This Russian tale from the collection of Aleksander
Afanas’iev, translated by Norbert Guterman, brings my series of traditional fairy tales with strong heroines to
a close. There are many Vasilisas in Russian fairy tales, and most of them are strong. In the well-known story of Vasilisa the Beautiful, for example, a young woman
is sent to borrow fire from the witch Baba Yaga, while Vasilisa the Wise (#17 in this series) is a magic-worker who rescues the prince from her father the Sea
King.
Vasilisa the Priest's Daughter works no magic of any kind. She simply uses wits and
nerve to out-smart and rebuke an impertinently curious king. Her preferred
way of life – dressing and behaving as a young man – is accepted by her father and raises no eyebrows among her neighbours, and she easily evades the efforts of the king – and the
witch who advises him – to discover her real gender. I particularly like the trumphant note she sends him, at the end, where she compares him to a raven and herself to a falcon. That's telling him!
Those of you who've been following the series will remember similar
attempts by the king and his pet lion in Grimms’ The Twelve Huntsmen #27 – and by a genie and his mother in the Romanian
tale The Princess in Armour #3. (Don't you love the infinite variations on themes in fairy tales?) Naturally all such
ingeniously contrived tricks are doomed to fail, and why? Because they rely upon
crude and inadequate stereotypes of the character and capacities of women. This is a deliberate narrative choice: we are absolutely expected to enjoy seeing the heroines of these stories run rings around their often ridiculous male
adversaries.
Still, the women of fairy tales have no real need to impersonate men, any more than the male heroes of fairy tales often resemble warriors with swords. Far more frequently, fairy tales celebrate humble protagonists, underdogs who succeed beyond their wildest dreams through chutzpah, kindness, endurance and luck. Girls and women in fairy tales are no less energetic, witty, clever, brave and persistent than the brothers and lovers they often rescue. In fact, they are often more so!
My next post will examine one more story in close detail, before I move on to a different subject.
Witches!
In a certain land, in a certain kingdom, there was a priest
called Vasily who had a daughter named Vasilisa Vasilyevna. She wore man’s
clothes, rode horseback, was a good shot with a rifle and did everything in a
quite unmaidenly way, so that only a very few people knew that she was a girl:
most people thought she was a man and called her Vasily Vasilyevich, all the
more so because she was very fond of vodka. This is, as is well known, entirely
unbecoming to a maiden…
One day, King Barkhat – for the was
the name of the king of the country – went hunting game and he met Vasilisa
Vasilyevna. She was riding horseback in men’s clothes and was also hunting.
When he saw her, King Barkhat asked his servants, ‘Who is that young man?’ One
servant answered him, ‘Your majesty, that isn’t a man but a girl; I know for
sure that she is Vasilisa Vasilyevna, the daughter of the priest Vasily.’
As soon as the king returned home he
wrote a letter to the priest Vasily asking him to permit his son Vasily
Vasilyevich to visit him and eat at the king’s table. Meanwhile, he himself
went to the little old backyard witch and began questioning her as to how he
could find out whether Vasily Vasilyevich was really a girl.
The little old witch said to him,
‘Hang up an embroidery frame on the right side of your chamber, and on the left
side hang up a gun: if she is really Vasilisa Vasilyevna she will notice the
embroidery frame first; if she is Vasily Vasilyevich she will notice the gun.’
The king followed the little old witch’s advice and ordered his servants to
hang up an embroidery frame and a gun in his chamber.
As soon as the king’s letter reached
Father Vasily and he showed it to his daughter, she went to the stable, saddled
a grey horse with a grey mane, and went straight to King Barkhat’s palace. The
king received her; she politely said her prayers, made the sign of the cross as
is prescribed, bowed low to all four sides, graciously greeted King Barkhat,
and entered the palace with him. They sat together and began to drink heady
drinks and eat rich viands. After dinner, Vasilisa Vasilyevna walked with King
Barkhat through the palace chambers; as soon as she saw the embroidery frame
she began to reproach the king: ‘What kind of junk do you have here, King
Barkhat? In my father’s house there is no trace of such womanish fiddle-faddle,
but in King Barkhat’s house, womanish fiddle-faddle hangs in the chambers!’
Then she politely said farewell and rode home, and the king was none the wiser
as to whether she was really a girl.
And so two days later – no more! – King
Barkhat sent another letter to the priest Vasily, asking him to send his son
Vasily Vasilyevich to the palace. As soon as Vasilisa Vasilyevna heard about
this she went to the stable, saddled a grey horse with a grey mane, and rode
straight to King Barkhat’s palace. She graciously greeted him, politely said
her prayers to God, made the sign of the cross as is prescribed and bowed low
to all four sides. King Barkhat had been advised by the little old backyard
witch to order kasha cooked for supper, and to have it stuffed with pearls. The
little old witch had told him that if the youth was really Vasilisa Vasilyevna,
he would put the pearls in a pile, and if he was Vasily Vasilyevich, he would
throw them under the table.
Supper time came. The king sat at
table and placed Vasilisa Vasilyevna on his right hand, and they began to drink
heady drinks and eat rich viands. Kasha was served after all the other dishes,
and as soon as Vasilisa Vasilyevna took a spoonful of it and discovered a
pearl, she flung it under the table together with the kasha and began to
reproach King Barkhat. ‘What kind of trash do they put in your kasha?’ she
said. ‘In my father’s house there is no trace of such womanish fiddle-faddle,
yet in King Barkhat’s house, womanish fiddle-faddle is put in the food!’ Then
she politely said farewell to King Barkhat and rode home. Again the king had
not found out whether she was really a girl, though he badly wanted to know.
Two days later, upon the advice of
the little old witch, King Barkhat ordered that his bath be heated; she had
told him that if the youth really was Vasilisa Vasilyevna he would refuse to go
to the bath with him. So the bath was heated.
Again King Barkhat wrote a letter to
the priest Vasily, telling him to send his son Vasily Vasilyevich to the palace
for a visit. As soon as Vasilisa Vasilyevna heard about it, she went to the
stabel, saddled her grey horse with the grey mane, and galloped straight to
King Barkhat’s palace. The king went out to receive her on the front porch. She
greeted him civilly and entered the palace on a velvet rug; having come in,
she politely said her prayers to God, made the sign of the corss as is
prescribed, and bowed very low to all four sides. Then she sat at table with
King Barkhat and began to drink heady drinks and eat rich viands.
After dinner the king said, ‘Would it
not please you, Vasily Vasilyevich, to come with me to the bath?’
‘Certainly, your Majesty,’ Vasilisa
Vasilyevna answered. ‘I have not had a bath for a long time and should like
very much to steam myself.’ So they went together to the bathhouse. While King
Barkhat undressed in the anteroom, she took her bath and left. So the king did
not catch her in the bath either. Having left the bathhouse, Vasilisa
Vasilyevna wrote a note to the king and ordered the servants to hand it to him
when he came out. And this note ran:
‘Ah, King Barkhat, raven that you
are, you could not surprise the falcon in the garden! For I am not Vasily
Vasilyevich, but Vasilisa Vasilyevna.’ And so King Barkhat got nothing for his
trouble, for Vasilisa Vasilyevna was a clever girl, and very pretty too!
Picture credits:
As there seem to be no illustrations of this fairy tale, I have chosen to use 'A prince arrived' by John Bauer.
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