Episode Details

Afanasyev — Marya Morevna

Ivan-tsarevich gives his three sisters in marriage to a falcon, an eagle, and a raven, and then rides out into the world — where he finds a whole army beaten in the field, and learns that it was beaten by one warrior alone: Marya Morevna, the beautiful queen. He wins her heart and marries her, but when she rides off to war she leaves him one command — never to look into a certain closet. In the closet hangs Koschei the Deathless, bound on twelve chains, begging for water; three buckets restore his strength, he tears his chains apart, and carries Marya Morevna away. Three times Ivan steals her back, and the third time Koschei cuts him to pieces and casts the barrel into the blue sea — until his brothers-in-law, the falcon, the eagle, and the raven, sprinkle the waters of death and of life. To win her for good, Ivan must earn a heroic horse from Baba Yaga herself: three days herding her mares, with his head promised to the last empty stake if even one is lost.

Marya Morevna (Марья Моревна, № 159) — from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev, in a new English translation made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.

Afanasyev.

Intermission: "Wind Swept Flight" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.