#Vasilisa the Beautiful

[alexidoesart]

Many folktales throughout different cultures feature a heroine being given the impossible task of sorting through grains/seeds-- whether that be picking them from the ashes, from between each other, or from their rotting counterparts.

In this task, she often does as much as she can before submitting to a higher power, whether that power recognizes her virtue or she directly asks for help varies based on the culture and tale.

Featured are eight such tales, most of which can be categorized into “Snake Bride” (ATU 425) type tales or “Cinderella” (Both often ATU 510 in the folklore index-- Cinderellas are specifically ATU 510A)

The circle puts them in no particular order, as “origins”  and lineages are muddied, and many of the current incarnations have been influenced by each other, though Ye Xian is the oldest known “complete” version of Cinderella.

Snake Brides:

Psyche, Eros and Psyche (Greco-Roman)

Sukkia, The Snake’s Bride (India)

Donan Sampakang Tale about Gansaļangi and Donan Sampakang (Indonesian)

Cinderellas:

Aschenputtel (German)

Tam, Tấm and Cám (Vietnam)

Unnamed Heroine The Wonderful Birch (Finish & Slavic)

Ye Xian (Chinese)

Neither (ATU 480B-- Stepmother and Stepdaughter)

Vasilisa, Vasilisa the Wise (or Beautiful) (Slavic)

[russianfolklore]

Viktor Britvin's illustration for russian tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful".

[thefugitivesaint]

Robin Jacques (1920-1995), 'Vasilisa', ''A Book of Enchantments and Curses'' by Ruth Manning-Sanders, 1976 Source

[uglygirlstatus]

Василиса прекрасная — Vasilisa the Beautiful (1977 short film)

[mattievictoria]

My drawing of Vasilisa The Beautiful for the final day of Folktale Week! I made it just in time ✨ For “Found”, I decided to depict the scene where Vasilisa has just been gifted the boon of light by Baba Yaga for completing all of her tasks, and with burning skull-staff in hand, Vasilisa quickly and easily finds her way home through the dark forest. I decided to try my hand at a different sort of fairy tale/illustration style for this drawing, and it was fun, but also challenging. I’ve been asked many times over the years to draw Vasilisa, and I’m glad I finally got the chance to!

[princess-ibri]

Fire princess as fire bird?

Actually I think I’d do Vasalisa as a fire princess! So still Slavic like the firebird, but just a different fairytale:)

referencing this post about elemental princesses by @panbelle !

[piroshky]

Pushkin’s Vasilisa the Beautiful, illustrated by Aleksandr Koshkin, 1994.  

[quiet-art-kid]

an Ever After High oc : Lily beautiful, daughter of Vasilisa the beautiful

Lily is the daughter if the slavic frog princess. She is related in some way to Hopper Crokington, second cousins probably. She really enjoys math, history and sciences, but since her fairytale only requires her to know how to sew, bake and dance, that’s were most of her classes are, which leads her to often being bored and dissatisfied. She won’t say anything though, she’s a royal through and through. She’s also a bit of a teachers pet and perfectionist. Her best friend forever after is Lisa Wise, daughter of Vasilisa the wise, a rebel that’s always trying to get Lily to stand up for what she believes in. Has absolutely no desire for a romantic partner or to get married, despite her fairytale, and hates the fact that she will one day have to.

[vermillion-vulture]

Lmao does this count as fanart? Either way, here's Vasilisa! The protag from one of my all time favourite folktales.

Plus the glowing skull of course, the unsung hero of the story.

[maysoulrose]

This is Vasilisa the Beautiful. A Russian fairytale, from a beautifully animated film I grew up watching and hold dear to my heart.

I love the art style so much, I tried to incorporate it into my piece here, while still adding my personal style and flairs to it!

I really loved mimicking this style with all the shapes and details. It was really relaxing just throwing in whatever I felt like. I also LOVE drawing water like this!!! Just squished ovals all over hehe.

I drew this with the intension of using it as an embroidery guide... so hopefully I'll do that!

Also, upon looking for my first fanart I did, I found that I did it exactly 10 years ago! It's nice to see my progress as an artist <3

If you want to watch the Soviet film it's here on youtube! There's probably English subtitles, but I just listen to it as it is and enjoy the visual storytelling.

[cliriq]

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1A, MATCH 3 OUT OF 16!

*Includes Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault tales.

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Cinderella / Aschenputtel / Cendrillon:

I love all Cinderellas but the Grimm version refocuses the story away from magical aid and transforms it into a story of the ability of grief to conversely power hope. ashenputtel weeps over the grave of her dead mother so much a beautiful tree grows out,  with the voice of her mother guiding her and giving her the gown and shoes that ultimately get her to the ball. It turns Cinderella from a kind of passive receiver to a woman whose own love, in a way, saves her—her grief cycles into new joys, her love for the dead changes her for a new life. Idk it’s just a tremendously hopeful, haunting story, grounded in sorrow and love as our ways of guiding into the future.

Her slippers aren't made of glass, thankfully. Also, her step-sisters are blinded by birds who like Cinderella, apparently, on the day of the wedding. (I had to check this, as I knew the sisters had parts of their feet cut off to fit the shoe, but I was sure the mother had something bad happen, but there was no mention of a comeuppance for her. I found it on grimmstories.com, so I'm not sure how accurate to the original it is.)

Vasilisa the Beautiful:

Vasilisa is my favorite of the Cinderella-type fairytales in the world. Full stop. It's just so magical and makes me so emotional. Plus, the art out it out there is beautiful!

[lemuseum]

[bigfootboyband]

Vasilisa the Wise

If you'd like to support me, you can do so here <3

[doingartiguess]

By her mother’s blessing was she banished, and by her mother’s blessing did she survive.

Vasilisa the Fair