Slavic Warrior Women, pt. 17: Vasilisa Mikulishna
Link to my full dissertation, Amazons, Shieldmaidens, and Daring Polianitsy: Slavic Warrior Women in Medieval Literature and Folklore: https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/r207tq787
Time for Slavic Warrior Women, part 17! Today we’ll discuss our second polianitsa, the elder of the two Mikulishna sisters, Vasilisa.
Across the many variants and several versions of their narratives, multiple patronymics are assigned to the warrior sisters Vasilisa and Nastasia: Mikulish(ch)na and Nikulish(ch)na are the most common, and rarely, Vikulichna. Despite being sisters, they seldom appear in the same bylina, and when they do, one is mentioned only in passing in relation to the sister whose narrative dominates that particular plot. Vasilisa is usually described as the elder of the two.[1] Like Nastasia Korolevichna, Vasilisa and Nastasia Mikulishna are frequently characterized as Lithuanian princesses, but upon occasion their father is instead a Polish king. Conversely, they are commonly understood as the daughters of the bogatyr Mikula, who is neither foreign nor a king, but rather a Russian plowman from Novgorod. The combination of the Slavic tradition of legendary plowman as progenitors of dynasties and the potential existence of a boyar in Novgorod named Mikula, who fathered at least one daughter, further muddles the sisters’ origins while simultaneously granting a level of credibility to their existence.[2]
Vasilisa Mikulishna is best known from the bylina “Stavr Godinovich” as the polianitsa who disguises herself as a man and fools the prince in order to rescue her husband, whom the prince had imprisoned. The plot of a cross-dressing heroine saving a male relative is a widespread one, not only in other branches of Slavic folklore, but in folklore across Europe.[3] As with “Dunai,” even though the heroic action of the tale belongs to a polianitsa, the bylina itself is named for her husband. To add insult to injury, while Dunai at least performs some heroics early in the tale when he duels Nastasia Korolevichna, Stavr is no bogatyr. In fact, Vasilisa’s hapless husband spends almost the entirety of the bylina locked away in Vladimir’s dungeon due to his own folly. Despite the title character’s absence and ineffectuality, “Stavr Godinovich” is a popular bylina with more than 50 variants on record.[4]
Some contemporary scholars posit that Stavr Godinovich may have been based on a real person—another boyar in Novgorod—yet the bylina is set in Kyiv.[5] Typical of Kyivan-Heroic byliny, “Stavr Godinovich” opens at one of Vladimir’s feasts, but Vasilisa is not in attendance. Rather, the members of Vladimir’s court are taking their turns boasting about their wealth, wives, and accomplishments. Noticing Stavr’s silence, the prince pressures him to join in. Stavr replies that he has nothing exceptional to boast about except for his wife, who is so clever, she could outwit the entire court, including Vladimir.[6] The prince imprisons Stavr for the implication that anyone, let alone a woman, could outwit him. Bragging about a wife’s beauty is perfectly acceptable; bragging about her brain is grounds for incarceration.
When the news of her husband’s misfortune reaches her, Vasilisa determines that the best way to save him would be through subterfuge since Vladimir would not respect the request of a woman, not even that of a daring polianitsa. Though her reputation as a warrior precedes her, she realizes she could not rescue her husband through brute force alone. He would be executed as soon as she arrived. Instead, she disguises herself as a man and gathers a druzhina of archers and wrestlers to accompany her to Vladimir’s court. She leaves her druzhina camped outside the city, charging them to enter only if anything goes awry.[7] At court, she introduces herself as an ambassador from a neighboring kingdom to which Kyiv owes twelve years of unpaid tribute. Vasilisa, in the guise of Vasily the ambassador, demands the unpaid tribute, but offers the caveat that should Vladimir be unable or unwilling to pay, then she would accept a marriage to his niece Zabava instead.[8] In a later version, Vasilisa makes no pretense of being an ambassador, but pretends solely to woo the prince’s niece.[9] Interestingly, Zabava is the only one in the entire court to see through Vasilisa’s manly disguise.
Prince Vladimir chastises his niece for her perceived foolishness, but he decides to alleviate her concerns by posing a series of tests to validate Vasilisa-as-Vasily’s masculinity. The details of these tests vary, but one always involves archery. As a proper polianitsa, Vasilisa easily accomplishes whatever military feats Vladimir requires of her, defeating her opponents in wrestling or besting them with bow or sword. In some variants, the prince tests her gender by less aggressive means, such as dispatching servants to her chambers to check the imprint her body left in the bed, a test which Vasilisa passes by sleeping with her feet positioned at the head of the bed to conceal her feminine ratio of hips to shoulders. Another common test trope involves bathing in a banya. Whatever the specifics of each test, they usually come as a set of three, corresponding to the ‘Difficult Task’ identified by Propp.[10]
After Vasilisa passes Vladimir’s assorted tests, Zabava remains unconvinced, but the prince insists on going ahead with the wedding. In one version, Vasilisa reveals herself before the ceremony occurs, humiliating Vladimir and his court and demanding that he release her husband while they are still reeling from the realization that they had been so thoroughly fooled. Vladimir complies, accepting that the boast for which he had imprisoned Stavr had been proven true. In the more common version, Vasilisa derides Vladimir’s choice of musicians at the celebratory feast, prodding him until they bring Stavr up from the dungeon to play the gusli. Vasilisa drops hints to Stavr about her identity, often with erotic undertones, but he fails to recognize his wife.[11] Vasilisa then convinces Vladimir to exchange her marriage to Zabava with keeping Stavr as her personal gusli player, and so the two reunite with Vasilisa’s druzhina and escape.[12] Only once they are away from the court does Stavr finally recognize his wife.
In addition to a potential connection to actual persons in the early history of Novgorod, this bylina is significant for several reasons. Some scholars suggest that, through the activity of Vasilisa, the bylina reflects women’s higher status among the ancient Slavs and in early Rus’ compared to subsequent centuries – another callback to a potential prehistoric matriarchy.[13] However, in order to achieve her goals, Vasilisa must don the guise of a man. She cannot complete her daring rescue as a woman, despite being superior in ability to the best of Vladimir’s men. Her warrior prowess is not enough on its own; she must pretend to be a man, thereby undermining an interpretation that, even as an extraordinary woman, she could have enjoyed the same rights and status as a man at the time of her tale. Vasilisa’s masquerade also contrasts the magical gender transformation that occurs at the end of fairy tales corresponding to tale type ATU 514, which conclude with the heroine’s manly disguise becoming realized, so that she, now a genuine he, can marry the princess.[14] It is clear throughout “Stavr Godinovich” that while Vasilisa wears her disguise compellingly, it remains a disguise, never becoming an authentic identity.[15] She acts as a man, and she passes the same series of trials to test her masculinity as in the other tale type, but she does not become a man. Being a woman and a warrior are not mutually exclusive states of being; they are both integral aspects of Vasilisa’s identity.
Although Stavr praises her cleverness at the outset of the bylina and it is generally considered her cleverness that makes her ruse successful, it is Vasilisa’s military abilities that ultimately allow her to succeed. If she were less capable as a warrior, she would not have been able to pass the tests and fool Vladimir, and so she would not have been able to free her husband, nor would she have held a druzhina to command. She is, first and foremost, a polianitsa. She is also very much her father’s daughter. Mikula the bogatyr possesses superhuman strength. He is the only one strong enough to lift his plow or pick up his bag. Similarly, Vasilisa is the only one who can wield her bow. An entire druzhina could not make Mikula’s plow budge from where he left it. Similarly, not even ten men working together could draw Vasilisa’s bow.[16] The bylina may be named for her quite ordinary husband, but the obvious hero is Vasilisa.[17]
Yet, Stavr is not Vasilisa’s only husband, at least according to some byliny. Whereas the male bogatyri have multiple adventures ascribed to them across the vast canon of byliny, the female polianitsy have multiple husbands. If these warrior women indeed trace back to ancient Scythians, for whom monogamy was optional and marriages tended to be brief, historical precedence exists for a polianitsa’s association with more than one romantic partner. In most variants of the rarely recorded bylina “Danila Lovchanin,” Vasilisa Mikulishna is the wife of the titular character.[18] This bylina begins much as most byliny do, including the previous tale from which Vasilisa is known: at a feast hosted by Prince Vladimir, during which everyone is boasting. In another stock interlude typical of the bride-taking theme, Vladimir ends the boasting by lamenting his lack of a suitable bride. Those in attendance suggest that the prince wed Vasilisa Mikulishna, because she is the only woman who is sufficiently pious and possesses both a beautiful face and a sharp mind, and is thus the only woman worthy of being their empress. However, Vladimir objects since she is already married to the bogatyr Danila Lovchanin.
To overcome this obstacle, Vladimir and his court devise a ruse to dispatch Danila by means of an impossible hunt, the specifics of which vary, but the ruse always begins with a hunt of some form. Ilya Muromets argues against the plan, and so Vladimir imprisons the bogatyr in the cellar—a euphemism, some suggest, for the grave.[19] Sometimes Danila does not fall for the ruse, and sometimes, he does, but his wife is never fooled. Nevertheless, after Danila either defies Vladimir’s orders or completes the impossible mission, he ends up fighting against the other bogatyri sent by Vladimir to finish the job. In some variants Danila recognizes his brother among his opponents and so, in despair at the prospect of fighting his own blood, he commits suicide. Other times, he realizes that he has displeased his prince, and so takes his own life because of that realization. When Vasilisa learns of her husband’s suicide and Vladimir’s desire to marry her, she initially appears to acquiesce. Yet, she brings a knife with her to the wedding ceremony. Right before they wed, she stabs herself in the chest. Upon witnessing her death, Vladimir regrets his decisions and decides to release Ilya Muromets from the dungeon.[20]
Both “Stavr Godinovich” and “Danila Lovchanin” revolve around the theme of bride-taking, but Vasilisa Mikulishna’s role in each bylina is reversed. Nevertheless, she remains a warrior. In “Stavr Godinovich” she is the pursuer. Whether or not she disguises herself as an ambassador, she presents as a suitor for Vladimir’s niece, and after proving herself worthy through a series of tests, she earns her bride. It is only by revealing her true self that she subverts the typical fairytale ending of a wedding, reclaiming her feminine identity along with her husband. However, in “Danila Lovchanin” Vasilisa is not the pursuer, but the object of pursuit. Vladimir conspires to take Vasilisa as his bride, and so he cannot leave her husband alive. Additionally, in both byliny she relies on violent means to achieve her ends, but those ends are likewise reversed. In “Stavr Godinovich,” she seeks to save her husband so that they can be reunited, and her violence is directed outward. In “Danila Lovchanin,” saving her husband is impossible, so instead she seeks to join him in death, thus directing her violence inward at herself. She is an active player throughout the first bylina, and seemingly passive in the second, yet she seizes an active role by determining her own fate at the end. The details of her narrative may change, but her identity as a warrior woman does not.
Next installment, I’ll talk about Vasilisa’s sister, Nastasia Mikulishna!
Citations:
[1] L. A. Magnus, The Heroic Ballads of Russia (Leopold Classic Library, 1921): 26 and 52; Bailey and Ivanova, trans. and eds., Anthology of Russian Folk Epics, 266. Rarely, a third sister is mentioned, sometimes named Katerina or Apraxia, but she is never described as a polianitsa except when replacing Vasilisa or Nastasia in a variant. When she does play any sort of individual role in a tale, it is as Apraxia, the ideal princess.
[2] Kozlov, “Za chto nakazali Stavra Godinovicha,” 41.
[3] Vlasova, Skomorkhi i fol’klor, 207.
[4] Ibid., 204; Bailey and Ivanova, trans. and eds., Anthology of Russian Folk Epics, 264; K. N. Pan, “Introduction to the Analysis of Gender in the ATU 514 Fairy Tale Type on Examples from the Balkans,” Studia Mythologica Slavica 16 (2013): 173.
[5] Kozlov, “Za chto nakazali Stavra Godinovicha,” 38.
[6] Stavr declares of Vasilisa, “Уж как она бы здесь всех вас дак продала-купила бы, / А тебя-де, Владимера, с ума свела!” lines 38-39, recorded from a 1964 performance by V. I. Lageev and E. N. Kirilova, who in turn compiled their script from two earlier variants recorded by Danilov and Gilferding.
[7] “Я поеду одна дак в стольной Киёв-град, / И есле случи́тце со мной дак всё несчастьицо — / Приезжайте-ко вы ко мне да выручите!” Ibid., lines 137-139
[8] In some variants, Vladimir’s niece is named Apraxia, thereby corresponding to the archetype of the perfect princess, and sometimes she is described as his daughter.
[9] Bailey and Ivanova, trans. and eds., Anthology of Russian Folk Epics, 264-265; Vlasova, Skomorkhi i fol’klor, 204-206.
[10] Pan, “Introduction to the Analysis of Gender,” 168.
[11] For example, a popular hint Vasilisa offers Stavr goes, “The silver nail was yours, / And the gilded ring was mine, / I hit the mark from time to time, / But you hit the mark every time.” Bailey and Ivanova, trans. and eds., Anthology of Russian Folk Epics, 276.
[12] Vasilisa says to Vladimir, after Stavr plays, “Мне не надо твою ныньче племянницу, / Уж ты только отдай мне Ставра сына Годинова!” lines 246-247, Lageev and Kirilova.
[13] Vlasova, Skomorkhi i fol’klor, 208.
[14] Pan, “Introduction to the Analysis of Gender,” 171.
[15] Petukhov, “Arkhaicheskie sledy matrimonial’nykh otnoshenii,” 63.
[16] Novikov and Perfilova, “Maskulinnost’ i zhenstvennost’ geroev,” 103.
[17] Savchenko, “Integratsiia zhenskikh tipov v kontsepte ‘Geroid’,” 159. Savchenko observes the literary trend of extraordinary women who avenge their ordinary husbands, linking Vasilisa’s rescue of Stavr with Olga’s revenge against the Drevlians. Savchenko poses the question, would we even remember Igor if not for Olga? Based on Zuckerman’s analysis suggesting Igor only reigned for three years, whereas Olga would have reigned for significantly longer and had a much more eventful—and successful—rule, I would argue the answer to Savchenko’s question is no, we would not remember Igor if Olga had been ordinary.
[18] In some variants Vasilisa’s sister Nastasia is given the role of Danila’s wife, and sometimes it goes to a third sister, Katerina or Apraxia, instead.
[19] D. G. Litinskaia, A. A. Kononova, and R. Iu. Kunchinov, “Poteria sub”ektnosti pri perezhivanii goria: zhenshchina v muzhskom plat’e,” Nauchnyi elektronnyi zhurnal ARTIKUL’T 36, no. 4 (2019): 138.
[20] Vladimir Ia. Propp and B. N. Putilov, eds., “Danila Lovchanin,” Byliny (Gosudasrvennoe izdatel’stvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1958): 251-258 and 457. Another version of “Danila Lovchanin,” as paraphrased by N. E. Onchukov from a performance by Anisim Vokuev in Pechora, names Danila’s wife as Ovdot’ia, and Vasilisa Mikulishna is instead the one sent to inform Ovdot’ia of her husband’s death and Prince Vladimir’s intent to marry her, rather than the prince showing up himself. In this version, Vasilisa gets to live, since it is Danila’s wife—a role here given to another—who necessarily dies to make this bylina a tragedy. Yet, apart from avoiding death, Onchukov tells us nothing of the polianitsa’s ultimate fate in his summary. Apparently Vokuev’s performance sparked a debate among the other byliny singers present at the recital who added further details on the outcomes ascribed to different characters, but Vasilisa was not among those addressed.
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