Ivan Tsarevich- Slavic HeroHero"The Youngest Son"

The Firebird and the Grey Wolf

A Firebird steals golden apples from Tsar Berendey's garden each night. All three of his sons set out to capture it, but the two elder brothers give up on the road. Ivan presses on alone and meets a Grey Wolf who devours his horse and then offers to carry him instead. The wolf is faster than any horse alive. He carries Ivan to three kingdoms in succession: first to steal the Firebird, then to win the Horse with the Golden Mane, then to claim Yelena the Beautiful. Ivan fails each task through impatience, and each time the Grey Wolf rescues him with cunning.

On the journey home, Ivan's elder brothers find him sleeping, stab him to death, and take the Firebird, the horse, and Yelena for themselves. The Grey Wolf finds Ivan's body. He catches a raven and forces it to fetch the water of death, which knits the wounds shut, and the water of life, which opens Ivan's eyes. Ivan rides back to his father's court, exposes his brothers, and marries Yelena.

The Frog Princess

The tsar tells his three sons to shoot arrows into the world and marry whichever woman finds the arrow. Ivan's lands in a marsh. A frog brings it back. He marries the frog.

At court the tsar sets tasks for his new daughters-in-law: bake bread, weave a shirt, appear at the feast. Each night Ivan weeps over his frog wife, and each night, after he falls asleep, she sheds her skin and becomes Vasilisa the Wise. Her bread conjures visions of lakes and swans. Her shirt is woven from starlight. At the feast she dances and waves her sleeve, and a lake appears in the banquet hall. Ivan, overcome, runs home and throws her frog skin into the fire. Vasilisa cries out: if he had waited three more days, the curse would have broken on its own. Now Koschei the Deathless has reclaimed her.

Ivan walks to the edge of the world to find Koschei's death. It is hidden in a needle, inside an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare, inside an iron chest, buried under a great oak on the island of Buyan. Every animal Ivan showed kindness to along the way returns the favor at the end. The bear uproots the oak. The pike dives to the bottom of the sea and brings back the egg. Ivan breaks the needle. Koschei falls.

Marya Morevna

Ivan marries the warrior-queen Marya Morevna, who has chained Koschei the Deathless in her dungeon with twelve chains. She rides to war and tells Ivan he may go anywhere in the palace except behind one door. He opens it. Behind the door hangs Koschei, wasted to bone, begging for water. Ivan gives him three buckets. With each bucket a chain snaps. Koschei breaks free, seizes Marya Morevna, and rides away on his steed.

Ivan pursues three times. Each time Koschei's horse outruns his and Koschei cuts him down. Each time Ivan's supernatural brothers-in-law, a falcon and an eagle, retrieve his body and revive him. On the third attempt, Ivan crosses into Baba Yaga's domain and steals a foal from her herd of magical horses. The foal grows into a steed that matches Koschei's. Ivan rides him down, kills Koschei, and brings Marya Morevna home.