Episode Details

Afanasyev — Father Frost · Snegurushka

A stepdaughter is worked from before dawn, scolded for a broom out of place, and at last driven out in crackling winter to be married to Morozko himself, left alone under a great pine in the silent forest — where the Frost comes crackling from fir to fir and asks, three times, "Are you warm, maiden?", and her gentle answers win her fur coats, blankets, and a box of rich gifts, while her stepsisters, sent after her in envy, answer him rudely and stiffen in the snow. This episode reads both of Afanasyev's tellings of Father Frost — the long Nikolsk telling of Marfusha, and the shorter Kursk telling of Moroz Red Nose, the chest of dowry, and the little dog under the table who will not be bribed with pancakes to change her prophecy — plus Snegurushka, the granddaughter lost berry-picking in the summer forest, who refuses the bear and the wolf from her tree and trusts only the fox to carry her home.

The tales «Морозко» (№№ 95–96) and «Снегурушка и лиса» (№ 34) — from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev, in new English translations made for this show, read aloud over a gentle instrumental bed.

Afanasyev.

Intermission: "Three Pairs of Yellow Eyes" — instrumental.

KacheliTV — Russian classics, read aloud.