The Tale of Tsar Saltan
The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Swan-Princess is an 1831 Russian fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin.
As a folk tale it is classified as Aarne–Thompson type 707, "The Three Golden Children", being a variation of The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird. Similar tales are found across the East Slavic countries and in the Baltic languages.
Synopsis
Three sisters talk amongst themselves around a spinning wheel and dream of what each of them would do if she suddenly became a queen. The first of them promises to throw a feast for the whole world; the second, to weave linen; and the third, to give birth to a hero for the Father-Tsar. At this moment, Tsar Saltan — having eavesdropped on the sisters' conversation under the window — enters the room. He offers the third sister to become his wife, and names the other two his royal weaver and cook.While Saltan is away fighting in distant lands, the Tsarina gives birth to a son, Gvidon. However, the young mother's envious sisters write to the newborn's father that his wife had given birth to an "unknown little animal". Contrary to the deceivers' expectations, Saltan is in no hurry to deal with his wife, but orders that the decision be delayed until his return. The women, however, do not calm down: they replace Saltan's genuine message with a forged one, which allegedly contains an order to secretly have both the Tsarina and her offspring drowned. The boyars, not suspecting the deception, place the mother and baby in a barrel and throw them into the sea. The barrel washes up on an uninhabited island, and Gvidon emerges from it as a grown man. In order to feed his mother, he makes a bow and arrow and goes to the sea to hunt. There he saves a white swan from a kite, and she promises to repay him for the favour. A city appears on the empty island, and Gvidon becomes its ruler.
Merchants sail past the island and are surprised to see on the previously uninhabited island a new golden-domed city and a pier with a strong outpost. Gvidon receives the merchants as dear guests, and at the end of the conversation sends his regards to Tsar Saltan. With the swan's help, Gvidon secretly transforms into a mosquito and travels along with the merchants to Saltan's kingdom. He listens as the merchants tell Saltan about the wonderful city and invite him to visit it. One of the envious sisters, a cook, tells Saltan about a new wonder of the world: a singing squirrel that lives under a fir tree and gnaws nuts with emeralds and gold shells. Having heard about this, Saltan loses interest in going to Gvidon's kingdom. For this, Gvidon stings the cook in the right eye.
After returning to his domain, Gvidon tells the swan about the squirrel. She brings it to his city, and Gvidon builds it a crystal house. The merchants tell Saltan about the squirrel and pass on a new invitation from Gvidon, who is transformed into a fly and listens to this conversation as well. The weaver tells about 33 knights coming out of the sea led by Chernomor. Saltan, hearing about the new miracle, again declines the trip, while the fly stings the weaver in the left eye. Gvidon tells the swan about the 33 knights, and they appear on the island.
The merchants tell Saltan about the miracles and pass on a new invitation, with Gvidon eavesdropping in the guise of a bumblebee. Saltan's matchmaker, Baba Babarikha tells of a princess who eclipses the world during the day, with a crescent moon under her braid and a star on her forehead. Having heard about this miracle, Saltan declines the trip for the third time. For this, the bumblebee stings Babarikha on the nose, taking pity on her eyes.
After returning, Gvidon tells the swan about the beautiful princess and says that he wants to marry her. She again fulfills Gvidon's wish, because the princess with the star on her forehead is herself. The merchants once again come to Saltan, tell him about all the changes on the island and again pass on Gvidon's invitation. As a result, Saltan sets off on a journey to the island kingdom. Upon arrival, he recognizes the queen as his wife, and the young prince and princess as his son and daughter-in-law respectively. In his joy, he forgives his evil sisters-in-law and Babarikha, and he lets them go home. A merry feast is arranged, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Translation
The tale was given in prose form by American journalist Post Wheeler, in his book Russian Wonder Tales. It was translated in verse by Louis Zellikoff in the book The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Progress Publishers, Moscow in 1970, and later reissued in The Tales of Alexander Pushkin by Malysh Publishers in 1981.Analysis
Tale type
Despite being a versified fairy tale written by Pushkin, the tale can be classified, in the East Slavic Folktale Classification, as tale type SUS 707, "Чудесные дети". The East Slavic classification corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children". It is also the default form by which type ATU 707 is known in Russian and Eastern European academia.Motifs
The "East Slavic" redaction
In a late 19th century article, Russian ethnographer Grigory Potanin identified a group of Russian fairy tales with the following characteristics: three sisters boast about grand accomplishments, the youngest about giving birth to wondrous children; the king marries her and makes her his queen; the elder sisters replace their nephews for animals, and the queen is cast in the sea with her son in a barrel; mother and son survive and the son goes after strange and miraculous items; at the end of the tale, the deceit is revealed and the queen's sisters are punished.In a series of articles published in Revue d'ethnographie et de sociologie, French scholar Gédeon Huet identified a subset of variants of the story of Les soeurs jalouses which involve the calumniated mother and her son cast in the sea in a barrel. He termed this group "the Slavic version" and suggested that this format "penetrated into Siberia", brought by Russian migrants.
Folklore scholar Christine Goldberg identifies three main forms of this tale type: a variation found "throughout Europe", with the quest for three magical items ; "an East Slavic form", where mother and son are cast in a barrel and later the sons build a palace; and a third one, where the sons are buried and go through a transformation sequence, from trees to animals to humans again.
According to Russian scholar T. V. Zueva, in the "main East Slavic version" of "The Miraculous Children", the third sister goes through a pregnancy of multiple babies; later, she is cast in the sea with one of her sons, and they take refuge on an isle of wonders in the middle of the sea.
Rescue of brothers by use of mother's milk
French comparativist Emmanuel Cosquin, in a 1922 article, noted that in some Belarusian variants of Les soeurs jalouses, the third sister's remaining son finds his missing brothers and uses their mother's milk to confirm their brotherly connection. Likewise, according to Russian folklorist, a "frequent" episode of East Slavic variants of tale type 707 is the protagonist bringing his brothers some cakes made with their mother's milk. Russian professor Khemlet Tatiana Yurievna describes that this is the version of the tale type in East Slavic, Scandinavian and Baltic variants, although Russian folklorist claimed that this motif is "characteristic" of East Slavic folklore, not necessarily related to variants of tale type 707.In other variants, the hero's missing elder brothers have been cursed to animal shape, but they can be saved by tasting their mother's milk. Russian scholar T. V. Zueva argues that the use of "mother's milk" or "breast milk" as the key to the reversal of the transformation can be explained by the ancient belief that it has curse-breaking properties. Likewise, scholarship points to an old belief connecting breastmilk and "natal blood", as observed in the works of Aristotle and Galen. Thus, the use of mother's milk serves to reinforce the hero's blood relation with his brothers.
Other motifs
Russian tale collections attest to the presence of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, as the antagonist in many of the stories.Russian scholar T. V. Zueva suggests that this format must have developed during the period of the Kievan Rus, a period where an intense fluvial trade network developed, since this "East Slavic format" emphasizes the presence of foreign merchants and traders. She also argues for the presence of the strange island full of marvels as another element.
Folklorist Lev Barag noted that, in the East Slavic tales, the antagonists describe the wondrous sights the hero will search for: children with miraculous traits, a, a pig with golden bristles, a strange bull, a magic mill, among other objects.
Mythological parallels
This "Slavic" narrative recalls the motif of "The Floating Chest", which appears in narratives of Greek mythology about the legendary birth of heroes and gods. The motif also appears in the Breton legend of saint Budoc and his mother Azénor: Azénor was still pregnant when cast into the sea in a box by her husband, but an angel led her to safety and she gave birth to future Breton saint Budoc.Central Asian parallels
Following professor Marat Nurmukhamedov's study on Pushkin's verse fairy tale, professor Karl Reichl argues that the dastan titled Šaryar, from the Turkic Karakalpaks, is "closely related" to the tale type of the Calumniated Wife, and more specifically to The Tale of Tsar Saltan.Variants
Distribution
Russian folklorist attributed the diffusion of this format amongst the East Slavs to the popularity of Pushkin's versified tale. Similarly, Andreas Johns recognizes that, while being possibly inspired by oral variants, Pushkin's work has left its influence on tales later collected from oral tradition. In the same vein, Ukrainian folklorist noted that, despite the Tale of Tsar Saltan being a "reflex" of the folktale, it "significantly" influenced the East Slavic folktale corpus.Professor Jack Haney stated that the tale type registers 78 variants in Russia and 30 tales in Belarus.
In Ukraine, a previous analysis by professor Nikolai Andrejev noted an amount between 11 and 15 variants of type "The Marvelous Children". A later analysis by Haney gave 23 variants registered.