The Tale of Tsar Saltan

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Ivan Bilibin's illustration to Tsar Saltan.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan (Сказка о Царе Салтане, о сыне его славном и могучем богатыре Князе Гвидоне Салтановиче и о прекрасной царевне лебеди) is a 1831 poem by Aleksandr Pushkin, written after the Russian fairy tale edited by Vladimir Dahl. As a folk tale, it is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 707, the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird.

It was later adapted as a libretto for a 1900 opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Two feature films were made with this name in the USSR: a live-action one in 1966 (directed by Aleksandr Ptushko) and an animated one in 1984 (directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano).

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Buyan Island by Ivan Bilibin

The story is of three sisters, of whom the youngest is chosen by Tsar Saltan to be his wife, while he makes the other two his royal cook and royal weaver. They are jealous of course, and when the tsarina gives birth to a son, Prince Gvidon, they arrange to have her and her child ordered to be shut up in a barrel and thrown into the sea. The sea itself takes pity on them, and they are cast up on the shore of a remote island Buyan. The son, having quickly grown while in the barrel, goes hunting. However, he ends up saving an enchanted swan from a kite. The swan creates a city for Prince Gvidon to rule, but he is homesick, and the swan turns him into a mosquito. In this guise he visits Tsar Saltan's court, where he stings his aunt's eye and escapes.

Back in his distant realm, the swan gives Gvidon a magical squirrel. But he continues to pine for home, so the swan transforms him into a fly, and in the Tsar's court he stings the eye of his other aunt. In a third round he becomes a wasp (or bee) and stings the nose of his grandmother. In the end, he expresses a desire for a bride instead of his old home, upon which the swan is revealed to be a beautiful princess, whom he marries. He is visited by the Tsar, who is over joyed to find his wife and newly-married son.