Fairy tale nerds of Tumblr I need your help.
I've been trying to find a fairy tale for AGES, this has been almost a decades long quest. I first read it in a Highlights magazine around the mid 2000s, when the theme was "Fairy Tales from around the World." Now I don't know if this is actually an older fairy tale or just one that was made up for the magazine masquerading as a story from somewhere else. I've done my own research and have come up zilch.
So, this story was about a prince that was cursed to be a wolf until he was able to bite a bride the night of her wedding. Well, it just so happens that such a woman is riding through the forest with her new beau, a very uncouth man that calls her his "little chicken." Long story short, a pack of wolves waylay their carriage, the wolf prince bites the lady, becomes human again, and they fall in love and marry.
And what happened to her original husband?
Well naturally he gets turned into a chicken and they eat him at their wedding feast.
Classic.
if anyone knows the title of this fairy tale or where it may have originated, please let me know! I'd love to see if I can read it again.
Update: I've contacted Highlights magazine to get to the bottom of this and they notified their Archive Department of what I'm looking for.
Hoping to hear something back! It would be just my luck to remember this story in excruciating detail only to get the magazine where I found it wrong.
Update: Bad news, I'm afraid. Unfortunately the archive department couldn't find the story in their records so I guess I've hit a bit of a dead end here.
Someone mentioned asking a subreddit to cast a wider net, though first I would have to, you know, actually make a reddit account.
Well, I guess the twenty year hunt continues.
Have you looked at the microfilm on here?
Since it only goes to 2006, I don't know if you'd find it, or if you even want to know badly enough to spend the time going through the microfilm haha.
Actually, nevermind, the heading says it goes to 2006 but it actually only goes to 01, sorry!
I found it! It's called The Wolf and the Wedding by Svetlana Ilyinykh and Rachelle Desimone, and is from Feb 2005. But! It's on a database at my university's library, which I have access to because I work here. But! The little note at the bottom says users may print, download, and email articles for individual use, so:
A Story of Russia
In Ksusha's village of Chudovo, everyone knew the wolf. He appeared at the edge of the forest whenever there was a wedding feast. He'd sit on his haunches and watch the dancing, singing, and eating, his eyes alert and eager and fixed on the bride.
So when it was time for Ksusha Prekrasnaya to marry, she told her funny, beloved, strong Alyosha that they must wed in Budogoshch, a town with a proper church that was some miles away, too far for the lone wolf to travel.
The wedding was elegant and fine. The feast afterward was even better. Ksusha's parents and her grandparents, Babushka and Dedushka, had filled the hall with fragrant dishes of stuffed fish and grilled quail with kissel and scalded spice cakes for dessert. Alyosha ate and drank, ate and drank, and then drank and drank.
Ksusha reminded him, gently and lovingly as a good wife should, that he must stop drinking and take her and the rest of the wedding party home to Chudovo.
Alyosha turned to his friends Ivan, Roma, Dima, Stas, and Valya, who were refilling their glasses. "My wife wants to go home!" the bridegroom yelled. "A good sign for a prosperous marriage, is it not?"
Ivan, Roma, Dima, Stas, and Valya laughed, and Ksusha Prekrasnaya, red-faced, stared at her plate.
At midnight, Alyosha staggered up from the table. "Come, my little chicken," he said, gathering Ksusha and her family into his beautiful troika. His three fine horses snorted nervously at his touch.
"We go!" the bridegroom called, and the horses took off, trotting fast on the road through the forest that led to Chudovo.
The wedding party wasn't yet deep into the woods when the wolves appeared. They stood by trees, silent and watching, as the sleigh moved on the icy path. A lone wolf under a massive cedar howled a greeting, and the wolves began loping behind the sleigh.
Ksusha and her family watched as the path filled with ten wolves, then twenty, then thirty. Soon one hundred wolves followed the sleigh.
Alyosha snapped the whip to hurry his horses. The wolves began to howl.
Ksusha had heard wolves howl before, but never this many and this close. The sound was terrifying, and the bride huddled next to her funny, beloved, strong Alyosha.
"We must stop this pursuit, my little chicken," Alyosha said. "They will tire my poor horses. Hold the reins and keep driving." And with those words, he reached back, pulled Ksusha's grandmother from her seat, and threw her out of the sleigh.
Immediately there was a yipping and squealing, and twenty of the wolves dropped back, surrounding the fallen babushka.
Alyosha took the reins from his Ksusha, who could not speak. Still eighty or more wolves followed the sleigh, now leaping at the wedding party, their teeth gleaming in the moonlit night.
"Hold the reins again, my little chicken," Alyosha said, this time reaching back and pulling Ksusha's grandfather from his seat and throwing him out of the sleigh.
Again there was a yipping and squealing, and twenty of the wolves dropped back, surrounding the fallen dedushka.
Alyosha took the reins from his Ksusha, who could not move. Still sixty or more wolves followed the sleigh, jumping and twisting in the air and snapping their teeth at the wedding party. Alyosha cracked his whip over each horse three times, and the horses galloped faster.
Still the wolves pursued the party. Alyosha handed the reins to Ksusha. He reached back and pulled Ksusha's father from his seat and threw him out of the sleigh. A great yipping and squealing followed, and twenty more wolves dropped back.
Now the wolves began nipping at the horses' legs. Alyosha threw out Ksusha's mother. Twenty more wolves dropped off, but still a small group remained, leaping higher and biting at the horses' flanks.
Alyosha threw out Ksusha's young sister, and at first, it seemed that would be the last of the wolves, for the small group surrounded the sister with a yipping and a squealing. But a lone wolf remained, chasing the sleigh and leaping at the two remaining passengers.
Alyosha tucked the reins between his legs. Ksusha couldn't breathe. As the lone wolf leaped, the not-so-funny, not-so-beloved, but still strong Alyosha pulled Ksusha from her seat and threw her out of the sleigh.
She landed, rolling across the ice in her taffeta wedding gown until she was soaked and dirty. When she stopped rolling, she slowly sat up and found herself staring into the eyes of the lone wolf.
A howl came from the wolf. Then he bit her.
It wasn't a big bite, but it broke the skin on her leg. A few drops of blood appeared, and Ksusha screamed.
"Don't yell so," the wolf said. "I won't bite you again." Ksusha looked up and saw the wolf changing shape. Pointed ears became flat circular flaps, the long nose receded, the sharp teeth shortened, and the fur shrank into fine soft hair.
Standing before Ksusha was a handsome young man. "I am Sergei," he said, bowing low before her. "Let me take you to my castle where I can fix your wound."
Ksusha held on to his arm and limped through the forest. She glanced anxiously around her.
"What is your worry?" the man said.
"The wolves may return."
He smiled. "I am great friends with the wolves. You will never have to fear them again. You see, an enchantress who inhabits this forest changed me into a wolf some years ago after I refused to marry her. Her spell could only be lifted if I, a wolf, would bite the leg of a bride on her wedding day. Since then, I have lived with the wolves and waited to meet my perfect bride."
They arrived at the man's castle. Ksusha trembled as she saw dozens of wolves lying under the trees, licking their paws.
"Don't be frightened, my dear," Sergei said, his arm around Ksusha.
"But they killed my parents, my grandparents, and my sister."
At that moment the door to the castle opened, and out rushed Ksusha's family, completely unharmed and quite happy to see her.
Her father explained how the wolves had surrounded each family member who was thrown from the sleigh, and how the wolves had escorted each to the castle for a joyous reunion.
Sergei asked Ksusha's father for her hand in marriage.
"I'd be most honored to have you for a son-in-law, but it's not possible," Ksusha's father explained. "Ksusha Prekrasnaya is married to Alyosha."
A wolf howled. Sergei tilted his head to listen.
"My friend tells me Alyosha's horses have finally tired, and he is stopped on the path ahead of us. At this very moment, he is engaged in conversation with the enchantress who lives in the forest."
"The one who changed you into a wolf?" Ksusha asked.
"The very same. But she no longer has any power over me. Let us ride to Alyosha's troika."
The wedding party found Alyosha's troika and his three exhausted horses on the road, but the enchantress had disappeared. There was no sign of Alyosha either, although Ksusha did find a bedraggled chicken hiding under the seat. Ksusha picked up the little chicken that smelled strangely of strong drink and tucked it under her arm. She took the chicken home with her, and one fine evening, sometime later, Ksusha popped it into a pot and cooked it as dinner for her new husband, Sergei, the man who once was a wolf.
by Svetlana Ilyinykh and Rachelle DeSimone
@brideofsevenless THIS IS IT!!!!! Oh my god, thank you so so much for researching this! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!
@insanesammi Here's the story!!
