Russia
The youngest son of an unnamed tsar by one of that tsar’s three concubines. The tsar could not decide which of his sons should be his heir; so he told them to go out into a field and shoot off arrows in different directions. Each son should first write his name on his arrow so that they could be identified. Wherever a son’s arrow landed was where he would rule; and he would marry the daughter of the house in which his arrow landed. Ivan’s arrow landed in a swamp, where he found it in the possession of a shapechanging frog who was, in reality, Vasilissa the Wise (some Ukrainian sources name the frog princess as Maria). After Ivan agreed to marry the frog, she revealed her full beauty to him and told him that she would be a frog by day and a beautiful maiden by night.
Engraving of the high priest Phillip rebuking Ivan the Terrible (Archive Photos)
Ivan fulfilled his promise and married the frog, and for some time they lived happily together. Then the tsar devised three tests for the wives of his three sons. Each time, the frog won, though the wives of Ivan’s two brothers cheated by spying on her. Finally the tsar threw a banquet in honor of his three daughters-in-law at which the frog appeared in her human form. Seizing the opportunity to keep his wife in all her beauty, Ivan rushed home before she did and burned her frog skin. When she returned, she told Ivan her name for the first time, told him to seek her in the land of the eternal sun, and promptly vanished.
Ivan left his home and traveled until he came to the home of the witch Baba-Yaga. At first, the witch was annoyed at being disturbed; but with coaxing, Baba-Yaga eventually told him how he might capture Vasilissa the Wise, who flew in every day to visit her. Ivan hid and waited. When Vasilissa the Wise had arrived and made herself comfortable, he pounced on her; but she managed to wriggle free, rapidly changing her shape. Ivan then visited Vasilissa the Wise’s middle sister, and exactly the same thing happened. Finally Ivan journeyed to the home of Vasilissa the Wise’s youngest sister, and this time he managed to hold onto his wife as she changed her shape. When she changed into an arrow, Ivan broke it across his knee, and Vasilissa the Wise resumed her human form and told him that she would be his forever.
Together Ivan and Vasilissa the Wise returned home. There the tsar made Ivan his heir, and Ivan ruled in his father’s stead.
See also: Baba-Yaga (-Jaga, - Iaga); Maria;
Ukraine;Vasilis(s)a the Wise
World History
