The Lute Player

The Lute Player
The Lute Player
	The lute player (the queen, in disguise) captivates the enemy king with his music. Illustration from The Violet Fairy Book (1906).
Folk tale
Name	The Lute Player
Also known as	The Tsaritsa Harpist, The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli
Data
Aarne–Thompson grouping	ATU 888 (The Faithful Wife)
Country	Russia
Published in	Russian Fairy Tales by Alexander Afanasyev

The Lute Player, The Tsaritsa Harpist^[1] or The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli^[2] (Russian: Царица-гусляр), is a Russian fairy tale.^[3] It was published by Alexander Afanasyev in his collection Russian Fairy Tales, as number 338. Andrew Lang included it in The Violet Fairy Book (1901).^[4]

The instrument actually described in the fairy tale is a gusli.^[5]

Synopsis[]

A king lived happily with his queen, but after a time, wanted to fight and so win glory. He set out against a wicked king, but lost and was captured. He sent a message to his queen to ransom him.

His queen thought that if she went herself, the wicked king would take her as one of his wives, and she did not know whether she could trust her ministers. She cut her hair, disguised herself as a boy, and set out with a gusli. She reached the court of the wicked king and charmed him with her music. He promised her whatever she wished, and she said she wanted a companion on the way, so she asked for one of his prisoners. He let her choose, and she picked the king.

They went back to their country without his discovering who she was. She left him before he reached his court. He was angry that his wife had not ransomed him, and even more angry that she had vanished and just returned, assuming she had been unfaithful. She disguised herself as the musician again, and her husband promised her whatever reward she wished. She told him she wanted him, and revealed she was the queen.

Analysis[]

The tale is included in the Aarne-Thompson classification system as type 888, The Faithful Wife.^[6]^[7]

References[]

^ Alexander Afanasyev. Russian Folk-Tales. Edited and Translated by Leonard A. Magnus. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1915. pp. 75-77.
^ Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. pp. 42-44.
^ Barchers, Suzanne I. (September 2013). The Lute Player: A Tale from Russia. ISBN 9781936163915.
^ Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book, "The Lute Player"
^ Kathleen Ragan, Fearless Girls, Wise Women, & Beloved Sister p 96 ISBN 0-393-04598-6
^ D. L. Ashliman, The Faithful Wife: folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 888
^ Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. p. 531.

External links[]

The original text of the tale, in Russian, in Wikisource.

[1] Alexander Afanasyev. Russian Folk-Tales. Edited and Translated by Leonard A. Magnus. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1915. pp. 75-77.

[2] Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. pp. 42-44.

[3] Barchers, Suzanne I. (September 2013). The Lute Player: A Tale from Russia. ISBN 9781936163915.

[4] Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book, "The Lute Player"

[5] Kathleen Ragan, Fearless Girls, Wise Women, & Beloved Sister p 96 ISBN 0-393-04598-6

[6] D. L. Ashliman, The Faithful Wife: folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 888

[7] Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. p. 531.

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v t Russian fairy tales
Key articles	Skazka Bylina Folklore of Russia Alexander Afanasyev Alexander Pushkin
Tales in Narodnye russkie skazki collected by Afanasyev	"Koschei the Immortal" "Vasilisa the Beautiful" "Vasilisa the Priest's Daughter" "Father Frost" "Sister Alenushka and Brother Ivanushka" "The Frog Princess" "Vasilii the Unlucky" "The White Duck" "The Princess Who Never Smiled" "The Wicked Sisters" "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" "The Magic Swan Geese" "The Feather of Finist the Falcon" "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" "The Bold Knight, the Apples of Youth, and the Water of Life" "Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What" "The Golden Slipper" "The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa" "The Wise Little Girl" "The Armless Maiden" "The Gigantic Turnip" "Storm-Bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" "Emelya the Simpleton" "The Fiend" "The Lute Player" "The Language of the Birds" "The Maiden Tsar" "The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise" "The Norka" "Dawn, Midnight and Twilight"
Tales by Pushkin	"Ruslan and Ludmila" "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel"
Other	"The Little Humpbacked Horse" "The Scarlet Flower" "The Snow Maiden" "The Hairy Man" "King Kojata" "The Wonderful Birch"

The Lute Player

Contents

Synopsis[]

Analysis[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]