The Falcon Pipiristi

The Falcon Pipiristi (Russian: Сокол Пипиристи, romanized: Sokol Pipiristi) is a Komi folktale that first appeared in print in 1938, published in Russian. It belongs to the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 432A, "The Prince as Bird," and matches the East Slavic type SUS 432, "Finist Bright Falcon." Folklorists Gleb Alekseev and A. A. Popov recorded the tale from an informant named P. G. Doronin in 1934.

In the story, a man asks his three daughters what gifts they want from the market. The eldest asks for fabric for a summer dress, the middle for a silk handkerchief, and the youngest for the net of a falcon called Pipiristi. On three trips, the father finds the first two items but only on the third does he obtain the net, which is costly and beautiful. The youngest daughter takes the net to her room, and soon Falcon Pipiristi—golden in body and feathers—flies through her window. They spend the night together. Her jealous sisters learn of the visits and place fishing hooks on the window. When Pipiristi returns, the hooks injure his feathers and body. Feeling betrayed, he tells the girl to find him beyond "thrice-nine" lands, rivers, and green sands, then flies away.

The girl sets out after him, carrying a perfumed soap, a comb, and a silken staff. She crosses a sea with the help of a swan and a desert with a camel, eventually reaching a village where Pipiristi lives with a witch's daughter. She hires herself as a maidservant. The witch covets the girl's comb, soap, and staff, and trades each for a night in Pipiristi's room. On the first two nights, the witch gives Pipiristi a soporific wine, so he sleeps through the girl's songs and tears. On the third night, Pipiristi avoids the wine and pretends to sleep. The girl wakes him, and they spend the night together. In the morning, the witch asks the elderly, the middle-aged, and the young which marriage is stronger—the first or the second. All answer the first. Pipiristi then ties the witch to a horse, which drags her to pieces, and he lives with his first wife.

Linguist Dávid Rafael Fokos-Fuchs noted that the falcon's name appears in Zyrian dialects as pipiristi, pipiriski, and pipilisti, and that a pipiristi se̯ke̯l is recorded in the Vychegda dialect.