Dear Matt,
As all Russian subscribers to the list will notice,
this tale strikingly resembles Pushkin's "The Fairy Tale of the Tsar Saltan"
(1831) - except that in the latter there is a Son (Prince Gvidon), instead
of Daughter, no trace of incest, and a more northern-looking sea
island, instead of Greece. The authors of "The Guide to Pushkin" included in the
last volume of the Soviet edition of Pushkin's Complete Works do not mention
this old German tale (unknown to Russian commentators?) as a possible source of
Pushkin's fairy tale; nevertheless, according to them, Russian folklore
versions of this fairy tale that were familiar to Pushkin begin with a
cat that "sings" this tale (Pushkin used this image, the learned cat,
in his marvelous Introduction poem to "Ruslan and
Lyudmila"). Could it be a connection to Hodge (in a way, also a
"learned cat") that hints, at the same time, that Shade is not shot after
all?
best,
Alexey