Draft:The Witch and the Sun's Sister

The Witch and the Sun's Sister

Author	Unknown
Translator	W.R.S. Ralston and A.N. Afanas'
Genre	tale
Publication place	Russia

The Witch and the Sun's Sister is a Russian fairy tale. The story follows Prince Ivan who, after receiving a prophecy of a witch sister who will eat all his kingdom's inhabitants, must travel the world to escape his demise. Deeply rooted in Slavic tradition, the story includes magic, witches, giants, and prophecies and tackles themes of justice and retribution.

Historical Contexts

"The Witch and the Sun's Sister" is a product of generations of Slavic tradition, and while no clear date can be found for its origins, it does participate in certain conventions of Russian folklore. The story's predictable plot, enchanted elements, and repeating characters make it congruent with the Wonder tale, as defined by Vladamir Propp and Sibelan Forrester. The protagonist, sometimes called Prince Ivan and other times given the name Iván Tsarévich, is a common character in such stories, and is usually the son of the tsar. The witch, too, often appears. Unlike Baba Yaga, this witch, sometimes depicted as a witch baby, does not have drooping breasts or live in a cottage on chicken legs. Although the witch's cannibalistic hunger is reminiscent of Baba Yaga, the witch of this story falls more in line with the Slavic Vedma.

Plot Summary

Prince Ivan riding away on his father's horse

The young and dumb Prince Ivan receives a prophecy from his friend that his mother will soon give birth to an evil witch. His new sister is prophesied to eat all the inhabitants of his kingdom, including the king and queen. At his friend's advice, Prince Ivan rushes off to ask his father for a horse. He then flees the kingdom, along the way asking two witches and two giants for sanctuary, but all four refuse him shelter. At last, the prince takes refuge in the house of the sun's sister, who treats him well.

The prince climbs a mountain, and from that vantage point can see that his kingdom has been reduced to bare walls. When this sun's sister discovers how distraught the prince is, he begs her to let him visit his kingdom, and after much persuasion, she agrees. When he reaches his kingdom, a mouse warns the prince that his sister means to eat him as well, and he flees. The prince's sister runs to catch him, so he creates diversions along the way with the help of the two witches and two giants.

The prince finally leaps into the sun's sister's window, but the witch offers an ultimatum. Prince Ivan and herself will be weighed. If the witch is heavier, she will eat her brother, but if the prince is heavier, he will kill the witch. The sun's sister agrees, but when they step on the scales, the prince's sister is so much heavier that the prince is flung into the skies, into the chamber of the sun's sister.

Themes

The major themes in "The Witch and the Sun's Sister" are justice and retribution.

In some translations of the story, the witch baby is born because the prince's parents are worried that their son's dumbness will inhibit his ability to govern the kingdom. They decide to have another baby in hopes that the new heir will be more capable. The events of the story can be seen as the hand of fate striking down the prince's parents for their ungratefulness, a supernatural act of justice.

Ivan's generosity and kindness toward the two witches and giants he encounters, as well as his earnest desire to save his kingdom, even at the expense of his safety, are rewarded with his safe deliverance into the sun's sister's chambers at the end of the story. Prince Ivan's retribution brings justice against the witch; his safety means that the witch will never be able to eat the entire kingdom's inhabitants. Though the kingdom's land is destroyed and most of its subjects killed, Ivan is the sole survivor of his people, and their retribution is accomplished through him. The payment for the witch's cruelty is her inability to complete her goal entirely.

Scholarly Reception

The critical reception of "The Witch and the Sun's Sister" is scarce, but it is occasionally used as an accessory to other research. Amidst her discussion of the role of textiles in narrative, Victoria Ivleva includes "The Witch and the Sun's Sister," as the witches' trunks of needle and thread exemplify the Slavic tradition wherein needle and thread are associated with life and death. Aleksei Dolzhikov equates the weighing of the prince and his sister with the practice of "weighing witches during their prosecution in Medieval Europe" in his article on Russian ideas of proportionality. William Olcott uses the story when discussing the benevolent characteristics belonging to the sun's relatives in folklore. Jack Haney mentions the story in passing while speaking on the wider themes of Russian or Slavic folklore.

Translations

The most widely read and analyzed translation is W.R. S. Ralston's in his anthology, Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore. However, alternate translations do exist, and the story is often a feature of other anthologies. Ralston's translation is entitled "The Witch and the Sun's Sister," but the story is also sometimes called "The Witch and the Sister of the Sun,"  or "Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun."

In the podcast In a Certain Kingdom, Nicholas Kotar tells a version of the story in much closer detail. In his version, the prince's parents bring the curse upon themselves because they are ashamed of their dumb son and are concerned that he will not make a good tsar. The witch is a baby that shrinks or grows at various points in the story and has teeth made of iron. The prince is often described as being very young. When the prince escapes his sister, he does not aimlessly wander away from his kingdom, but actively searches for the end of the world. The giants are not named. The sun's sister has a palace, not a house, and from the beginning of the story, the palace is hung from the sky, a detail which makes the ending much more logical.

Another translation is presented by A.N. Afanas'ev and translated by Leonard Magnus in a collection titled Russian Folk-Tales. The prince is given a full name, Iván Tsarévich, his parents are called the Tsar and Tsarítsa, rather than King and Queen, and the giants' names use accent marks absent in Ralston's translation. Instead of telling the sun's sister that his eyes are red because the wind has been blowing in them, the prince says the wind has blown something into his eye. When the prince visits his sister, he is asked to play the harp while she goes to sharpen her teeth. At the end of the story, the prince is flung into the sun's chambers instead of the sun's sister's chambers, as told in Ralston's translation. These changes are so slight as to make little difference on the story itself.