The most "folklore" of the works of S. T. Aksakov is the tale "The Scarlet Flower", written from childhood memories for Olenka's granddaughter.
saw the light of day in 1858 as an appendix to the story "Childhood of Bagrov-
grandson ". Part of an autobiographical tale, the tale reflects ethical views
S. T. Aksakova.

Serezha Bagrov tries to comprehend all the features of the characters of the people he meets from the point of view of his childhood ideas about good
and bad. These performances are largely inspired by the "Scarlet Flower".

2 The history of the work is told by Aksakov himself. It began in 1797 in the village of Novo-Aksakov, where S. T. Aksakov's parents moved to permanent residence after the death of the writer's grandfather Stepan Mikhailovich. “On the advice of my aunt,” recalls S. T. Aksakov, “to lull us to sleep, they once called the housekeeper Palageya, who was a great craftswoman in telling fairy tales and whom even the late grandfather loved to listen to. ... ... Palageya came, an elderly, but still white, ruddy and stout woman, prayed to God, went to the handle, sighed several times,
according to her habit, each time saying: "Lord, have mercy on us sinners," she sat down by the stove, burst into flames with one hand and began to speak, a little chanting:

"In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ..." This was a fairy tale called
"The Scarlet Flower".

For "a boy with shining eyes and a gentle heart" there was only one source of the tale - the storyteller Palageya or Pelageya. In Pelageya's fairy tale, the future writer found it "worth paying attention" to "a strange combination of oriental fiction, oriental construction and many, obviously, translated expressions, with devices, images and our folk speech." How amazed he was when a few years later
discovered another such tale called "Beauty and the Beast", printed on the pages of the collection "Children's School" translated from French. “From the first lines,” Aksakov recalls, “she seemed familiar to me, and the further, the more familiar; finally, I became convinced that it was a fairy tale, briefly known to me under the name“ The Scarlet Flower ”, which I heard more than a dozen times in the village from our housekeeper Pelageya "(vol. 2, p. 38)." The content of "Beauty and the Beast", or "The Scarlet Flower", - notes S. T. Aksakov, - was destined to surprise me again later. I went to the Kazan Theater to listen and watch the opera Zemira and Azor - it was again The Scarlet Flower, even in the course of the play and in its details ”(vol. 2, p. 39). What kind of works do I mean here? - this is "Children's School, or Moral Conversations between a Reasonable Woman and Noble Students of Different Years, Composed in French by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont" and published for the first time in French in 1756, and in Russian four years later.4 Second the work is the opera "Zemira and Azor" by the French composer A.-E.-M. Gretri, libret that which was written in 1771 on the plot of "Beauty and the Beast" by J.-F. Marmontel. The characters of the opera are
Azor, Persian prince, king of Kamir, "having a terrible look", Sander, merchant,
Zemira, Fadley and L sky, his daughters, Ali, Sander's slave, spirits and sorceresses.
The action takes place either in the magical castle of Azor, or in the country house of the Persian merchant Sander. Russian readers of the 18th century knew another essay on the same plot. This is a play by the French writer S.-F. Zhanlis "Beauty and the Beast", composed in 1779.6 There are only three characters in it: Fanor, "a spirit in a terrible image", Sirfei and Fedim, friends abducted by the spirit from the parental home. The action takes place under the canopy of palm trees in Fanor's house, above the entrance to which was written: "Entrance for all unfortunate."

In France at the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, in the transition period from the classical era to the Enlightenment, interest in folk tales, which took the place of medieval fablio and legends, significantly increased. At that time, numerous collections of literary tales were published, including: "Tales of my mother the Goose" by Ch. Perrault (1697), fairy tales of fairies by J.-J. Lhéritier de Villaudon (1696),
Countess De Muir (1698), Countess D "Onua (1698), Mademoiselle De La Force (1698),
Abbot de Preschak (1698), Count of Hamilton (1730), G.-S. Villeneuve (1740), J.-M. Le Prince de Beaumont (1757) and many others.7 In French folklore, there have long been tales about an enchanted prince or a young man turned into an animal, and about a girl who, by the power of her love, spells him out. From the end of the 17th century, these tales began to take literary form. Such, for example, are the fairy tales of D "Onua" The Prince-Boar "and" The Ram ", Ch. Perrault" Hohlik ", as well as one of the" Sea Tales "by G.-S. Villenev.8

The Countess Beaumont, née Le Prince, borrowed the basis of her fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" from the Villeneuve, adding to it moral instructions and a number of details.9 The storyteller of the Villeneuve is an old woman who entertains a family on a ship from France to the West Indies. and Beaumont has Mademoiselle Bonn, telling
their fairy tales for the educational purposes of Lady Spiritual and Lady Sense, as well as children from aristocratic families. Magasin des enfants was a popular reading for children in Europe. It is not surprising that it was translated in Russia as well. The Age of Enlightenment, the second half of the 18th century, was marked in Russia by an increased interest in Russian folk and
literary tale. Then numerous fairy-tale collections were published:
"Mockingbird, or Slavonic Tales" by M. D. Chulkov (1766-1768), "Slavic Antiquities, or the Adventures of Slavic Princes" by M. I. Popov (1770-1771), "Russian Tales" by V. A. Levshin (1780- 1783); fairy tales about Bove-Korolevich, Eruslan Lazarevich, Shemyakin court, Ersha Ershovich, Polkan, etc. were published in separate editions; many writers tried their hand at the genre of literary fairy tales (I.A.Krylov, Evgraf Khomyakov, Catherine II, Sergei Glinka, H.M. Karamzin, etc.).
chivalric romance and fairy tales about fairies grew out of folk tales, and therefore elements of folk art formed at that time the basis of the rapidly developing fiction, among the genres of which literary fairy tale played a prominent place.11

In the second half of the 18th century, Beaumont's fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" became widespread in Russia, not only in printed publications, but also in manuscripts. Three years before the publication of Peter Svistunov's translation, in 1758, this tale had already been translated into Russian by Khponiya Grigorievna Demidova, daughter of the owner of the Ural factories Grigory Akinfievich Demidov.12 Then copies of Demidova's manuscript began to be removed and distributed among the people in the form of handwritten notebooks .13 The tale was included in the well-known in manuscripts "Conversation of Mrs. Blagorazumova, Ostroumova and Vertoprahova" 14 and served as a source of the handwritten "Gnstorni about the French king and his daughter Beauty", a work of Russian handwritten democratic literature of the 8th century. French literary tales in Russian literature and even folklore were not uncommon. Thus, in the 18th century, the French legends of the saint
Genevieve are transformed into a popular print "The Tale of the Three Kings" and "The Tale of Durnne-Sharin", and the French fairy tale "Catherine La Sotte" is transformed into a Russian
the tale of Katherine. 16

How did the French fairy tale become known to the simple Russian peasant woman Pelageya, not
who could neither read nor write? We can restore the biography of Pelageya from the words of Aksakov. During the peasant war of 1773-1775 under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev, the father of Pelageya, the serf of the landowners of the Alakayevs, fled from the owners with his daughter to Astrakhan. There Pelageya got married, then became a widow, served in merchant houses, including among the Persian merchants, and in 1796 returned to the heir of the Alakayevs SM Aksakov in Novo-Aksakovo. “Pelageya,” recalls Aksakov, “besides leisure at home, brought with her an extraordinary talent to tell
tales that countless people knew. It is obvious that the inhabitants of the East spread in Astrakhan and between the Russians a special hunt for listening and
telling fairy tales. In the extensive ska catalog of Pelagia, along with all
Russian fairy tales there were many Eastern fairy tales, including several
from The Thousand and One Nights. Grandfather rejoiced at such a treasure, and as he was already beginning to be ill and sleep poorly, Pelageya, who still had the precious ability to stay awake all night long, served as a great consolation to the sick old man. It was from this Pelageya that I heard enough of fairy tales on long winter evenings. The image of a healthy, fresh and burly storyteller with a spindle in her hands behind a comb indelibly cut into my imagination, and if I were a painter, I would paint her this minute as if she were alive ”17

So, it was in Astrakhan in the 70-90s that Pelageya developed her own fairy-tale repertoire, which, according to Aksakov, included Russian folk tales "Tsar Maiden", "Ivanushka the Fool", "Firebird", "Snake -Gorynych ", as well as some oriental tales from" A Thousand and One Nights "and, finally," The Scarlet Flower ". The Arabic tales "A Thousand and One Nights" translated from French were widespread in democratic manuscript literature of the 18th century; 18 numerous editions of translations were also known.19 Little Seryozha was read by fairy tales.
Scheherazades, which his mother's acquaintance P.I. Chichagov gave him to read (see vol. 1,
With. 459-460). Therefore, the bookish orientalism of "The Scarlet Flower", manifested, for example, in such phrases as "Arabian gold", "Oriental crystal", "crimson cloth", in the description of the palace of the Forest Beast, the miracle of the sea and its garden, in the story about " Tuvelet "of the daughter of the Persian king, in the mention of the robbers" Busurmaiski, Turkish and Indian, filthy infidels ", etc., should be attributed to both Pelageya and Aksakov, who are familiar with Arab and Persian tales. The French fairy tale probably reached Pelagia in the following way: translation
from the "Children's School" was learned by Russian folklore or through
manuscripts, or through printed sources and became known to Pelageya in Astrakhan in a retelling. A similar fairy tale has long existed in Russian folklore. Here, one (book) material could be superimposed on another (purely folkloric).

Pelageya could well have been a co-creator of this particular version of the tale: she brightened up the main plot with purely Russian fairy-tale motifs, folk turns of speech, jokes, jokes, proverbs and sayings.

Now we need to turn to the records of fairy tales in Russian, East Slavic,
and perhaps in world folklore in order to test our main thesis: a fairy tale like the "Scarlet Flower" had already existed before Aksakov. The first fact is the following: no later than in the 30s of the XIX century, such a tale was recorded by V. I. Dal and was included in the 7th edition of "Russian Folk Tales" by A. N. Afanasyev. 20 It is known that
that A. N. Afanasyev received from V. I. Dahl records of 150 fairy tales, which entirely made up the 4th, 6th and 7th editions of his "Russian Folk Tales", and the fairy tale "The Sworn Tsarevich", which has some resemblance to "Scarlet flower", I saw
light in 1863, just in the 7th issue.21 According to the indexes of fairy tales by Aarne-Andreev and Aarne-Thompson, Barag and others, the fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower" is considered as an offshoot of the 425th type of fairy tales "The Search for the Lost Husband" where the husband or groom is turned into a monster by a magical enchantment. 22 Distant
prototype of type 425 - "Cupid and Psyche" from the "Milesian Tales" by Aristides of Miletsky
(II-I centuries BC) 23 "The Scarlet Flower" belongs to subtype 425 C, its peculiarity is in the happy ending: 1) returning from home to the palace
or to the house of the enchanted groom, the girl finds him lifeless, 2) she
revives him and breaks the spell with a hug and a kiss, promising to marry him
married. 24 The tale of type 425 was spread throughout Europe, in Siberia, to
Philippine Islands, Haiti, Martinique, Antilles, Brazil,
but the subtype 425 C, according to the study of the Swedish folklorist Jan-Oivind Sven, 26 is found only among French writers of the mid-18th century Villeneuve and Beaumont, as well as in late folklore - Russian, German 26 and Greek. 27 The Czech writer Bozena Nemcova has one such tale - "Shaggy Monster" or "Rosebud", 28 most likely taken by her from Beaumont. The Swan 425 C subtype is derived from the 425 B subtype and is entirely of literary origin. But from this, the 425 C subtype does not lose its significance. On the contrary, it acquires even greater value, as it provides an opportunity to study the problems of interaction between folklore and literature.

Swan's tale of subtype 425 B, of Breton origin. From the Bretons it falls to the Irish Celts and the French, from the latter to the Germans, Italians and Russians. 29

According to the latest reference book - "Comparative Index of Plots of the East Slavic Tale", 17 versions of the tale are currently known
subtype 425 C in Russian folklore, 5 - in Ukrainian, 2 - in Belarusian.30 A careful examination of the published texts makes it possible to clarify these data. So,
have nothing to do with 425 From the fairy tale "Annushka-nesmeyanushka" from the records
I. A. Khudyakova, 31 "Tsarevich Bear" from the notes of G. Bondar, 32 "The Sea Tsar and the Merchant's Daughter" in the publication of A. M. Smirnov, 33 "Saucer and Bulk Apple" from the notes of Vl. Bakhtin34 and V.P. Kruglyashova, 36 “The Mare's Head” from the recordings of G. Ya. Simina. 36 We did not find our fairy tale in the Ukrainian edition of S. Dalavurak and M. Ivasyuk. 37 The recordings of I. Kalinnikov's fairy tales and one from Karelian fairy tales (Karelia. Almanac of the Union of Soviet Writers. Petrozavodsk, 1938, p. 110-112). In the "Comparative Index of Plots" one of the recorded fairy tales
P.P. Chubinsky is classified as Ukrainian, but in fact it is Belarusian and is recorded
in Grodno province. 38

So, now we have 10 Russians (Dal-Afanasyev, Gerasimov, Smirnov,
Kovalev, Korguev, Chernyshev, Tumilevich, Balashov, Sokolova, Mitropolskaya), 3 Ukrainian (Levchenko, Lintur, Pupik) and 2 Belarusian (Chubninskiy) records or versions of the tale 425 C. Let's compare their texts with each other, as well as with fairy tales
Beaumont and Aksakova.

The oldest of the surviving texts of the records - the version of Dal-Afanasyev - is entitled "The Sworn Tsarevich". Comparing it with "The Scarlet Flower" shows the following: "The Sworn Tsarevich" was not the source of a literary tale. The text of the tale is short, the style is unadorned; unlike the scarlet flower of Aksakov

or the rosana branch of Beaumont

the flower here has no name, instead of a terrible and hairy monster, the Beast
forest, the sea miracle Aksakov or Beaumont the Beast figures here "an ugly
a winged serpent with three heads ", the abductor of women of the traditional Russian
folklore. There are also discrepancies: in Aksakov and Beaumont, the monster does not care which of the daughters the merchant sends to him, and in the Russian fairy tale the snake sets the condition: "Whoever meets you first upon arriving home, give him to me for the whole life." And one more thing: in Aksakov and Beaumont, the Beast is the kind owner of the palace and garden, the faithful slave of his mistress - the merchant's youngest daughter, and in the Russian fairy tale the serpent is sovereign
sir, he orders the girl to make a bed for him next to her crib, and on the third night he demands: "Well, red girl, now I will lie on the same bed with you." “It was scary for the merchant's daughter to sleep on the same bed with such an ugly monster,” the tale says, “but there’s nothing to do — she fastened her heart, lay down with him.”

At Aksakov's and Beaumont's, Beauty returns home on leave with the help of a magic
ring, and in a Russian fairy tale - in a carriage, moving instantly from the palace of the serpent to the merchant's yard. At Aksakov's, the Forest Beast was found by a girl lifeless on a hillock where a scarlet flower grew, at Beaumont's - the Beast threw himself out of grief into a canal, in a Russian fairy tale - into a pond. At Aksakov and Beaumont, Beauty hugs the Beast and confesses
him in love, in a Russian fairy tale - she hugs the head of the snake and kisses him tightly
firmly, the serpent immediately turns into a good fellow, with Aksakov and Beaumont - into a prince.

Another proof of the existence of a fairy tale in folklore is "The Scarlet Flower", recorded by A.Y. Nechaev in the 1930s, according to the famous White Sea storyteller M. M. Korguev. Comparison of texts shows that Korguev basically preserves the tradition, passing on to us the same fairy tale. According to the author of the commentary A. N. Nechaev, "our version is very close to the 'Scarlet Flower' by Aksakov. The main difference is Korguev's desire to give the fairy tale a traditional fairytale character: the invariable trinity of action (for example, a merchant sets sail three times
behind a flower, and not one, as in other options). An even more interesting moment is the transfer of the action of the fairy tale to the Pomor environment. Thus, every year a merchant goes abroad on his ships for goods; cannot find a flower for a long time, because it is expensive to pay for idle time at the port, you need to go home; promises to take her daughter abroad next year, etc. "40

Let us point out those details that bring Korguev's text closer to Aksakov's. These are mentions of a scarlet flower, a magic ring with the help of which the heroes move to the fairy kingdom, a description of the riches of the palace and the wonders of the garden, the free life of the heroine there, a description of the circumstances of the girl's return to her father's father
house on leave, death of the Beast in the garden with a scarlet flower in its paws, liberation
charevich "from the charms of the faithful Sanechka. The motive for making a bed for a monster, which is available in Dal-Afanasyev's version, is absent from Korguev, as well as from Aksakov-Beaumont. We add to this that the merchant's ships, which are not in the tales of Aksakov and Dal-Afanasyev, are either a tribute to Korguev's Pomor tradition, or an ascent to the folklore source, where, like Beaumont, the sea and ships appeared.

Two more versions of the tale - from the Tersk coast of the White Sea and from the Sea of ​​Azov - are called "The Scarlet Flower". The first of them, recorded by D. M. Balashov from the words of the storyteller O. I. Samokhvalova, 41 sets out a well-known plot in an abbreviated form. Here, instead of a merchant, an old man acts, his daughters are asked to bring them as a gift not a crown and a toilet, but dresses. The old man forgets to buy a scarlet flower, walks past an unfamiliar garden, picks a rose, and then a terrible Beast suddenly appears and demands to bring one of his daughters to him. The old man comes home, gives gifts to his daughters and tells them everything. “And this, you know, is a terrible Beast — whether there was a tsar, so he has a son,” the tale says, “and turned him into a terrible beast. Whoever loves him - until now, and will not love him, will not turn him over. ”42

The texts of Aksakov and Samokhvalova coincide in the details of the plot: the inscriptions on the wall, with the help of which the Beast speaks with the heroine, a description of the wealth of the palace and the splendor of the garden, as well as the free life of the girl there, the story of returning home for a visit for three hours and the act of the sisters who turned the arrow hours ago, etc.

The second tale with the same name, recorded not so long ago by FV Tumilevich among the Nekrasov Cossacks, 43 reveals a deviation from the main plot in detail. Probably, new characters of the fairy tale appeared in the Cossack tradition: the merchant and his son Vasily, a handsome man; instead of a merchant with three daughters, there is a poor hunter with three daughters, the youngest of them is called Tanyusha. Vasily and Tanyusha fell in love with each other
friend, but the merchant enchanted his son, turning him into a camel, built a house for him in the forest, planted a garden and a scarlet flower in it. The tale tells that a poor man at the bazaar bought gifts for his daughters: a sundress and a hoodie, ka-
a bundle and a bundle, but I could not find anywhere a scarlet flower for the youngest. Tanyusha
she herself goes in search of the cherished flower, finds a beautiful house in the forest and
garden, settles in it, mysterious servants feed her and drink, in a dream she appears
Vasily and asks to pick a scarlet flower that has grown taller than a human
growth. The girl manages to pick the flower and bewitch her fiancé. The story ends with a wedding.

One of the versions of the same tale from the western foothills of Altai has the name "The Scarlet Rose" .44 Here the well-known plot is also given in an abbreviation and without a happy ending, as in subtype 425 V. Instead of a merchant, an old man acts in a fairy tale, he buys boots and boots at the bazaar for two older daughters, and for the younger, nowhere can he find a scarlet rose. Finally, he finds and picks her up in a deserted garden, a terrible voice tells the old man to give his daughter to the owner of the garden. The old man agrees and with the help of the magic ring is at home. His youngest daughter using the same ring (as
in the text of Aksakov-Bomop) moves to the fairy kingdom. The owner of the garden talks to the girl without showing himself to her, and soon lets her go home for a two-hour leave; the girl was late, and her lover "made up his mind" out of grief. She finds him dead in a pit. There is no happy ending, which is not typical for Russian fairy tales of this type. We assume that the Altai variant is a truncation of the original 425 C subtype.

A close dependence on the text of Aksakov is found in the fairy tale "The Miracle of the Sea, the Forest Beast", recorded by IF Kovalev, a storyteller from the village. Shadrppo, Voskresensky District, Gorky Region.15 So, for example, in response to the request of the middle daughter to bring her a crystal toilet, the merchant replies: “I know, my dear daughter, from the Persian queen, so I'll get it for you.” Only in the version of Aksakov-Pelagen there is a Persian theme and this story about “Tuvalot”: “Well, my dear daughter, good and useful, I will get you such a crystal jack; and he has it in the daughter of the king of Persia, a young queen, unspeakable beauty, indescribable
and unexpected; and that tuvalo was buried in a stone chamber, high type, and it stands on a stone mountain, the height of that mountain is three hundred fathoms, behind seven doors of iron,
behind the seven castles of the German camp, and there are three thousand steps leading to that tower, and at each step there is a Persian yell, day and night, with a saber bald
damask, and the keys to those iron doors are worn by the queen on the belt. I know that such a man is beyond the sea, and he will get me such a tuvalet. Your work as a sister is heavier: yes, there is no opposite for my treasury ”(vol. 1, p. 584). Kovalev's text
goes back to the text of Aksakov-Pelagen: they completely coincide with the main plot line and many details.

There are also differences: in Kovalev's fairy tale, a scarlet flower grows on a hillock in gold
cup; the prince tells his story to the girl as follows: a wizard uncle bewitched the king's son out of envy of his wealth; Masha is the first of thirteen girls who fell in love with the enchanted prince. An offshoot of the original plot of "The Scarlet Flower", its revision is the fairy tale "The Nut Branch", known in three records: from the Pushkin Mountains of the Pskov region, from the Ryazan region, among the Russian population of Lithuania.46

Here, instead of a rose, there is a walnut branch, instead of a Forest Beast, a miracle of the sea - a bear, instead of a palace - a cave in the forest. The end of the tale is traditional: the bear is disenchanted and turns into a prince. The story ends with a wedding.

Ukrainian and Belarusian options give little to restore the fundamental principle
Russian fairy tale of subtype 425 C, so we do not consider them. As a result of studying the entire East Slavic tradition of the tale of subtype 425 C, we can come to the following conclusion: this tale existed in folklore before Aksakov. The exact dating and localization of the tale is another matter. It is obvious that, contrary to the conclusions of J.-O. Swain, the tale of the 425 C subtype existed in Russian folklore before Beaumont, that is, earlier than the middle of the 18th century. The spread of handwritten versions of the French literary fairy tale Beaumont in the Russian democratic environment in the second half of the 18th century led to the fact that in folklore the old folklore text was combined with the Beaumont fairy tale and was recorded in this form around 1797 at Pelagia. S.T.Aksakov later took this contaminated text as the basis for his literary tale, which ultimately explains the closeness of Aksakov's text to Beaumont's. There is no doubt that the writer added a lot "from himself", and omitted a lot. He created
in the spirit of the Russian fairytale tradition, but not without a book orientation. As a result
from under his pen came out a completely new text that does not repeat the tale of Pelagia and
at the same time extremely close to her. We are currently unable to separate
in this text, what belongs to Aksakov, from what belongs to Pelageya.
Comparison of two texts - the text of Pelageya-Aksakov and the text of Beaumont - shows that
that the first to borrow from Beaumont the main plot line, the main characters and the main contours of the composition. The style, however, has undergone great changes. In essence, a completely new work of verbal art was created with concrete images, without allegorism; there is only one fantastic creature in the work - it is the enchanted prince. In the text of Pelageya-Aksakov, everything that was superfluous that interfered with the development of the main plot was reduced. Thus, the Russian text does not mention the merchant's three sons and does not mention their readiness to fight the Beast.
for the father; there is no story about the ruin of a merchant and the move of a merchant family to the village,
where she was forced for a year to get food for the peasant
labor; there is no news of the receipt of a letter stating that one ship
the merchant escaped and arrived at the port with goods; the misbehavior of the two
the Beauty's sisters, their arrogance, mental limitation, moral emptiness, callousness, malice, etc .; there is no news of the two noblemen, the suitors of the Beauty's sisters, and of their unhappy marriages; does not tell about the virtuous behavior and diligence of Beauty in her father's house; it is not reported that the girl came to the Beast with her father; there is no mention of the sorceress who appeared to the girl in a dream on the first night of her stay in the palace of the Beast; it is not emphasized that Beauty at first feared that the Beast might kill her; it is not said that the Beast tested the girl with its terrible appearance from the very beginning; there is no Beauty's maxim that “it is not the beauty and intelligence of a husband that can amuse a wife, but a fair disposition, virtue and courtesy; and the Beast has all these good qualities ”; 47 says nothing about the transformation of the two evil sisters into statues.

Compared to the French text of Beaumont, the following changes were made to the Russian text of Pelageya-Aksakov: a conversation between a merchant and his three daughters about gifts is widespread; the French text speaks fluently of a rich dress, headdresses and "other trifles"; the merchant finds gifts for his daughters in overseas countries, and not in the palace of an enchanted prince,

And a twig with roses

called by Aksakov "a scarlet flower"; the merchant accidentally enters the palace of the Beast, having lost his way in the forest, after being attacked by robbers; the merchant and then his daughter get into the magic kingdom with the help of a ring or a ring, and not on a horse, as in a French fairy tale; the scarlet flower itself, as if by magic, grows to the former stem on the anthill where it used to grow; The forest beast writes letters to a merchant's daughter with words of fire on a marble wall, in the same way she corresponds with her family (this is not in the French fairy tale); The beast lets the girl go home for three days, not a week, and she is several hours late, not a week; The beast falls lifeless on a hillock, clutching a scarlet flower with its paws, and not on the bank of the canal; the prince himself, not the sorceress, addresses his deliverer with the closing words. Throughout the text in Russian
a literary tale is noticeable with a modern stylistic amplification with excessive
the use of comparisons, personifications, epithets in postposition, metaphors, etc. And at the same time, despite significant literary processing, which gave the work a bookish character, it does not break its connection with folklore, retaining a number of features inherent in a folklore work. This is a special fabulous form of storytelling, fabulous ritualism, which manifests itself in stability, stereotyped fabulous style, in the repetition of the same motives, in numerical symbolism, in the method of increasing the effect, in the parallelism of fabulous images and motives. Interconnection
folklore and literary poetic series in "The Scarlet Flower" by Aksakov
quite obvious.

Thus, using the example of the history of one plot, we observe how the initial
the myth (fairy tale) is transformed into a literary work - a psychological fairy tale, which in the second half of the 18th century was one of the genres of Russian fiction.

Anniversaries are not only for poets and writers, but also for their books. So, this year the famous fairy tale of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov "The Scarlet Flower" turns 160 years old. She is rightfully included in the golden fund of Russian fairy tales. Not a single generation of children is read by it, films and cartoons are made on it. She is accustomed to being perceived as a folk one, and not all fans of the love story of a beauty and a monster know the history of this tale.

For the first time, Russian readers got acquainted with the "Scarlet Flower" in 1858, when the famous writer S.T. Aksakov published his autobiographical book "The childhood of Bagrov the grandson", which tells about his childhood in the South Urals. This book tells, in particular, about how during the illness the housekeeper Pelageya told him fairy tales. Among them is a magical story about a merchant who brought a scarlet flower to his daughter. In order not to interrupt the narration, the writer did not include the text of the tale recorded from the words of Pelagia in the text of the book, but placed this story in the appendix.

The writer talked about it this way: “Insomnia prevented my early recovery ... On the advice of my aunt, they called once the housekeeper Pelageya, who was a great craftswoman to tell fairy tales and whom even the late grandfather loved to listen to ... Pelageya came, middle-aged, but still white, ruddy ... stove and began to speak, a little chanting: "In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ...". Needless to say, I did not fall asleep until the end of the tale, that, on the contrary, I did not sleep longer than usual? The next day I heard another story about "The Scarlet Flower." From that time, until my very recovery, Pelageya told me every day one of her many fairy tales ... ".

Pelageya was the daughter of a serf peasant in the Orenburg province. Because of the anger and cruelty of the owner, she fled to Astrakhan with her father. She lived there for 20 years, got married, and became a widow. She served in merchant houses, even among Persian merchants, where she heard oriental tales - including the famous “One Thousand and One Nights”. Upon learning that the old owner had died, and the new owners were the Aksakovs, she returned to the estate. Pelageya had a special gift for telling fairy tales, she “literally processed” them and created her own. At the Aksakovs, Pelageya was handed the keys to all the storerooms - she became the main person in the house. And the gentlemen fell in love with her for the skill of the storyteller.

Little Seryozha Aksakov for several years constantly listened to the fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower" - he liked it so much. As an adult, he told it himself - with all the jokes, groans, sighs of Pelageya. He transposed oral, truly folk speech into a story, retaining the melodiousness of the dialect. The literary adaptation of "The Scarlet Flower" by Aksakov retained the melodiousness and poetry of the folk language, making the fairy tale truly bewitching.

Not everyone knows that in the first edition the fairy tale was called "Olenkin's Flower" - in honor of the beloved granddaughter of the writer Olga.

Contemporaries considered Aksakov "a magician of sweet Russian speech." Gogol himself advised him many times to take up the pen. And the great Pushkin admired the imagery and poetry of Aksakov's style.

Many believe that "The Scarlet Flower" is a plagiarism, borrowing from Madame de Beaumont's fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", which was created back in 1756. In fact, the plot is about a girl who was "hostage" by an invisible monster and fell in love with him for her kindness - very ancient and widespread since antiquity (for example, the story of Cupid and Psyche). The tale of an enchanted young man turned into a monster and a girl who, with the power of selfless love, saves him and returns him to his human form, is found in almost all peoples.

In Italy, such a tale is called "Zelinda and the Horror". In Switzerland - "The Tale of the Bear Prince", in England - "Big Dog with Small Teeth", in Germany - "Summer and Winter Garden", in Ukraine - "Oh, the Tsarevich and the Faithful Wife." In Turkey there is a legend about the daughter of a padishah and a pig, in China - about a magic snake, in Indonesia - about a lizard husband. The same plot is found in the tales of the southern and eastern Slavs. The names are different, but everywhere - the Beast, the selfless Beauty and, of course, the all-conquering and saving love.

And that merchant had three daughters, all three beauties are painted, and the youngest is better than all; and he loved his daughters more than all his wealth, pearls, precious stones, gold and silver treasury - for the reason that he was a widower and he had no one to love; he loved the older daughters, and loved the younger daughter more, because she was better than everyone else and was more affectionate towards him.
So that merchant is going on his trade affairs across the sea, to the distant lands, to the distant kingdom, to the thirtieth state, and he says to his dear daughters:
“My dear daughters, my good daughters, my daughters are handsome, I am going on my merchant business to the distant lands, to the distant kingdom, the thirtieth state, and you never know, how much time I drive - I don’t know, and I punish you to live honestly without me and quietly, and if you will live honestly and peacefully without me, then I will bring you such gifts as you yourself want, and I give you three days to think, and then you will tell me what gifts you want. "
They thought for three days and three nights, and they came to their parent, and he began to ask them what kind of gifts they wanted. The eldest daughter bowed to her father's feet, and the first one says to him:
“Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, neither black sable furs, nor Burmese pearls, but bring me a golden crown of gem stones, and so that they have such light as from a full month, as from a red sun, and so that it it is light on a dark night, as in the middle of a white day. "
The honest merchant became thoughtful and then said:
“Well, my dear daughter, good and handsome, I will bring you such a crown; I know a man across the sea who will get me such a crown; and there is one overseas queen, and it is hidden in a stone pantry, and that pantry is in a stone mountain, three sazhens deep, behind three iron doors, behind three German locks. The work will be considerable: yes, there is no opposite for my treasury. "
The middle daughter bowed at his feet and said:
“Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, no black Siberian sable furs, no Burmytsky pearl necklaces, no jewel crown gold, but bring me a tuvalet made of oriental crystal, whole, immaculate, so that, looking into it, I can see all the beauty of heaven and so that, looking into him, I do not grow old and my maiden beauty would increase. "
Honestly, the merchant pondered, and thinking whether it was not enough, how much time, said to her these words:
“Well, my dear daughter, good and handsome, I will get you such a crystal tuvalet; and he also has a daughter of the king of Persia, a young queen, unspeakable beauty, indescribable and unspecified; and that tuvalo was buried in a high stone mansion, and it stands on a stone mountain, the height of that mountain is three hundred fathoms, behind seven iron doors, behind seven German locks, and three thousand steps lead to that mansion, and at each step there is a warrior Persian and day and night with a saber bald of damask, and the keys to those iron doors are worn by the princess at her belt. I know such a man across the sea, and he will get me such a tuvalo. Your work as a sister is harder, but there is no opposite for my treasury. "
The younger daughter bowed at her father's feet and says this word:
“Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, no black Siberian sables, no Burmytsky necklace, no semi-precious crown, no crystal tovale, but bring me The Scarlet Flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world. "
The honest merchant pondered harder than ever. You never know, how much time he thought, I cannot say for certain; having thought it over, he kisses, caresses, plays with his younger daughter, his beloved, and says these words:
“Well, you gave me a job that was heavier than the sisters: if you know what to look for, how not to find, but how to find what you yourself do not know? It's not tricky to find a scarlet flower, but how can I know that it is not more beautiful in this world? I will try, but don’t ask for a hotel ”.
And he sent his daughters, good, handsome, to their maidens' houses. He began to get ready for the journey, on the path, to the distant overseas lands. How long, how much he was going to, I don’t know and don’t know: soon the tale will tell itself, not soon the work will be done. He set off on the road.

Here is an honest merchant traveling on foreign sides, overseas, across unprecedented kingdoms; he sells his goods at exorbitant prices, he buys other people's goods at three or more prices, he exchanges goods for goods and a similar gangway, with the addition of silver and gold; he loads ships with gold treasury and sends them home. He found a cherished present for his eldest daughter: a crown with semi-precious stones, and from them it is light on a dark night, as if on a white day. I also found a treasured gift for my middle daughter: a crystal tuvalet, and in it you can see all the beauty of heaven, and, looking into it, the maiden beauty does not age, but increases. He cannot only find a cherished gift for his younger, beloved daughter - a scarlet flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world.
In the gardens of the tsar, the royal and the sultan's, he found many scarlet flowers of such beauty that he could neither say in a fairy tale, nor write with a pen; but no one gives him a guarantee that there is no more beautiful flower in this world; and he himself does not think so. Here he goes along the road, along the road with his faithful servants through the loose sands, through the dense forests, and out of nowhere, robbers, Busurmans, Turkish and Indian, flew at him, and, seeing an imminent disaster, the honest merchant throws his rich caravans with his servants faithful and flees into the dark forests. “Let them be devoured by fierce beasts than to fall into the hands of robbers, filthy ones, and live out my life in captivity in captivity.”
He wanders through that dense, impassable, impassable forest, and what follows, the road becomes better, as if the trees parted in front of him, and the bushes were often parting. Looks back. - arms? do not push it, looks to the right - stumps and logs, the hare does not slip sideways, looks to the left - and even worse. The honest merchant marvels, thinks he can't figure out what kind of miracle is happening to him, but everything goes on and on: he has a long road under his feet. He walks from morning to evening, he does not hear the roar of an animal, nor the hiss of a snake, nor the cry of an owl, nor the voice of a bird: everything around him has died out. Now the dark night has come; at least gouge out an eye around him, but under his feet it is light. Here he goes, read it, until midnight, and he began to see ahead as if a glow, and he thought: "Apparently, the forest is on fire, so why should I go there to certain death, inevitable?"
He turned back - you can't go, right, left - you can't go; thrust forward - the road is torny. "Let me stand in one place - maybe the glow will go in the other direction, al away from me, al will go out completely."
So he became, waiting; but it wasn’t there: the glow was coming towards him as if it was getting brighter around him; he thought, thought, and decided to go forward. There are no two deaths, and one cannot be avoided. The merchant crossed himself and went forward. The further it goes, the brighter it becomes, and it has become, read, like a white day, and you cannot hear the noise and crackling of a fireman. At the end, he goes out into a wide clearing and in the middle of that wide clearing there is a house not a house, not a palace, but a royal or royal palace all on fire, in silver and gold and in semi-precious stones, everything is burning and shining, but there is no fire to be seen; the sun is exactly red, it is hard for the eyes to look at it. All the windows in the palace are open, and a consonant music is playing in it, such as he has never heard.
He enters into a wide courtyard, wide open gates; the road has gone from white marble, and on the sides there are fountains of water, high, large and small. He enters the palace by a staircase covered with crimson cloth, with gilded railings; entered the upper room - there is no one; in the other, in the third - there is no one; in the fifth, tenth - there is no one; and the decoration is everywhere royal, unheard of and unprecedented: gold, silver, oriental crystal, ivory and mammoth bones.
The honest merchant marvels at such unspeakable wealth, but twice that the owner is not there; not only the owner, and the servant is not there; and the music plays incessantly; and at that time he thought to himself: "Everything is fine, but there is nothing to eat" - and a table rose in front of him, tidied up: in a bowl of gold and silver there were sugar dishes, and overseas wines and honey drinks. He sat down at the table without hesitation, got drunk, ate his fill, because he had not eaten for a whole day; the food is such that it is impossible to say - just look that you swallow your tongue, and he, walking through the forests and sands, is very hungry; he got up from the table, and there was no one to bow to and to say thanks for the bread for the salt there was no one. Before he had time to get up and look around, the table with the food was gone, and the music was playing incessantly.
An honest merchant marvels at such a wonderful miracle and such a wondrous marvel, and he walks through the adorned chambers and admires, and he himself thinks: "It would be nice now to sleep and snore" - and he sees in front of him a carved bed, made of pure gold, on crystal legs, with a canopy of silver, with a fringe and pearl tassels; the down jacket on her like a mountain lies, down soft, swan.
The merchant marvels at such a new, new and wonderful miracle; he lies down on a high bed, pulls back the silver curtain and sees that it is thin and soft, like silk. It became dark in the ward, exactly at dusk, and the music seemed to play from afar, and he thought: "Oh, if only I could see my daughters in a dream!" - and fell asleep at the same minute.
The merchant wakes up, and the sun has already risen above the standing tree. The merchant woke up, and suddenly he could not come to his senses: all night he saw his daughters, kind, good and handsome, in a dream, and he saw his eldest daughters: the eldest and middle, that they were merry, cheerful, and one youngest daughter, beloved, was sad; that the eldest and middle daughters have rich suitors and that they are planning to marry without waiting for his father's blessing; the younger daughter, beloved, a beautiful written woman, does not want to hear about suitors until her dear father returns. And it became in his soul both joyful and not joyful.
He got up from the high bed, his dress had been prepared for him, and a fountain of water was beating into a crystal bowl; he dresses, washes, and does not marvel at the new, the miracle: tea and coffee are on the table, and with them a sugar snack. Having prayed to God, he ate, and he began to walk around the wards again, so that he could admire them again in the light of the red sun. Everything seemed to him better than yesterday. Now he sees through the open windows that strange, fertile gardens are planted around the palace and flowers are blooming with beauty indescribable. He wanted to stroll through those gardens.
He descends another staircase made of green marble, copper malachite, with gilded railings, and descends directly into the green gardens. He walks and admires: ripe, ruddy fruits hang on the trees, they themselves beg in their mouths, sometimes, looking at them, drooling; the flowers bloom beautifully, Terry, fragrant, painted with all sorts of paints; unprecedented birds fly: as if on green and crimson velvet, laid out in gold and silver, they sing heavenly songs; fountains of water beat high, and if you look at their height, your head is thrown back; and the spring keys run and rustle over the crystal decks.
An honest merchant walks, marvels; at all such curiosities his eyes fled, and he does not know what to look at and who to listen to. Whether he walked so much, how little time - no one knows: soon the fairy tale will tell, not soon the work will be done. And suddenly he sees, on a hillock of green, a flower blooms in the color of scarlet, a beauty unseen and unheard of, which is not to say in a fairy tale, or to write with a pen. The spirit of an honest merchant is engaged; he fits that flower; the smell from the flower runs smoothly throughout the garden; both hands and feet of the merchant shook, and he spoke in a joyful voice:
"Here is a scarlet flower, which is no more beautiful than the white world, which my younger daughter, beloved, asked me."
And, having said these words, he came up and picked a scarlet flower. At the same moment, without any clouds, lightning flashed and thunder struck, and the earth swayed underfoot, and it rose, as if out of the ground, before the merchant the beast is not a beast, a person is not a person, but some kind of monster, terrible and furry , and he roared in a wild voice:
"What did you do? How dare you pick my favorite flower in my garden? I kept him more than the apple of my eye, and every day I was comforted, looking at him, and you deprived me of all the joy in my life. I am the owner of the palace and the garden, I received you as a dear guest and invited, fed you, gave you drink and put you to bed, and you somehow paid for my goods? Know your bitter fate: you will die an untimely death for your guilt! .. "

And an uncountable number of wild voices from all sides screamed:
"You must die an untimely death!"
The honest merchant didn’t come to grips with fear from fear, he looked around and saw that from all sides, from under every tree and bush, from the water, from the earth, an unclean and innumerable force was crawling towards him, all the horrors are ugly. He fell to his knees in front of the big owner, a furry monster, and spoke in a plaintive voice:
“Oh, you that art, lord honest, beast of the forest, miracle of the sea: how to exalt you - I don’t know, I don’t know! Do not ruin my Christian soul for my innocent immorality, do not order me to be hacked and executed, order me to say a word. And I have three daughters, three beautiful daughters, good and handsome; I promised to bring them a present: the eldest daughter - a semi-precious crown, the middle daughter - a crystal tuvalet, and the youngest daughter - a scarlet flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world. I found a present for the elder daughters, but I could not find a present for the younger daughter; I saw such a present in your garden - a scarlet flower, which is more beautiful in this world, and I thought that such an owner, rich, rich, glorious and powerful, would not feel sorry for the scarlet flower that my younger daughter, beloved, asked for. I confess my guilt before your majesty. Forgive me, foolish and stupid, let me go to my dear daughters and give me a scarlet flower for a present for my youngest, beloved daughter. I will pay you a gold treasury, whatever you demand. "
Laughter rang out through the forest, as if thunder had thundered, and the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, will say to the merchant:
“I don’t need your gold treasury: I have nowhere to put my own. You have no mercy from me, and my faithful servants will tear you to pieces, to small pieces. There is one salvation for you. I will let you go home unscathed, I will reward you with an uncountable treasury, I will give you a scarlet flower, if you give me an honest merchant's word and a record of your hand that you will send one of your daughters, good, handsome, in place of yourself; I will not hurt her, but she will live with me in honor and freedom, as you yourself lived in my palace. It has become boring for me to live alone, and I want to get myself a friend. "
So the merchant fell on the damp earth, shedding fiery tears; and he will look at the forest beast, at the miracle of the sea, and he will remember his daughters, good, handsome, and even more than that, he will scream with a heart-rending voice: the forest beast was painfully terrible, the miracle of the sea. For a long time, an honest merchant is killed and sheds tears, and he will say in a plaintive voice:
“Mr. honest, beast of the forest, miracle of the sea! And what should I do if my daughters, good and handsome, do not want to go to you of their own free will? Can't they bind their hands and feet and send them forcibly? And which way to get to you? I have been traveling to you for exactly two years, and I don’t know which places, which routes ”.
The beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, will speak to the merchant:
“I don’t want a slave: let your daughter come here out of love for you, by her own will and desire; and if your daughters do not go of their own accord and desire, then come yourself, and I will command you to execute you with cruel death. And how to come to me is not your problem; I will give you a ring from my hand: whoever puts it on the right little finger, he will be where he wants, in a single moment. I give you the term to stay at home for three days and three nights. "
The merchant thought, thought a strong thought and came up with this: "It is better for me to see my daughters, to give them my parental blessing, and if they do not want to save me from death, then prepare for death according to Christian duty and return to the forest beast, the miracle of the sea." Falsity was not in his mind, and therefore he told what he had in mind. The beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, already knew them; Seeing his truth, he did not take the record from him, but took off the gold ring from his hand and gave it to the honest merchant.

And only the honest merchant had time to put it on his right little finger, when he found himself at the gates of his wide courtyard; at that time, his rich caravans entered the same gate with a faithful servant, and they brought the treasury and goods three times as much as before. There was a clamor and hubbub in the house, the daughters jumped up from behind their hoops, and they embroidered silk zips in silver and gold; They began to kiss their father, to have mercy, and to call them various affectionate names, and the two older sisters are fawning over their younger sister. They see that the father is somehow unhappy and that he has a secret sadness in his heart. The elder daughters began to question him if he had lost his great wealth; the younger daughter does not think about wealth, and she says to her parent:
“I do not need your riches; wealth is a gain, and you reveal to me your heartbreak. "
And then the honest merchant will say to his daughters, dear, good and useful:
“I have not lost my great wealth, but amassed treasury three or four times; but I have another sorrow, and I will tell you about it tomorrow, and today we will have fun. "
He ordered to bring the travel chests, bound with iron; he got his eldest daughter a golden crown, Arabian gold, does not burn on fire, does not rust in water, with semi-precious stones; pulls out a present for the middle daughter, a tuvalet with oriental crystal; takes out a present for his youngest daughter, a golden jug with a scarlet flower. The eldest daughters went crazy with joy, took their gifts to the high chambers and there they made fun of them in the open space. Only the younger daughter, beloved, seeing the scarlet flower, shook all over and began to cry, as if something had stung her heart. As her father will speak to her, these are the speeches:
“Well, my dear daughter, beloved, do you not take your desired flower? More beautiful than it is not in this world. "
The smaller daughter took the scarlet flower evenly reluctantly, kisses her father's hands, and she herself cries with burning tears. Soon the eldest daughters came running, they tried their father's gifts and could not come to their senses for joy. Then they all sat down at oak tables, at tablecloths they had taken for sugar dishes and honey drinks; they began to eat, drink, chill, comfort themselves with gentle speeches.
In the evening the guests came in large numbers, and the merchant's house was full of dear guests, relatives, saints, hangers-on. Until midnight, the conversation continued, and such was the evening feast, which an honest merchant had never seen in his house, and where it came from, he could not guess, and everyone marveled at that: gold and silver dishes, and outlandish food, which never never seen in the house.
In the morning the merchant called his eldest daughter to him, told her everything that had happened to him, everything from word to word, and asked: does she want to save him from fierce death and go live with the forest beast, the miracle of the sea? The eldest daughter flatly refused and said:
The honest merchant called his other daughter, the middle one, told her everything that had happened to him, everything from word to word, and asked if she wanted to save him from fierce death and go live with the forest beast, the miracle of the sea? The middle daughter flatly refused and said:
"Let that daughter help her father out for whom he got the scarlet flower."
The honest merchant called his younger daughter and began to tell her everything, everything from word to word, and before he could finish his speech, his younger daughter, beloved, knelt before him and said:
“Bless me, my dear sir, my dear father: I will go to the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, and I will begin to live with him. You got me a scarlet flower, and I need to help you out. "
The honest merchant burst into tears, he hugged his youngest daughter, beloved, and says these words to her:
“My dear, good, good-looking, smaller and beloved daughter, may my parental blessing be over you, that you are helping your father out of cruel death and, of your own free will and desire, you go to a life opposite to the terrible forest beast, the miracle of the sea. You will live with him in the palace, in great wealth and freedom; but where is that palace - no one knows, does not know, and there is no way to it for either horse, foot, or sprying beast, or migratory bird. We will not hear from you, no news, and even more so from us. And how can I live out my bitter age, I cannot see your face, I cannot hear your affectionate speeches? I part with you forever and ever, I live you exactly, I bury you in the ground. "
And the younger daughter, beloved, will say to her father:
“Don’t cry, don’t grieve, my dear sir; my life will be rich, free: the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, I will not be afraid, I will serve him with faith and righteousness, fulfill his master's will, and maybe he will take pity on me. Do not mourn me alive, as if dead: maybe God willing, I will return to you. "
An honest merchant cries, weeps, he is not comforted by such speeches.
The older sisters, the big one and the middle one, come running, they started crying all over the house: you see, it hurts them to feel sorry for their younger sister, their beloved; and the younger sister does not even seem sad, does not cry, does not groan, and the unknown is going on a long journey. And he takes with him a scarlet flower in a gilded jug.
The third day and the third night have passed, the time has come for the honest merchant to part, to part with his youngest daughter, beloved; he kisses, pardons her, pours hot tears on her, and puts his parent's blessing of the Cross on her. He takes out the ring of a forest beast, a miracle of the sea, from a forged casket, puts the ring on the right little finger of his youngest, beloved daughter - and she was gone at that very moment with all her belongings.
She found herself in the palace of the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, in high, stone chambers, on a bed of carved gold with crystal legs, on a swan down jacket covered with gold damask, she didn’t leave the place, exactly she lived here for a whole century, she lay evenly rest and woke up. A consonant music began to play, such as she had never heard of when she was born.
She got out of the downy bed and sees that all her belongings and a scarlet flower in a gilded jug are right there, laid out and placed on the tables of green copper malachite, and that in that ward there is a lot of goods and belongings of every kind, there is something to sit and lie on, there is what to dress up, what to look at. And there was one wall all mirrored, and the other gilded wall, and the third wall all silver, and the fourth wall of ivory and mammoth ivory, all stripped down by semi-precious yachons; and She thought: "This must be my bedchamber."
She wanted to inspect the whole palace, and she went to inspect all its high chambers, and she went for a long time, admiring all the wonders; one chamber was more beautiful than the other, and all the more beautiful than, as the honest merchant told her, her dear sir. She took her favorite scarlet flower from a gilded jug; did she go down into the green? gardens, and the birds sang their paradise songs to her, and trees, bushes and flowers waved their tops and bowed evenly before her; fountains of water gushed higher and the springs rustled louder; and she found that high place, an anthill on which an honest merchant plucked a scarlet flower, which is not more beautiful in this world. And she took that scarlet flower out of a gilded jug and wanted to put it back in its former place; but he himself flew out of her hands and grew to the old stalk and blossomed more beautifully than before.

She marveled at such a wonderful miracle, wondrous marvel, rejoiced at her scarlet, cherished flower and went back to her palace chambers; and in one of them there is a table set, and only she thought: “Apparently, the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, is not angry with me, and he will be a merciful lord to me,” as words of fire appeared on the white marble wall:

• • Russian folk tales Russian folk tales The world of fairy tales is amazing. Is it possible to imagine our life without a fairy tale? A fairy tale is not just entertainment. She tells us about extremely important things in life, teaches us to be kind and just, to protect the weak, to resist evil, to despise cunning and flatterers. The tale teaches us to be faithful, honest, ridicules our vices: bragging, greed, hypocrisy, laziness. For centuries, fairy tales have been transmitted orally. One person came up with a fairy tale, told another, that person added something from himself, told the third and so on. Each time the fairy tale became better and more interesting. It turns out that the tale was invented not by one person, but by many different people, people, therefore they began to call it - "folk". Fairy tales have arisen in ancient times. They were stories of hunters, trappers and fishermen. In fairy tales, animals, trees and herbs talk like people. And in a fairy tale everything is possible. If you want to become young, eat rejuvenating apples. It is necessary to revive the princess - sprinkle her first with dead and then living water ... The tale teaches us to distinguish good from bad, good from evil, ingenuity from stupidity. The tale teaches you not to despair in difficult times and always overcome difficulties. The tale teaches how important it is for every person to have friends. And the fact that if you do not leave your friend in trouble, then he will help you ...
  • Tales of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov Tales of S.T. Aksakov Sergei Aksakov wrote very few fairy tales, but it was this author who wrote the wonderful fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower" and we immediately understand what kind of talent this man had. Aksakov himself told how in childhood he fell ill and was invited by the housekeeper Pelageya, who composed various stories and fairy tales. The boy liked the story about the Scarlet Flower so much that when he grew up, he wrote down the history of the housekeeper from memory, and as soon as it was published, the fairy tale became a favorite of many boys and girls. This tale was first published in 1858, and then many cartoons based on this tale were filmed.
  • Brothers Grimm fairy tales The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are the greatest German storytellers. The brothers released their first collection of fairy tales in 1812 in German. This collection includes 49 fairy tales. The brothers Grimm began to record fairy tales on a regular basis in 1807. Fairy tales immediately gained immense popularity among the population. Obviously, each of us has read the wonderful tales of the Brothers Grimm. Their interesting and informative stories awaken the imagination, and the simple language of the story is understandable even to kids. Fairy tales are intended for readers of all ages. In the collection of the Brothers Grimm there are stories that are understandable for kids, and there are also stories for older ones. The brothers Grimm were fond of collecting and studying folk tales even in their student years. The glory of the great storytellers was brought to them by three collections of "Children's and Family Tales" (1812, 1815, 1822). Among them are “The Bremen Town Musicians”, “Pot of Porridge”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Hansel and Gretel”, “Bob, Straw and Ember”, “Madame Blizzard” - about 200 fairy tales in total.
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Fairy tale Scarlet flower

Aksakov Sergey Timofeevich

The Scarlet Flower Tale summary:

The tale "The Scarlet Flower" tells how a rich merchant had three beloved daughters. The merchant wanted to buy gifts for his daughters. The elders asked for jewelry, and the youngest asked for the Alenky flower. The merchant quickly bought jewelry for the eldest daughters, but the Alenky flower could not be found anywhere.

Fleeing from the robbers, the merchant ended up in the royal palace with a beautiful garden. And he found there a scarlet flower, which was guarded by a monster. The monster was angry with the merchant for picking a flower. And the monster asked in exchange for the life of the merchant that one of the daughters came to him for love, and gave him a magic ring. And the merchant found himself at home. He told his daughters what happened to him. But neither the eldest nor the middle daughter agreed to go to the monster. Only the youngest decided to help her father out.

The youngest daughter began to live in a beautiful palace and was already used to such a life, but she wanted to see her father strongly. The monster allowed her to see her father, but warned that if he did not return in three days, then he would not be in this world.

But the youngest daughter was late due to the fault of her sisters and found the monster dead. But when she confessed her love to the monster, it turned into a handsome prince. And they played a wedding.

This fairy tale teaches us about the good relationship between parents and children, devotion, compassion that the promised word must be kept and that it is not necessary to judge a person by his appearance, because his soul can be kind and beautiful.

Fairy tale Scarlet flower read:

In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a rich merchant, an eminent person. He had a lot of all kinds of wealth, expensive goods from overseas, pearls, precious stones, gold and silver treasury, and that merchant had three daughters, all three beauties are painted, and the smallest is the best. And he loved his daughters more than all his wealth, for the reason that he was a widower, and he had no one to love. He loved the older daughters, and loved the younger daughter more, because she was better than everyone else and was more affectionate towards him.

So that merchant is going on his trade affairs across the sea, to the distant lands, to the distant kingdom, to the thirtieth state, and he says to his dear daughters:

My dear daughters, my good daughters, my daughters are handsome, I am going on my merchant business to the distant lands, to the distant kingdom, the thirtieth state, and you never know, how much time I travel, I don’t know. I punish you to live honestly and peacefully without me, and if you live honestly and peacefully without me, I will bring you such gifts as you yourself want, and I give you three days to think, and then you will tell me what gifts you want.

They thought for three days and three nights, and they came to their parent, and he began to ask them what kind of gifts they wanted.

The eldest daughter bowed to her father's feet, and the first one says to him:

Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, neither black sable furs, nor Burmese pearls, but bring me a golden crown of gem stones, and so that they have such light as from a full month, as from a red sun, and so that it it is light on a dark night, as in the middle of a white day.

The honest merchant became thoughtful and then said:

Well, my dear daughter, good and handsome, I will bring you such a crown. I know a man across the sea who will get me such a crown. And there is one overseas queen, and it is hidden in a stone pantry, and that pantry is in a stone mountain, three sazhens deep, behind three iron doors, behind three German locks. The work will be considerable: yes, there is no opposite for my treasury.

The middle daughter bowed at his feet and said:

“Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, no black Siberian sable furs, no Burmytsky pearl necklaces, no jewel crown gold, but bring me a tuvalet (mirror) made of oriental crystal, whole, immaculate, so that, looking into it, I can see the whole the beauty of heaven and so that, looking into him, I do not age and my maiden beauty would increase.

The honest merchant pondered and, thinking whether it was not enough, how much time, said to her these words:

Well, my dear daughter, good and handsome, I will get you such a crystal tuvalet; and he also has it in the daughter of the king of Persia, a young queen, unspeakable beauty, indescribable and unexpected. And that Tuvelet was buried in a high stone chamber, and it stands on a stone mountain.

The height of that mountain is three hundred yards, behind seven iron doors, behind seven German locks, and three thousand steps lead to that tower, and at each step there is a Persian warrior and day and night with a saber bald of damask steel, and carries the keys to those iron doors kingship on the belt. I know such a man across the sea, and he will get me such a tuvalo. Your work as a sister is heavier, but for my treasury there is no opposite.

The younger daughter bowed at her father's feet and says this word:

Sovereign, you are my dear father! Do not bring me gold and silver brocade, no black Siberian sables, no Burmitsky necklace, no semi-precious crown, no crystal tovale, but bring me a scarlet flower that would not be more beautiful in this world.

The honest merchant pondered harder than ever. You never know, how much time he thought, I can’t say for sure. Lost in thought, he kisses, caresses, nags his younger daughter, his beloved, and says:

Well, you asked me a job that was heavier than the sisters: if you know what to look for, then how not to find, but how to find what you yourself do not know? It's not tricky to find a scarlet flower, but how can I know that it is not more beautiful in this world? I’ll try, but don’t ask for it at the hotel.

And he sent his daughters, good, handsome, to their maidens' houses. He began to get ready for the journey, on the path, to the distant overseas lands. How long, how much he was going to, I don’t know and don’t know: soon the tale will tell itself, not soon the work will be done. He set off on the road.

Here is an honest merchant traveling on foreign sides, overseas, across unprecedented kingdoms; he sells his goods at exorbitant prices, buys other people's at three-fold prices, he exchanges goods for goods and a similar gangway, with the addition of silver and gold. He loads ships with gold treasury and sends them home. He found a cherished present for his eldest daughter: a crown with semi-precious stones, and from them it is light on a dark night, as if on a white day. I also found a treasured gift for my middle daughter: a crystal tuvalet, and in it you can see all the beauty of heaven, and, looking into it, the maiden beauty does not age, but increases.

He cannot only find a cherished gift for his younger, beloved daughter - a scarlet flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world. In the gardens of the tsar, the royal and the sultan's, he found many scarlet flowers of such beauty that he could neither say in a fairy tale, nor write with a pen. Yes, no one gives him a guarantee that there is no more beautiful flower in this world, and he himself does not think so.

Here he goes along the road, along the road with his faithful servants through the loose sands, through the dense forests, and out of nowhere, robbers, Busurmans, Turkish and Indian, flew at him, and, seeing an imminent disaster, the honest merchant throws his rich caravans with his servants faithful and flees into the dark forests.

Let me be torn apart by fierce beasts, than to fall into the hands of robber, filthy and live out my life in captivity in captivity.

He wanders through that dense, impassable, impassable forest, and what follows, the road becomes better, as if the trees parted in front of him, and the bushes were often parting. Looks back. - he can't put his hands in, looks to the right - stumps and logs, a hare can't slip through, looks to the left - and even worse.

The honest merchant marvels, thinks he can't figure out what kind of miracle is happening to him, but everything goes on and on: he has a long road under his feet. He walks from morning to evening, he does not hear the roar of an animal, nor the hiss of a snake, nor the cry of an owl, nor the voice of a bird: everything around him has died out.

Now the dark night has come. Around him, at least gouge out an eye, but under his feet it is light. Here he goes, read it, until midnight, and he began to see ahead like a glow, and he thought:

Apparently, the forest is on fire, so why should I go there to certain death, inevitable?

He turned back - you can't go, right, left, you can't go. I thrust myself forward - the road is torn.

Let me stand in one place - maybe the glow will go in the other direction, al away from me, al will go out completely.

So he became, waiting. But it wasn’t there: the glow was definitely coming towards him, and it was as if it was getting brighter around him. He thought, thought, and decided to go forward. There are no two deaths, and one cannot be avoided. The merchant crossed himself and went forward. The further it goes, the brighter it becomes, and it has become, read, like a white day, and you cannot hear the noise and crackling of a fireman.

At the end, he goes out into a wide clearing and in the middle of that wide clearing there is a house not a house, not a palace, but a royal or royal palace all on fire, in silver and gold and in semi-precious stones, everything burns and shines, but there is no fire, exactly the sun red, even hard to look at him. All the windows in the palace are open, and a consonant music is playing in it, such as he has never heard.

He enters into a wide courtyard, wide open gates. The road has gone from white marble, and on the sides there are fountains of water, high, large and small. He enters the palace by a staircase covered with red cloth, with gilded railings. I entered the upper room - there is no one, in another, in the third - there is no one. In the fifth, tenth - there is no one. And the decoration is everywhere royal, unheard of and unprecedented: gold, silver, oriental crystal, ivory and mammoth bones.

An honest merchant marvels at such unspeakable wealth, but twice that there is no owner. Not only the owner, but also the servant is not there, and the music plays incessantly. And he thought at that time to himself:

All is well, but there is nothing to eat! - and a table rose in front of him, cleaned-up: in a bowl of gold and silver there are sugar dishes, and overseas wines and honey drinks. He sat down at the table without hesitation (no doubt, fears), got drunk, ate his fill, because he had not eaten for a whole day.

The food is such that it is impossible to say - just look that you swallow your tongue, and he, walking through the forests and sands, is very hungry. He got up from the table, but there was no one to bow to and to say thanks for the bread and the salt there was no one. Before he had time to get up and look around, the table with the food was gone, and the music was playing incessantly.

An honest merchant marvels at such a wonderful miracle and such a wondrous marvel, and he walks through the adorned chambers and admires, and he himself thinks:

It would be nice now to take a nap and snore ... - and he sees in front of him a carved bed, made of pure gold, on crystal legs, with a silver canopy, with fringes and pearl tassels. The down jacket lies on her like a mountain, soft, swan down.

The merchant marvels at such a new, new and wonderful miracle. He lies down on a high bed, pulls back the silver curtain and sees that it is thin and soft, like silk. It became dark in the room, exactly at dusk, and the music seemed to play from afar, and he thought:

Ah, if only I could see my daughters in a dream! - and fell asleep at the same minute.

The merchant wakes up, and the sun has already risen above the standing tree. The merchant woke up, and suddenly he could not come to his senses: all night he saw his daughters, kind, good and handsome, in a dream, and he saw his eldest daughters: the eldest and the middle, that they were merry, cheerful, and one younger daughter, beloved, was sad.

That the eldest and middle daughters have rich suitors and that they are going to get married without waiting for his father's blessing. The younger daughter, beloved, beautiful written, does not want to hear about suitors until her dear father returns. And it became in his soul both joyful and not joyful.

He got up from the high bed, his dress had been prepared for him, and a fountain of water was pouring into the crystal bowl. He dresses, washes, and does not marvel at the new, the miracle: tea and coffee are on the table, and with them a sugar snack. Having prayed to God, he ate, and he began to walk around the wards again, so that he could admire them again in the light of the red sun. Everything seemed to him better than yesterday. Now he sees through the open windows that strange, fertile gardens are planted around the palace and flowers are blooming with beauty indescribable. He wanted to stroll through those gardens.

He descends another staircase made of green marble, copper malachite, with gilded railings, and descends directly into the green gardens. He walks and admires: ripe, ruddy fruits hang on the trees, they themselves begging in their mouths, even looking at them, salivation flows. Flowers bloom beautifully, double, fragrant, painted with all sorts of paints.

Birds fly unprecedented: as if on velvet green and crimson with gold and silver, they sing heavenly songs. Fountains of water hit high, even looking at their height - the head is thrown back. And the spring keys run and rustle over the crystal decks.

An honest merchant walks, marvels; at all such curiosities his eyes fled, and he does not know what to look at and who to listen to. Whether he walked so much, whether you never know the time - no one knows.

Soon the tale will tell itself, it will not be done soon. And suddenly he sees, on a hillock of green, a flower blooms in the color of scarlet, a beauty unseen and unheard of, which is not to say in a fairy tale, or to write with a pen. The spirit of an honest merchant is engaged. He suits that flower: the smell from the flower runs smoothly throughout the garden. The merchant's hands and feet shook, and he spoke in a joyful voice:

Here is a scarlet flower, which is not more beautiful in the white world, for which my younger daughter, beloved, asked me.

And, having said these words, he came up and picked a scarlet flower. At the same moment, without any clouds, lightning flashed and thunder struck, even the earth shook underfoot - and it rose, as if out of the ground, before the merchant the beast is not a beast, a person is not a person, but some kind of monster, terrible and furry , and he roared in a wild voice:

What did you do? How dare you pick my favorite flower in my garden? I kept him more than the apple of my eye, and every day I was comforted, looking at him, and you deprived me of all the joy in my life. I am the owner of the palace and the garden, I received you as a dear guest and invited, fed you, gave you drink and put you to bed, and you somehow paid for my goods? Know your bitter fate: you must die an untimely death for your guilt!

Die you a premature death!

The honest merchant didn’t come to grips with fear from fear, he looked around and saw that from all sides, from under every tree and bush, from the water, from the earth, an unclean and innumerable force was crawling towards him, all the horrors are ugly. He fell to his knees in front of the big owner, a furry monster, and spoke in a plaintive voice:

Oh, you that art, lord honest, beast of the forest, miracle of the sea: how to exalt you - I don't know, I don't know! Do not ruin my Christian soul for my innocent immorality, do not order me to be hacked and executed, order me to say a word. And I have three daughters, three beautiful daughters, good and handsome; I promised to bring them a present: the eldest daughter - a semi-precious crown, the middle daughter - a crystal tuvalet, and the youngest daughter - a scarlet flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world.

I found a present for the elder daughters, but I could not find a present for the younger daughter. I saw such a present in your garden - a scarlet flower, which is more beautiful in this world, and I thought that such a master, rich, rich, glorious and powerful, would not feel sorry for the scarlet flower that my younger daughter, beloved, asked for.

I confess my guilt before your majesty. Forgive me, foolish and stupid, let me go to my dear daughters and give me a scarlet flower for a present for my youngest, beloved daughter. I will pay you a gold treasury, whatever you demand.

Laughter rang out through the forest, as if thunder had thundered, and the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, will say to the merchant:

I don’t need your gold treasury: I have nowhere to put my own. You have no mercy from me, and my faithful servants will tear you to pieces, to small pieces. There is one salvation for you. I will let you go home unscathed, I will reward you with an uncountable treasury, I will give you a scarlet flower, if you give me an honest merchant's word and a record of your hand that you will send one of your daughters, good, handsome, instead of you.

I will not hurt her, but she will live with me in honor and freedom, as you yourself lived in my palace. It has become boring for me to live alone, and I want to get myself a friend.

So the merchant fell on the damp earth, shedding burning tears. And he will look at the forest beast, at the miracle of the sea, and he will remember his daughters, good, handsome, and even more than that, he will scream with a heart-rending voice: the forest beast was painfully terrible, the miracle of the sea. For a long time, an honest merchant is killed and sheds tears, and he will say in a plaintive voice:

Honest gentleman, beast of the forest, miracle of the sea! And what should I do if my daughters, good and handsome, do not want to go to you of their own free will? Can't they bind their hands and feet and send them forcibly? And which way to get to you? I have been traveling to you for exactly two years, and I don’t know what places, along what paths.

The beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, will speak to the merchant:

I do not want a slave: let your daughter come here out of love for you, by her will and desire. And if your daughters do not go of their own accord and desire, then come yourself, and I will order you to execute you with cruel death. And how to come to me is not your problem. I will give you a ring from my hand: whoever puts it on the right little finger will find himself where he wants, in a single moment. I give you the term to stay at home three days and three nights.

The merchant thought, thought a strong thought, and came up with this:

It is better for me to see my daughters, to give them my parental blessing, and if they do not want to save me from death, then prepare for death according to Christian duty and return to the forest beast, the miracle of the sea.

Falsity was not in his mind, and therefore he told what he had in mind. The beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, already knew them. Seeing his truth, he did not take the handwritten notes from him, but took off the gold ring from his hand and gave it to the honest merchant.

And only the honest merchant had time to put it on his right little finger, when he found himself at the gates of his wide courtyard. At that time, his rich caravans entered the same gate with a faithful servant, and they brought the treasury and goods three times as much as before. There was a noise and hubbub in the house, the daughters jumped up from behind their hoops, and they embroidered silk towels with silver and gold.

They began to kiss their father, to have mercy and to call them various affectionate names, and the two older sisters are fawning over their smaller sister. They see that the father is somehow unhappy and that he has a secret sadness in his heart. The elder daughters began to question him if he had lost his great wealth. The younger daughter does not think about wealth, and she says to her parent:

Your riches are unnecessary for me, riches can be acquired, but reveal to me your heartbreak.

And then the honest merchant will say to his daughters, dear, good and useful:

I have not lost my great wealth, but amassed treasury three or four times; but I have another sorrow, and I will tell you about it tomorrow, and today we will have fun.

He ordered to bring the travel chests, bound with iron. He got his eldest daughter a golden crown, Arabian gold, does not burn on fire, does not rust in water, with semi-precious stones.

He takes out a present for the middle daughter, a tuvalot with an oriental crystal.

He takes out a present for his youngest daughter, a golden jug with a scarlet flower.

The eldest daughters went crazy with joy, took their gifts to the high chambers and there they made fun of them in the open space.

Only the younger daughter, beloved, seeing the scarlet flower, shook all over and began to cry, as if something had stung her heart. As her father will speak to her, these are the speeches:

Well, my dear daughter, beloved, do you not take your desired flower? More beautiful than it is not in this world.

The smaller daughter took the scarlet flower evenly reluctantly, kisses her father's hands, and she herself cries with burning tears. Soon the eldest daughters came running, looked, they tried on their father's gifts and could not come to their senses for joy. Then they all sat down at oak tables, at branded (patterned) tablecloths, for sugar dishes, for honey drinks. They began to eat, drink, chill, comfort themselves with gentle speeches.

In the evening the guests came in large numbers, and the merchant's house was full of dear guests, relatives, saints, hangers-on. Until midnight, the conversation continued, and such was the evening feast, which an honest merchant had never seen in his house, and where it came from, he could not guess, and everyone marveled at that: both gold and silver dishes, and outlandish dishes, such as never home has never been seen.

In the morning the merchant called his eldest daughter to his place, told her everything that had happened to him, everything from word to word, and asked: does she want to save him from fierce death and go live with the forest beast, to the miracle of the sea? The eldest daughter flatly refused and said:

The honest merchant called his other daughter, the middle one, told her everything that had happened to him, everything from word to word, and asked if she wanted to save him from fierce death and go live with the forest beast, the miracle of the sea?

The middle daughter flatly refused and said:

Let that daughter help out her father, for whom he got the scarlet flower.

The honest merchant called his younger daughter and began to tell her everything, everything from word to word, and before he could finish his speech, his younger daughter, beloved, knelt before him and said:

Bless me, my dear sir, my dear father: I will go to the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, and I will begin to live with him. You got a scarlet flower for me, and I need to help you out.

The honest merchant burst into tears, he hugged his youngest daughter, beloved, and says these words to her:

My dear daughter, good, handsome, smaller and beloved, may my parental blessing be over you, that you are helping your father from fierce death and, of your own free will and desire, you go to a life opposite to the terrible forest beast, the miracle of the sea. You will live in his palace, in great wealth and freedom.

But where is that palace - no one knows, no one knows, and there is no way to it either for a horse, for a foot, or for a sprying (fast) beast, or a migratory bird. We will not hear from you, no news, and even more so from us. And how can I live out my bitter age, I cannot see your face, I cannot hear your affectionate speeches? I part with you forever and ever, I live you exactly, I bury you in the ground.

And the younger daughter, beloved, will say to her father:

Do not cry, do not grieve, my dear sir! my life will be rich, free: the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, I will not be afraid, I will serve him with faith and righteousness, fulfill his master's will, and maybe he will take pity on me. Do not mourn me alive, as if dead: maybe God willing, I will return to you.

An honest merchant cries, weeps, he is not comforted by such speeches.

The older sisters, the big one and the middle one, come running, they started crying all over the house: you see, it hurts them to feel sorry for their younger sister, their beloved. And the younger sister does not even seem sad, does not cry, does not groan, and the unknown is going on a long journey. And he takes with him a scarlet flower in a gilded jug.

The third day and the third night have passed, the time has come for the honest merchant to part, to part with his younger daughter, beloved. He kisses, pardons her, pours hot tears on her and puts his parent's blessing of the Cross on her. He takes out the ring of a forest beast, a miracle of the sea, from a forged casket, puts the ring on the right little finger of his youngest, beloved daughter - and she was gone at that very moment with all her belongings.

She found herself in the palace of the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, in high stone chambers, on a bed of carved gold with crystal legs, on a swan's down jacket covered with gold damask (silk fabric with patterns). Surely she did not leave her place, exactly she lived here for a whole century, even lay down to rest and woke up.

A consonant music began to play, such as she had never heard of when she was born. She got out of the downy bed and sees that all her belongings and a scarlet flower in a gilded jug are right there, laid out and placed on the tables of green copper malachite, and that in that ward there is a lot of goods and belongings of every kind, there is something to sit and lie on, there is what to dress up, what to look at.

And there was one wall all mirrored, and the other gilded wall, and the third wall all silver, and the fourth wall made of ivory and mammoth bones, all stripped down by semi-precious yachons. And she thought:

This must be my bedchamber.

She wanted to inspect the whole palace, and she went to inspect all its high chambers, and she went for a long time, admiring all the wonders; one chamber was more beautiful than the other, and all the more beautiful than, as the honest merchant told her, her dear sir. She took her favorite scarlet flower from a gilded jug, she went down into the green gardens, and the birds sang their paradise songs to her, and the trees, bushes and flowers waved their tops and bowed evenly before her.

Above, fountains of water gushed and the springs rustled louder; and she found that high place, an ant hillock (overgrown with grass ants) on which an honest merchant plucked a scarlet flower, which is not more beautiful in this world. And she took that scarlet flower out of a gilded jug and wanted to put the old one in its place, but he flew out of her hands and adhered to the old stem and blossomed more beautifully than the previous one.

She marveled at such a wonderful miracle, wondrous marvel, rejoiced at her scarlet, cherished flower and went back to her palace chambers; and in one of them there is a table set, and only she thought: - Apparently, the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, is not angry with me, and he will be a merciful lord to me - as words of fire appeared on the white marble wall:

I am not your master, but an obedient slave. You are my mistress, and everything that you wish, everything that comes to your mind, I will do with pleasure.

She read the words of fire, and they disappeared from the white marble wall, as if they had never been there. And she came up with the idea of ​​writing a letter to her parent and giving him news about herself. Before she had time to think about it, she saw that there was paper in front of her, a golden pen with an inkwell. She writes

a letter to his dear father and his beloved sisters:

Do not cry for me, do not grieve, I live in a palace with a forest beast, a miracle of the sea, like a queen. I myself do not see or hear him, but he writes to me on the white marble wall with fiery words. And he knows everything that is in my mind, and at that very moment he does everything, and he does not want to be called my master, but calls me his mistress.

Before she had time to write a letter and seal it with a seal, the letter disappeared from her hands and from her eyes, as if it were not there.

Music began to play more than ever, sugar dishes, honey drinks, all the dishes of red gold appeared on the table. She sat down at the table merrily, although she had never dined alone before. She ate, drank, cooled herself, amused herself with music.

After dinner, having eaten, she lay down to sleep. The music began to play quieter and farther away - for the reason that she would not interfere with her sleep. After sleeping, she got up cheerfully and went again for a walk in the green gardens, because before lunchtime she did not have time to go around half of them, to look at all their wonders.

All the trees, bushes and flowers bowed before her, and ripe fruits - pears, peaches and bulk apples - climbed into their mouths. After walking for a long time, read until evening, she returned to her high chambers, and she saw: the table was set, and on the table were sugar and honey drinks, and all excellent.

After supper, she entered that white marble chamber, where she read words of fire on the wall, and she sees again the same words of fire on the same wall:

Is my mistress satisfied with her gardens and chambers, food and servants?

Do not call me your mistress, but be you always my kind lord, gentle and merciful. I will never act out of your will. Thank you for all your treat. Better than your high chambers and your green gardens to be found in this world: then how can I not be enough? I never saw such miracles when I was born. I will not come to my senses from such a diva, only I am afraid to rest alone. In all your high chambers there is not a human soul.

Fiery words appeared on the wall:

Do not be afraid, my beautiful lady: you will not rest alone, your hay girl (servant), faithful and beloved, is waiting for you. And there are many human souls in the chambers, but only you do not see or hear them, and they all together with me take care of you day and night: we will not let the wind of Venuti on you, we will not let a speck of dust settle.

And she went to rest in the bedchamber her young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, and saw: her hay girl, faithful and beloved, was standing by the bed, and she was just a little alive out of fear. And she rejoiced at her mistress, and kisses her white hands, hugs her brisk legs.
The mistress was also glad to her, began to ask her about the father of her darling, about her elder sisters and about all her maiden servants. After that she began to tell herself what happened to her at that time. They did not sleep until the white dawn.

And so the young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, began to live and get on well. Every day, new, rich outfits are ready for her, and decorations are such that they have no price, neither say in a fairy tale, nor write with a pen. Every day I have new, excellent treats of fun: riding, walking with music in chariots without horses and harness through dark forests.
And those forests in front of her parted and the road gave her wide, wide and smooth. And she began to be engaged in needlework, girls' needlework, to embroider flies (towels) with silver and gold and to lower fringes with frequent pearls.

She began to send gifts to my dear father, and even gave the richest fly to her gentle owner, and to that forest animal, the miracle of the sea. And she began to walk more often from day to day in the white marble hall, to speak affectionate speeches to her merciful master and to read his answers and greetings on the wall with fiery words.

You never know, how much has passed that time: soon the fairy tale tells itself, the work is not done soon, - a young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, began to get used to her life. She no longer marvels at anything, is not afraid of anything. The invisible servants serve her, serve, receive, ride in chariots without horses, play music and execute all her commands.
And she loved her merciful master day by day, and she saw that it was not for nothing that he called her his mistress and that he loved her more than himself.

She wanted to listen to his voice, wanted to have a conversation with him, without going to the white marble ward, without reading the words of fire. She began to pray and ask him about this, but the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, did not soon agree to her request, she was afraid to frighten her with her voice, She begged, she begged her gentle master, and he could not be opposite to her, and he wrote to her in last time on the white marble wall with fiery words:

Come today to the green garden, sit in your beloved gazebo, braided with leaves, branches, flowers, and say this: - Talk to me, my faithful slave.

And a little later, a young merchant's daughter, a beautiful written woman, ran into the green gardens, entered her beloved gazebo, braided with leaves, branches, flowers, and sat down on a brocade bench. And she says breathlessly, her heart beats like a bird caught, she says these words:

Do not be afraid, my lord, kind, gentle, to frighten me with your voice: after all your favors, I will not fear the roar of the beast. Do not be afraid to talk to me.

And she heard, exactly who sighed behind the pavilion, and a terrible voice, wild and loud, hoarse and husky, was heard, and even then he spoke in an undertone. At first, the young merchant's daughter, a beautiful written woman, shuddered, hearing the voice of the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, only with her fear she mastered the sight that she was frightened, did not show it, and soon his words, gentle and friendly, clever and reasonable, she began to listen to and heard, and her heart felt joyful.

Since that time, since that time, conversations have begun among them, read it, all day long - in the green garden at the festivities, in the dark forests on the rides and in all the high chambers. Only a young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, will ask:

Are you here, my kind, beloved master?

The forest beast, the miracle of the sea, answers:

Here, my beautiful lady, is your faithful slave, unchanging friend.

Little time has passed, how many time has passed: soon the fairy tale tells itself, the business is not soon done, - the young daughter of a merchant, a beautiful written woman, wanted to see with her own eyes the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, and she began to ask and pray for him. For a long time he does not agree to that, he is afraid to frighten her, and he was such a monster that he could neither say in a fairy tale, nor write with a pen.
Not only people, wild animals were always afraid of him and fled to their dens. And the beast of the forest speaks, the miracle of the sea, these are the words:

Do not ask, do not beg me, my lovely lady, beloved beauty, to show you my disgusting face, my ugly body. You have become accustomed to my voice. We live with you in friendship, in harmony with each other, honor, we are not parting, and you love me for my unspeakable love for you, and when you see me, terrible and disgusting, you will hate me, the unfortunate one, you will drive me out of sight, and apart from you, I will die of melancholy.

The young merchant's daughter, a beautiful written woman, did not listen to such speeches, and began to pray more than ever, swearing that no bogeyman in the world would be frightened and that she would not stop loving her merciful master, and she said these words to him:

If you are an old person - be my grandfather, if middle-aged (middle-aged) - be my uncle, if you are young - be my named brother, and as long as I live - be my heartfelt friend.

For a long, long time, the forest beast, a miracle of the sea, did not succumb to such words, but could not be opposite to the requests and tears of his beauty, and this is the word he says to her:

I cannot be opposite to you for the reason that I love you more than myself. I will fulfill your desire, although I know that I will ruin my happiness and die an untimely death. Come to the green garden at gray twilight, when the red sun sits behind the forest, and say: "Show yourself to me, faithful friend!" - and I will show you my disgusting face, my ugly body.
And if it becomes unbearable for you to remain with me anymore, I do not want your bondage and eternal torment: you will find in your bedchamber, under your pillow, my gold ring. Put it on your right little finger - and you will find yourself at the father's place and you will not hear anything about me.

She was not afraid, not frightened, the young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, strongly relied on herself. At that time, without hesitating a minute, she went into the green garden to wait for the appointed hour, and when the gray twilight came, the red sun descended behind the forest, she said:

Show yourself to me, my faithful friend! - and it seemed to her from a distance a forest beast, a miracle of the sea: it passed only across the road and disappeared in the dense bushes. And the merchant's young daughter, a beautiful written woman, did not see the light, threw up her white hands, screamed in a heart-rending voice and fell on the road without memory.
And the forest beast was terrible, the miracle of the sea: crooked hands, animal claws on the hands, horse legs, great camel humps in front and behind, all shaggy from top to bottom, boar tusks protruded from the mouth, the nose was crooked like a golden eagle, and the eyes were owl.

After lying down for a long time, little time, a young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, remembered, and hears: someone is crying near her, bursting with burning tears and says in a pitiful voice:

You have ruined me, my beautiful beloved, I will no longer see your beautiful face, you will not even want to hear me, and it has come to me to die an untimely death.

And she felt pitiful ashamed, and she mastered her great fear and her timid girlish heart, and she spoke in a firm voice:

No, do not be afraid of anything, my lord is kind and affectionate, I will not be afraid anymore of your terrible appearance, I will not be parted from you, I will not forget your favors. Show yourself to me now in your present form, I was only frightened for the first time.

A forest animal seemed to her, a miracle of the sea, in its form terrible, opposite, ugly, only he did not dare to come close to her, no matter how much she called him. They walked until the dark night and conducted the same conversations, affectionate and sensible, and did not smell any fear of the merchant's young daughter, a beautiful written woman.
The next day she saw a forest beast, a miracle of the sea, in the light of the red sun, and although at first, looking at it, she was frightened, but did not show her, and soon her fear completely passed away.

Here they started conversations more than ever: day after day, read it, they didn’t part, at lunch and dinner we were saturated with sugar dishes, we cooled down with honey drinks, we walked through the green gardens, rode without horses through the dark forests.

And a lot of time has passed: soon the fairy tale will tell itself, not soon the work will be done. Once, in a dream, a young merchant's daughter, a beautiful written woman, dreamed that her father was not well. And the vigilant longing attacked her, and the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, saw her in that melancholy and tears, and began to twist strongly and began to ask: why is she in melancholy, in tears?
She told him her unkind dream and began to ask him for permission to see her father and her dear sisters. And the beast of the forest, the miracle of the sea, will speak to her:

And why do you need my permission? You have my gold ring, put it on your right little finger and you will find yourself in the house of your dear father. Stay with him until you get bored, and only I will tell you: if you do not return in exactly three days and three nights, then I will not be in this world, and I will die in the same minute, for the reason that I love you more than myself, and I can't live without you.

She began to assure with cherished words and oaths that exactly one hour before three days and three nights she would return to his high chambers. She said goodbye to her gentle and merciful master, put a gold ring on her right little finger, and found herself in the wide courtyard of an honest merchant, her father's father. She goes to the high porch of his stone chambers. A servant and a servant of the courtyard ran up to her, raised a noise and a cry. The kind sisters came running and, seeing her, marveled at the beauty of her maiden and her alongside the royal, royal. The whites grabbed her by the arms and took her to my father's father.

But father is not well. lay, unhealthy and unhappy, remembering her day and night, pouring out burning tears. And he did not remember for joy when he saw his daughter, dear, good, fit, smaller, beloved, and he marveled at her maiden beauty, her alongside the royal, royal.

For a long time they kissed, took mercy, consoled themselves with tender speeches. She told her dear father and her elders, dear sisters, about her life and being with the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, everything from word to word, she did not hide any crumbs.

And the honest merchant rejoiced at her rich, royal, royal life, and marveled at how she was used to looking at her terrible master and not afraid of the forest beast, the miracle of the sea. He himself, remembering him, trembled in a droshky. The older sisters, hearing about the untold riches of the younger sister and about her royal power over her master, as if over her slave, even became envious.

The day passes, like a single hour, another day passes, like a minute, and on the third day the older sisters began to persuade the younger sister, so that she would not toss and turn towards the forest beast, the miracle of the sea. “Let it freeze, there is dear to him ...” And the dear guest, the younger sister, got angry with the older sisters, and said to them these words:

If I am kind and affectionate to my lord for all his mercies and hot love, unspeakable will pay him with death fiercely, then I will not be worth living in this world, and then it is worth giving me to wild animals to be torn apart.

And her father, an honest merchant, praised her for such good speeches, and it was necessary that before the deadline, exactly in an hour she would return to the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, a good daughter, comely, smaller, beloved. And then the sisters were annoyed, and they conceived a tricky business, a tricky and unkind business. They took and set all the clocks in the house a whole hour ago, and the honest merchant and all his faithful servants, the servants of the courtyard, did not know.

And when the real hour came, the young merchant's daughter, a beautiful written woman, began to ache and ache in her heart, something began to wash her away, and she looks every now and then at her father's, English, German watches - but all the same she will go to a distant path. And the sisters talk to her, ask about this, and delay her.

However, her heart could not stand it. The younger daughter, beloved, beautiful written, bade farewell to an honest merchant, my father’s father, accepted a parental blessing from him, bade farewell to her older sisters, amiable servants, with a faithful servant, servants of the household, and, without waiting a single minute before the appointed hour, put on a gold ring on right little finger and found herself in the white-stone palace, in the chambers of the tall forest beast, the miracle of the sea, and, marveling that he did not meet her, she cried out in a loud voice:

Where are you, my good lord, my faithful friend? Why don't you meet me? I came back ahead of the appointed time for a whole hour and a minute.

There was no answer, no greeting, the silence was dead. In the green gardens, the birds did not sing songs of paradise, the fountains of water did not beat and the spring springs did not rustle, the music in the high chambers did not play. The heart of the merchant's daughter, a beautiful writing, trembled, she smelled something unkind. She ran around the high chambers and green gardens, calling in the loud voice of her good master - there is nowhere no answer, no greetings, and no voice of obedience (response voice).

She ran to the anthill, where her favorite scarlet flower was growing, and she sees that the forest animal, a miracle of the sea, lies on the hill, clutching the scarlet flower with its ugly paws. And it seemed to her that he fell asleep, waiting for her, and now he was sleeping soundly. A merchant's daughter, a beautiful writing, began to wake him up on the sly - he does not hear. She began to wake him up stronger, grabbed him by the furry paw - and saw that the forest beast, the miracle of the sea, lifeless, lies dead ...

Her clear eyes dimmed, her brisk legs gave way, she fell to her knees, embraced her good lord, her ugly and disgusting head with her white arms, and screamed in a heart-rending voice:

You get up, wake up, my heartfelt Friend, I love you as the desired bridegroom!

And only such words she uttered, as lightning flashed from all directions, the earth shook from great thunder, a thunderous stone arrow struck at the anthill, and a young merchant daughter, a beautiful written woman, fell unconscious. How much, how little time she lay without memory - I do not know.

Only when she wakes up, she sees herself in a high chamber, white marble, she sits on a golden throne with precious stones, and embraces her a young prince, a handsome man, on his head with a royal crown, in gold-forged clothes. Before him is his father and his sisters, and a great retinue is kneeling around him, all dressed in gold and silver brocade. And a young prince, a handsome man, with a royal crown on his head, will speak to her:

You fell in love with me, beloved beauty, in the form of an ugly monster, for my kind soul and love for you. Love me now in the form of a human, be my desired bride.

An evil sorceress was angry with my deceased parent, the king of the glorious and mighty, stole me, still a minor, and with her satanic sorcery, with her unclean power, she turned me into a terrible monster and imposed such a spell on me to live in such an ugly, disgusting and terrible form for everyone. man, for every creature of God, until there is a red maiden, no matter what kind and title she may be, and loves me in the form of a monster and wishes to be my lawful wife - and then witchcraft will all end, and I will again become a young man and come in handy.

And I lived as such a bogeyman and a scarecrow for exactly thirty years, and I got into my palace enchanted eleven red girls, you were the twelfth.

None of them loved me for my caresses and pleasures, for my kind soul. You alone fell in love with me, a disgusting and ugly monster, for my caresses and pleasures, for my good soul, for my unspeakable love for you, and for that you will be the wife of a glorious king, a queen in a mighty kingdom.

Then everyone marveled at this, the retinue bowed down to the ground. An honest merchant gave his blessing to his younger daughter, beloved, and the young prince-prince. And the elder sisters, the envious sisters, congratulated the groom and the bride, and all the faithful servants, the great boyars and cavaliers of the military, and not hesitatingly began a merry feast and a wedding, and began to live and live, and make good money.

And I was there, drinking honey, flowing down my mustache, but it didn't get into my mouth.

Fairy tales remind of good, light and pure. They give hope for the best, faith in sincere love. And often they are so lacking when everything in life is dull and dull, or maybe even worse. But you can always open a book and plunge into an amazing story, for example, in "The Scarlet Flower" by Sergei Aksakov. This work is one of the versions of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast", only written in a melodic language, in the style of a lyrical tale with the use of beautiful turns.

According to the plot of the work, a rich merchant goes to overseas countries to trade. He asks his daughters what gifts to bring. The two elders ask for something valuable, and the youngest asks for a scarlet flower, the most beautiful in the whole world. This is not an easy task, but everything happens as if by itself, and the merchant takes out a flower, only now his daughter must live in a palace with a monster. And what at first seemed terrible, gradually becomes completely different. Human shortcomings can be seen through the characters of the older sisters, but through the image of the youngest daughter of a merchant and a monster, a bright and pure soul is shown. The author says that it is not the outside that is important, but what is inside. And only this is worth appreciating, and only this can you truly love. After reading such a fairy tale, you experience pleasant sensations and hope that there is also a place for such love in life.

On our site you can download the book "The Scarlet Flower" in epub, fb2, pdf, txt format or read online. The rating of the book is 2.83 out of 5. Here you can also refer to the reviews of readers who are already familiar with the book and find out their opinions before reading. In the online store of our partner, you can buy and read a book in paper form.