Themes

Koshchei or Kashchei, usually called "the deathless" in fairy tales and byliny, plays the role of grasping guardian of treasure hostile to the hero. So does the serpent or dragon, and they often interchange roles in parallel versions of tales. Although Koshchei is mentioned in the preface of Ruslan and Ludmila, it is Chernomor who takes his part in the poem, and Naina, who significantly adopts a serpent's guise and seconds him in defending the treasures, for example Ludmila and the Beard. But Koshchei is a far more remote. In the tale of the Princess Frog, Ivan must find the island of Buyan, and in order to break Koshchei's spell, he must dig up an iron casket from under a green oak tree, wherein a hare, in which a duck, wherein an egg on the point of a needle. If this egg be squeezed, the ogre will feel terrible agony; if squashed, it will be his death.