Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What (, translit. Poydi tuda, ne znau kuda, prinesi to, ne znau chto) is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.
Synopsis
A royal hunter shoots a bird; wounded, it begs him not to kill it but to take it home, and when it goes to sleep, strike its head. He does so, and the bird becomes a beautiful woman. She proposes that they marry, and they do. After the marriage, she sees how hard he has to hunt and tells him to borrow one or two hundred rubles. He does so, and then buys silks with them. She conjures two spirits and sets them to make a marvelous carpet. Then she gives the carpet to her husband and tells him to accept whatever price he is given. The merchants do not know how much to pay for it, and finally, the king's steward buys it for ten thousand rubles. The king sees it and gives the steward twenty-five thousand for it.
The steward goes to the hunter's house to get another and sees his wife. He falls madly in love with her, and the king sees it. The steward tells him why, and the king goes himself and sees the hunter's wife. He decides that he should marry her instead and demands the steward devise a way to be rid of the husband. The steward, with a stranger's advice, has him sent to the land of the dead to ask of the former King's behavior, in the hope that he never returns. The hunter being told of this tells his wife. She gives him a magic ring and says that he must take the king's steward with him as a witness, to prove that he really has visited the Underworld. He does. After their return and seeing how the King's father was punished by the devils for his sins, the hunter thinks he fulfilled his duty, but the King becomes angry and just sends him back home. But who really gets the anger of the monarch, is the steward, who is ordered again to find another way to let the hunter disappear, or else the steward will be executed. The man asks again for advice from the stranger and he/she tells him to catch a large man-eating magical cat called Bajun who lives on an iron column in the thrice tenth kingdom. But against all their evil plans, the hunter catches the beast, with the help of his wife.
The king is enraged with the steward, who again goes to the same stranger. This time, the steward tells the king to send the hunter to "go I know not whither and bring back I know not what." The wife conjures spirits and all the beasts and birds to see if they know how to "go I know not whither and bring back I know not what." Then she goes out to sea and summons all the fish. But none of them can help her, so she gives him a ball, which if rolled before him would lead him where he needs to go, and a handkerchief, with directions to wipe his face with it whenever he washes. He leaves. The king sends a carriage for his "wife". She turns back into a bird and leaves.
Her husband finally comes to the old witch Baba Yaga. She gives him food and lets him rest; then she brings him water to wash. He wipes his face not with their towel but his handkerchief. She recognizes it as their sister's. She questions him, and he tells his story. The witch, who had never heard of something like that, knows an old frog who she thinks may know something.
Baba Yaga gives him a jug to carry the frog, which can not walk fast enough. He does so, and the frog directs him to a river, where it tells him to get on the frog, and it swells large enough to carry him across. There, it directs him to listen to the old men who will arrive soon. He does and hears them summon "Shmat Razum" to serve them. Then the old men leave, and he hears Shmat Razum lament how they treated him. The men ask Shmat Razum to serve the hunter instead, and Shmat Razum agrees.
Shmat Razum carries him back. The hunter stops at a golden arbor, where he meets three merchants. With Shmat Razum's directions, he exchanges his servant for three marvels, which could summon up a garden, a fleet of ships, and an army. But after a day, Shmat Razum returns to the hunter.
In his own country, the hunter has Shmat Razum build a castle. His wife returns to him there. The former king of the country sees the castle and marches against the hunter. The new king, with the help of his wife, summons the fleet and the army. They defeat the other king and the hunter is chosen as the king in his place.
Analysis Tale type Russian scholarship classifies the tale, in the East Slavic Folktale Classification (), as tale type SUS 465A, "Красавица-жена («Пойди туда, не знаю куда»)" ("Beautiful Wife ('Go Somewhere, I Don't Know Where')"): a royal archer (or a poor man) marries a supernatural maiden; the emperor, wishing to have her to himself, sends the archer on difficult quests he accomplishes with his wife's help.Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. pp. 137-138. The East Slavic type corresponds, in the international Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, to type ATU 465, "The Man persecuted because of his beautiful wife", and its former subtype, AaTh 465A, "The Quest for the Unknown".Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 159. This tale type involves a unmarried man capturing an animal and bringing it home. When the man is not at home, the animal takes off its animal skin and becomes a beautiful maiden. The hunter returns, burns the skin and marries the maiden. Some time later, an emperor, lord or nobleman of superior rank lusts after the wife of supernatural origin and sends the mortal husband on impossible quests.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 92. .Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 370.
In the third revision of the international index, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther subsumed subtypes AaTh 465A, AaTh 465B, AaTh 465C and AaTh 465D under a single tale type, ATU 465.Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 273. .
Role of the animal bride Professor Susan Hoogasian-Villa mentioned variants where the hero (a prince or a hunter) marries a maiden that becomes an aquatic animal (mostly fish, but sometimes a frog or a tortoise) or a kind of bird.Hoogasian-Villa, Susie. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1966. pp. 480-482. Graham Anderson also noted that the supernatural wife in this tale type appears to show "amphibious connections", since she wears the disguise of a water animal (fish, turtle, frog).Anderson, Graham (2000). Fairytale in the ancient world. Routledge. p. 186. .
Scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, in the Arab and Palestinian parallels they gathered, noted that the human husband is a fisherman "in most other [tales]".Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 370. . Likewise, Greek researcher Marilena Papachristophorou described that, in Greek variants, the animal bride comes in the shape of a turtle and the human husband is "usually a fisherman". Folklorist noted the resemblance between a Belarusian variant and tales from Asian peoples wherein a poor and destitute youth marries the daughter of a god.Barag, Lev. Belorussische Volksmärchen. Akademie-Verlag, 1966. p. 608.
Scholar Joanna Hubbs interpreted the tale under a mythological lens, and stated that the female characters of the story are representations of a powerful female divinity. Thus, in the tale, the male hunter achieves the happy ending due to the actions of his wife and her magical family.Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 1993. p. 3-4. . Likewise, scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana stated that "in each case [of every tale]", the male protagonist is helped by his wife and her relatives (mother and/or sisters).Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 370. .
Role of the hero's rival Some scholars point out the hero's main rival may be his own father."Абхазские народные сказки" [Abkhazian Folk Tales]. Москва: Наука, 1975. p. 443 (tale nr. 27). The paternal antagonist also occurs in Greek variants, according to scholars Anna Angelopoulou and Aigle Broskou.Angelopoulou, Anna; Broskou, Aigle. "ΕΠΕΞΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΙΑΚΩΝ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΩΝ AT 300-499". Tome B: AT 400-499. Athens, Greece: ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ Ε.Ι.Ε. 1999. p. 910.
Armenian scholarship suggests that tale type ATU 465 underlies a theme of incest, reminiscent of the Greek myth of Oedipus. For instance, Tamar Hayrapetyan argues that an "archaic" version may preserve the hero's father lusting after his own daughter-in-law, while later tradition excises the incest theme altogether and replaces the father for a stranger.Hayrapetyan Tamar. "Combinaisons archétipales dans les epopees orales et les contes merveilleux armeniens". Traduction par Léon Ketcheyan. In: Revue des etudes Arméniennes tome 39 (2020). pp. 494, 500-502.
Variants Professor Stith Thompson argued that the tale is "essentially East European", "at home in Russia", but could also be found in the Near East, in Baltic"Das Märchen vom roten Meere". In: Löwis of Menar, August von: Finnische und estnische Volksmärchen. Jena: Eugen Diederichs. 1922. pp. 123-130 and 294."Die lebende Kantele". In: Löwis of Menar, August von: Finnische und estnische Volksmärchen. Jena: Eugen Diederichs. 1922. pp. 134-140 and 294. and Scandinavian countries.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 92-93. . According to Japanese scholar Seki Keigo, the tale type is "common in eastern Europe, India, and China".Seki, Keigo. Folktales of Japan. Translated by Robert J. Adams. University of Chicago Press. 1963. p. 170. .
Literary predecessors The oldest attestation of the tale type is found in ancient East Asian literature of the 7th century, namely Chinese and Japanese.Marzolph, Ulrich; van Leewen, Richard. The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. Vol. I. California: ABC-Clio. 2004. p. 81. (e-book) Seki Keigo pinned down its appearance in some literary collections of his country, such as in Nihongi, the Ryoi-ki and the .Seki, Keigo. Folktales of Japan. Translated by Robert J. Adams. University of Chicago Press. 1963. p. 170. .
Scholar David Blamires argues for the existence of the tale type in the medieval work Gesta Romanorum. In the tale, an emperor is desirous to possess not the knight's wife, but the knight's lands, and orders him to bring a black horse, a black falcon, a black dog and a black horn. The knight's wife guides her husband through the impossible quest.
Europe Professor Jack V. Haney stated that subtypes 465A and 465C appear as the "typical combination" in East Slavic, Baltic and Turkic,Haney, Jack, V. An Anthology of Russian Folktales. London and New York: Routledge. 2015 . p. 76. . but type 465C only appears in Northeastern Europe and in Turkic traditions.
In a "Cossack" (Ukrainian) tale, The Story of Ivan and the Daughter of the Sun, the peasant Ivan obtains a wife in the form of a dove maiden whose robe he stole when she was bathing. Some time later, a nobleman lusts after Ivan's dove maiden wife and plans to get rid of the peasant.Bain, R. Nisbet. Cossack fairy tales and folk tales. London: G.G. Harrap & Co.. 1916. pp. 183-187.