The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise

The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise (Russian: Морской царь и Василиса Премудрая, romanized: 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
Name	The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise
Aarne–Thompson grouping	ATU 313 ("The Magical Flight")
Region	Russia
Published in	Russian Fairy Tales by Alexander Afanasyev
Related	The Battle of the Birds The Master Maid

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, the eagle 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 appears to him. The Sea Tsar offers to help in exchange for the thing "you 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

Tale type

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][a]

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.^[16]

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).^[17] The swan is the typical species, but they can transform into "geese, ducks, spoonbills, or aquatic birds of some other species".^[18]

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).^[19]

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".^[20]

The Sea Tsar

 

Sadko at the underwater court of the Sea Tsar.

The Morskoi Tsar ("Sea Tsar"; "Sea King";^[21] "The Marine or Water King")^[22] 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.^[23][24] The Sea Tsar or Sea King also appears in Slovak and Slovene folklore with the name Morskog Kralja or Morski kralj,^[25][26] and is reported to exist in Belarusian mythology as Car-Mora.^[27] He is also described as "a mighty and wealthy" regent who rules "in the depths of the sea",^[28] but he may also live "in the depths of the lake, or the pool".^[29]

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.^[30]

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.^[31]

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.^[32]

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.^[33][34]

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.^[35]

In a tale collected in the White Sea region from Russian storyteller Matvei M. Korguev [ru] with the title "Как Елена-королевна вывела царского сына от волшебного короля" ("How princess Elena saved the Czar's Son from the Magic King"), a merchant sows his fields. At the time of the harvest, a rat and a sparrow quarrel about their portions, which escalates to an all-out war between animals. The sole survivor: an eagle (called Eagle-Tsarevich). A young prince, on a hunt, finds the eagle and prepares to shoot it, but the bird begs to be spared and to be healed by the prince. After some time, the eagle takes the prince on a aerial journey through the kingdoms of its three sisters, and gives him a little box, which the eagle warns him not to open until he reaches his kingdom, and a key, which the eagle tells him to smell if he wants to beat thirst and tiredness. After he lands, he begins to feel tired, hungry, but smells the key. He soldiers on, but he opens the box and everyhing inside leaps out of it. He walks a bit more and a tall, lanky man offers to lock everything inside the box, in exchange for what he does not know he has at home. The princa agrees with the deal, gets the box's contents back and goes home, and learns he has a little son. The boy grows up unaware of his father's deal. One day, he shoots an arrow through an old woman's window, and she mockingly tells the boy his father made a deal with the magic king. After three years, the boy decides to fulfill their deal. The same old woman advises him to seek Elena the Beautiful, who is adept at magic, by going to a certain lake and waiting for the coming of 12 swans; then, he is to steal the swan clothes of the youngest and ask her to be his wife. The prince's son reaches the castle of the Magic King and performs three tasks for him, with Elena The Fair's magical help. Then, he identifies her from a parade of identically dressed women, and escapes with her back to his kingdom. At last, the prince's son forgets his time with Elena and she has to jog his memory.^[36]

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.^[37]

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.^[38]

Lithuania

According to folklorist Bronislava Kerbelyte [lt], 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.^[39]

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).^[40]

In an Estonian tale titled Rüütli poeg ("A Knight's Son"), collected by Estonian author Juhan Kunder, a mouse and a sparrow begin to live together until they have a fall out. Soon, the petit animals ask the help of larger creatures: the mouse recruits an old bear from the forest while the sparrow seeks the help of the "teevits" bird. The bear and the teevits fight, the bird losing and being found by a knight in the woods. The knight helps the bird regain its health and later it gives him a box, telling him not to open it. After the "teevits" departs, the knight opens the box and a magical golden city springs from it. Not knowing how to close the box, the knight pleads for help, until an old gray man promises to close the box, in exchange for the knight's son, unborn at the time.^[41]

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.^[42][b]

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.^[44] A large palace springs out of the box, and a grey-bearded man with shaggy appearance offers to close the box in return for what the man does not know he has at home (the man's newly-born son). The man discovers he mistake he made when he goes home and bets himself up for it. Years later, the grey-bearded man appears to the boy in a dream and beckons him to come. The boy leaves home and finds an old woman in the forest. The old woman reveals the grey-bearded man is her elder brother and that he plans to kill the boy. The old woman directs her to her sister, another elder. The second old woman advises the boy to wait by the lake for the coming of her brother's twelve daughters, who will appears in the shape of ducks and bathe in the water; he is to steal the duckskin of the youngest. The boy follows the instructions and talks to the sorcerer's youngest daughter. She regains the duckskin and warns the boy that her father will first set a test for him: to choose one of twelve doves, and she asks him to choose her as wife. The boy obeys the duck maiden's advice and gets her as wife. Later, her father orders the boy to raze a forest to the ground and plant a wheat field overnight. The duck maiden helps him and later they escape form her father by shapeshifting into other objects.^[45]

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.^[46]

Evenk people

In a tale from the Evenk people with the title The Grateful Eagle, an arrangement between a mouse and a bird goes south, turns into a nasty quarrel and later escalates into a war between animals of the air and the animals of the land. Amidst the war, a lion and an eagle fight against each other. The lion is the victor and the eagle, badly beaten, takes refuge with an old couple who live in the woods. When the eagle regains its health, it takes the old man for a journey around the world and presents him with a casket. After they say their goodbyes, the man opens the casket but forgets how to close it, until a mysterious man promises to close it in exchange for something the man owns in his house (his newly born son, unbeknownst to the man). The man returns home and discovers that a son was born to him while he was away. Some years later, a red dog appears at their door to guide the boy to his destination. The boy leaves home and follows the red dog for years, until the little animal disappears by the edge of a lake. The boy, now a youth, sees three swan maidens playing and splashing water in the lake, and steals the garments of one of them. Two of the maidens depart, while a third one stays behind to find her swan garments. The youth returns the swan garments and the girl invites him to her house, located in a remote part of a distant village. The tale continues as tale type ATU 313, with three impossible tasks done with the swan maiden's help, the couple escaping in a magical flight by shapeshifting; and the episode of the "Forgotten Fiancée".^[47]

Tatar people

Author James Riordan translated a tale from the Tatar people with the title Shaitan the Devil and His Forty Daughters, a man named Safa looks for adventure and rescues a swan in a lake from a black witch. In gratitude, the bird takes Safa to visit her sisters. He is given a little box and a warning not to open it until he reaches home. However, on his way, curiosity takes the better of him and he opens the box: a retinue of market sellers, wares, jades and money comes out of the box. At first, Safa is astonished by the wondrous contents of the box, but, after trying to shut them all back, regrets his decision. Suddenly, a mysterious gray-bearded man offers to help the man, in exchange for what Safa does not know he has at home. Safa closes the box and returns home, only to find his wife gave birth to a son, and immediately regrets his deal. Years later, Safa's son, a jigit, decides to fulfill his father's deal, and stops by a lakeside, waiting for the coming of Shaitan the Devil. He sees a flock of 40 swans coming to the lake and bathing in the water. The jigit creeps behind one of the birds and snatches it, while the other swans fly away. The bird in the jigit's hands shakes off her feathers and becomes a human maiden. She reveals that she is one of Shaitan's daughter, and her father plans to eat him, but he can delay this fate by asking to do chores for him. She flies back to the skies and Shaitan appears soon after to take the boy to his lair in the depths of the forest. the jigit offers to do chores for him, and Shaitan sets three tasks: first, to chop down the forest and sell the wood, then buy rye, plant it and harvest it, grind the corn and store hay - all in one night; secondly, to draw water from a lake to another with a sieve; thirdly, to bridle a wild stallion from Shaitan's stables (which is Shaitan metamorphosed). The jigit fulfills the tasks with the help of the swan girl. Shaitan agrees to marry the jigit to one of his daughters, after the youth passes more tests: to identify his daughter among 40 doves; then, to identify who is his daughter among her sisters, each playing a kurai. After succeeding twice more, Shaitan locks his youngest daughter and the jigit in the dungeons, but the swan girl takes the jigit with her and both escape in a "Magic Flight" sequence.^[48]

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.^[49]

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).^[50]

See also

• King Kojata
• Nix Nought Nothing
• The Grateful Prince

Footnotes

1. In a Dolgan tale, "Старик рыбак и ворон" ("The Old Fisherman and the Raven"), the raven replaces the eagle, flies with the fisherman and gifts him a box.^[15]
2. 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.^[43]

References

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4. The Three Kingdoms: Russian Folk Tales From Alexander Afanasiev's Collection. Illustrated by A. Kurkin. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1985. Tale nr. 21.
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12. Русская сказка. Избранные мастера. Том 2. Moskva/Leningrad: Academia, 1932. pp. 257-258.
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23. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian folk-tales. London: Smith, Elder, & co.. 1873. pp. 129—130.
24. 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.
25. 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.
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28. Brlic-Mazuranic, Ivana. Croatian Tales of Long Ago. Translated by Fanny S. Copeland. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.. 1922. p. 256. [1]
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30. 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.
31. Hapgood, Isabel Florence. A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections. New York: Chautauqua Press. 1902. pp. 31-32.
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External links

• The original text of the tale at Wikisource.