Vasilisa the Beautiful
Russian Folk Fairytale
(illustrated)
Alexander Afanasyev
Ivan Bilibin

Long ago, in a certain kingdom there lived a merchant. For twelve years he lived in marriage and survived only one daughter, Vasilisa the Beautiful. The girl was eight years old when the mother passed away. Dying, the merchant called his daughter to her, took a doll from under the blanket, gave it to her and said:

“Listen, Vasilisa! Remember and fulfill my last words. I am dying, and with the parental blessing, I am leaving you this doll; always take care of it and do not show it to anyone; and when anything bad happens to you, give the doll something to eat and ask it’s advice. It will help you out in all your troubles.”

Then the mother kissed her daughter and died.

After the death of his wife, the merchant sorrowed and grieved, and then began to think about how to get married again. He was a good man; brides weren’t the case, but most of all he liked one widow. She had two daughters of her own, almost the same age as Vasilisa, therefore experienced as a wife and mother. The merchant married the widow, but was deceived and did not find a good mother in her for Vasilisa. Vasilisa was the first beauty in the whole village; her stepmother and sisters envied her beauty, tormented her with all kinds of work, so that she would lose weight from labor, and blacken from the wind and the sun; she had no life at all!

Vasilisa endured everything humbly and with every day that passed she grew prettier and fuller, meanwhile, the stepmother and her daughters grew thin and frowned with anger, despite the fact that they always sat idly, like mistresses.

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