The Tale of the Frog Princess

One tsar ordered his three sons to marry. Each was to shoot an arrow and marry the woman who finds it. The eldest brother’s arrow was picked up by a nobleman’s daughter, the middle brother’s arrow landed in the yard of a merchant’s daughter, while the youngest son’s arrow went into a swamp. He discovered that a frog had found the arrow, so he had to marry the frog. When the tsar ordered his daughters-in-law to make him fine shirts and bake him delicious bread, the frog turned into a beautiful princess, Vassilisa the Wise (sometimes Vassilisa the Beautiful), at night when everyone else was sleeping, and made the best shirts and bread. The tsar then announced a feast at the palace and commanded his sons to come with their wives. There for the first time Vassilisa the Wise appeared for everyone to see, including her husband Ivan. Later at the dance, Vassilisa performed magical feats with the wave of her sleeves. The wives of the other sons tried to do the same but only succeeded in making a mess. Prince Ivan, the youngest son, wanted his wife to remain a beautiful princess, so he ran home and burned her discarded frog skin. Vassilisa sadly told him that now she would have to become the prisoner of the Sorcerer Koshchei the Deathless, and she disappeared. Searching for her in the forest, Prince Ivan spared several animals who promised to help him in the future. He then came to the hut of a Baba Yaga, a grandmother spirit, who told him he could only free his wife by killing Koshchei. Koshchei’s death could be triggered by the breaking of a needle, which was well-hidden in an egg, inside of a duck, which was inside of a rabbit, sitting in a locked chest at the top of an oak tree. Although Ivan could not get the chest down from of the tree himself, the animals he had spared broke each thing open until Ivan had the egg. He broke it, broke off the tip of the needle inside, and Koshchei died instantly. Ivan lived happily ever after with Vassilisa.