Ivan I. BilibinBesprekingen

Includes The White Duck.

These fairytales were…interesting to say the least. It was nice reading them and getting to know what a portion of the metaphorical landscape of Russian fairytales and folklore looks like. Some of them were weird, as what happens with most folklore of different countries. But they were definitely unique.

Finestkind.

A beautiful and virtuous young maiden asks her father for the feather of Fenist the Falcon in this marvelous Russian fairy-tale, and is eventually given her wish. This item summons the actual Fenist to her side, and the two become lovers, meeting at night. When Fenist is injured through the machinations of the maiden's jealous sisters, and disappears, she must set out through the world to find him. With the aid of the three Baba Yaga sisters, she eventually reaches her destination in the Thrice-Nine Tsardom the Thrice-Ten Realm, wearing out three pairs of iron shoes and three iron staffs, and eating three loaves of rock bread along the way. Once in this far-off seaside realm, the maiden must free Fenist from the enchantment of his seeming bride, using the gifts given to her by the Baba Yagas...

The Feather of Finist the Falcon is a traditional Russian tale originally collected by Alexander Afanasyev is his Russian Folk Tales, published from 1855 through 1863. It is considered a variant of the 'Bird Lover' tale type - no. 432 in the Aarne–Thompson-Uther folklore classification system - although it also bears striking resemblance to the Norwegian tale, East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon, which in Aarne-Thompson-Uther is an example of tale type 425A, the search for the lost husband. Leaving that aside, this is a wonderful story, full of magic and excitement, danger and true love. This edition was published in Moscow in 1977, for the English-language market (it was translated by the prolific Irina Zheleznova), and contains the breathtakingly gorgeous artwork of Ivan Bilibin. Recommended to all young folk and fairy-tale lovers, and to anyone who appreciates beautiful folk-art illustration.

This book contains five Russian fairy tales and features a couple of quintessential characters: the Baby Yaga, living in her hut on hens' legs, and the firebird. While there are echoes to the collected tales by the brothers Grimm, I don't believe that these stories were modelled after them, as one reviewer remarked; I think that some of these tales represent archetypal stories that have their roots in the deep past, when they were shared around campfires and travelled vast distances, and then evolved into the recognisable tales we find today, albeit with local and regional variations.

Three of the stories ('Vasilisa the Beautiful', 'The Feather of Finist the Falcon' and 'The Frog-Tsarevna') offer a commendable variation to most fairy tales: they have as their main character a woman, whereas the man is very much on the sidelines and has to be rescued or assisted, if he appears at all. The latter two tales made a very deep impression on me when I was growing up, and I still remembered a couple of plot points more than thirty years later!

As some reviewers have already mentioned, the illustrations by Ivan Bilibin are stunning: intricate, highly detailed, atmospheric and very colourful, they enhance the stories no end and provide a flavour of Russian folklore and culture.½

These tales are very similar in nature to the Grimm Fairy Tales. Since they were modeled after the Grimm Fairy Tales, I guess this can be expected. Really entertaining if you're into dark stories. There is a stronger streak of feminism than the Grimm fairy tales with more autonomy and independence for women in stories such as The Death of Koschei the Deathless.

This print-on-demand book from Amazon contains some of the most popular fairy tales from the Afanas'ev collection as well as the corresponding illustrations by Ivan Bilibin. It appears to be scanned from a previous edition but there's no information which one. The page numbers in the table of content do not match the actual pagination, and the spelling looks odd at times. The gorgeous pictures make up for it.

real Russian art!, 30 Dec. 2010

This review is from: Ivan Bilibin (Paperback)
This is a LOVELY book: quite a bit of text/photos about Bilibin, but mainly reproductions of his work, notably wonderful illustrations to Russian fairy tales (have you ever read Arthur Ransome's 'Old Peter's Russian tales'? Familiarises you with them). Also stage sets, paintings, costume design and book covers. Excellent introduction to his work, he deserves to be a lot more famous

This large format, softcover book is about 9" by 12". The illustrations are outstanding. The Russian fairy tale, The White Duck, has been re-told in English by Trina Zheleznova. It was published by Goznak, in Moscow, in 1977. It has 12 pages and several lovely illustrations that are signed by a Russian artist and dated 1901. Fine condition.

This is a collection Russian Fairy Tales. There is love, death, and betrayal, as with all good tales.

The narrative is detailed, vivid, often emotional, and evocative.

Characters are sometimes emotional, caring, and humorous.

Overall, a fun read.½

This is a short tale of the Russian Fairy Tale of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga.

In this version some illustrations are present which are detailed and enhance the story line.

Overall, a quick but fun story.½

Beautifully illustrated (by Ivan Bilibin, which is oddly not mentioned in this edition) translation of a Russian fairy tale analogous to the more familiar (in the West) Norwegian "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," but more dissimilar from the Cupid & Psyche myth. "Fenist" is more straightforwardly moral than "East" - I find the redemptive storyline of "East," where the heroine's own curiosity is responsible for her separation from her lover, both more troubling and more interesting - but features the bonus of Baba Yaga appearing as a helpful witch. With regard to the rich, woodsy illustrations, I can't help noting if I had read this version as a child, I would only have been disappointed that the book didn't end with a picture of the reunited couple (elaborately dressed, of course!) at their wedding.

Originally published in 1912, and reprinted in this 1946 edition, Post Wheeler's Russian Wonder Tales contains sixteen stories from the Russian folk tradition, together with twelve color plates from the famed folk artist, Ivan Bilibin. Readers expecting anything like the illustrated Pushkin editions, put out by Goznak (or Moscow's Progress Publishers), and profusely illustrated with Bilibin's art, will be somewhat disappointed, as this volume is mostly text, with a plate every now and again.

Still, this retelling, for all its archaic language, has a charm of its own, and Russian folklore enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy Wheeler's adaptations, which often run along very familiar lines, only to depart from them, every once in a while. Included here are:

The Language of the Birds, in which a wealthy merchant's two sons, one boastful and dishonest, the other humble and compassionate, set out to prove themselves, with the predictable results. While Vasilii squanders his father's money, Ivan learns the language of the birds, a skill that stands him in good stead through many adventures, and which eventually wins him the hand of the Tsar's daughter. Rafe Martin has also adapted this tale, in his picture book, The Language of Birds, and I understand that he credits Post Wheeler in his source materials.

Tsar Saltan, in which the eponymous Tsar marries the youngest of three sisters, who claims that she will bear him seven hero-sons, all with golden legs and silver arms. But when the jealous sisters interfere, and Tsar Saltan comes to believe that she has borne him kittens, puppies, and a log (!), he loses both his wife and sons, and only regains them when he visits the far-off island where they have come to live. This is another tale that has been told many times, most recently in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, illustrated by Gennady Spirin.

Vasilissa the Beautiful, in which a spiteful step-mother and step-sisters dispatch the heroine to the forest hut of the powerful witch, Baba Yaga, ostensibly to fetch a light. Aided by the enchanted doll left to her by her dead mother, Vasilissa manages to perform Baba Yaga's impossible tasks, eventually returning in triumph to her step-family. Naturally, a marriage to the Tsar is not long to follow...

The Little Humpbacked Horse, in which a peasant's son becomes the master of the Tsar's stable after his midnight ride with an enchanted white mare wins him two beautiful stallions, and a funny little humpbacked horse. When jealous courtiers make trouble, inciting the Tsar to send Ivan on impossible tasks, the little horse aids him in gaining the Pig with the Golden Bristles and Silver Tusks, the Mare with Seven Manes, and the beautiful Girl-Tsar.

Tsar-Morskoi the Sea Ruler, in which Tsar Gurvin, resentful that God had not granted him a child, is less than generous with a wounded eagle, and consequently finds himself at the mercy of Tsar-Morskoi, the ruler of the sea. Promising him whatever new treasure may have appeared in his castle in his absence, Tsar Gurvin hurries home, only to discover with horror that he has bargained away his long-awaited son. It falls to the Tsarevitch, when he is grown, to extricate himself from the clutches of Tsar-Morskoi, winning his daughter, the lovely Tsarevna Anna, in the process...

Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf, in which the three sons of Tsar Vyslav set out on a quest to find the Fire Bird who has been stealing their father's golden apples. Predictably, it is the youngest, the Tsarevitch Ivan, who manages - with the help of the magical Gray Wolf - not only to bring back the Fire Bird, but also the Horse with the Golden Mane, and Helena the Beautiful. As always, when reading this tale, I was struck by the fact that Ivan doesn't seem to know how to follow directions. I'm not sure why the Gray Wolf puts up with it...

Maria Morevna, in which Tsarevitch Alexei wins the love of the beautiful warrior and Tsar's daughter, Maria Morevna, only to lose her when he fails to obey her instructions, and sets loose Koshchei the Wizard. Now, with the help of his three brothers-in-law - the hawk, the eagle and the crow - and a stallion won from the evil witch Baba Yaga, Alexei must win back his wife. I've always enjoyed this story, with its fierce woman warrior, and its reversal of the more common gender roles. After all, it is usually a woman whose curiosity brings about disaster. This tale is reminiscent of the Lithuanian The Sun Princess and Her Deliverer...

Martin the Peasant's Son, in which a peasant is rewarded for saving the daughter of the Snake-Tsar with a magical ring, and eventually marries the daughter of his own Tsar. When his new wife, mortified at having been married to a peasant, betrays him, it is Martin's faithful animal companions - Jourka the Dog and Vaska the Cat - who come to his rescue...

The Mountain of White Sand, in which the youngest son of a merchant, believed by his family to be an idiot, makes a fortune for himself when he carries a ship full of fine, pure salt to a tsardom that has never tasted it. Ivan eventually marries the Tsar's daughter, but not before his jealous older brothers interfere. The theme of three brothers, the youngest of whom defies his family's low expectations, and turns out to be the hero, seems a very common one in Russian folklore...

The Feather of Finist the Falcon, which combines elements of The Little Scarlet Flower (the Russian Beauty and the Beast) with Cupid and Psyche, producing a quest-type tale in which the heroine must wear out three sets of iron shoes, three iron staves, and three loaves of stone, while searching for her lost love...

The Frog-Tsarevna, in which Tsarevitch Ivan finds himself married to a frog, who turns out to be Vasilissa the Wise, and must seek her in the thirtieth tsardom, "in the empire which lies under the sun," after he hastily burns her frog-skin, and she disappears. The tale of the The Frog Princess has been retold many times, and is available in picture-book format, with full illustrations by Bilibin...

Schmat-Razum, in which Taraban, the Tsar's archer, is dispatched on a seemingly hopeless errand by his ruler, who wants Taraban's beautiful wife for himself. But the Tsar's clever trick is his own undoing, for Taraban returns in triumph, and uses the services of Schmat-Razum, the invisible servant he was sent to fetch, to oppose the Tsar. Folktale readers will undoubtedly recognize in this tale a variant of that found in Diane Wolkstein's Oom Razoom...

The Twin Brothers, in which two brothers, Tsarevitch Ivan and Tsarevitch Dimitri, together with their magical horses, Sivka and Burka, set out to find the beautiful Tsarevna of whom their father has dreamt. It is Ivan who eventually wins the love of the beautiful warrior-Tsarevna Nastasia, and Dimitri that of the Tsarevna Morkovya, rescued from a sea-serpent. This one reminded me a bit of Marie Morevna. The presence of the woman-warrior figure in these tales makes me wonder if such things were not unheard of, amongst the Slavic tribes of prehistory. I know other Eurasian peoples had women warriors...

Little Bear's Son, in which Ivashko Medvedko, a young man raised first by a bear, and then by a childless peasant couple, sets out to find his way in the world, eventually falling in with three giants: Usynia (Mustache-man), Gorynia (Hill-man), and Dubynia (Oak-man). When the four companions find themselves targeted by a Baba Yaga, it is only Ivashko who dares to pursue her to her underground stronghold...

Vasilii the Unlucky, in which a miserly merchant, Marko the Rich, sets out to rid himself of the boy-child Vasilii, when he learns that it has been foretold that all his wealth will pass to him. Needless to say, none of his many stratagems make any difference..

And finally, Tsarevitch Petr and the Wizard, in which young Petr sets out to rescue his mother, kidnapped by Koshchei the Wizard, finding a lovely brides for himself and his two brothers in the process..

Published in the former Soviet Union, and illustrated with the gorgeous folk-motif art of Ivan Bilibin, this beautiful picture book contains two Russian folktales from the collection of the poet Alexandr Pushkin.

In Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka, two orphaned siblings somehow find themselves living with the Tsar - Alyonushka as his wife, and the enchanted Ivanushka as their pet goat. When an evil witch sinks Alyonushka in the sea and takes her place, Ivanushka the goat must find a way to communicate with the tsar...

The White Duck also features an evil witch intent on taking the heroine's place, transforming a beautiful princess into a white duck in order to make the substitution. When the princess' three sons - hatched out of three golden eggs - are also threatened by the witch, the white duck must try to protect them...

Although Pushkin retold many traditional Russian tales in verse, these Goznak editions present prose stories, and are both highly readable and visually engaging.

When Vassilisa's cruel stepmother and stepsisters send her into the forest to seek a light from the terrible witch Baba Yaga, the brave young girl must rely upon her magical doll - given to her by her mother - for help. Successfully completing the impossible tasks set for her, Vassilisa is sent home by Baba Yaga, who informs her: "People like you have no business to be here at all." After the terrible punishment meted out to her step-family by the witch's light, Vassilisa's cloth-making soon brings her to the attention of the Tsar...

Part of a collection of tales retold by poet and folklorist Alexandr Pushkin, Vassilisa the Beautiful is another fairytale featuring the incredible Baba Yaga, a seminal figure in Russian folk culture. The description of her eerie hut, with its gruesome gate of human bones, lit by skull-lanterns, is not easily forgotten. But for all her terrifying appearance, Baba Yaga is an ambivalent character, who almost never harms the pure and virtuous...

This retelling, published in the former Soviet Union in the 1970s, includes Ivan Bilibin's fantastic folk-motif artwork. His depiction of Baba Yaga's three riders - the white horseman to usher in the "Bright Day", the red one to herald the "Radiant Sun," and the black one to bring the "Dark Night" - are particularly powerful. I love to collect and compare various retellings of the same tale, and there is no question that Ivan Bilibin's illustrations are among my favorites. Another rendition of this tale that the reader might want to examine is Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, retold by Marianna Mayer, and illustrated by the marvelous Kinuko Craft. Both are excellent, in their way.

When Prince Ivan finds himself married to a frog, he becomes an object of scorn to his two older brothers and their wives. But when his frog-wife outperforms her sisters-in-law at the tasks set by the Tsar, and then attends a feast as a beautiful young woman, the prince knows that he is married to a sorceress, and he finds and burns her frog-skin. But his rash action does not free his wife, the enchanted Vasilisa the Wise, and he must set off on a quest to free her from Koschei-the-Deathless, seeking the help of the formidable witch, Baba Yaga, along the way...

Taken from the work of poet and folklorist Alexandr Pushkin, who retold many traditional tales, The Frog Princess is part of the rich Russian folk-tradition, in which the characters of Baba Yaga, Prince Ivan, and Vasilisa frequently appear. This edition was printed in the former Soviet Union, and features the gorgeous illustrations of Ivan Biliban, whose folk-art is instantly recognizable. Visually stunning and eminently readable, these editions are a delight!

People always say, that when learning a language, it should be easy to read children's books or fairy tales for starters and then go on to books for grown ups.
What they forget is, that the children reading these books, or have them read for them, are brought up in the language used in the book. When a Russian child doesn't know what a firebird is, he simply asks the person reading the book, or one near to him and gets an explanation.
When I started reading these fairy tales, there was no such thing as internet (or at least, not in my surroundings). I had my dictionaries, but they didn't list the words that were used in the fairy tales.
And on top of all that, the language used in fairy tales is mostly outdated (to say the least). One encounters forms that have been archaic for ages already, but that makes these tales so special. And so very hard to read for non-natives....

Nevertheless: I loved these fairy tales!!

An awesome collection of seven Russian fairy tales illustrated by Bilibin. All the stories are strange, vivid, and compelling, and include two of my favorite: Ivan, The Grey Wolf, and the Firebird, and Vasilisa the Beautiful. The turn-of-the-century illustrations by Bilibin are gorgeous. Probably my favorite find at the used bookstore here.

Czar had 3 sons, he told his sons to throw their bow and arrows and where ever it landed and the first girl to pick it up thats who he had to marry. Both brothers got two and the young one Ivan, searched for two days when he finally found the arrow. The arrow was in a frog. The father wanted his 3 sons to have their wives make a shirt, cake and dance at the ball. In the end, Ivan and his lovely wife were happily ever after.

These fairy tales were amazing! They remind me of my travels through Eastern Europe, where many of the characters are similar. Baba Yaga, the princesses of gold, silver, and gems, the underdogs turning into heroes and kings. Maybe I'm biased because I love any kind of folklore, but these were especially great: they are funny, strange, beautiful, and they exhibit some of the same archetypes and themes throughout. I will definitely keep these in my mind as I continue reading and writing.½

This large format, softcover book is about 9" by 12". The illustrations are outstanding. The Russian fairy tale, Fenist The Falcon, has been re-told in English by Trina Zheleznova. It was published by Goznak, in Moscow, in 1977. It has 12 pages and several lovely illustrations that are signed by a Russian artist and dated 1900 Fine condition.

--
Cuentos populares rusos. I / [recopilados por] A. N. Afanásiev ; introducción, Vladimir Propp ; traducción, Isabel Vicente ; ilustración, Iván Y. Bilibin. -- 1ª ed. -- Madrid : Anaya, 1983. -- 335 p. : il. col. y n. ; 25 cm. -- (Laurín). -- D.L. M 31091-1983. -- ISBN 84-7525-132-3

I. Afanas'ev, Aleksandr Nikolaevich (1826-1871), rec. II. Propp, Vladimir Iakovlevich, pr. III. Vicente, Isabel, trad. IV. Bilibin, Iván Iakovlevich (1876-1946), il. V. Título. VI. Serie.

821.161.1-34(082.2)