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Overview

The royal sister in Ralston’s translated tale is foretold before her birth as a witch who will eat her parents and their subjects. Her brother Ivan escapes after a groom’s warning. From the Sun’s Sister’s refuge he later sees his former palace stripped to bare walls. Returning home, he finds the sister affectionate at first: she asks him to play the gusli while she prepares dinner. A mouse warns that she is sharpening her teeth to eat him and continues sounding the instrument while he flees. The sister discovers the substitution and pursues him.

Ivan’s lake-making handkerchief delays her, but she swims across. The giants Vertodub and Vertogor impede her with uprooted oaks and mountains; she gnaws a path through the wood and climbs over the rocks. The Sun’s Sister admits Ivan and his horse through a window and refuses to surrender him. The pursuer proposes weighing them against each other. When she steps onto the opposite scale, Ivan is thrown upward into his protectress’s chamber, while the final sentence leaves the Witch-Snake on earth. That closing designation does not supply a detailed serpent anatomy absent from the narrated pursuit.

Royal-family devourerTooth-sharpening deceptionPursuit across magical obstacles
01

Origins & earliest records

Afanasief, volume VI, no. 57; Ralston’s source note attributes the narrative to Ukraine.

02

Records & interpretation

Ralston’s English translation or explicitly identified story summary, with collected-source reference. His comparative interpretation is distinct from the narrated events.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Russian Fairy Tales: The Witch and the Sun’s Sister, pp. 178–182, footnote 216

    W. R. S. Ralston, translator and commentator, after the collector identified here · Undated Hurst title page; London edition catalogued 1873

    Afanasief, volume VI, no. 57; Ralston’s source note attributes the narrative to Ukraine. Hurst title page is undated; hosted Gutenberg publication metadata is not used to identify it as the London copy.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary translated narrative or located summaryRalston: The Witch and the Sun’s Sister, pp. 178–182, footnote 216Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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