The Lute Player Explained

Folk Tale Name:	The Lute Player
Aka:	The Tsaritsa Harpist, The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli
Aarne-Thompson Grouping:	ATU 888 (The Faithful Wife)
Country:	Russia
Published In:	Russian Fairy Tales by Alexander Afanasyev

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

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

Synopsis

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

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

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

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 888, "The Faithful Wife".^{[6] [7] [8]}

The tale was also classified as type AaTh 875C, "The Queen as Gusli-Player", in the 1961 revision of the index by Stith Thompson.^[9] However, after German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther revised the index in 2004, type 875D was subsumed into type ATU 888, "The Faithful Wife".^[10]

See also

• Sir Orfeo

External links

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

Notes and References

1. Alexander Afanasyev. Russian Folk-Tales. Edited and Translated by Leonard A. Magnus. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1915. pp. 75-77.
2. Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. pp. 42-44.
3. Book: The Lute Player: A Tale from Russia. 9781936163915. Barchers. Suzanne I.. September 2013.
4. Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book, "The Lute Player"
5. Kathleen Ragan, Fearless Girls, Wise Women, & Beloved Sister p 96
6. [D. L. Ashliman]
7. Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume III. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2021. p. 531.
8. Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 180. .
9. Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 296.
10. Book: Uther . Hans-Jörg . The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson . 2004 . Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica . 978-951-41-0963-8 . 512 .