The Bear and the Nightingale

Winter brings suffering and desperation to Lesnaya Zemlya. Father Konstantin paints mesmerizing religious icons that captivate the villagers. Without offerings from the villagers, the household spirits are left weakened and restless. The vazila grows haggard and begins stealing grain. Vasya secretly supports him by bringing him scraps of food, which restores calm to the stables.

However, as the cold deepens, a village child dies, and wolves close in on the village. Pyotr rallies the men for a hunt despite the dangerous cold. Vasya, concerned for her family, heads into the forest alone to confront the source of the unnatural frost. There, she meets Morozko. She gives him an offering and asks him to stop the cold. He agrees but warns of a greater storm coming, along with fear and fire. The oppressive cold breaks, and the wolves leave.

Dunya dreams of Morozko again, who demands that she give Vasya the necklace he gave her to face the growing darkness. The old woman pleads for another year to prepare Vasya, fearing she is not yet strong enough. Morozko reluctantly agrees.

After the brutal winter, the household spirits, weakened but still present, begin to reappear. Desperate and afraid, Anna turns to Konstantin, who dismisses her concerns and advises prayer, further stoking her obsession with him. However, Konstantin becomes increasingly fixated on Vasya as she challenges his authority and the villagers’ faith in his preaching. His obsession manifests in his art as he accidentally paints Vasya’s green-eyed likeness into an icon.

As spring turns to summer, Vasya secretly learns to ride bareback under the guidance of the vazila and the horses. This new skill strengthens her bond with the natural world but further isolates her from the increasingly fearful and devout community of Lesnaya Zemlya. Her joy in the forest contrasts with the villagers’ unease, as fires break out and the summer heat scorches the barley fields.

One day, Vasya finds Father Konstantin being lured into the lake by a rusalka, a water spirit. When Vasya tries to stop her, the spirit warns the girl that the priest’s actions are weakening the guardians of the forest and inviting a greater evil. Despite the rusalka’s plea to let her kill the priest, Vasya intervenes and saves Konstantin. Afterward, he tries to rebuke her for communicating with demons, but Vasya reminds him that she just saved his life and warns him to focus on his duties instead of meddling in the ancient balance of their land.

Anna, jealous of Konstantin’s obsession with Vasya, pressures Pyotr into marrying her off. Dunya also tells him that Morozko has visited her several times in dreams and will come to claim Vasya the following winter if she isn’t married by then. Pyotr then resolves to marry his daughter off to Kyril Artamonovich, a wealthy and powerful man.

The rusalka warns Vasya that the wards protecting the land are failing and that the Bear is stirring. The water spirit also tells her that Morozko will help her as much as he can but cautions Vasya not to trust him.

When Pyotr tells Vasya of her impending marriage, she is devastated by the confines of domestic life and flees into the night. She bumps into Konstantin outside the church and confides in him about her fear of being trapped, comparing it to his own unease upon arriving in the forest. He offers hollow reassurances to her, trying to convince them both that the marriage will be for the best.

Vasya prepares for Kyril’s arrival and her impending wedding but is resolved not to abandon the chyerti. In the bathhouse, the bannik gives her a cryptic warning: “Before the end, you will pluck snowdrops at midwinter, die by your own choosing, and weep for a nightingale” (155). When Kyril arrives, his bold charm and status win over most of the family, but Vasya dislikes his condescending attitude. She is also unsettled by his prized horse’s fear of him.

The family’s attempts to celebrate the coming wedding mask their concerns about the hard winter ahead and the hastiness of the arrangement. During the festivities, Vasya feels increasingly restless and cornered. She senses that Kyril’s arrival marks not just the loss of her freedom but an intensification of the supernatural threats she’s tried to keep at bay.

When she later confronts Konstantin about his absence during the celebration and the fear he has sown in her village, the priest lashes out and hits her. She tells him that she’s not afraid of him and leaves. Once she’s gone, Konstantin hears a mysterious voice that claims to be God.

Kyril calls for a boar hunt on the day before his wedding to Vasya. While the household prepares for the outing, a restless Vasya visits Kyril’s horse, Ogon, in the stable. He dreads the hunt under Kyril’s abuse, and she offers him comfort. Kyril finds Vasya in the stable and kisses her without her consent. Before he can go further, she escapes back to the house.

After the hunt, Vasya and the other women meet the men. On the way, she sees a hungry leshy, a wood spirit, waiting. Once the two groups meet, she slips away to give the spirit an offering and receives another warning about the Bear in return. He also says to “beware the dead” (171). Having followed Vasya, Kyril tries to corner her again, but they are interrupted by a scream. Kolya’s young son, Seryozha, climbed onto Vasya’s mare, who got spooked and bolted with the boy.

Vasya steals Ogon and rides bareback through the forest to rescue her nephew. Her skill and courage astonish the onlookers as she pulls Seryozha to safety, but the incident humiliates Kyril. He calls her behavior “unseemly.” Although Pyotr defends his daughter at first, once Kyril breaks off the engagement, Pyotr beats Vasya. Afterward, Vasya retreats to the stables to cry.