"The Frog Princess" is a very ancient story, her age, most likely, is counted more than one millennium.
However, the problem is that this plot, passing through many "hands", has changed and has lost some logical links.
As a result, a funny and somewhat illogical story came out. Let us examine the version of fairy tale No. 269 from the Afanasyev collection.
So, the king decided to marry three sons. At the beginning of the story, he says the following:
He chooses his daughters-in-law in a very unreliable way. The arrow, after all, can hit some slums.
But he is lucky: two arrows fired from a bow in an open field, having passed along some unthinkable trajectory, fall on the boyar and merchant courts.
And only the youngest son's arrow hits the swamp.
The prince finds a frog there and asks for an arrow. And then the frog, not wanting to waste time on Chinese ceremonies, makes an unexpected demand:
Promotional video:
The prince behaves very strangely: he is in no way surprised at the frog's ability to verbally formulate his thoughts, and, without even showing minimal resistance, agrees to the most amazing mesalliance in history.
He just "twisted" and meekly carried home the impudent amphibian.
For some reason, the tale does not lead to a dialogue with the parent, it simply says that "the tsar played three weddings."
We know hundreds and thousands of different stories, fairy tales, novels, where parents oppose the choice of their children. And here - nothing! Well frog and frog.
Note also that the king wanted a grandchild. The marriage of the youngest son to an unknown animal does not imply grandchildren …
Then the tsar gives various tasks, checking the daughters-in-law for "professional suitability." It's more logical to test culinary and sewing talents before the wedding, but here all the characters have some kind of non-linear logic.
The frog turns into Vasilisa the Wise and calls for help from mothers-nannies who sew a beautiful shirt, bake delicious bread, and so on.
Why, by the way, does the talking frog turn around as a man, if it is already able to call the nurses?
But let's omit this detail. Ivan Tsarevich continues to amaze: finding shirts and pies on the nightstand in the morning, he simply happily carries them to his father, without bothering to ask his wife where it all came from.
And one more thing: if the older daughters-in-law did not know how to sew and cook well, why didn’t they turn to their nurses? The tale just touches the lack of morality: the one who is more cunning is right! The older daughters-in-law, it turns out, honestly entered into a competitive struggle, but Vasilisa rakes in the heat with someone else's hands - her assistants (obviously, from the swamp) come running to her at night. And instead of a yellow card, Vasilisa receives applause.
Then the king invites all three married couples to a feast.
And again, Ivan Tsarevich in his repertoire:
From this I can only conclude that his marriage with the frog took place either in complete darkness, or in the complete absence of guests.
Then the feast begins. Vasilisa appears triumphantly, in human form, dancing her legendary dance (you can read about it here).
Don't ask why she couldn't present herself to Ivan in an anthropomorphic form earlier. Probably the clue is in the song "Love me for who I am".
While she surprises everyone with dancing, Ivan runs home and burns the skin. Well, he always doesn't follow instructions on what to do …
By the way, if Vasilisa is the Wise, then she could keep her overalls in a safe, and not scatter them in easily accessible places.
Vasilisa returns, discovers the loss and gives an amazing remark:
- Oh, Ivan Tsarevich, what have you done? If you had only waited three more days, I would have been yours forever. Now, goodbye. Look for me in the distant lands, in the thirtieth kingdom, at Koshchei the Immortal …
Why she suddenly needed to see Koshchei is not explained. And in general, she regularly crawls out of her skin, and no one punishes her for this. How does Koschei know about the burnt skin and what does he have to do with it?
This tale does not tell, but informs us about the way Vasilisa moves in space.
In other versions, she turns into a swan, but in No. 269 Vasilisa decided to be in solidarity with Yaroslavna ("I will turn around, poor cuckoo …")
Then Ivan goes in search of his wife, learning that
From this we conclude that Vasilisa's dad was not invited to the wedding. And in general, he clearly does not care where his daughter is - in the swamp, with Koshchei, married … If only his eyes were not an eyesore.
Everything ends well: Ivan kills Koshchei (the latter did not even kidnap Vasilisa, but "this is his role" - to be killed.)
But seriously - before us is a greatly modified and abbreviated version of the story, which looked somewhat different …
