Ivan "The Fool" Tsarevich

Ivan, known as Ivan the Fool, Ivan Tsarevich and finally Ivan the Terrible is a recurring figure in Russian Folklore, akin to Prince Charming.

Ivan was the son of Nastasya the Golden Braid. He was also the son of the Tsar, though he did not discover this until he was much older.

## **Ivan the Fool**

As Ivan the Fool, he is a very simple-minded, but, nevertheless, lucky young man. Ivan is described as a likeable fair-haired and blue-eyed youth.

The approximate setting of Ivan The Fool's adventures is the 15th or 16th century Russia.

Ivan The Fool was either a peasant or the son of a poor family. He is usually the youngest of three brothers, and although they appear to be much smarter than he, they are sometimes unkind to and envious of him.

Ivan's simplicity and lack of guile turned out to help him in his adventures. For example, he listened to his heart, rather than his mind, and he easily forgot offense and endeavored to help others even at his own expense. His naivety, kindness, and daring helped him fight villains, make friends, win princesses' hearts, and ultimately he was rewarded with half a kingdom or some similar accomplishment.

Ivan The Fool is rarely the fool, he is merely perceived as such by others owing to his simple nature and joviality. At that time the Russian word “дурак” (fool) did not have any negative connotation, and was used to refer to the youngest son in the family. It was only later that it obtained a new meaning, from which the ambiguity arose.

Eventually, Ivan was discovered to be a Royal Bastard, but was welcome into the royal family.

## **Ivan Tsarevich**

Ivan would have various wives, including Yelena the Beautiful, Vasilisa the Wise and Marya Morevna.

### **Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf**

A king's apple tree bore golden apples, but every night, one was stolen. Guards reported that the Firebird stole them. The king told his two oldest sons that the one who caught the bird would receive half his kingdom and be his heir. They drew lots to see who would be first, but both fell asleep; they tried to claim it had not come, but it had stolen an apple. Finally Ivan Tsarevich, the youngest son, asked to try; his father was reluctant because of his youth but consented. Ivan remained awake the entire time, and upon seeing the bird, tried to catch it by the tail. Unfortunately, Ivan only managed to grasp one feather. The Firebird did not return, but the king longed for the bird. He said that still, whoever caught it would have half his kingdom and be his heir.

The older brothers set out. They came to a stone that said whoever took one road would know hunger and cold; whoever took the second would live, though his horse would die; and whoever took the third would die, though his horse would live. They did not know which way to take, and so took up an idle life.

Ivan begged to be allowed to go until his father yielded. He took the second road, and a wolf ate his horse. He walked until he was exhausted, and the wolf offered to carry him. It brought him to the garden where the firebird was and told him to take it out without touching its golden cage. The prince went in, but thought it was a great pity not to take the cage, but when he touched it, bells rang, waking everyone, and he was captured. He told his story, and the First King said he could have had it for the asking, but he could be spared now only if he could present the king with the Horse with the Golden Mane.

He met the wolf and admitted to his disobedience. It carried him to the kingdom and stables where he could get the horse and warned him against the golden bridle. Its beauty tempted him, and he touched it, and instruments of brass sounded. He was captured, and the Second King told him that if he had come with the word, he would have given him the horse, but now he would be spared only if he brought him Yelena the Beautiful to be his wife.

Ivan went back to the wolf, confessed, and was brought to her castle. The wolf carried her off, but Ivan was able to assuage her fears. Ivan brought her back to the Second King, but wept because they had come to love each other. The wolf turned itself into the form of the princess and had Ivan exchange it for the Horse with the Golden Mane. Ivan and Yelena rode off on the Horse. The wolf escaped the king. It reached Ivan and Yelena, and Yelena rode the horse and Ivan the wolf. Ivan asked the wolf to become like the horse and let him exchange it for the Firebird, so that he could keep the horse as well. The wolf agreed, the exchange was done, and Ivan returned to his own kingdom with Yelena, the horse, and the Firebird.

The wolf said its service was done when they returned to where it had eaten Ivan's horse. Ivan dismounted and lamented their parting. They went on for a time and slept. His older brothers found them, killed Ivan, sliced his body to pieces, and told Yelena that they would kill her if she would not say that they had fairly won the horse, the firebird, and her. They brought them to their father, and the second son received half the kingdom, and the oldest was to marry Yelena.

The Grey Wolf found Ivan's body and caught two fledgling crows that would have eaten it. Their mother pleaded for them, and the wolf sent her to fetch the water of death, which restored the body, and the water of life, which revived him. The wolf carried him to the wedding in time to stop it; the older brothers were made servants(briefly), but Ivan married Yelena. Yelena would sadly pass away early.

### **Tsarevna the Frog**

Prince Ivan and his two older brothers shot arrows in different directions to find brides. The other brothers' arrows land in the houses of the daughters of an aristocratic and wealthy merchant. Ivan's arrow lands in the mouth of a frog in a swamp, who turns into a princess at night. The Frog Princess, named Vasilisa the Wise, is a beautiful, intelligent, friendly, skilled girl who was forced to spend 3 years in a frog's skin for disobeying Koschei. Her final test may be to dance at the king's banquet. The Frog Princess sheds her skin, and the prince then burns it, to her dismay. Had the prince been patient, the Frog Princess would have been freed but instead he loses her. He then sets out to find her again and meets with Baba Yaga, whom he impresses with his spirit, asking why she has not offered him hospitality. She tells him that Koschei is holding his bride captive and explains how to find the magic needle needed to rescue his bride. In another version, the prince's bride flies into Baba Yaga's hut as a bird. The prince catches her, she turns into a lizard, and he cannot hold on. Baba Yaga rebukes him and sends him to her sister, where he fails again. However, when he is sent to the third sister, he catches her and no transformations can break her free again. They married. She would die early.

(Ivan features in the story "The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise" , sometimes translated as the Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise" but I haven't been able to find it and therefore cannot include it).

### **The Tale about Rejuvenating Apples and the Life Water**

This story bares similarity to the Firebird and the Wolf, Ivan is referred to as "The youngest son" and "the Knight".

The old king, whose sight was failing heard of a garden with apples that would make a man grow young, and water that would restore his sight. His oldest son set out; he came to a pillar that said on one road, his horse would be full and he would be hungry, on the second, he would lose his life, and on the third, he would be full and his horse hungry. He took the third. He came to a house where a widow made him welcome and offered to let him spend the night with her daughter Dunia. He accepted, and Dunia made him fall into the cellar.

His second son set out and met the same fate. Finally the youngest son set out, over his father's reluctance. When he received the same offer from the widow, he said he must go to the bathhouse first; Dunia led him to it, and he beat her until she revealed his brothers. He freed them, but they were ashamed to go home.

He rode on and found a pretty maiden weaving. She could not direct him to the garden, but instead sent him on to her second sister. She bade him leave his horse with her and go on a two-winged horse to their third sister. The third sister gave him a four-winged horse and told him to ensure that it leapt the wall of the garden in a single bound, or it make bells ring and wake the witch guarding it. He tried to obey her, but the horse's hoof just grazed the wall. The sound was too soft to wake the witch. In the morning, she chased after him on her six-winged horse, but only caught him when he was near his own land and did not fear her. She cursed him, saying nothing would save him from his brothers.

He found his brothers sleeping and slept by them. They stole his apples and threw him over a cliff. He fell to a dark kingdom. There, a dragon demanded a beautiful maiden every year, and this year the lot had fallen on the princess. The knight said he would save her if the king would promise to do as he asked; the king promised not only that but to marry him to the princess as well. They went to where the dragon was coming and he went to sleep, telling the princess to wake him. The dragon came, she could not wake him and began to weep, and a tear fell on his face, waking him. He cut off the dragon's heads, put them under a rock, and threw its body in the sea.

Another man sneaked up behind him and cut off his head. He threatened to kill the princess if she would not say that he had killed the dragon. The king arranged for the marriage, but the princess went to sea with fishermen. Each time they caught a fish, she had them throw it back, but finally, their nets caught the knight's body and head. She put them back together and used the water of life on them. He comforted her and sent her home, saying he would come and make it right. He came and asked the king whether the alleged dragon slayer could find the dragon's heads. The imposter could not, but the knight could. The knight said he wanted only to go to his own country, not to marry the princess, but she did not want to be parted from him. She knew a spoonbilled bird that could carry them, if it had enough to eat. They went off with a whole ox, but it was not quite enough; the princess cut off part of her thigh to feed it. The bird carried them all the way and commented on the sweetness of the last piece of meat. She showed it what she had done, and it spat the piece back out; the knight used the water of life to restore it.

He went back with his father, used the water of life, and told him what his brothers had done. The brothers were so frightened they jumped in the river. The knight married the princess. Like his other brides they died early deaths.

### **The Death of Koschei the Deathless**

In addition to his brothers, Ivan Tsarevitch had three sisters, the first was Princess Marya, the second was Princess Olga, the third was Princess Anna. After his parents die and sisters get married to three wizards, he leaves his home in search of his sisters. He meets Marya Morevna, the beautiful warrior princess, and gets married to her. After a while she announces she is going to go to war and tells Ivan not to open the door of the dungeon in the castle they live in while she will be away. Overcome by the desire to know what the dungeon holds, he opens the door soon after her departure and finds Koschei, chained and emaciated. Koschei asks Ivan to bring him some water; Ivan does so. After Koschei drinks twelve buckets of water, his magic powers return to him, he tears his chains and disappears. Soon after Ivan finds out that Koschei took Marya Morevna away, and chases him. When he gets him for the first time, Koschei tells Ivan to let him go, but Ivan doesn't give in, and Koschei kills him, puts his remains into a barrel and throws it into the sea. Ivan is revived by his sisters' husbands, powerful wizards, who can transform into birds of prey. They tell him Koschei has a magic horse and Ivan should go to Baba Yaga to get one too, or else he won't be able to defeat Koschei. After Ivan stands Yaga's tests and gets the horse, he fights with Koschei, kills him and burns his body. Marya Morevna returns to Ivan, and they celebrate his victory with his sisters and their husbands. Koschei might have later reincarnated in the warlock known as Grigori Rasputin.

## **Ivan the Terrible(1547-1575)**

With the death of his brothers and parents, Ivan was declared Tsar (Emperor) of All Rus' in 1547 at the age of sixteen, establishing the Tsardom of Russia with Moscow as the predominant state. Ivan's reign was characterized by Russia's transformation from a medieval state into an empire under the Tsar, though at immense cost to its people and its broader, long-term economy. In the young years of Ivan, there was a conquest of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan.

After consolidating his power, Ivan got rid of the advisers from the "Chosen Council" and triggered the Livonian War, which ravaged Russia and resulted in the loss of Livonia and Ingria, but allowed him to establish greater autocratic control over Russia's nobility, whom he violently purged in the *Oprichnina*. The later years of Ivan's reign were also marked by the Massacre of Novgorod and the burning of Moscow by Tatars. Ivan was a patron of trade (he gave monopoly to Muscovy Company), and the founder of Russia's first publishing house, the Moscow Print Yard.