Alenushka and Ivanushka
Summary
Ivanushka and his twin sister Alenushka were of royal birth, but forced to wander the earth as impoverished travellers after their parents died. During their wanderings, the pair came across a pond near some grazing cattle, and Alenushka stopped her brother from drinking the water lest he turn into a calf. The next day she prevented him drinking water from a lake near a shepherd's flock, lest he turn into a lamb. The day after she dissuaded him from drinking from a river near a pack of wild boar, lest he turn into piglet. But the next day, Ivanushka was so thirsty that he ignored his sisters' warnings not to drink near a goatherd's grazing patch, and he turned into a kid.
Baby goat in tow, Alenushka continued her journey, but the incourageable Ivanushka ran into the garden of the Tzar, and scoffed the flowers from the Tzar's rose garden. The pair were taken before the Tzar in manacles, but the Tzar immediately fell for Alenushka, deciding to take her for his Tzarina.
On her wedding night, Alenushka grew ill from a curse that had been placed on her by an evil Sorceress. Twice the Tzar travelled to find a cure, to no avail. While he was away on his second journey, the Sorceress approached Alenushka and told her that she would be cured if she went to the sea edge at dusk and drank a little of the water. Alenushka did as she was advised, but as she bent down to drink, the Sorceress tied a boulder around Alenushka's neck and threw her far out to sea, where she sank deep below the waves.
The Sorceress then assumed the likeness of Alenushka, tricking the royal court into thinking she was the (now recovered) Tzarina. But the goat, Ivanushka, recognised that this was not his sister, and spent his days bleating out at the waves where he could hear his drowned sister's voice calling to him, telling him she could not come to him because she was held down by the boulder. The Sorceress tried to convince the Tzar to kill Ivanushka, complaining of the smell of the goat, but when the Tzar went to collect the goat from the seashore, he too heard the whisperings of his true wife.
Feeling her husband's presence nearby gave Alenushka the strength to swim up to the surface, dragging the boulder up with her. The Tzar ran to Alenushka's aid, and rescued her from her watery prision. When the Sorceress came to greet them, the Tzar ordered his guards to build a huge bonfire, and the Sorceress was thrown on the flames, where she burned to death. As she died, the roses in the Tzar's garden began to bloom once more.
Historical Basis
The legend is thought to be based on the twin Tiefling grandchildren of Dvoryanin Ivanushka Romanov. Thanks to their Cherti heritage, the grandchildren had gifts that resembled the characteristics of the story: the grandson, Ivanushka Chernigov, was nicknamed "the Goat" in reference to the pair of horns that grew from his temples, and the granddaughter, Alenushka Chernigova, could breathe water.
Related People
