A Ballad (Bunin)
Short summary
A Russian country house, early 20th century. During winter holidays, the house was heated and icons illuminated with candles, creating a sacred atmosphere. While everyone slept, elderly pilgrim Mashenka stayed awake, praying before the icons.
One night, the Narrator encountered Mashenka reciting psalms and discovered she was praying to "the Lord's wolf." When questioned, Mashenka explained she had seen this wolf depicted in a church in Krutiye Gory, where she had served as a serf girl.
Mashenka told a "ballad" about a prince who lived during the time of Catherine the Great. The prince had fallen in lust with his son's bride. When the young couple tried to escape, the old prince pursued them. During the chase, something extraordinary happened.
He sees rushing at him across the snow, beneath the moon, a great, fantastic wolf with eyes red like fire and with an aureole around its head! The prince set about firing at it too, but it didn't even bat an eyelid.
The wolf killed the prince by slashing his throat. Before dying, the prince ordered the wolf to be painted in the church above his tomb as a lesson for his descendants. Mashenka explained this was why the wolf was depicted with a halo in the church.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The country house and its sacred atmosphere during winter holidays
During the winter holidays, the country house transformed into a sacred space. The spacious, low rooms were heated like a bathhouse, with all doors left wide open from the entrance hall to the divan room. The red corners gleamed with wax candles and lamps placed before the icons, creating a reverential atmosphere.
The preparation for these holidays involved washing the oak floors, which quickly dried from the heating, and covering them with clean rugs. The furniture was arranged in perfect order, and lamps and candles were lit in front of the gilded and silver icon settings while all other lights were extinguished. By this time, the winter night had turned darkly blue outside the windows, and the household members retired to their sleeping quarters.
Complete quiet was then established in the house, a peace that was reverential and seemingly waiting for something, and which could not have been more in keeping with the sacred nocturnal appearance.
The pilgrim Mashenka and her mysterious prayers
During these winter nights, a wandering pilgrim named Mashenka sometimes stayed at the estate. She was grey-haired, withered, and tiny like a little girl. Unlike everyone else in the house, Mashenka did not sleep on such nights. After supper, she would remove her felt boots, revealing her woollen-stockinged feet, and move noiselessly through the mysteriously lit rooms on the soft rugs.
She would kneel before the icons, cross herself, and bow down in prayer. Afterward, she would return to the hallway, sit on an ancient black chest, and recite prayers and psalms in a low voice. One night, the narrator, unable to sleep, went to the divan room to find something to read and discovered Mashenka praying in the dark hallway.
The narrator listened as Mashenka recited psalms from memory, speaking of God's terrible works and protection against lions and dragons. After a pause, she raised her eyes to the ceiling and distinctly uttered a strange prayer: "And thou, beast of God, the Lord's wolf, pray for us to the Queen of Heaven." Intrigued, the narrator approached her and asked about this mysterious "Lord's wolf."
Mashenkas background as a serf girl
When questioned about the "Lord's wolf," Mashenka explained that she had seen such a creature painted in a church long ago. She described a village called Krutiye Gory, far beyond the Don River, where a prince had his main estate. On the highest hill stood a yellow church with columns, and inside was a painting of a wolf with a gold aureole around its head, like saints have, sitting next to the tomb of the prince it had killed.
It sits in a grey fur coat on a thick tail, and its whole body's reaching up, with its front paws resting on the ground - and its eyes just boring into yours... and around its head a gold aureole, like saints have.
Mashenka then revealed her own connection to this story. She had been an orphan serf girl whose father was likely a runaway who had seduced her mother unlawfully before disappearing. After her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, the master took pity on Mashenka and brought her into the house at age thirteen to serve the young mistress, who became very fond of her.
The tragic ballad of the prince and the mysterious wolf
When the young mistress and her husband decided to visit the grandfather's legacy at Krutiye Gory, they took Mashenka with them. The estate had been neglected and deserted since the grandfather's death, which according to legend had been terrible. Mashenka called the story a "ballad" - a dark tale from long ago that the masters used to read.
"But you know, it's a dark business, long ago, sir - perhaps a ballad." "What's that you said?" "A ballad, sir. That's what all our masters used to say, they liked reading those ballads."
The story took place during the time of the great Tsarina, who had banished the prince to Krutiye Gory after becoming angry with him. There, the prince became cruel, particularly in punishing his serfs and in his sexual exploits. He was handsome and in his prime, and demanded that every girl in his villages come to him on her wedding night.
The prince's son, who was in military service to the Tsarina in St. Petersburg, came to Krutiye Gory with his new bride to pay respects to his father. The old prince immediately developed lustful intentions toward his daughter-in-law.
Noticing his father's intentions, the young prince arranged a secret midnight escape with his bride. However, the old prince discovered their plan through his informers and gave chase, armed with sabers and pistols, accompanied by his favorite whipper-in. When he caught up to them, he shot the horses pulling their troika one by one.
Just as the old prince was about to shoot the shaft horse, he saw a great wolf with red eyes and an aureole around its head rushing toward him across the snow. The prince fired at the wolf, but it was unaffected. The creature leaped onto the prince's chest and slashed his throat with its fang in an instant.
The prince was brought home still alive and had time to confess, take communion, and give a final order: that the wolf be painted in the church above his tomb as a lesson for all his descendants. No one could disobey his wishes, especially since it was his own domestic church that he had built himself.
In his final moment he ordered that wolf to be painted in the church above his tomb - as a lesson, then, for all the prince's descendants. Who could possibly have disobeyed him in those days?