The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a versified fairy tale by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
On a cold, wintry night, Tsar Saltan, in his wanderings through his kingdom, spies on an illuminated house that belongs to three sisters, and eavesdrops on their conversation. They talk to each other what they would do if they were the tsaritsa: the elder one promises to make a banquet for the whole world; the middle one to weave clothes for the whole world, and the youngest to bear a son to Tsar Saltan.
Tsar Saltan chooses the third sister as his wife, and promotes his sisters-in-law to royal cook and royal weaver, respectively. Spurred by envy of their cadette, the jealous sisters conspire to dethrone the queen: while Tsar Saltan is away at war, the Tsaritsa gives birth to Prince Gvidon, and writes a letter to tell her husband the good news, but a series of forged missives causes the Tsaritsa and her son to be condemned to be cast in the sea in a barrel.
It can be read here
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The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", albeit in a form that that is registered in East Slavic tale indexes from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
See also The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird, another tale of the same type, but with a different narrative.
The tale has had two major screen adaptations (a live-action film and a cartoon) and was also adapted to the stage as Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name.
Tropes present in the story:
- Animorphism:
- Prince Gvidon rescues a swan from a giant kite. At the end of the tale, the swan changes shape into a human named Princess Swan.
- Before she transforms into a human princess, the swan magically transforms Gvidon into a mosquito, a fly and lastly a bumblebee for him to fly to his father's court.
- Character Title: The tale is name after the tsar character. Its long title (see below) mentions his son, Prince Gvidon, and Princess Swan.
- Damsel in Distress: Tsar Saltan's wife is thrown in a barrel with her son in the sea. Her son, Prince Gvidon, rescues the Princess Swan from peril.
- Cosmic Motifs: The third sight, described by Gvidon's maternal grandmother, is a beautiful princess with a moon in her braids and a star on her brow. The swan turns into a human girl that matches the description.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Tsar Saltan overhears the sisters' conversation and their boasts on what they would do if they ever married him, which is why he chooses the third sister as his wife.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The older sisters envy the youngest because she married the Tsar.
- Love Before First Sight: Gvidon falls in love with the princess before he sees her, after only hearing a rumor about her beauty. However, he soon finds out he has already met her in her swan form.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The swan tells Gvidon the thirty-three sea-knights are her brothers.
- Mosquito Miscreants: Gvidon first turns into a mosquito and flies to Tsar Saltan's court. There, he stings one of his aunts on the nose.
- Rags to Royalty: The tsaritsa rises from a village girl to the ruler of a kingdom.
- Rule of Three: Three sisters, three marvellous sights; thirty-three soldiers.
- Wonder Child: The youngest sister promises to bear the tsar a valiant and heroic son. After he is born, he grows up to full adulthood in a matter of days.
- Youngest Child Wins: The youngest sister makes the grandest promise (to bear a heroic son to the Tsar) and so gets to marry the tsar and sees her son become the ruler of a magical city.
