Saturday, November 17, 2012

Russian Folk-Tale

I read the Russian folk tale "The Serpent and the Princess" (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/snake.html#snakeandprincess).   This story is about three daughters whose father, the emperor, falls ill and needs water from their well to get better.  He sends his older daughter and when she gets there, she sees a snake that asks her to marry him and when she says no, he won't given her any water.  The same thing happens with the middle daughter, but when the youngest and beautiful daughter goes to get water, she says yes to the snake and he gives her water which she takes back to her father and he recovers.  The next day the snake comes back as a person and takes her away with him and they have a daughter.  They brought a godmother with them from the palace but she was wicked, the child died and soon after, the mother.  The Princess is buried at the palace and the next night the wicked godmother goes and cuts off the princess' hands and takes them back to the house and steals the ring.  Then the princess' ghost comes and kills the godmother but nobody cares and her body is thrown in a hole.

Some motifs I found were the serpent, represented by the snake the princess married, and the beautiful princess, represented by the emperor's youngest daughter.  Other motifs where illness, which was when the emperor was sick and needed the water, and consequences of greed, when the godmother stole the princess' rings and was killed and her body thrown in a ditch.  Also, there was revenge, when the princess killed the godmother for desecrating her dead body, and meeting the supernatural, when the princess' ghost showed itself to the godmother.

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