Anonymous asked:
what’s the firebird fairytale retelling
princessofmerchants answered:
Image Details: “BILIBIN, Ivan [Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин] (1876-1942). 🇷🇺 Ivan Tsaryevich-Grey Wolf-Firebird, 1899.” by Halloween HJB is marked with CC0 1.0
Hello! The Firebird is a figure in Slavic / Russian folklore, and there are many translations and versions of a story that features this character. Many of them also feature a character named Ivan, and the famous ballet retelling of it includes the evil sorcerer Koschei as the antagonist who has captured thirteen princesses, and the Firebird helps Ivan free them by defeating Koschei.
I am not an expert on all versions, but I read a novel retelling of the story, Firebird by Mercedes Lackey, many years back and the version of the story she draws on has Ivan (in her story, called Ilya) as a maligned youngest brother of many brothers who are all bullies to him for his interactions with the Firebird, before he sets off on the adventure that brings him to the realm of Koschei.
But if I were to guess, if SJM draws from any version it will be The Firebird ballet by Stravinsky. I will grab a few quotes from that Wikipedia page that summarize the ballet’s story and bold the details that map to what we know about Vassa and Koschei, from Elain’s seer visions and from Vassa’s own words about Koschei in ACOWAR:
The ballet centers on the journey of its hero, Prince Ivan. While hunting in the forest, he strays into the magical realm of the evil Koschei the Immortal, whose immortality is preserved by keeping his soul in a magic egg hidden in a casket. Ivan chases and captures the Firebird and is about to kill her; she begs for her life, and he spares her. As a token of thanks, she offers him an enchanted feather that he can use to summon her should he be in dire need.
Prince Ivan then meets thirteen princesses who are under the spell of Koschei and falls in love with one of them.
Then later:
Exhausted, the creatures and Koschei then fall into a deep sleep. While they sleep, the Firebird directs Ivan to a tree stump where the casket with the egg containing Koschei’s soul is hidden. Ivan destroys the egg, and with the spell broken and Koschei dead, the magical creatures that Koschei held captive are freed and the palace disappears. All of the “real” beings, including the princesses, awaken …
I don’t believe SJM will do a literal retelling but instead, similar to what she did with Beauty and the Beast and the legend of Tam Lin in ACOTAR (the first book), draw on elements from the source material but combine it with her own world building to tell us a new version. The only players I feel sure would play a role in a retelling of this in the ACOTAR universe are Lucien (Ivan/Ilya), Vassa (the Firebird), and Koschei (Koschei).
More thoughts after the break that contain ACOSF SPOILERS about my ideas for what could happen in future books, given the above lore I think SJM is drawing on.
Maybe Az’s books will be next and the conflict with the Illyrians will result in a type of civil war situation where the night court lost control of them so it threatens the power they have thus tossing the night court and the world of ACOTAR in chaos because the most powerful court is falling apart so their enemies would want to attack as well. they’ll have to deal with that during the book and the aftermath of it (the clean up if you will) that would take place in the third book meaning that someone else will have to go deal with Koschei, enter lucien and Elain.
