Alenoushka And Her Brother - A Bedtime Story

Sound Sleep is back with the Russian folk tale Alenoushka and her Brother. This tale is a little different than most I have read so I am very excited for you to listen. I'd love to know what you think. Please let me know with a review and feel free to leave a request there as well!

Transcript

Elinushka,

Brother.

Once upon a time,

There were two orphan children,

A little boy and a little girl.

Their father and mother were dead,

And they had not even an old grandfather to spend his time in telling them stories.

They,

The little boy,

Was called Venushka,

And the little girl's name was Elinushka.

They set out together to walk through the whole of the great wide world.

It was a long journey they set out on,

And they did not think of any end to it,

Only of moving on and on,

And never stopping long enough in one place to be unhappy there.

They were traveling one day over a broad plain,

Padding along on their little bare feet.

There were no trees on the plain,

No bushes,

Open flat country as far as you could see,

And the great sun up in the sky burning the grass and making their throats dry,

And the sandy ground so hot that they could scarcely bear to set their feet on it.

All day,

From early morning,

They had been walking,

And the heat grew greater and greater towards noon.

Oh,

Said little Venushka,

My throat is so dry,

I want a drink,

I must have a drink,

Just a little drink of cool water.

We must go on,

Said Elinushka,

Till we come to a well,

Then we will drink.

They went along on the track,

With their eyes burning,

And their throats as dry as sand on a stove,

But presently,

Venushka cried out joyfully.

He saw a horse's hoof mark in the ground,

And it was full of water,

Like a little well.

Sister,

Sister,

Says he,

The horse has made a little well for me,

With his great hoof,

And now we can have a drink,

And oh,

But I am thirsty.

Not yet,

Brother,

Says Elinushka.

If you drink from the hoof mark of a horse,

You will turn into a little foal,

And that would never do.

I am so very thirsty,

Says Venushka.

But he did as his sister told him,

And they walked on together,

Under the burning sun.

A little farther on,

Venushka saw the hoof mark of a cow,

And there was water in it,

Glittering in the sun.

Sister,

Sister,

Says Venushka,

The cow has made a little well for me,

And now I can have a drink.

Not yet,

Brother,

Says Elinushka.

If you drink from the hoof mark of a cow,

You will turn into a little calf,

And that would never do.

We must go on till we come to a well.

There we will drink and rest ourselves.

There will be trees by the well,

And shadows,

And we will lie down there by the quiet water,

And cool our hands and feet,

And perhaps our eyes will stop burning.

So they went on farther along the track that scorched the bare soles of their feet,

Under the sun that burned their heads and their little bare backs,

And their little bare necks.

The sun was high in the sky above them,

And it seemed to Venushka that they would never come to the well.

They had walked on,

And he was nearly crying with thirst,

Only that the sun had dried up all his tears and burnt them before they had time to come into his eyes.

He saw another footprint.

It was quite a tiny footprint,

Divided in the middle,

The footprint of a sheep,

And in it was a little drop of clear water,

Sparkling in the sun.

He said nothing to his sister,

Nothing at all,

Down on his hands and knees,

And drank that water,

A little drop of clear water,

To cool his burning throat.

And he had no sooner drunk it than he had turned into a little lamb,

A little white lamb,

Said Marusha.

With a black nose,

Said Vanya.

A little lamb,

Said old Peter,

Venushka,

Frisking and leaping,

With its little tail tossing in the air.

He could not see him,

But there was the little lamb,

Leaping round her,

Trying to lick her face.

Was the print left by the sheep's foot?

He guessed at once what had happened and burst into tears.

There was a hay rick close by,

And under the hay rick,

Alinushka sat down and wept,

Seeing her so sad,

Stood gravely in front of her.

But for long he was a little lamb,

And he could not help himself,

However sad he felt.

He had to leap and frisk in the sun and toss his little white tail.

Presently,

A fine gentleman came riding by on his big black horse.

He stopped when he came to the hay rick.

He was very much surprised at seeing a beautiful little girl sitting there,

Crying her eyes out,

While the white lamb frisked this way and that,

And played before her.

And now and then ran up to her and licked the tears from her face with its little pink tongue.

What is your name?

Says the fine gentleman.

And why are you in trouble?

Perhaps I may be able to help you.

My name is Alinushka,

And this is my little brother,

Venushka,

Whom I love.

And she told him the whole story.

Well,

I can hardly believe all that,

Says the fine gentleman.

But come with me.

I will dress you in fine clothes and set silver ornaments in your hair and bracelets of gold on your little brown wrists.

And as for the lamb,

He shall come too,

If you love him.

Wherever you are,

There he shall be,

And you shall never be parted from him.

And so Alinushka took her little brother in her arms,

And the fine gentleman lifted them up before him on the big black horse,

Crossed the plain to his big house not far from the river.

And when he got home,

He made a feast,

And they lived together so happily that good people rejoiced to see them.

But bad ones were jealous,

And never grew any bigger,

But always frisked and played and followed Alinushka wherever she went.

When the fine gentleman had ridden far away to the town to buy a new bracelet for Alinushka,

There came an old witch.

Be she was,

Wicked as ever,

Went about the world,

From evil to decent folk.

And said she was hungry to share her dinner,

And she put a spell.

Alinushka drank,

So that Alinushka fell ill,

Had become as snow and as thin as an old stick,

Says the fine gentleman.

What is the matter with you?

Perhaps I shall be better tomorrow,

Says Alinushka.

Next day,

The gentleman rode into the fields,

And the old hag came again.

He was out.

Would you like me to cure you,

Says she?

I know a way to make you as well as ever you were.

I hope you will be pretty again before your husband comes riding home.

And what must I do,

Says Alinushka,

To think herself so ugly?

You must go to the river and bathe this afternoon,

Says the old witch.

Be there.

Put a spell on the water.

Secretly you must go.

For if anyone knows whither you have gone,

My spell will not work.

So Alinushka wrapped a shawl and slipped out of the house to the river.

Only the little lamb,

Fanushka,

Knew where she had gone.

He followed her,

Leaping about and tossing his little white tail.

The old witch was waiting for her.

She sprang out of the bushes by the riverside and seized Alinushka's pretty white dress and fastened a heavy stone about her neck and threw her from the bank into a deep place so that she sank to the bottom of the river.

Then the old witch,

The wicked hag,

Put on Alinushka's pretty white dress and cast a spell and made herself so like Alinushka to look at that nobody could tell the difference.

Only the little lamb had seen everything that had happened.

The fine gentleman came riding home in the evening and he rejoiced when he saw his dear Alinushka well again with plump pink cheeks and a smile on her rosy lips.

But the little lamb knew everything.

He was sad and melancholy and would not eat and went every morning and every evening to the river and there wandered about the banks and cried,

Ba!

Ba!

And was answered by the sighing of the wind.

The witch saw that the lamb went off by himself every morning and every evening.

She watched where he went.

And she knew she began to hate the lamb and she gave orders for the sticks to be cut and the iron cauldron to be heated and the steel knives made sharp.

She sent a servant to catch the lamb and she said to the fine gentleman who thought all the time that she was Alinushka,

It is time for the lamb to be killed and made into a tasty stew.

The fine gentleman was astonished.

What?

Says he.

You want to have the lamb killed.

Why?

You called it your brother when first I found you by the hay rick in the plain.

You were always giving it caresses and sweet words.

You loved it so much that I was sick of the sight of it and now you give orders for its throat to be cut.

Absolutely.

Says he.

The mind of a woman is like the wind in summer.

Ran away when he saw that the servant had come to catch him.

He heard the sharpening of the knives and had seen the cutting of the wood and the great cauldron taken from its place.

He was frightened and he ran away and came to the riverbank where the wind was sighing through the tall reeds.

And there he sang a farewell song to his sister,

Thinking he had not long to live.

The servant followed the lamb cunningly and crept near to catch him and heard his little song.

This is what he sang.

Alinushka,

Little sister,

They are going to slaughter me.

They are cutting wooden sticks.

They are heating iron cauldrons.

They are sharpening knives of steel.

And Alinushka,

Lamenting,

Answered the lamb from the bottom of the river.

Oh,

My brother Alinushka,

A heavy stone is round my throat.

Silken grass grows through my fingers.

Yellow sand lies on my breast.

The servant listened and marveled at the miracle of the lamb singing and the sweet voice answering him from the river.

He crept away quietly and came to the fine gentleman and told him what he had heard.

And they set out together to the river,

Watched the lamb and listened and saw what was happening.

The little white lamb stood on the bank of the river,

Weeping,

So that his tears fell into the water.

Presently,

He sang.

Alinushka,

Little sister,

They are going to slaughter me.

They are cutting wooden sticks.

They are heating iron cauldrons.

They are sharpening knives of steel.

And Alinushka,

Lamenting,

Answered the lamb from the bottom of the river.

Oh,

My brother Alinushka,

A heavy stone is round my throat.

Silken grass grows through my fingers.

Yellow sand lies on my breast.

The servant listened and marveled at the miracle of the lamb singing and the sweet voice answering him from the river.

He crept away quietly and watched the lamb singing and the sweet voice answering him from the river.

And they set out together to the river,

Watched the lamb singing and the sweet voice answering him from the river.

And they set out together to the river,

Watched the lamb singing and the sweet voice answering him from the river.

And he remembered how she had loved the lamb.

He sent his servant to fetch men and fishing nets and nets of silk.

When he came,

Roderick dragged the river with fishing nets and brought their nets,

Emptied to land.

Then they tried with nets of fine silk.

As they drew them in,

There was Alinushka,

As if she were asleep.

She went to the bank and picked up the stone from her white neck and clothed her in fresh water.

No sooner done all of this than she woke up.

Ever she had been before.

She was pretty enough,

God knows,

And sprang up,

Arms round the neck of the little white lamb,

Who suddenly became once more her little brother,

Fenushka,

Who had been so thirsty as to drink water from the hoof mark of a sheep.

Fenushka laughed and shouted in the sunshine,

And the fine gentlemen wept tears of joy,

Praised God and kissed each other,

Went home together and began to live as happily as before.

Even more happily,

Because Fenushka was no longer but as soon as they got home,

The gentlemen turned the old witch out of the house,

And she became an ugly old hag.

It went away to the deep woods,

Shrieking as she went.

And did she ever come back again?

Asked Ivan.

No,

She never came back again,

Said old Peter.

Once was enough.

And what happened to Fenushka when he grew up?

He grew up as handsome as Alinushka was pretty,

And he became a great hunter,

And he married the sister of the fine gentlemen,

Happily together,

And ate honey every day.

Reviews

I've never heard this tale, so thank you. Léna ☺🙏🐈🐈🐨🇦🇺

Excellent. Very much enjoyed the story and your telling of it

Lovely reading. Appreciate a different type of story.