A short version of the folk tale "Prince Ivan, the Fire Bird, and the Grey
Wolf."
In a far away land, a thief was stealing golden apples, which had the power of
bestowing youth and beauty, from Tsar Berendey`s magic Garden. The guards of the Tsar were unable to stop this, for as hard as
they tried, the thief always
got away. None of the guards had even seen this thief. The Tsar was frustrated,
for he needed the golden apples for himself, as he was married to a very
beautiful young Queen.
The only person who spotted the thief was the Tsar's son, Prince Ivan Tsarevich. As the night came upon the garden, the young Tsarevich hid under a water bucket and listened closely to
every sound around him. At dawn, the Prince almost fell asleep, but the silence
was broken by a magical being. The Prince pulled the water bucket up slightly
so he could just see through the thin opening. And there it was: the Fire Bird.
In the depth of night the Fire Bird would fly into the garden with its feathers
blazing with a silver and golden sheen. Its eyes were shining like crystals and
would light the place as brightly as a thousand burning fires. The Tsarevich crawled up to the unsuspecting bird, and rushed
to grab it by the tail.
The next day Prince Ivan told his father, the old Tsar, about the Fire Bird. He
showed his father one of the Fire Bird's feathers. This was all he had managed
to get, as the Bird was too smart and had flown away. From that day on, the
Tsar was obsessed with the idea of capturing the Fire Bird for himself. In
order to find the Bird, he sent his three sons on a journey to another kingdom.
Ivan Tsarevich's adventure begins when, after a long
day's ride, he falls asleep, only to awake in the morning to find his horse
gone. Wandering through the woods, he meets a gray wolf, who confesses that he
ate the horse. Grateful that Ivan has spared his life, Gray Wolf offers to let
Ivan ride on his back. Grey Wolf takes Ivan to Tsar Afron's kingdom, where the Fire Bird is kept in a golden cage inside the Tsar's walled
garden.
The Prince, although warned by the Gray Wolf to take only the bird and not the
cage, takes the cage anyway and triggers an alarm. Captured by Tsar Afron, he is told that in order to have the Fire Bird he
must pay for it with the Horse of the Golden Mane, which is in possession of
Tsar Kusman.
The Gray Wolf carries Ivan to Kusman's palace and
advises him to acquire the horse but not the bridle. Once again the Prince is
tempted by the gold and diamonds in the bridle, so he ignores the advice. He
again becomes captured by Kusman, who now says he
will only give him the horse in exchange for the fair Princess Elena, who was
residing with Tsar Dalmat.
This time the wolf does the work himself and seizes Elena. He brings her back
to Ivan and the Prince falls in love with her. The wolf offers to trick Kusman by assuming Elena's shape and also to trick Afron too by assuming the form of the horse.
Ivan returns with Elena, the horse, and the Fire Bird. However when the wolf
leaves him, he is ambushed and killed by his brothers.
The wolf then returns and revives him with the Waters of Life and Death. The
brothers are banished, and Ivan Tsarevich meets Tsar Berendey to tell his tragic story. When the Tsar's grief
fades, the Prince marries Elena the Fair and they live happily ever after. |
