Morozko

A stepmother had two girls under her roof: her own child and a stepdaughter. Soft words and praise showered on the first no matter what she did; the second could do nothing right. In truth the stepdaughter was gentle and good, but under that roof she cried every day. Bitter weather may pass; a bitter tongue is harder to escape. The woman decided she could not bear the sight of the girl any longer.

“Take her out of my eyes,” she told her husband. “Cart her wherever you please—only not into the warm room beside my darling. Dump her in the open fields for the biting frost to finish.” The father wept, yet he obeyed. He set the girl in the sledge, dared not even wrap the horse-cloth around her, drove into the bare fields, left her on a snowdrift, crossed himself, and raced home so he would not watch her die.

She sat under a fir at the forest edge, shaking, praying under her breath. Then the trees snapped and crackled: Frost himself—Morozko, ruby-nosed—was leaping from fir to fir, clicking his fingers. He stopped above her. “Girl, it is I, Morozko!” “You are welcome,” she said. “Heaven must have sent you to a sinful soul like mine.” “Are you warm, girl?” “Warm, warm, dear Father Frost.” He asked a second time, sharper; she gave the same soft answer. A third time, when she could barely speak for cold, she still whispered that she was warm, his little pigeon. Those gentle replies won him. He pitied her, piled furs and warm wraps upon her, fetched a tall heavy chest of bridal clothes, and clothed her in a gown rich with gold and silver. She dressed, shone like a bride, sat down, and sang.

Meanwhile the stepmother fried pancakes for a funeral meal. “Go bury your daughter,” she ordered her husband. He left—but the house dog under the table barked that the old man’s girl was walking in silver and gold while suitors would not glance at the old woman’s. The stepmother stuffed cakes into the dog and ordered a different prophecy; the dog gulped the cakes and barked the same truth. Then the floorboards groaned, the doors swung wide, and men carried in the tall chest—followed by the stepdaughter glittering in gold and silver like the sun. The stepmother threw up her hands.

“Hitch the horses,” she cried. “Take my own girl to that same field, that same spot, at once!” The father did. Morozko came and asked if she was warm. “Get away!” snapped the spoiled daughter. “Can’t you see my hands and feet are dead with cold?” Soft answers were not in her. Frost took offence and froze her stiff.

“Fetch my daughter,” the stepmother ordered. “Swift horses—and do not tip the chest.” The dog barked that suitors would marry the old man’s child, but of the old woman’s they would bring home only bones. Cake could not buy a kinder prophecy. The doors opened; the woman rushed out to hug her child and clasped a corpse. Then she howled, knowing envy and spite had cost her daughter.

Where this story comes from

“Morozko” is a Russian folktale, not an Indian one. This version follows R. Nisbet Bain’s Russian Fairy Tales from the Skazki of Polevoi (third edition, London, 1901). Bain explains that the historian Peter Polevoi chose about three dozen tales from Afanasiev’s great collection and published them for children in St Petersburg in 1874, softening their rougher parts.

Bain’s footnote says Morozko is a pet form of moroz, “frost”, and that “Jack Frost” is perhaps the nearest English name. He adds that it was the one tale in his book already known in English, from W. R. S. Ralston’s Russian Folk Tales.

The second daughter still freezes to death, as in Bain; the severity of this outcome deserves discussion rather than approval.

Read the original: R. Nisbet Bain, Russian Fairy Tales from the Skazki of Polevoi (Project Gutenberg #34705, Morozko)

Suggested for older readers within ages 9–12 with an adult: includes parental abandonment, threatened murder and a child freezing to death.

Who is responsible for the danger?

The stepmother orders the abandonment, and the father carries it out despite knowing the danger. Both girls are placed at risk by adults. The second girl’s truthful complaint about cold does not make death a fair punishment. Meanwhile the dog refuses to alter its report for cakes: the stepmother can command people, but cannot buy the ending she wants.

Separate reward from justice

Compare what each girl says with what each adult does. Identify whose choices create the danger. Then rewrite the father’s response to the first command so that he protects the child.

Talk about it

• Why did the stepdaughter keep saying she was warm when she was freezing?
• The little dog kept telling the truth even when it was bribed with cakes. Why do you think the story includes the dog?
• Is Morozko fair to both girls? Explain your answer.

Related stories

• Father Frost — another Russian tale of Frost testing a kind girl and her unkind stepsister
• Vasilisa the Beautiful — a Russian stepdaughter sent into the forest to face Baba Yaga
• Mother Holle — a Grimm tale where a hard-working girl is rewarded and a lazy one is not