Snegurochka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An image of Snegurochka by Victor Vasnetsov

Snegurochka (Russian: Снегурочка), or the Snow Maiden, is a character in Russian fairy tales.

In one story, she is the daughter of Spring and Frost, who yearns for the companionship of mortal humans. She grows to like a shepherd named Lel, but her heart is unable to know love. Her mother takes pity and gives her this ability, but as soon as she falls in love, her heart warms up and she melts.

This version of the story was made into a play by Alexandr Ostrovsky, with incidental music by Tchaikovsky.

[edit] Other Versions

In 1878 the composer Léon Minkus and the Balletmaster Marius Petipa staged a ballet adaptation of Snegurochka titled The Daughter of the Snows for the Tsar's Imperial Ballet. The tale was also adapted into an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov known as The Snow Maiden. The story itself was adapted into two Soviet films: an animated film in 1952 with some of Rimsky-Korsakov's music, also called The Snow Maiden, and a live-action film in 1969 directed by Pavel Kadochnikov, with music by Vladislav Kladnitsky. Ruth Sanderson retold the story in the picture book The Snow Princess, in which falling in love does not immediately kill the princess, but turns her into a mortal human, who will die.

In a different version, such as the one collected by Louis Leger in Contes Populaires Slaves, an old couple make a girl out of snow, who turns into a living being. She grows up quickly. A group of girls invite her for a walk in the woods, after which they make a small fire and take turns leaping over it; in some variants, this is on St. John's Day, and a St. John's Day tradition. When Snegurochka's turn comes, she starts to jump, but only gets halfway before evaporating into a small cloud. Andrew Lang included this in The Pink Fairy Book.

Nowadays she is known as the granddaughter and helper of Ded Moroz, the 'Russian Santa'.