[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).

[5] A king lived happily with his queen, but after a time, wanted to fight and so win glory.

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.

[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.