OLD PETER'S RUSSIAN TALES
This book was especially republished to raise funds for these charities & many more...
33% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
A GREAT READ FOR ALL AGES
The 31 illustrated tales in this book are of Russian folklore retold for young people and the young at heart. The tales are a good sampling of Slavic märchen. The stories in this book are those that Russian peasants tell their children and each other. Stories like THE HUT IN THE FOREST, SADKO, LITTLE SISTER OF THE SUN, THE GOLDEN FISH, THE FIRE-BIRD - THE HORSE OF POWER AND THE PRINCESS VASILISSA will be unfamiliar to western ears which makes these tales an even more refreshing addition to the vast library of western folklore, folk and fairy tales.
This is a book written far away in Russia, for English children who play in deep lanes with wild roses above them in the high hedges, or by the small singing becks that dance down the gray fells at home. Russian fairyland is quite different. Under the windows of the authors house, the wavelets of the Volkhov River are beating quietly in the dusk. A gold light burns on a timber raft floating down the river. Beyond the river in the blue midsummer twilight are the broad Russian plain and the distant forests of Novgorod. Somewhere in that forest of great trees--a forest so big that the forests of England are little woods beside it--is the hut where old Peter sits at night and tells these stories to his grandchildren.
In Russia hardly anybody is too old for fairy stories, and the author even heard soldiers on their way to the WWI talking of very wise and very beautiful princesses as they drank their tea by the side of the road. He believed there must be more fairy stories told in Russia than anywhere else in the world. In this book are a few of those he liked best.
NOTE: The editor and compiler spent time in Russia during World War I as a journalist for a radical British newspaper, the Daily News, meeting among others, Lenin and Trotsky and was also known in the London bohemian artistic scene.
YESTERDAY'S BOOKS RAISING FUNDS FOR TODAY'S CHARITIES
Excerpt from OLD PETER'S RUSSIAN TALES
WHO LIVED IN THE SKULL?
ONCE UPON A TIME a horse's skull lay on the open plain. It had been picked clean by the ants, and shone white in the sunlight. Little Burrowing Mouse came along, twirling his whiskers and looking at the world. He saw the white skull, and thought it was as good as a palace. He stood up in front of it and called out,--"Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
No one answered, for there was no one inside.
"I will live there myself," says little Burrowing Mouse, and in he went, and set up house in the horse's skull.
Croaking Frog came along, a jump, three long strides, and a jump again.
"Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
"I am Burrowing Mouse; who are you?"
"I am Croaking Frog."
"Come in and make yourself at home."
Hare Hide-in-the-Hill came running by."Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
"Burrowing Mouse and Croaking Frog. Who are you?"
"I am Hare Hide-in-the-Hill."
"Come along in."
So the hare put his ears down and went in, and they began to live, the three of them together.
Then the fox came running by. "Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
"Burrowing Mouse and Croaking Frog and Hare Hide-in-the-Hill. Who are you?"
"I am Fox Run-about-Everywhere."
"Come along in; we've room for you."
So the fox went in, and they began to live, the four of them together.
Then the wolf came prowling by, and saw the skull. "Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
"Burrowing Mouse, and Croaking Frog, and Hare Hide-in-the-Hill, and Fox Run-about-Everywhere. Who are you?"
"I am Wolf Leap-out-of-the-Bushes."
"Come in then."
So the wolf went in, and they began to live, the five of them together.
And then there came along the Bear. He was very slow and very heavy. "Little house, little house! Who lives in the little house?"
"Burrowing Mouse, and Croaking Frog, and Hare Hide-in-the-Hill, and Fox Run-about-Everywhere, and Wolf Leap-out-of-the-Bushes. Who are you?"
"I am Bear Squash-the-Lot."
And the Bear sat down on the horse's skull, and squashed the whole lot of them.
NOTE: The way to tell that story is to make one hand the skull, and the fingers and thumb of the other hand the animals that go in one by one. At least that was the way old Peter told it; and when it came to the end, and the Bear came along, why, the Bear was old Peter himself, who squashed both little hands, and Vanya or Maroosia, whichever it was, all together in one big hug.
Table of Contents for OLD PETER'S RUSSIAN TALES
OLD PETER'S RUSSIAN TALES |
THE HUT IN THE FOREST |
THE TALE OF THE SILVER SAUCER AND THE TRANSPARENT APPLE |
SADKO |
FROST |
THE FOOL OF THE WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP |
BABA YAGA |
BABA YAGA AND THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE KIND HEART |
THE CAT WHO BECAME HEAD-FORESTER |
SPRING IN THE FOREST |
THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF THE SNOW |
PRINCE IVAN, THE WITCH BABY, AND THE LITTLE SISTER OF THE SUN |
THE STOLEN TURNIPS, THE MAGIC TABLECLOTH, |
THE SNEEZING GOAT, AND THE WOODEN WHISTLE |
LITTLE MASTER MISERY |
A CHAPTER OF FISH |
THE GOLDEN FISH |
WHO LIVED IN THE SKULL? |
ALENOUSHKA AND HER BROTHER |
THE FIRE-BIRD, THE HORSE OF POWER, AND THE PRINCESS VASILISSA |
THE HUNTER AND HIS WIFE |
THE THREE MEN OF POWER--EVENING, MIDNIGHT, AND SUNRISE |
SALT |
THE CHRISTENING IN THE VILLAGE |
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