the Wise, adapted by author Irina Karnaoukhova (fr).[45]

See also

Footnotes
  1. One example was translated by Parker Fillmore as The Enchanted Grouse: The Story of Helli and the Little Locked Box: hunter Heili finds and rescues a grouse, restores it to full health, takes a journey on its back, visits the grouse's sisters and is gifted an enchanted box.[40]

References
  1. Curtin, Jeremiah. Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1890. pp. 249—270.
  2. Hodgetts, Edith M. S. Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar: Collection of Russian Stories. Griffith Farran & Co. 1891. pp. 291—308.
  3. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian folk-tales. London: Smith, Elder, & co.. 1873. pp. 130—141.
  4. The Three Kingdoms: Russian Folk Tales From Alexander Afanasiev's Collection. Illustrated by A. Kurkin. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1985. Tale nr. 21.
  5. Annus, Amar (2009). "Review Article: The Folk-Tales of Iraq and the Literary Traditions of Ancient Mesopotamia". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 9: 87–99. doi:10.1163/156921209X449170.
  6. Annus, Amar; Sarv, Mari. "The Ball Game Motif in the Gilgamesh Tradition and International Folklore". In: Mesopotamia in the Ancient World: Impact, Continuities, Parallels. Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of the Melammu Project Held in Obergurgl, Austria, November 4–8, 2013. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag - Buch- und Medienhandel GmbH. 2015. pp. 289—290. ISBN 978-3-86835-128-6
  7. Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. 2010 [2004]. pp. 200—201. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6
  8. Haney, Jack V. The Complete Russian Folktale: An introduction to the Russian folktale. Russian Wondertales: 1. Tales of Heroes and Villains. Armonk, New York; London, England: M. E. Sharpe. 2001. p. 421. ISBN 1-56324-489-6
  9. Fansler, Dean Spouill. Filipino Popular Tales. The American folk-lore society. 1921. p. 165.
  10. Angelopoulos, Anna and Kaplanoglou, Marianthi. "Greek Magic Tales: aspects of research in Folklore Studies and Anthropology". In: FF Network. 2013; Vol. 43. p. 15.
  11. Horálek, Karel. "Zur typologischen Charakteristik der tschechischen Volksmärchen". In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik 14, no. 1 (1969): 100, 106-107. https://doi.org/10.1524/slaw.1969.14.1.85
  12. Русская сказка. Избранные мастера. Том 2. Moskva/Leningrad: Academia, 1932. pp. 257-258.
  13. Balys, Jonas. Lietuvių pasakojamosios tautosakos motyvų katalogas [Motif-index of Lithuanian narrative folk-lore]. Tautosakos darbai [Folklore studies] Vol. II. Kaunas: Lietuvių tautosakos archyvo leidinys, 1936. p. 27.
  14. Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 193.
  15. Horálek, Karel. "Zur typologischen Charakteristik der tschechischen Volksmärchen". In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik 14, no. 1 (1969): 108-109. https://doi.org/10.1524/slaw.1969.14.1.85
  16. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. The songs of the Russian people, as illustrative of Slavonic mythology and Russian social life. London: Ellis & Green. 1872. pp. 179—180.
  17. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian folk-tales. London: Smith, Elder, & co.. 1873. pp. 129—130.
  18. LUNT, HORACE G. "TWO EARLY SLAVONIC GHOST-WORDS: ИКОНИОНЪ and ИКЪЛЪПИНАНЬ." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1, no. 1 (1977): 25-26 and footnotes nr. 4 and 5. Accessed April 6, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41035737.
  19. Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1993. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-253-11578-2
  20. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 253. ISBN 9781576070635.
  21. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. The songs of the Russian people, as illustrative of Slavonic mythology and Russian social life. London: Ellis & Green. 1872. p. 148.
  22. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian folk-tales. London: Smith, Elder, & co.. 1873. pp. 129—130.
  23. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. The songs of the Russian people, as illustrative of Slavonic mythology and Russian social life. London: Ellis & Green. 1872. p. 148.
  24. Kos-Lajtman, Andrijana; Horvat, Jasna. "Utjecaj ruskih mitoloških i usmenoknjiževnih elemenata na diskurs Priča iz davnine Ivane Brlić-Mažuranić" [Influence of Russian mythological and oral literary elements on the discourse of Priče iz davnine by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić]. In: Zbornik radova Petoga hrvatskog slavističkog kongresa. 2012. p. 160.
  25. Kos-Lajtman, Andrijana; Turza-Bogdan, Tamara. "UTJECAJ USMENOKNJIŽEVNOG I MITOLOŠKOG SUPSTRATA VARAŽDINSKOGA KRAJA NA KNJIŽEVNI RAD IVANE BRLIĆ-MAŽURANIĆ" [THE INFLUENCE OF ORAL LITERATURE AND THE MYTHOLOGICAL SUBSTRATUM OF THE VARAŽDIN REGION ON THE LITERARY WORK OF IVANA BRLIĆ-MAŽURANIĆ]. In: Narodna umjetnost 47, br. 2 (2010): 182-184. https://hrcak.srce.hr/61990
  26. Leū Horoško, Archim. "A Guide to Byelorussian Mythology". In: Journal of Belarusian Studies 1, 2 (1966): 74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30965/20526512-00102002
  27. Brlic-Mazuranic, Ivana. Croatian Tales of Long Ago. Translated by Fanny S. Copeland. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.. 1922. p. 256.
  28. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. The songs of the Russian people, as illustrative of Slavonic mythology and Russian social life. London: Ellis & Green. 1872. p. 148.
  29. Peroš, Zrinka; Ivon, Katarina; & Bacalja, Robert. (2007). "More u pričama Ivane Brlić-Mažuranić" [SEA IN TALES OF IVANA BRLIĆ-MAŽURANIĆ]. In: Magistra Iadertina. 2 (2). 2007. p. 69. DOI: 10.15291/magistra.880.
  30. Hapgood, Isabel Florence. A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections. New York: Chautauqua Press. 1902. pp. 31-32.
  31. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian Folk-tales. New York: R. Worthington, 1878. p. 141 (footnote).
  32. Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume II: Black Art and the Neo-Ancestral Impulse. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2015. pp. 186—229.
  33. Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. 2010 [2004]. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6
  34. Löwis of Menar, August von. Russische Volksmärchen. Jena: Eugen Diederichs, 1927. pp. 181-188.
  35. Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (1998). Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 179-181. ISBN 9781576070635.
  36. Ortutay Gyula; Rab Zsuzsa. A repülő hajó: orosz, ukrán, belorusz, grúz, üzbek, tatár, baskir, kazah, tadzsik és más szovjet népmesék. Budapest: Ifjúsági Könyvkiadó, 1955. pp. 278-286.
  37. Литовские народные сказки [Lithuanian Folk Tales]. Составитель [Compilation]: Б. Кербелите. Мoskva: ФОРУМ; НЕОЛИТ, 2015. p. 318. ISBN 978-5-91134-887-8; ISBN 978-5-9903746-8-3
  38. Monumenta Estoniae antiquae V. Eesti muinasjutud. I: 2. Koostanud Risto Järv, Mairi Kaasik, Kärri Toomeos-Orglaan. Toimetanud Inge Annom, Risto Järv, Mairi Kaasik, Kärri Toomeos-Orglaan. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Teaduskirjastus, 2014. pp. 643, 716. ISBN 978-9949-544-19-6.
  39. Horálek, Karel. "Zur typologischen Charakteristik der tschechischen Volksmärchen". In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik 14, no. 1 (1969): 104-105. https://doi.org/10.1524/slaw.1969.14.1.85
  40. Fillmore, Parker. Mighty Mikko: a book of Finnish fairy tales and folk tales. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922. pp. 141-153.
  41. Horálek, Karel. "Zur typologischen Charakteristik der tschechischen Volksmärchen". In: Zeitschrift für Slawistik 14, no. 1 (1969): 105-106. https://doi.org/10.1524/slaw.1969.14.1.85
  42. "Как мышка и воробей поссорились" [How the Mouse and the Sparrow Fought]. In: Акцорин, Виталий. "Марийские народные сказки" [Mari Folk Tales]. Йошкар-Ола: Марийское книжное издательство, 1984. pp. 94-100.
  43. Горяева Баира Басанговна (2021). ЧЕРЕЗ ГРАНИЦЫ ЯЗЫКОВ И КУЛЬТУР: СКАЗКИ ДОНСКИХ КАЛМЫКОВ В ЗАПИСИ И.И. ПОПОВА. Новый филологический вестник, (1 (56)), 373. doi: 10.24411/2072-9316-2021-00028; URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/cherez-granitsy-yazykov-i-kultur-skazki-donskih-kalmykov-v-zapisi-i-i-popova (дата обращения: 14.01.2022).
  44. Harrison, Burton, Mrs. "The Samovar's Story". Bric-a-brac stories. New York, C. Scribner's sons. 1885. pp. 20—30.
  45. Надежда Наан. Русские волшебные сказки. СПб.: Лениздат, 1994. pp. 73-83. ISBN 5-289-01559-0.
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