The Russian myth-tales in this volume are all taken from Afanasyeff’s[9] collection. At the end of each title are given, in parentheses, the part and page of the tale in the original work.
[9] The Russian title of Afanasyeff’s work is, “Naródniya Rússkiya Skazki. A. N. Afanásieva, Moskvá.” There are eight parts, usually bound in three volumes, and dated 1860-61-63.
The Three Kingdoms,—The Copper, the Silver, and the Golden. Page [1]. (Part vii. p. 97.)
The first name, that of the Tsar Bail Bailyanyin, is best translated as “White of White Land.” There is in Russian mythology a lady of unspeakable beauty, Nastasya or Anastasya of the sea, who causes the sun to blush twice each day; she is perhaps the Nastasya, Golden Tress, of this story. Bail Bailyanyin, “White of White Land,” may well be Bail Bog, the White God of pre-Christian Russians. And here a few words touching the persistence of myth-conceptions may not be out of place. In the tales of the Indians, and in fact of all men who have retained firm traces of primitive thought, the people of the myth-tellers are on the side of light and goodness, and their enemies on that of darkness and harm. This is parallel with the antithesis of day and night. The Russian phrases baili dyen, baili svait, “white day,” “white world,” are good examples of the old-time idea with which is connected, in all likelihood, the title Baili Tsar, “the White Tsar,” still existent in Russia.
Ivan Tsarevich, The Fire-Bird, and the Gray Wolf. Page [20]. (Part vii. p. 121.)
The variants of this tale among the Russians and other Slavs, as well as in Germany, are many, and would fill a volume of good size if collected and published. In some Russian variants Ivan Tsarevich retains Yelena the Beautiful, not through the art and friendship of the Wolf, but by his own craft and daring. When he has received the golden-maned steed in exchange for Yelena, and is going, he asks to take leave of the maiden; the request is granted. He raises the beauty to the saddle-bow, puts spurs to the steed, rises in the air, shoots on above the standing forest, below the moving cloud, vanishes, holds on his way till he comes to the Tsar to whom he had promised to give the steed for the Fire-Bird. When the time comes for parting he asks to take a last ride on the steed, if only through the court-yard; the Tsar agrees. Ivan mounts with the cage in his hand; the steed rises as before, and he vanishes, comes to the place where he had left Yelena, and fares homeward with her till he meets his evil brothers.
Ivan the Peasant’s Son and the Little Man Himself One-finger Tall, his Mustache Seven Versts in Length. Page [37]. (Part viii. p. 109.)