Episode Details

Afanasyev — Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf, Part Two

Part Two picks up the tale as Ivan comes in tears to the gray wolf — and the wolf, once again, carries him where he needs to go. Over the golden railing the wolf seizes Elena the Beautiful; on the road Ivan and Elena fall in love, and the wolf saves them both by turning himself first into Elena, to win the horse with the golden mane from Tsar Afron, and then into that very horse, to win the Firebird and its golden cage from Tsar Dolmat. At the very spot where he once tore Ivan's horse in two, the wolf takes his leave. Twenty versts from home, Ivan and Elena sleep under a tree — and his elder brothers find them. What follows is murder, a threat held over Elena, thirty days of death, a raven's bargain for the water of death and the water of life, and a wedding feast interrupted by the one guest no one expected.

The Tale of Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf (Сказка об Иване-царевиче, жар-птице и о сером волке, № 168) — from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev, in a new English translation made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.

Afanasyev.

Intermission: "Cypress in the Soil" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.