Encyclopedia of fairy-tale heroes: "Bluebeard". Charles Perrault - Bluebeard: A Tale Charles Perrault's Blue Tale

"Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.

Perrault, and Grimm, and other folklorists recorded many of the same tales: similar stories were told in different parts of Europe.

It is also known that Perrault collected folk tales in an attempt to “protect” and preserve them. The sources, unfortunately, are little known. Perhaps the well-known problem of similarities between different fairy tales is being solved this way: different fairy tale collectors became interested in one fairy tale and took it into their collection. This is how the similarity between the fairy tales came about. For example: “The Sleeping Beauty” by Perrault and “Dornröschen” by the Brothers Grimm, “Cinderella” and Perrault and Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood”. These writers were collectors of fairy tales and took one folk tale for the collection. This is how these similarities came out.

Bluebeard is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault from the collection “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings” (1697). A rich nobleman, he had a terrible appearance, and no one wanted to marry a man with a blue beard. They were also afraid of him because he had been married more than once, but no one knew where his wives disappeared to.

Finally, one of his neighbor's daughters agreed to become Bluebeard's wife. Soon her husband announced his departure to her and handed her the keys to the castle. She was allowed to go everywhere except the room in the lower chambers. Having admired the riches of the castle, the young woman could not resist her curiosity and violated her husband’s ban. In a hidden room, she discovered the corpses of those women to whom Bluebeard was married and whom he killed one by one. Dropping the key in fear, she then picked it up and then noticed that there was an indelible blood stain on it. Bluebeard returned home and guessed from this stain that his wife had opened the door of the forbidden room. He told her that she must die, but his wife asked her sister Anna to climb the tower and see if the brothers were coming. When Bluebeard was about to cut off the woman's head, the brothers arrived in time and pierced the villain with swords. And their sister became the heir to all Bluebeard’s wealth and soon married a worthy man.

The tale of Bluebeard is of an everyday nature: the villain's castle and his wealth are depicted in detail. (“So they immediately began to examine the rooms, little rooms, dressing rooms, which surpassed each other in beauty and wealth. Then they moved to the storerooms, where they could not stop admiring the beauty of countless carpets, beds, sofas, cabinets, tables and mirrors, in which they could see themselves from head to toe, and the edges of which - some of glass, others of gilded silver - were more beautiful and magnificent than anything they had ever seen."

In Perrault's Bluebeard, many researchers saw a real historical person - a Breton nobleman, a marshal named Gilles de Laval, who bore the nickname Bluebeard and was executed in 1440 for murdering children.

The French researcher Centiv sees in the fairy tale a reflection of the initiation ritual (in particular, marriage for a woman) and highlights the motif of the forbidden room. The image of Bluebeard, a villain and seducer of women, has been interpreted in various ways in literature.

The fairy tale “The Wonder Bird” (Fitchers Vogel), recorded by the Brothers Grimm, has a more complex structure, with an identical plot. There is a certain sorcerer who lives here. dark forest. He goes from house to house and grabs girls, whom no one ever sees again after that. So he comes to the house of “a man who had three beautiful daughters.” All of them in turn go to the sorcerer. The first two are destroyed by curiosity: they look into the forbidden room, the sorcerer finds out about this and kills them. The third girl turns out to be luckier. She comes to the forbidden room, sees the murdered sisters, revives them, manages to hide her act from the sorcerer and becomes his bride. She sends him to her parents with a basket of gold in which her sisters are hidden. As soon as the girls get home, they call for help. The third sister, covered in feathers and turning into a miracle bird, meets the sorcerer and his guests unrecognized. “But as soon as he entered the house with his guests, the brothers and relatives of the bride, sent to help her, soon appeared. They locked all the doors of the house so that no one could escape from there, and set it on fire from all sides - and the sorcerer burned along with all his rabble on fire."

This story is one of the typical "murderer and maiden tales" in which an evil wizard, devilish alien, or monstrous dragon seduces or kidnaps innocent maidens, killing or eating them until the source of his power is revealed, resulting in his destruction or transformation.

The story of Fitz the Bird, close to the tales of Bluebeard, has become the subject of several theoretical and clinical studies by Jungian authors. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Kathrin Asper (1991) and Verena Kast (1992), who placed the self-destructive energy of this figure at the center of their research. Asper interpreted the image of the evil wizard in Fitz the Bird as a woman's negative animus, that inner male figure who "cuts and tears her self into pieces."

At the beginning of the story, two worlds, the world of reality and the world of imagination, are separated from each other - not just by a wall, but by a huge distance and a dark forest separating the earthly world of human “daughters” and the “enchanted” world of the wizard. So here we have an archetypal story, in which the leading role is played by the sadistic figure of the dismemberer, who apparently carries the image of an irresistible evil that wants nothing more than the destruction of all that is human. Yet the wizard has some traits that complicate this simple interpretation. The wizard gives his victims an egg - a symbol of life's potential - and asks them to keep it. Only the third daughter copes with this task - putting the egg aside, she does everything possible to avoid the bloody room and reassemble the dismembered sisters. The egg is an important symbol in this story, often found in other fairy tales and myths. Usually it represents the life principle in its entirety - an undifferentiated universality that has the potential for creative existence, resurrection (Easter) and brings hope - hope for life in this world. In the tale of Fitz the Bird, an evil wizard gives his bewitched wives the key to their own salvation. He instructs them to carefully keep the egg until it appears and tells them that they must carry this egg with them at all times, since great misfortune may happen if they lose it. So the wizard is not completely evil, he apparently wants someone to escape his killer nature. In terms of his own transformation - hidden in the "test" prepared by the wizard is the secret hope that one day he will find someone who will be strong enough to free him from his inherent terrible power and turn him into a man! This is reminiscent of how in mythology all wizards and witches live disembodied "demonic" lives, they are always isolated from society, always outside of time and space in the magical world, stuck in "enchantment." Accordingly, they are constantly trying to capture people belonging to the real world - usually children or beautiful (defenseless) maidens. It is the invulnerability of wizards that endlessly maintains their disembodiment. They are trying to “embody” - to enter the space-time world, to accept its limitations. They cannot incarnate except through the possession of someone real, so the wizard kidnaps human daughters, desperately seeking embodiment. But, according to his nature, he continues to dismember them, again and again, until finally he meets one who has surpassed him in dexterity and cunning. Her ability to gain power over the wizard is due to the fact that she diverted some of his aggressive energy (the bloody room), while remaining uncorrupted by this energy. And he helps make this happen by handing her an egg. His “wonderful” home in the forest is a fantastic place, representing the split-off positive side of the hero - still disembodied, but providing a self-gratifying refuge for the enchanted, reality-bound person represented in this story by the images of a man and his three daughters. The problem is that this "sanctuary" has a secret room, inside which lies all the evil characteristic of the dark side of the wizard in its unchangeable forms. These two sides of the archaic image must be united in the “suffering” of the daughters, the heroines of the fairy tale, and this happens - two of them are cut into pieces. And yet the third daughter somehow managed to harness the positive side of the wizard's energies - the loving component of wholeness lies in his gift, the egg. This allowed her to endure contact with the dark side of the hero, imprisoned in his devilish chamber, and not fall victim to his evil. The third wife finds herself in the role of the all-powerful baby - she is the one who must endure his trials (like Job in relation to Yahweh). She does this by finding herself a protector from the wizard in the person of himself (Job does the same with Yahweh), that is, she uses his egg and his advice to take care of it. She puts it aside, that is, she preserves her integrity and her essence from punishment. In the fairy tale, the eventual marriage between the wizard and the third daughter represents the finally established (transitional) relationship between the archetypal world and man. However, in this case, this relationship cannot be fully realized after the third sister emerged victorious from the terrible room. This is just the beginning of the transformation of the self-preservation system. The wizard requires a deeper transformation, and the third daughter is still held captive in his "wonderful" home along with her secretly resurrected sisters, meaning she is still a prisoner of his witchcraft. She must find a way out of this magical "splendor" and return to human reality. The third wife, now powerful enough to prevail over the wizard, is able to resort to a number of tricks and disguises in order to link the demonic enchanted world of her devilish husband with her world of reality. She sends her articulated sisters back to their parents' house on the back of the wizard, who dismembered them in the same basket that these daughters jumped into in the beginning when the wizard "touched them." The suffering of the wizard, carrying a heavy basket, during this journey is a humorous inversion of the suffering of the sisters, of which he was the cause, and represents the gradual sacrifice of his magical powers. Now he has to sweat and strain his strength, his knees buckle under the weight of his, so to speak, “cross”, with which he goes to his final fate, to the sacrificial fire! And all this to the accompaniment of the disturbing and urging “voice” of the bride, who has gained power over him, repaying cruelty for cruelty, meanness for meanness. It is implied that the sisters hidden in the basket of gold will send help to the third sister still in the wizard's enchanted palace. Therefore, the two sisters become the connecting thread between the world of the wizard’s lair and the world of reality. One of the most intriguing tricks played on the wizard by the third daughter is her transformation into a bird, Fitz the Bird, in order to escape from the enchanted palace. First, she displays a painted skull in the window, as if presenting herself as bait for the wizard and guests. The fact that they all mistake the bride's "death's head" for the bride herself in this tale means that to be the bride of this wizard means to be dead. Since the wizard and his guests represent death, they recognize here someone belonging, so to speak, to their circle, they think that the bride is in the house, while she has gone on the run, pretending to be a bird. Covered with honey and feathers, the true bride remains “unrecognized”, seen only as Fitz the Bird - a bird that talks with guests and the wizard on the road connecting the world of witchcraft and the world of reality. It is important to understand that here the third daughter does not turn into a bird, but pretends to be a bird, and a wonderful, talking bird at that. In her birdlike attire she is neither a bird nor a person, but both at the same time. Embodying the symbolic function of transitional reality, it is included in both fantasy and reality. When she meets the wizard and his guests on the road, they do not even question whether she is a bird or a person. They take its transitional form for granted. And why, in fact, in the form of a bird? The first thing that comes to mind is that the bird naturally comes from an egg. If the egg represents potential life in its original, primitive integrity, then the bird obviously represents the differentiation of this original integrity and its development into top level as a personal spirit. Mythical birds depict the celestial spiritual sphere and its forces opposing the chthonic serpent. In other myths, birds are messengers of the gods; they are always associated with the bright, positive side. The Christ-Child is often depicted holding a bird and, according to Virgil (Aeneid, 6.242), the Greeks called the entrance to underworld"Aornos" (land where there are no birds). The idea of birds as beings of a transitional region, cruising in the space between the human and divine worlds, explains why shamans often donned feathers and vestments depicting birds for their mediumistic rituals. In Egyptian mythology, the soul - Kα was represented in the form of a bird with a human head; they depicted how it leaves the body of a deceased person, flying out through the mouth; and in the Underground Kingdom, the souls of the dead wear clothes made of bird feathers.

Let's remember the plot of this fairy tale Charles Perrault, first published in 1697. Once upon a time there lived a very rich gentleman, but because of his blue beard, which made him ugly and scary, he could not find a girlfriend in life. He was seduced by the daughters of a respectable lady who lived next door. He wooed them, was refused, but showed persistence: he arranged a whole week of entertainment for them and all the respectable neighboring youth in his castle. The action was a success, and the youngest daughter gave in. We had a wedding and the honeymoon went great. The young woman was happy, but her husband got ready for business and “asked her to have a good time in his absence, invite her friends, go with them to a country castle, if she wants, and do whatever she pleases everywhere.” The husband only forbade visiting one room in the castle, threatening with terrible punishment. The wife invited her friends, and while they were jealous of her wealth, walking around the castle, she rushed to the forbidden room. What did she see there? “The entire floor was covered in coagulated blood, which reflected the corpses of several women hanging on the walls.” These were previous wives Bluebeard, killed by him. Out of fear, she dropped the key, staining it with blood. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t wash it off. The suddenly returning husband, seeing the key, understood everything and suggested that his wife quickly prepare for death. Fortunately, her brothers arrived and everything ended well - they killed the villain, and his wife, having inherited his untold wealth, successfully remarried and even sponsored her sister and brothers.

Sado without Maso

The real prototype of Bluebeard is often considered the richest Baron and Marshal of France Gilles de Rais. In 1440 he was executed for terrible crimes. Having sold his soul to the devil and becoming an alchemist and warlock, he performed monstrous rituals, during which children were tortured and killed. De Rais himself took an active part in them, and was also involved in sodomy and necrophilia. The baron confessed to about 800 murders, but the judges decided that there were about 150. There was no more terrible figure in the history of France.

But at the same time, Gilles de Rais was almost a national hero. He earned the title of marshal for his courage in the Hundred Years' War. Moreover, he was the closest ascetic Joan of Arc and accompanied her in almost all battles. It was he who was entrusted with the honorable mission of delivering oil for anointing Charles VII during his coronation in Reims in 1429. But in the early 30s he retreated from valiant deeds, lived alternately in his castles, of which he had more than Bluebeard, and indulged in all kinds of bad things. He surrounds himself with a private army, a huge retinue and even a staff of priests. His lifestyle and trips are similar to that of a royal. And in the forbidden rooms of castles, terrible things happen.

Marshal of France Gilles de Rhine Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Unlike the fabulous Bluebeard, de Rais killed not his wives, but his children. And he sent his only wife to a monastery. Why did Perrault “award” the hero with a blue beard and why do we identify him with Baron de Rais? One might assume that the great storyteller came up with a blue beard for the hero in the same way as a red cap for a peasant girl and boots for a cat. IN folk tales, on the basis of which they are written, the cat performs feats barefoot, and the girl’s head is not covered. “In the memory of people, Re remained a legendary monster. In the land where he lived, this memory mixed with the legend of Bluebeard,” explains this collision Georges Bataille, the famous philosopher and author of the most complete book about Gilles de Rais. In his opinion, between the hero of the fairy tale and the real baron “there is nothing in common.” And this seems to be true.

Fathers and Sons

Much closer to Perrault's tale is the legend of Comoros - King of Brittany, who reigned in the 6th century. He married someone Trithymia, later becoming a Catholic saint. When she became pregnant, she had a vision of the king's former seven wives, whom he had killed. They persuaded her to run away. Komor caught up with his wife and, having learned about the pregnancy, cut off her head. And the father with the help Saint Gildas resurrected her. Therefore, the saint is often depicted without a head - she holds it in her hands. In this legend, only the forbidden room is missing, but it resembles a fairy tale more than the story of Gilles de Rais.

But why does Comoros kill his wives upon learning of their pregnancy? This motif is found very widely in mythology. Ancient Greek god Kronos predicted that his son would overthrow him. To avoid this, he swallowed newly born children. But instead of one of them, his mother slipped him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Kronos swallowed him, the child escaped and then actually overthrew his father and became the main god on Olympus. It was Zeus. But he also received a prophecy that he would be overthrown by his son. To maintain power, Zeus ate his wife when she became pregnant. As a result, he inherited from her... pregnancy. But a girl was born, though she looked like her husband. It was Athena. She emerged from the split head of Zeus immediately in combat gear - in a helmet, with a shield and a spear.

Kronos, devouring children. Public Domain.

But among the fairy tales there is no exact prototype of “Bluebeard”. There are fairy tales with forbidden rooms in which people are killed, dismembered, and then resurrected. But unlike Perrault, this is done not only by husbands, but also by animals, robbers or some non-humans and messengers from another world. Experts believe that the main thing in them is not the image of the husband, but the chaos that occurs in the forbidden room. This is what the heroine of the fairy tale sees Brothers Grimm“A strange bird” that was beheaded and then saved: “In the middle of the room there was a huge basin full of blood, and in it lay the bodies of people cut into pieces, and next to the basin there was a stump of wood and a shiny ax was placed near it.”

There are many similar pictures in fairy tales of different nations, including ours. Vladimir Propp, the most influential expert on fairy tales in the world, saw this as a phenomenon of so-called temporary death. It was carried out during initiation: a person was killed, cut into pieces, then reassembled and resurrected. It is clear that this was done for fun, but under the influence of hallucinogens or other psychotechniques, the initiate took it literally. To be more sure that executions were carried out on him, they could cut off his finger, inflict several scars, and leave other signs of violence. As a result, the initiate was reborn as a new, different person. Such serious rituals with dismemberment and a shift in consciousness were usually carried out during initiation into shamans. They often took place in a forbidden room - like in a fairy tale. In special men's houses where this was done, there were often such rooms. This was observed among archaic peoples who practiced such rituals even in the 19th-20th centuries. In time immemorial, the ancestors of the so-called also did this. civilized peoples. Fragments of memories of this remain in fairy tales.

Of course, all this reading is not very suitable for children in our tough times. But you need to remember this, because social psychologists say: what happened once can happen again. And today wild customs are already being revived. In Syria, terrorists eat the hearts of killed enemies, and in Denmark they publicly kill and dissect animals in front of children. Children's books are already full of stories about euthanasia, violence, homosexuality, and drug addiction. In Sweden, writers are proud that they have learned to portray children as evil and unpleasant. Should we follow this path or open other books?

In the upcoming issues, read about which fairy tales children should be raised with.

Charles Perrault

Translation by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Illustrations by Mikhail Abramovich Bychkov

annotation

We present to your attention a fairy tale by the famous French storyteller Charles Perrault, translated by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev with wonderful illustrations by Mikhail Bychkov.

Blue Beard

One of his neighbors, a lady of noble origin, had two daughters, perfect beauties. He wooed one of them, without specifying which one, and leaving it to the mother herself to choose his bride. But neither one nor the other agreed to be his wife: they could not decide to marry a man who had a blue beard, and only quarreled among themselves, sending him to each other. They were embarrassed by the fact that he already had several wives and no one in the world knew what happened to them.

Bluebeard, wanting to give them the opportunity to get to know him better, took them along with their mother, three or four of their closest friends and several young people from the neighborhood to one of his country houses, where he spent a whole week with them. The guests walked, went hunting and fishing; the dancing and feasting did not stop; there was no trace of sleep at night; everyone had fun, came up with funny pranks and jokes; in a word, everyone was so good and cheerful that the youngest of the daughters soon came to the conviction that the owner’s beard was not so blue at all and that he was a very amiable and pleasant gentleman. As soon as everyone returned to the city, the wedding was immediately celebrated.

After a month, Bluebeard told his wife that he was obliged to be away for at least six weeks on very important business. He asked her not to be bored in his absence, but, on the contrary, to try in every possible way to unwind, invite her friends, take them out of town if she wanted, eat and drink sweetly, in a word, live for her own pleasure.

“Here,” he added, “the keys to the two main storerooms; here are the keys to gold and silver dishes, which are not placed on the table every day; here from chests with money; here from the boxes with precious stones; here, finally, is the key with which you can unlock all the rooms. But this small key unlocks the closet, which is located below, at the very end of the main gallery. You can unlock everything, enter everywhere; but I forbid you to enter that closet. My prohibition on this matter is so strict and formidable that if you happen - what God forbid - to unlock it, then there is no such misfortune that you should not expect from my anger.

End of introductory fragment.

Text provided by LitRes LLC.

You can safely pay for the book using a Visa, MasterCard, Maestro bank card, or from your account mobile phone, from a payment terminal, in an MTS or Svyaznoy salon, via PayPal, WebMoney, Yandex.Money, QIWI Wallet, bonus cards or any other method convenient for you.

Once upon a time there lived a man who had a lot of all sorts of good things: he had beautiful houses in the city and outside the city, gold and silver dishes, embroidered chairs and gilded carriages, but, unfortunately, this man had a blue beard, and this beard gave him such an ugly and menacing appearance that all the girls and women used to say, as soon as they saw him, God bless him. One of his neighbors, a lady of noble origin, had two daughters, perfect beauties. He wooed one of them, without specifying which one, and leaving it to the mother herself to choose his bride. But neither one nor the other agreed to be his wife: they could not decide to marry a man who had a blue beard, and only quarreled among themselves, sending him to each other. They were embarrassed by the fact that he already had several wives and no one in the world knew what happened to them.

The guests walked, went hunting and fishing; the dancing and feasting did not stop; there was no trace of sleep at night; everyone had fun, came up with funny pranks and jokes; in a word, everyone was so good and cheerful that the youngest of the daughters soon came to the conviction that the owner’s beard was not so blue at all and that he was a very amiable and pleasant gentleman. As soon as everyone returned to the city, the wedding was immediately celebrated.

Here,” he added, “are the keys to the two main storerooms; here are the keys to gold and silver dishes, which are not placed on the table every day; here from chests with money; here from boxes with precious stones; here, finally, is the key with which you can unlock all the rooms. But this small key unlocks the closet, which is located below, at the very end of the main gallery. You can unlock everything, enter everywhere; but I forbid you to enter that closet. My prohibition on this matter is so strict and formidable that if you happen - what God forbid - to unlock it, then there is no such misfortune that you should not expect from my anger.

Bluebeard's wife promised to follow his orders and instructions exactly; and he, having kissed her, got into the carriage and set off.

The young woman’s neighbors and friends did not wait for an invitation, but all came on their own, so great was their impatience to see with their own eyes the countless riches that were rumored to be in her house. They were afraid to come until her husband left: his blue beard frightened them very much. They immediately went to inspect all the chambers, and there was no end to their surprise: everything seemed magnificent and beautiful to them! They got to the storerooms, and there was something they didn’t see there! Lush beds, sofas, rich curtains, tables, tables, mirrors - so huge that you could see yourself in them from head to toe, and with such wonderful, extraordinary frames! Some frames were also mirrored, others were made of gilded carved silver. Neighbors and friends incessantly praised and extolled the happiness of the mistress of the house, but she was not at all amused by the spectacle of all these riches: she was tormented by the desire to unlock the closet below, at the end of the gallery.

At first she couldn’t make out anything: the closet was dark, the windows were closed. But after a while she saw that the entire floor was covered in dried blood and in this blood were reflected the bodies of several dead women tied along the walls; these were Bluebeard's former wives, whom he killed one after another. She almost died on the spot from fear and dropped the key from her hand.

Finally she came to her senses, picked up the key, locked the door and went to her room to rest and recover. But she was so frightened that she could not completely come to her senses.

She noticed that the key to the closet was stained with blood; She wiped it once, twice, three times, but the blood did not go away. No matter how she washed it, no matter how much she rubbed it, even with sand and crushed bricks, the blood stain remained! This key was magical, and there was no way to clean it; the blood came off on one side and came out on the other.

The next morning he asked her for the keys. She handed them to him, but her hand trembled so much that he easily guessed everything that had happened in his absence.

Why, he asked, is the key to the closet not with the others?

“I must have forgotten it upstairs on my table,” she answered.

Please bring it, do you hear! - said Bluebeard. After several excuses and delays, she was finally supposed to bring the fatal key.

Why is this blood? - he asked.

“I don’t know why,” answered the poor woman, and she turned pale as a sheet.

You do not know! - picked up Bluebeard. - Well, I know! You wanted to go into the closet. Okay, you will go in there and take your place next to the women you saw there.

She threw herself at her husband’s feet, wept bitterly and began to ask him for forgiveness for her disobedience, expressing the most sincere repentance and grief. It seems that a stone would have been moved by the prayers of such a beauty, but Bluebeard had a heart harder than any stone.

“You must die,” he said, “and now.”

If I really have to die,” she said through tears, “then give me a minute of time to pray to God.”

“I give you exactly five minutes,” said Bluebeard, “and not a second more!”

He went downstairs, and she called her sister and said to her:

My sister Anna (that was her name), please go up to the very top of the tower, see if my brothers are coming? They promised to visit me today. If you see them, give them a sign to hurry up.

Sister Anna climbed to the top of the tower, and the poor unfortunate thing shouted to her from time to time:

Sister Anna, don't you see anything?

And sister Anna answered her:

Meanwhile, Bluebeard, grabbing a huge knife, shouted with all his might:

Come here, come, or I'll come to you!

Just a minute,” his wife answered and added in a whisper:

And sister Anna answered:

I see the sun is getting clearer and the grass is turning green.

Go, go quickly,” yelled Bluebeard, “or else I’ll come to you!”

I'm coming! - the wife answered and again asked her sister:

Anna, sister Anna, don't you see anything?

“I see,” answered Anna, “a large cloud of dust is approaching us.”

Are these my brothers?

Oh no, sister, this is a flock of sheep.

Will you finally come! - Bluebeard yelled.

Just a little second,” his wife answered and asked again:

Anna, sister Anna, don't you see anything?

I see two horsemen galloping here, but they are still very far away. “Thank God,” she added after a while. - These are our brothers. I give them a sign to hurry up as soon as possible.

But then Bluebeard made such a racket that the very walls of the house began to tremble. His poor wife came down and threw herself at his feet, all torn to pieces and in tears.

“This will serve no purpose,” said Bluebeard, “your hour of death has come.”

With one hand he grabbed her by the hair, with the other he raised his terrible knife... He swung at her to cut off her head... The poor thing turned her faded eyes to him:

Give me one more moment, just one moment, to gather my courage...

No no! - he answered. - Entrust your soul to God!

And he already raised his hand... But at that moment there was such a terrible knock at the door that Bluebeard stopped, looked back... The door opened at once, and two young men burst into the room. Drawing their swords, they rushed straight at Bluebeard.

He recognized his wife's brothers - one served in the dragoons, the other in the horse huntsmen - and immediately sharpened his skis; but the brothers caught up with him before he could run behind the porch.

They pierced him through with their swords and left him dead on the floor.

Bluebeard's poor wife was barely alive herself, no worse than her husband: she did not even have enough strength to rise and embrace her deliverers.

It turned out that Bluebeard had no heirs, and all his property went to his widow. She used one part of his wealth to marry her sister Anna to a young nobleman who had long been in love with her; with the other part she bought captain's ranks for her brothers, and with the rest she herself married a very honest and good man. With him, she forgot all the grief that she endured as Bluebeard's wife.

The fairy tale “Bluebeard” is intended for schoolchildren. One rich man had a blue beard, because of this everyone was afraid of him. One girl didn't think he was terrible, but... kind person, so she married him. But the girl was cruelly mistaken - Bluebeard killed his wives.

Fairy tale Bluebeard download:

Fairy tale Bluebeard read

Bluebeard, wanting to give them the opportunity to get to know him better, took them with their mother, three or four of their closest friends and several young people from the neighborhood to one of his country houses, where he spent a whole week with them. The guests walked, went hunting and fishing; the dancing and feasting did not stop; there was no trace of sleep at night; everyone had fun, came up with funny pranks and jokes; in a word, everyone was so good and cheerful that the youngest of the daughters soon came to the conviction that the owner’s beard was not at all so blue and that he was a very amiable and pleasant gentleman. As soon as everyone returned to the city, the wedding was immediately celebrated.

Bluebeard's wife promised to strictly carry out his orders and instructions; and he, having kissed her, got into the carriage and set off. The young woman’s neighbors and friends did not wait for an invitation, but all came on their own, so great was their impatience to see with their own eyes the countless riches that were rumored to be in her house. They were afraid to come until her husband left: his blue beard frightened them very much. They immediately went to inspect all the chambers, and there was no end to their surprise: everything seemed magnificent and beautiful to them! They got to the storerooms, and there was something they didn’t see there! Lush beds, sofas, rich curtains, tables, tables, mirrors - so huge that you could see yourself in them from head to toe, and with such wonderful, extraordinary frames! Some frames were also mirrored, others were made of gilded carved silver. Neighbors and friends incessantly praised and extolled the happiness of the mistress of the house, but she was not at all amused by the spectacle of all these riches: she was tormented by the desire to unlock the closet below, at the end of the gallery.

So strong was her curiosity that, not realizing how impolite it was to leave guests, she suddenly rushed down the secret staircase, almost breaking her neck. Having run to the door of the closet, she, however, stopped for a moment. Her husband's prohibition came to her mind. “Well,” she thought, “I will be in trouble for my disobedience!” But the temptation was too strong - she could not cope with it. She took the key and, trembling like a leaf, unlocked the closet. At first she couldn’t make out anything: the closet was dark, the windows were closed. But after a while she saw that the entire floor was covered in dried blood and in this blood were reflected the bodies of several dead women tied along the walls; these were Bluebeard's former wives, whom he killed one after another. She almost died on the spot from fear and dropped the key from her hand. Finally she came to her senses, picked up the key, locked the door and went to her room to rest and recover. But she was so frightened that she could not completely come to her senses.

That same evening Bluebeard returned from his journey. He told his wife that he had received letters on the road, from which he learned that the matter for which he had to leave had been decided in his favor. His wife, as usual, tried in every possible way to show him that she was very happy about his speedy return. The next morning he asked her for the keys. She handed them to him, but her hand trembled so much that he easily guessed everything that had happened in his absence.

Why, he asked, is the key to the closet not with the others?

“I must have forgotten it upstairs on my table,” she answered.

Please bring it, do you hear! - said Bluebeard.

After several excuses and delays, she was finally supposed to bring the fatal key.

Why is this blood? - he asked.

“I don’t know why,” answered the poor woman, and she turned pale as a sheet.

You do not know! - picked up Bluebeard. - Well, I know! You wanted to go into the closet. Okay, you will go in there and take your place next to the women you saw there.

“You must die,” he said, “and now.”

If I really have to die,” she said through tears, “then give me a minute of time to pray to God.”

“I give you exactly five minutes,” said Bluebeard, “and not a second more!”

He went downstairs, and she called her sister and said to her:

My sister Anna (that was her name), please go up to the very top of the tower, see if my brothers are coming? They promised to visit me today. If you see them, give them a sign to hurry up. Sister Anna climbed to the top of the tower, and the poor unfortunate thing shouted to her from time to time:

Sister Anna, don't you see anything?

And sister Anna answered her:

Meanwhile, Bluebeard, grabbing a huge knife, shouted with all his might:

Come here, come, or I'll come to you!

Just a minute,” his wife answered and added in a whisper:

And sister Anna answered:

I see the sun is getting clearer and the grass is turning green.

Go, go quickly,” yelled Bluebeard, “or else I’ll come to you!”

I'm coming! - the wife answered and again asked her sister:

Anna, sister Anna, don't you see anything?

“I see,” answered Anna, “a large cloud of dust is approaching us.”

Are these my brothers?

Oh no, sister, this is a flock of sheep.

Will you finally come! - Bluebeard yelled.

Just a little second,” his wife answered and asked again:

Anna, sister Anna, don't you see anything?

I see two horsemen galloping here, but they are still very far away. “Thank God,” she added after a while. - These are our brothers. I give them a sign to hurry up as soon as possible.

But then Bluebeard made such a racket that the very walls of the house began to tremble. His poor wife came down and threw herself at his feet, all torn to pieces and in tears.

“This will serve no purpose,” said Bluebeard, “your hour of death has come.”

With one hand he grabbed her by the hair, with the other he raised his terrible knife... He swung at her to cut off her head... The poor thing turned her faded eyes to him:

Give me one more moment, just one moment, to gather my courage...

No no! - he answered. - Entrust your soul to God!

Bluebeard's poor wife was barely alive herself, no worse than her husband: she did not even have enough strength to rise and embrace her deliverers. It turned out that Bluebeard had no heirs, and all his property went to his widow. She used one part of his wealth to marry her sister Anna to a young nobleman who had long been in love with her; with the other part she bought captain's ranks for her brothers, and with the rest she herself married a very honest and good man. With him, she forgot all the grief that she endured as Bluebeard's wife.

Bluebeard prototype

The French marshal is considered the prototype of Bluebeard. Gilles de Montmorency-Laval Baron de Rais Comte de Brienne is notorious as a Satanist, a person with a disturbed psyche. Rumor has it that in addition to being suspected of witchcraft, the marshal also corrupted children, both boys and girls; studied alchemy. However, he did not kill his wives, although many historians try to attribute this sin to him. Now this man is known under the name Gilles de Rais as an associate of Joan of Arc. He was executed for all his crimes, although in fact they were based more on rumors than facts. Too much strong fear he inspired people.

For everything this man did, and this is more than 200 crimes, he was and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable criminals. It was precisely because of the fear he inspired that the author of Bluebeard, Charles Perrault, took him as a prototype for his fairy tale. By the way, many other writers and composers used this character in their works.

Although Gilles was like that on the one hand terrible person, on the other hand, he was the bravest of warriors. The Battle of Tourelles, in which he was victorious, brought him fame and etched his name in history, despite all his other infamy.

There is also another version of who is the prototype of Bluebeard. They say one day Triphina, the wife of Conomor (ruler of Brittany), randomly wandered into her husband’s secret room, where she found the corpses of his ex-wives. Using magic, she found out that all the women were pregnant at that time. As soon as Trifina became pregnant herself, she tried to escape, but she failed.

Bluebeard: summary

Bluebeard is a rich man who lives alone in his castle. Everyone around him knows and fears him. There are several reasons for this. The first is, of course, the color of his beard, which confuses with its abnormality, the second is the inexplicable disappearance of all the girls who marry him.

Two girls, sisters, live near Bluebeard's palace. He invites them, along with his girlfriends and friends, for a week-long vacation outside the city, and the youngest of the sisters decides that their neighbor is not so scary after all. He begins to seem kind and helpful to her. And so she makes up her mind and marries Bluebeard.

The wedding is celebrated and the girl moves to the castle. Suddenly, Bluebeard gets ready to go on the road and orders his wife to go out and have fun, to use any wealth, but just not to enter the closet. (Why does he then give her the key to this closet? Apparently, he still wanted her to go into it.)

Girlfriends come to the girl, they examine the entire castle together, marveling at all the decorations and unheard-of riches. Here Bluebeard’s wife can’t stand it, she runs into the closet and opens it. Oh my God, there she discovers the corpses of her ex-wives. Out of fear, she drops the key and stains it with blood. The terrible thing is that you can’t wash off the blood - the key is enchanted. As soon as the girl wipes the stain off, it immediately appears again.

In addition, Bluebeard returns ahead of time. He understands that his wife opened the door and wants to kill her. She asks for a couple of minutes, and she sends her sister to see if the brothers are coming and, if they are going, to hurry them up. Bluebeard grabs a knife and then the girl’s brothers burst in and kill him.