The Origins of the World
This is a fable of the Slavic origins of the world, and the tale of Ivan the prince, who encountered many wonders.
First there were golden eggs. It is unknown where they came from, but what is certain is that the world was born from them. The Earth, the Sea, the Sky, and all the great gods came out of these eggs and Svarog, the blacksmith of the world was the king among the gods.
His wife was Mother Svah, a majestic swan, surrounded by a ring of fire, her body encased in armour. She was a passionate goddess, always seeking adventure, and so her husband created men, so that she could rule over them and guide them.
But men were too prone to violence, they listened little to the guidance of creatures so different to them, and many would die from the hand of another, without cause and without light.
Life was meaningless, and so Mother Svah created War.
And, so that men would know gods, she turned into a half-bird, half human, and appeared to them before a great battle. As she brought them victory, men learned to worship her. They would burn many sacrificial lamb and other animals before battle, so that their smell would reach heavens, and if Mother Svah was satisfied, she’d appear in her majestic glory, and guide men to victory.
As men grew more numerous, and life filled with light from the gods, men reached out to heavens for guidance in more than just battle. But their lives were too different from the heavenly existence of the gods, and so Mother Svah went down to the Earth, and chose the most vicious and bloodthirsty warrior, the starter of wars, the one that brought nothing but darkness into the world, and lay with him. The next day she gave birth to five goddesses, each one blindingly beautiful, all of them bird-like, but with their heads and chest like of human women.
Since then they were to rule the lives of men. Alkonost, the raven-goddess, sang bitter-sweet songs of grief and sadness, and was the goddess of sorrow. Although she was the harbinger of death, her song guided men into heavens. Her sister, Sirin, a sea-bird, was the goddess of joy, but her songs, sweet and filled with happiness as they were, had the power to bring men to ruin, should they listen to them for too long.
Stratim-bird, who wears a crystal crown on her head, ruled the nature, and would often bring horrible catastrophes, when men angered her by destroying forests or polluting rivers and oceans with waste. But sometimes she was kind, and would rescue those stranded and lost.
Like young prince Ivan, the last of the three brothers, whose dying father sent his sons on a quest to find the Fire-Bird, the fourth of the bird-goddesses, and bring him her luminous feather that was said to cure any sickness. In return, the king said he’d make whichever son that brought the feather his heir.
While the oldest brother was the strongest, the second brother was the smartest. He told his brothers he did not want the glory of being king, as long as whoever of the two got the title, would agree to make him his adviser. The other two agreed, and so the second son offered both brothers his council. The older brother he sent to the East, where a great war was happening, devastating and hopeless. Soon, the oldest died in battle.
Ivan he sent to roam the great Ocean, alone in the vast great Water, and soon enough, Ivan found himself on a desert island, no wind to carry his sails, no hope of rescue. Weeks he spent on the island, devoid of any food save for some running water, no fish swimming near the shore to be caught by his net.
Finally, one day Ivan saw a falcon with a bloodied wing land right on the tree branch next to him. Ivan had been starving for many days, and the falcon looked at him with resignation, his wing broken, unable to escape. As he looked at the falcon, he was struck by its beauty, and could not kill it, so instead Ivan healed the falcon’s wing, and let him fly.
The falcon took off and soared high into the sky, just below the heavens, and then plunged right into the sea, where it captured a fish and brought it to Ivan. But Ivan did not eat it.
“What use will it be to prolong my life by a few days, if there’s still no wind in the sky, and I cannot escape this island. Better ask heavens for the wind to take me home, and offer this fish to the gods as sacrifice”
As he said this, the falcon took the fish into the heavens and disappeared. Many hours passed and the sun was setting, and Ivan was passed out on the shore, close to dying, when the clouds parted and a great beautiful creature, half-bird, half-woman with a crystal crown on her head appeared and called Ivan by his name.
“Climb into your boat” she said, and Ivan did as told.
Then Stratim-bird began blowing, clouds gathering, and as the rain fell into the sea, the waves took Ivan’s boat and carried it away at great speed. But not home to his kingdom, no. Far, far away, to the West Stratim-bird took him, to her sister, the Fire-Bird’s garden.
There, among many trees, bushes and flowers, Ivan saw the Tree of Youth. On the branches sat a great red bird, shining with yellow fire, singing a song in an unknown language, but so beautiful, that Ivan forgot his hunger and his pain, and his head became light, as if no woes had befallen him in the past. As the Fire-Bird was singing, pearls were falling out of its beak and landing on the ground, covering the earth and the roots of the Tree of Youth.
Finally, the bird stopped her song and looked at Ivan in silence. She did not speak his tongue, it seemed, and so he was unsure if he should speak or come closer. If, perhaps, his presence here was simply an intrusion. He had nothing to offer but stories, and so he sat down underneath the Thee of Youth on the pearl tree-bed and told the Fire-Bird many stories of his world, of his kingdom and his quest, his brother’s betrayal and what he saw on his lonely journey across the great Ocean.
When he finished talking, he saw that the bird was no longer there. Somewhere high up among the leaves of the Tree the glow from her feathers could still be made out. A single apple fell from the depth of the branches, and finally the bird began singing again. It was a gift, Ivan realised, and so he put the apple in his bag and went back to his boat.
The Stratim-bird was no longer there to guide him, so he went out on his own, the magical Western land of the Fire-Bird disappearing in the mist, as he moved further and further away, until he could no longer remember how to find it again.
Many months he spent stranded in the Ocean, until finally the waves and the wind brought him back to his home. There he found his father close to death, and the brother who sent Ivan to die, by their father’s side. The King did not recognise him, thinking both his youngest and his oldest sons are dead, and only trusting his middle son, who stayed by his side.
Ivan pleaded with his father to recognise him, to at least take the gift the Fire-Bird had given him before he’s sent away, but the King wouldn’t listen. The son by his side, frightened by the sight of Ivan, called the King’s guard and ordered them to imprison Ivan.
But as the guards took hold of Ivan in front of the King and his middle son, the heavens parted and the fifth goddess sister, the wise Gamayun descended among the King and his two sons and said this:
“He who listens with his eyes and sees with his ears shall uncover the truth”.
With that she disappeared, and all were silent. Finally, the King, who in youth was very brave and valiant, and before his illness was known as the wisest of men, rose to his feet and came closer to Ivan. He looked at his son’s face, and although it was weathered by the misfortunes that had befallen him, his father soon recognised him.
He wept with joy and despite his illness threw a feast to celebrate his son’s return. Ivan told the tale of his adventures and presented his father the gift of the Fire-Bird. The King took a bite from the apple and felt that the strength began returning to him. After the second bite the pain in his body disappeared. When he finished the apple, the illness left him completely, and he ruled his kingdom for another 20 years, with Ivan, his youngest son by his side. When he died, Ivan inherited his kingdom and ruled fairly and with kindness for many years to come.
And he was always favoured by the five bird-goddesses, and they always brought him blessings and good council.
This story is fiction, written by Asya Sosis based on Slavic folklore and mythology.