Pierre Bottineau Library

Today I visited the Pierre Bottineau Library across the river in St. Paul. They were having the curator from the Russian Museum come speak on Russian fairy tale creatures (Sacred Beasts of Russian folktales). The library itself is very cute and I took lots of pictures (click the picture above).

The curator talked about the recurring figure of Baba Yaga in Russian fairy tales as their traditional wicked witch archetype. Baba Yaga is a bit of an unconventional witch. She's always dangerous to children, but she always helps lovers. Animals are her familiars and often play a part in tales where the hero or heroine meet her (e.g. The Swans and the Geese, The Frog Princess, The Magic Pike). In pre-Christian times, Baba Yaga would have been beautiful and young; the Christian church rewrote her in history as old and ugly to attack the pagan beliefs of their early converts. The Curator also compared her to ancient Greek goddesses from sculpture and amphorae that pre-dated the Olympians. The Greek's Potnia Theron translates to the Mistress of the Beasts.

Common sacred beasts in Russian fairy tales include birds such as Alkonost and Sirini: allergorical representations of sorrow and joy; the Firebird: now a famous ballet composed by Stravinsky; gray wolves and horses. Illustrations have been very important to Russian fairy tales since the early 19th century. Many wonderful artists have commissioned works inspired by Russian fairy tales in various mediums form wood cuts to paintings to lacquer boxes.

Stories

The Firebird:
Once upon a time, a czar had three sons. He loved his sons, but he loved his golden apple tree more. One day the czar noticed his apples were being eaten. Who has done this! he cried. He instructs his sons to stay up all night and watch for the culprit. One by one, the sons fall asleep, all except the youngest. Just before dawn, he witnesses a firebird enter the garden and proceed to eat the apples. The boy creeps up to the bird, and pulls a feather from its body. The bird terrified flies away. In the morning, the boy shows his father the feather of the golden apple eating bird. The czar wants the bird. He sends the boy on a quest to return with the bird. The boy has many adventures which find him wealthier and betrothed to a princess before he returns to his father with the Firebird. The Firebird is a metaphor for one's desires.

The Frog Princess:
Once upon a time, a czar had three sons. He was getting older and decided his sons should be married. He instructed them to each fire an arrow in a different direction. Where their arrow landed, they would find their wife. The eldest son's arrow led him straight to a daughter of a noted government official. The next brother's arrow led him to the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The youngest son's arrow led him to a swamp. He goes into the swamp to retrieve his arrow and find a frog holding the arrow. Give me my arrow, the prince says. I am to use it to find a wife. But I found the arrow, the female frog replies. You must marry me. The Prince agrees with this truth. He takes the frog back to his rooms in the palace.

The czar is pleased that each of his sons has found a bride. He requests of the sons that his new daughter in laws prepare him a loaf of bread to show their culinary talents. The youngest son is distraught. He comes home to his frog bride and explains the predicament as he cries at the table. How will you bake bread? He laments. You have such tiny, flippery hands? Do not fret, the frog replies. Morning is wiser than Evening. Go to bed, and all will be well in the morning. While her husband sleeps, the frog sheds her amphibian skin and transforms into a beautiful, young woman. She calls to her nurses and servants, and asks them to bake the best bread for her. They set to work and prepare a wonderous loaf of bread with a tiny icing city on top than resembles the city of the czar's palace. When they are done, she thanks them and returns to her froggy form.

Upon waking, the prince is delighted with the bread loaf! He takes it immediately to his father. Along the way, his new sister-in-laws see the bread, and are quite upset. They have been pampered all their lives, and have never baked a loaf of bread. They vow to try to do better than their mysteriously absent third sister. They fail miserably. Their shamed husbands bring their burned efforts before the czar. The czar love's the youngest son's wife's bread the best!

For their next task, the czar requests that his daughters in law sew him a new embroidered shirt to show off their textile skills. The youngest son is again distraught. How will his frog wife be able to sew with her flippers? The frog finds her husband crying at the table and asks what is wrong? He replies with her latest task. Do not fret, the frog replies. Morning is wiser than Evening. Go to bed, and all will be well in the morning. While her husband sleeps, the frog again sheds her amphibian skin, and calls to her nurses and servants for aid. Everything is as it was before: hers is the best and finest. The jealous other wives try to emulate her work, but fail. The czar is again only pleased by the youngest son's wife's work.

For their third and final task, the czar holds a ball to exhibit each of his daughter in law's beauty and dancing skills. The youngest son knows this time, there can be no hiding that his wife is a frog. He cries again at the table over their predicament. Do not fret, the frog replies. I will arrive late. Their will be a clap of thunder, and when that happens, you shall say It is only my frog wife arriving to the ball. The Prince agrees. On the night of the ball, everything goes as planned. At the appointed clap of thunder, the youngest Prince makes his announcement. Everyone turns to look as the beautiful wife of the youngest Prince enters the ball. She is dressed in a gorgeous green gown with large poofy sleeves. As she eats, she stuffs chicken bones into her left sleeve, and pours her wine into her right. The other wives watch her in wonder and confusion. Then the youngest wife begins to dance. She dances as a bird flies, and all are entranced by her beauty. She opens her left sleeve and swans fly out. She opens her right sleeve and pours for them a pond in the middle of the ballroom. The swans swim in the pond as she continues to dance, and the czar is most pleased. The other wives have watched this display, and have stuffed their sleeves with chicken bones and wine. At their turns to dance, only chicken bones and wine seep out of their clothes, and their husbands are shamed.

Now the youngest Prince is so enthralled by how beautiful his wife has become that he rushes home ahead of her. On the floor by the fireplace he finds her discarded frog skin. In a moment of haste, he tosses the frog skin into the fire. Now he thinks she will be human always. His bride comes home shortly after, and goes to find her frog skin. Where is my skin? she asks. I destroyed it in the fire, the Prince answers. But why? I was to be human forever in just a few more weeks, but now I must leave. I am cursed. You will never see me again. She turns into a bird and flies out the window. The Prince lays his head on the table and cries.

The next morning, the Prince decides to find his wife. He sets off into the forest. He comes upon an old man. He helps the man, who repays him by directing him to seek out the witch who lives in the woods. The Prince finds the house of the witch on stilts. At first the witch threatens him and says how she will enjoy eating him. Do not eat me! at least not until I have told you my story, he says. The Prince charms the witch with his tale and she vows to help him. She says his bride is the daughter of an evil wizard. The wizard knew she would one day be more powerful than him so he cursed her to take the form of a frog. The curse can be broken though, the witch tells the Prince. You must kill the wizard, but he does not keep his death inside of his body. To find his death, she says, you must find an iron needle inside an egg inside a fish inside a bird inside a rabbit inside a chest. It's somewhere in this woods. If you can destroy the needle, you will free your wife.

The Prince sets out again toward the great lake that borders the woods. He comes upon a bear, and thinks the bear would feed him well. He draws his bow and arrow to slay the bear, but it calls out to him. Do not kill me! If you spare me, I will help you one day. The Prince agrees and lets the bear go. Then he passes a rabbit, and the Prince is so hungry he tries to catch the rabbit for food. Do not eat me! the rabbit says. If you let me go free, I will help you one day. The Prince agrees and lets the rabbit go. Then Prince spies an eagle overhead, and pulls his bow and arrow to kill and eat it. Do not kill me! the eagle calls to him. If you let me go free, I will help you one day. The Prince agrees and lets the eagle go. The Prince reaches the beach, and he is starved. He spies a fish flopping on the shore. He goes to kill the fish with his knife, but the fish cries out. Do not eat me! If you let me go free, I will help you one day. The Prince agrees and lets the fish go. The Prince walks along the shore and spies a chest hanging from a tall branch of the tallest tree.

Just then the bear runs out of the woods and charges into the tree, knocking the chest to the ground. The chest flies open and a rabbit jumps out. The rabbit speedily gallops away from the Prince but is overcome by the rabbit the Prince met before. This rabbit attacks the rabbit from the chest and tears him to pieces. A bird flies out of the rabbit's carcass. The Prince has no chance to catch this tiny bird, but the eagle soaring overhead spots it and zooms down toward its prey. It catches the tiny bird and tears it to bits with its claws and beak. Out of the bird a fish falls in the air and lands in the lake. The Prince is distraught. How will he ever find that fish? Just then the fish he freed leaps into the air. He's killed the fish that fell from the bird! The fish swims to shore and deposits the small egg in front of the Prince that had been inside the felled fish. The Prince crushes open the egg and breaks the iron needle.

At that moment, his wife is freed from her curse as her evil wizard father is dead. The Prince and his human wife are reunited and live happily ever after.

~~~

After the lecture, the audience asked several questions of the Curator concerning the nature of fairy tales in Soviet Russia scholarship, the role of society in forming the fairy tales, and what purpose the fairy tales served the Russian people. I'm making this all sound very intelligent when actually the audience asked very ridiculous questions which the Curator gracefully turned into a teaching moment despite a mild language barrier. We also learned that their are no actual "fairies" in Russian fairy tales. :)

Further Reading:

The Firebird and other Russian Fairy Tales. Illustrations by Boris Zworykin. Edited with an Introduction by Jacqueline Onassis.

The Tale of The Firebird by Gennady Spirin

Pushkin's Fairy Tales