Osip, the Water-Snake Husband

Overview

In The Water Snake, a girl bathing with companions finds a snake lying on her shift. He refuses to leave unless she promises marriage. Her friends regard the demand as impossible and encourage her assent; her mother later dismisses the episode. A week later a troop of snakes reaches their cottage, breaks the window and carries the girl from the stove into the pond. Underwater the whole company becomes men and women. The transformation is shared by the household, not merely by the suitor, and no palace, crown or supernatural size is supplied.

After three years the wife has a son and daughter and repeatedly asks to visit her mother. Her husband brings her ashore and tells her to call him Osip when she wishes to return. She tells her mother that her underwater life is better than life at home. The mother learns the summons, calls him out while the daughter sleeps and kills him with an axe. The daughter’s later calls receive no answer; seeing his severed head in the water, she understands what happened. She declares that the girl will fly as a wren, the boy as a nightingale and she herself as a cuckoo. These bird destinies conclude the tale; there is no restoration of Osip or escape by destroying a discarded snake skin.

Origins & earliest records

Ralston translates a collected Russian narrative and identifies its source in a footnote. The hosted New York Hurst title page is undated; its physical edition is not dated from Gutenberg’s 1872 header.

Records & interpretation

pp. 126–128; footnote 141: Erlenvein no. 2, from the Tula Government. The complete English narrative preserves a particular collected version; the earlier Russian text has not been independently collated.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Russian Fairy Tales: The Water Snake

   W. R. S. Ralston, translator and commentator · Undated hosted Hurst edition; London edition catalogued 1873

   pp. 126–128; footnote 141: Erlenvein no. 2, from the Tula Government.

Family & connections

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References

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

1. Primary translated narrativeRalston’s complete translated collected narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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