Reading Notes: Russian Folktales (Part B)

2. The Headless Princess

• Synopsis:
• A boy coming back from his lessons peeps into the princess' window
• She takes her head off
• The boy tells everyone what he saw
• The princess becomes suddenly ill
• She tells her father that if she dies, he should have the priest's son read the psalter over her casket for three nights in a row
• This boy is the boy that saw her through the window
• The princess dies
• The boy is asked to read the psalter
• The boy tells his grandmother about what he saw and what he has been asked to do
• His grandmother gives him some instructions to stay safe
• Take a knife and draw a circle in the ground
• Read your psalter, but whatever you do, don't look behind you
• The boy obeys his grandmother and is protected when the princess rises from the dead each night and attempts to attack him
• At the end of the third night, when the sun rises, the casket does not close behind the princess when she falls dead again
• The king comes to the church and sees his daughter's body face down in her now open casket
• When the boy tells the king what had happened, he orders a stake be driven through her heart
• The boy is heavily rewarded for surviving
• Possibilities
• That wasn't the daughter
• possession/impersonation
• the real daughter is found after they put the stake through the heart of the one in the casket

6. The Two Friends

• Synopsis:
• Two friends agreed that whomever got married first would invite the other to his wedding, dead or alive
• One of the friends died
• When the living friend got married, he stopped by his buddy's grave and invited him to the wedding
• His friend came back to life and convinced him to have a drink at his "place" before the ceremony
• They shared a total of three drinks
• For each drink the groom had, 100 years passed in the world above
• Possibilities
• Explore the story of the groom being reintegrated into society 300 years in the future

10. The Dog and the Corpse

• Synopsis:
• A man goes out hunting with his dog
• On the way home (after dark) they encounter a living corpse
• The dog attacks the corpse when it rushes them and the hunter makes a run for it
• The next morning, the dog returns home and tries to bite him for the betrayal
• The dog continues to hate his master for a whole year
• They have to chain him up to keep him from attacking
• The dog breaks loose one day and tries to kill his master
• The dog is put down
• Possibilities:
• I just want the dog to live
• Maybe he could get adopted out?

Ghost
via Max Pixel

Story Source: Russian Fairy Tales, W. R. S. Ralston