Russian Cinderella or Rather Valissa

Every culture and country has their own versions of the basic myths or legends, or as we now call some of them today fairytales. The most widely known and commonly told is the story of Cinderella, as it is known in America, or the many other names the girl goes by. However, no matter what name she goes by her story is still made from the same formula.

It starts out with the only daughter to a handsome and often rich man who is newly widowed being given a stepmother. This stepmother usually comes with baggage in the form of two horrible, and often ugly, daughters. Shortly after this the father has to go away, or in some versions he dies as well. After the father is out of the picture the daughter is made to do chores without breaks and to wait hand and foot on the stepmother and her two daughters. Sometime during her labor a ball is thrown and the girl is promised that she may go.

However, the stepmother changes her mind and the girl is left home. After this, some form of a fairy godmother appears and the girl is given beautiful things to wear to the ball. Once at the ball the girl dances with the prince who falls madly in love with her. As her curfew approaches, because all magical things must end, the girl flees the party and leaves behind a shoe, or some other object. The prince then spends the next few weeks searching for the woman who owns the item left behind. He finds her and they live happily ever after.

That is the basic story line for the Cinderella themed stories. However, I have recently come across a refreshingly new version of this story. It is the Russian version to this classic tale. The story is entitled Valissa the Beautiful and contains not only the evil stepmother and the ugly stepsisters, but also a witch, light up skulls, a house with chicken feet, a talking doll, and a creepy tale of a poor girl who is made to get light.

While I could not find a good internet version of the tale, I highly recommend finding it in book form. Besides you never know when you might need a scary story to tell a class or you kids.

(photo credit: expressmonorail)

April 11th, 2009 by admin | Posted in Myths | (0)