Finist, the Brave Falcon

Plot

In old Russia, a plowman named Finist lived simply and counted a falcon among his friends. The falcon alerted him to foreign forces planning to seize the land, and Finist drove them off successfully. This angered the opposing side, who did not want a bogatyr defender in Russia. Their leader, the sorcerer Kartaus-Red Mustache, ordered his werewolf henchman Kastryuk to eliminate the hero. Kastryuk tricked Finist into a dungeon, cast an enchantment, and transformed him into a monster.

At a Russian outpost, a voivode and his druzhina readied themselves to fend off raiders. They sent the city clerk Yashka to find Finist. On his journey, Yashka met Finist’s bride, Alyonushka, and they traveled together. Along the road, they encountered the peasant Agathon and his wife Anfisa, who had planned to attend a fair but stayed in the forest, frightened by a monster’s roar. An old woman named Neninla appeared, saying that a wish made on a fern that night would come true. She also revealed the monster was a bewitched person, and the curse would break if a fair maiden loved him in that form. During an argument over what wish to make, Anfisa angrily told Agathon to vanish from the earth. The next day, blaming Yashka for this, she took him back to the outpost and demanded Agathon’s return; Alyonushka followed.

Meanwhile, Kartaus sent Kastryuk to the frontier disguised as a merchant, hoping he would enter the outpost and open its gates for enemy warriors. But jocular old women saw through the disguise and locked Kastryuk in a pantry with the shrewish Anfisa. Soon Kartaus’s servants attacked the outpost. This time, the monster broke through a gap in the defenses. Alyonushka, recognizing the monster as Finist, covered him with a red cloak she had intended as a gift. The curse lifted, and Finist became human again. Together with the druzhina, he drove off the enemies.