Vasilisa the Beautiful

His wife, seeing an opportunity to dispose of Vasilisa, sold their house and moved into another one isolated deep within the forests, away from neighbours.

The step-mother, only becoming frustrated with how her step-daughter not only in remaining alive, but also in how Vasilisa's beauty continued to grow, decided to change tactics.

She bade three pairs of disembodied hands seize the corn to squeeze the oil from it, then asked Vasilisa if she had any questions.

Vasilisa asked about the riders' identities and was told that the white one was Day, the red one the Sun, and the black one Night.

Upon her return, Vasilisa found that, since sending her out on her task, her step-family had been unable to light any candles or fire in their home.

Russian scholarship classifies the tale as type SUS 480В*, "Мачеха и падчерица" ("Stepmother and Step-daughter"), of the East Slavic Folktale Classification (Russian: СУС, romanized: SUS): the heroine is sent to fetch fire from Baba Yaga, and is helped by a magical doll in fulfilling the witch's tasks.

[4] In some versions, the tale ends with the death of the stepmother and stepsisters, and Vasilisa lives peacefully with her father after their removal.

[6] In common with many folklorists of his day, Alexander Afanasyev regarded many tales as primitive ways of viewing nature.

In such an interpretation, he regarded this fairy tale as depicting the conflict between the sunlight (Vasilisa), the storm (her stepmother), and dark clouds (her stepsisters).

[7] Edith Hodgetts included an English translation of this story, as Vaselesa the Beautiful in her 1890 collection Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.

[8] Aleksandr Rou made a film entitled Vasilisa the Beautiful in 1940, however, it was based on a different tale – The Frog Tsarevna.

[9] American author Elizabeth Winthrop wrote a children's book – Vasilissa the Beautiful: a Russian Folktale (HarperCollins, 1991), illustrated by Alexander Koshkin.

"A Bone to Pick" by Marina Frants and Keith R.A. DeCandido is somewhat more serious in tone, reimagining Yaga as a firm but benevolent mentor and Vasilisa as her fiercely loyal protégé, who is also described as ugly rather than beautiful.