Exploring the “Legend of the Magibird”

I wanted to write a story about someone hunting for a phoenix. I expanded it to include a persistent, brave teen who looks for adventure and wants to gain his father’s respect while having no clue how to achieve it, with the phoenix hunt and the context/background. It was inspired by a Russian folk song I had heard called “Tale of the Firebird”, based on an eponymous Slavic legend. It is a beautiful and lively melody with a Russian guitar that makes you feel like you are hunting for the firebird yourself. I did some research and found that there is an analogous legend by the Grimm Brothers called “The Golden Bird”, so I read up on that legend in a book that my father has about the Grimms’ Complete Fairy Tales which had three brothers trying to capture a golden bird stealing their father’s apples. From that point on, I had my idea.

At first, I wrote down an outline of the story in a document, as I wanted to make sure that I had a roadmap when I started to write. Almost everything in the story has a point to it, even the names of the characters. “Bratko” is a Slavic name meaning “brother”, representing the younger brother, who was weaker and not the preferred son of his father. He is also not really that remarkable before the story, hence he is only named as “brother”. “Boyan” on the other hand, is a name for “battle”, showing that the older brother was physically stronger and the preferred son of his father, for which he had a hubris that would be detrimental to him later in the story. “Lada” is the name of the woman in the story, and it means “fertile”: indeed, in Slavic mythology Lada is the goddess of fertility. I gave her this name because of her beauty and her well-built body, and because she is meant to be bound to Bratko in marriage at the end. “Gniewko” means “angry”, and it refers to how the duke is an angry and bitter man who does not understand love, which would end up being his downfall at the story’s end. Finally, “Vlad” means ruler, and the father of Bratko and Boyan is named so because he rules over the principality and castle of Boyko. He is also a better ruler and person than the Duke was, for which he won the woman they were both competing for.

In the beginning of the story, I had the main character Bratko wake up from a hangover in the inn because I wanted him and his brother to have a challenge of being distracted easily and also clumsy: that is originally what makes them lose their father’s necklace in the first place, setting their quest into motion. Indeed, I chose to call the inn the “Iris Inn” and to have its symbol as a rainbow because it is a metaphor in my story for pleasure and distractions. The rainbow is beautiful with its many colors, but it also serves as a distraction and an addiction as the colors take away your focus. The inn has the best drinks of many colors and many games as a place for pleasure, which is why so many people stay in it. Iris is the Greek goddess of rainbows. The inn was inspired by a part of the Golden Bird story where the three brothers must choose an inn to stay at: a run down one or a nice-looking one. The first two choose the latter and end up getting distracted by it, while the youngest brother bypasses it. That is also why I chose to make the bird a phoenix: due to its many colours it attracts, yet ironically it helps free the brothers from their indulgence at the inn and gives them a goal. That is one message of the story: overcoming distractions and hedonism, staying focused and correcting your mistakes. This resonated with me this semester as I struggled with focusing and staying on task, because at home and with the Internet, there are so many distractions. That is why I decided to write a story with the characters having this problem: so I could put my struggles in a story.

The phoenix is attractive and tempting but unreachable, so it can be compared to Tantalus from Greek mythology, who seeks food and drink, yet it is always out of his reach, although I did not originally have this thought when I wrote the story. Lada both fits and challenges the separate spheres conception of the weak woman in the private sphere. In the beginning, she is a prisoner of her husband, the duke. She is abused by him and coerced to always obey him. This is in line with the coverture system where the husband and wife are one, with the former fully influencing the latter. It is Lada’s innocence and integrity that transforms her into the bird, as she refused to relinquish the amulet which her husband demanded she give to him so he could destroy it. Lada’s curse is a casting out of the home and a transformation into a bird which is sort of a reversal of the woman confined to the home. At the same time, the woman is trapped in her form as a bird and has sight problems, so she could still be said to be cursed to the private. She requires that Bratko save her by grabbing the water from the Pool of Many Colours, and Bratko does fulfill some of the male virtues such as courage in the perils and trials that he faces. But at the same time, it is only by Lada’s choosing that she meets him. She ends up saving Bratko from the rock in the cliff and her facial expressions give him a hint in choosing the right portion of meat. So rather than Bratko doing everything, Lada plays a big part in the story, and they both work together to solve their problems: Lada gives him the necklace while Bratko frees her from her curse as a bird. I chose to refer to Lada as simply a “bird” because I did not want to outwardly give away that she was a phoenix and thought that it would better engage the reader if they could discover that themselves. That is also why I did not reveal her curse until the very end.

Another important message of the story is that not everything that is golden or outwardly aesthetically pleasing is good or portends it: Bratko goes to the well-paved limestone road yet is captured by thieves, and when he escapes goes to the bad road instead but is safe as a result. He is given the choice in Duke Gniewko’s castle to eat the nice-looking or unappealing piece of meat. Indeed, this is also inspired by Greek mythology: when Prometheus divided up the two portions of the bull at Mekone for Zeus and played a trick on him, with the first portion being the meat and fat coated in the bull’s unattractive stomach, and the other being the bones coated in a layer of attractive fat. Zeus chose the wrong portion and left the rest for humans. Thus, humans would get the good meat while the gods would only get the bones in burnt offerings. Boyan is also the older and physically stronger son favored by his father, yet in the end it is the weaker, younger, and seemingly ordinary Bratko who returns the necklace.

Some changes were made. Bratko would originally have to choose between a wooden bridge and a marble and golden bridge, and later would reach the crossroads and make another choice, before encountering the bird. The Pool of Many Colors would be at the end of a river that he would swim across. But due to length constraints, I scrapped the crossroads between the two bridges and instead made the bridge across the chasm the obstacle to the pool. I also chose to put only one wooden bridge that is worn down. This was because I wanted to make it difficult to get to the other side of the chasm, forcing Bratko to take a leap of faith, while having the character just swim across a river may be too easy.

Lada was originally going to be Gniewko’s daughter. But I changed it because I did not want to taint her blood with that of the story’s villain, and I also wanted the duke to be so driven by his desires that he forces Lada to be his wife although she refuses him.

Boyan was also originally going to set a booby trap for Bratko who would get out of it on his own, but I had thought the bridge was a better idea. I also wanted Lada to have some important involvement in the story which she did through saving Bratko’s life, rather than her being helpless and having to be entirely saved by Bratko. I also felt that having Bratko try to return alone would be too long for the story.

The necklace that the two brothers search for has a rune carved on an oval chestnut piece, the Bluetooth symbol. The real Bluetooth symbol represents unity, as the king Harald Bluetooth united Denmark in the same way Bluetooth unites devices. In my story the rune is also a symbol for unity, that of strength and intelligence. Lord Vlad has this unity which is why he is gifted the necklace by his wife. But although Bratko is not the most physically strong, he has displayed strength through his courage and intelligence through completing the quest. The necklace can also be said to represent the unity of Bratko and Lada in solving their problems and their later union in marriage. That is why Lord Vlad allows Bratko to keep his necklace at the end.

The final portion of the story where Bratko and Lada go to the castle is partially inspired by Coleridge’s Christabel. Bratko and Lada’s meeting at the willow tree is inspired by the part where Christabel and Geraldine meet at the oak tree. My castle itself and its supernatural signs are inspired by the signs in Christabel: the dog making weird noises, Geraldine’s inability to cross an iron gate, and the chilling wind that blows out the torches in the corridor. The binary opposition in Christabel of the gloom vs the glimmer can also be seen in my story: while my characters have differences to the ones in Coleridge’s poem, Geraldine is more like Duke Gniewko while Christabel is more like Lada and Bratko. It is nighttime when Bratko and Lada get to Ranvig Castle which is clearly supernatural and under a dark spell. Lada and Bratko meet each other during the day, and they are innocent, natural characters. They also meet in nature and are the good characters. Bratko is naïve yet can defeat the experienced Gniewko. In Life of Coleridge, Gillman expands on Christabel, envisioning Geraldine transforming into an impersonation of the false lover of Christabel before the true lover returns to defeat her and the rightful marriage occurs. In a similar way, Duke Gniewko impersonates a nice personality towards Bratko, hiding his true and evil nature, although there are some hints to his real personality, including when Lada breaks herself away from his grip after they hug each other, and his smirk at Bratko when he forces the young man to choose his plate. Gniewko also feigns love towards Lada but in fact controls her. Meanwhile, Bratko’s love for Lada is not false but rather sincere: he truly loves her and would do anything for her, and although they are not married at the end, we know they are going to be.

Love itself is the central element of this story and is what allows all the problems to be solved: the main reason why the two brothers are sent out is to recover an object that was the product of love between their parents: it was very special to the lord which is why he is so hurt when his sons lose it. The feather that Bratko earns is a metaphor for this love: because Lada has chosen him, that is why it burns and saves him when he is in danger or when he is close to her in phoenix form. Bratko’s love for Lada leads him to go risk his life for her, while Lada’s love for him leads her to save his life. Later, it is ultimately their love which kills the Duke and frees the castle. Lada is in the beginning of the story a bird that is aesthetically pleasing to look at but distant, and she ends as her real, pretty form as the fiancé of Bratko. This represents the difference between a materialistic and aloof love of things or animals, and true human relationships, intimacy, and love, which are more important than the former. When her phoenix form burns into ashes, this represents the destruction of her false form and the return of her true form as a woman. The fire of the love between them leads to her metaphorical rebirth.

One final message is forgiveness. Bratko forgives Boyan for leaving him for dead, and refuses to punish him even further, recognizing that he had already gotten his punishment by being left to the same fate that he attempted to leave his younger brother to. The final phrase of the story, when Bratko tells his brother that his time will come, means that in the future, Boyan will get his chance for redemption, glory, and his own lover. It hints at a future sequel of this story.

So, my “Legend of the Phoenix” is a fairy tale with the messages of overcoming distractions and hedonism, that not all that is gold glitters, that persistence is a virtue as Bratko almost felt lost and wanted to quit before he continued with the help of the girl, and that human love is powerful and conquers all.