"Prince Ivan, the Witch-Baby and the Little Sister of the Sun" is a Russian Fairy Tale included by Alexander Afanasyev in Russian Folk Tales (Narodnye russkie skazki or Народные Русские Сказки) and later collected by Arthur Ransome in Old Peter's Russian Tales.
Once upon a time, there was a prince called Ivan who was dumb from birth. Ivan used to spend most of his time in the stables, listening to the old groom's tales, until one day the groom warned him his mother was going to give birth to a witch who will grow into adulthood within weeks and will eat their parents; and unless he runs away, she will eat him up, too. Prince Ivan ran up to his father and asked him for a horse, and the king happily gave him his best steed.
Ivan rode far away, and he successively came upon two old seamstresses, the giant Vertodúb the Tree-Extractor and the giant Vertogór the Mountain-Leveler. He asked each of them if they would not let him live with them, and everyone replied they would love adopting him, but they will fall dead as soon as their current works are done. Ivan wept for all of them and rode yet farther until he reached the ends of Earth and found the castle of the Sister of the Sun.
The Sister of the Sun gladly welcomed Ivan and treated him kindly. However, Ivan's worry about his home made him restless. He tried to keep his homesickness hidden from the Sun's Sister, but she figured it out after several days. Then Ivan begged her for permission to go back home and find out what had happened to everybody. The Sun's Sister gave him a magic comb, a magic brush and two apples of youth, and she let him go.
Ivan rode back home, using the Sun's Sister's gifts on the way to prolong the lives of the seamstresses and the two giants, and found his parents' palace was empty and laid in ruins. Ivan's sister came out to welcome him, and she asked him to sit down and play the harp while she prepared dinner. Ivan was starting to play the instrument when a mouse warned him his sister was sharpening her teeth. Ivan quickly hightailed it out of there while the mouse kept playing the harp, so the witch did not realize Ivan had left the palace.
After a while, the witch realized Ivan had run away and took after him. The witch was even faster than Ivan's horse, but every time she was about to catch up with Ivan, those who had been helped by the prince put obstacles in her way.
Prince Ivan's horse galloped nonstop until they reached the Sun's Sister palace and rushed into the place. The witch demanded her brother was handed over to her, but it was evident she had zero leverage. So, she offered her sister and his protector a deal: if Ivan proved to be heavier than her, she would let him kill her. Otherwise, she would eat him up. Two scales were set up, and Ivan stepped on one of the plates. Though, when the witch put her foot on the second plate, Ivan was hurled upwards with such a force than he reached the chambers of the Sun, where his sister could never reach him.
The tale is in the Public Domain and can be read here
, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
An audiobook can be heard here.
Tropes found in this fairy tale:
- Abusive Parents: In Arthur Ransome's version, Prince Ivan's parents cared little for his mute son, whose "dumbness" they were constantly moaning about, so it should not come as a surprise that Ivan "spent all his time in the stables, listening to the tales of an old groom".
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Downplayed. In Afanasyev's retelling, the Sister of Sun adopted Ivan as a son. In Ransome's version, Ivan becomes her beloved playmate.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: When Prince Ivan's sister discovers he has fled, it is said that "the witch waxed wroth".
- Androcles' Lion: Prince Ivan uses the Sun's Sister's gifts to prolong the lives of the kind people who he met during his travel. In return, the pair of seamstresses give him a magic handkerchief, which he later uses to put distance between his sister and him, and the two giants put obstacles in his sister's way.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Your son does not talk. Wish for any child at all, because things cannot be worse, and you get a witch child born with iron teeth who eats you up.
- Big Bad: The witch's birth forces Ivan to flee his home. While he is away, the witch eats their parents and destroys the castle. When Ivan comes back home, she tries to eat him, too.
- Cool Horse: Prince Ivan's magnificent black steed is not only the world's faster horse but also can reach a flying castle in a single bound.You see, he had never been outside the palace grounds. And he had only ridden a little Finnish pony. And now he sat high up, perched on the back of the great black horse, who galloped with hoofs that thundered beneath him, and leapt over rivers and streams and hillocks, and anything else that came in his way.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When the witch proposes to set up the scales, she cheats by increasing her weight magically; though, she becomes so heavy she hurls Ivan upwards and beyond her reach.
- I Am a Humanitarian: The witch ate her parents and is obsessed with devouring her brother.
- Implacable Man: Ivan's sister chases her brother to the literal end of Earth, swimming through immense lakes, gnawing her path through impenetrable forests and climbing the world's highest mountains. And she nearly catches up with him several times.
- Invited as Dinner: When Prince Ivan comes into the palace, his sister asks him to sit down while she prepares dinner, and then she starts whetting her teeth to eat him.
- "Just So" Story: The Arthur Ransome's version is framed as Old Peter telling two children one story which, among other things, explains why there are starless nights."And ever since then little Prince Ivan and the little sister of the Sun play together in the castle of cloud that hangs over the end of the world. They borrow the stars to play at ball, and put them back at night whenever they remember."
"So when there are no stars?" asked Maroosia.
"It means that Prince Ivan and the Sun's little sister have gone to sleep over their games and forgotten to put their toys away." - Karma Houdini: The witch suffers no consequences for eating her parents up and trying to eat her brother.
- No Name Given: Prince Ivan's parents, the groom, the witch, the two seamstresses are known as... the king, the queen, the groom, the witch and the two seamstresses.
- Ominous Floating Castle: A rare non-villainous example. The Sister of the Sun's castle is made of rose clouds and hangs in the sky beyond the end of the world. It is the only place where Ivan can feel safe from his witch sister.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Sister of the Sun's real name is unknown.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: As running away from her murderous sister, Prince Ivan runs into Vertodúb the Tree-Extractor and Vertogór the Mountain-Leveler, two Russian folklore giants known in Germany as Baumdreher/Holzkrummacher and Steinzerreiber/Felsenkripperer, respectively. He asks each of them for asylum, but both giants kindly reply they cannot take care of him, sadly, because they will die as soon as their current landscape-altering tasks are done.
- Panacea: The Sun's sister gives Prince Ivan two youth-giving apples.So at last he persuaded her, and she let him go away to find out about his home. But first she provided him for the journey with a brush, a comb, and two youth-giving apples. However old any one might be, let him eat one of these apples, he would grow young again in an instant.
- Parental Substitute: In Ransom's tale, Prince Ivan's parents hardly looked after him, and Ivan spent most of his time in the stables, listening to the groom.
- Rapid Aging: The witch-baby grows up very fast and becomes an adult woman only six weeks after being born."Little Prince," says he, "today you have a sister, and a bad one at that. She has come because of your father's prayers and your mother's wishes. A witch she is, and she will grow like a seed of corn. In six weeks she'll be a grown witch, and with her iron teeth she will eat up your father, and eat up your mother, and eat up you too, if she gets the chance."
- Rule of Three:
- While on the run, it happens three times that Prince Ivan meets someone who would happily take him in if it were not because they will die as soon as their work is done.
- For three days straight, Ivan climbs up to a mountain to see his father's palace from afar and cries when he sees it has been laid to waste.
- The Sun's Sister gives Ivan three magic gifts before his departure.
- Self-Made Orphan: Prince Ivan's sister eats up their parents as soon as she becomes fully grownup.
- Sibling Murder: Prince Ivan's younger sister, a cannibalistic witch, attempts to capture and eat up Ivan several times.
- Sizeshifter: The witch can grow until towering over a forest and shrink herself to baby size.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The Sun's Sister flatly refuses to hand Ivan over to his murderous sister."Give him up!" she screams.
"I will not," says the Sun's little sister. - Super-Speed: Even though Ivan's horse is supposed to be the world's fastest horse, the witch can keep up with it on foot.
- Talking Animal: A mouse warns Prince Ivan that he must run away because his sister is preparing to kill him.The Prince sat down and strummed away on the lute.
Then there crept a mouse out of a hole, and said to him in a human voice:
"Save yourself, Prince. Run away quick! your sister has gone to sharpen her teeth." - What Happened to the Mouse?: After he warns Prince Ivan about her witch sister, the groom who took care of him and told him entertaining tales is not mentioned again.
- Wicked Witch: Prince Ivan's little sister is a size-shifting, swift-footed, iron-toothed, cannibalistic witch.
