Reading Notes: Russian Tales, Part A

 Main characters:

• Non-continuous stories

Important things to remember:

• The Dead Mother
• A husband and wife lived happily in a village and everyone envied them
• The wife bore a son but right after she died
• The husband hired an old woman to take care of the baby, but it would not eat or drink it would just cry
• The lady decided to stay up all night and see if anything was wrong with the baby
• Three straight nights she heard someone come in and check on the baby, and so finally she brought out a light and saw the dead mother in all the clothes she was buried in
• The dead mother rushed out quickly, and the old woman found the baby was dead now too
• Friday
•  A lady did not pay reverence to Mother Friday, and spun flax until she fell into a deep sleep
• Mother Friday came in and stuffed her eyes with dust while she slept, and the lady woke up unable to see and in distress
• She begged for Mother Friday to forgive her and fix her
• When she fell back asleep, Mother Friday came back during the night and removed the dust from her eyes
• Wednesday
• A lady was up spinning late on a Tuesday night, but was ready for sleep
• She asked Mother Wednesday to led her aid and wake her up early in the morning so she could work more
• She fell asleep and woke up early to someone moving around the room
• She saw an old lady with a white towel on her head doing work in the kitchen
• She asked who the lady was and she said she was the one she had called upon, Mother Wednesday
• Wednesday had the lady go fetch water in a pail, and the neighbor noticed and warned her of Mother Wednesday's way
• The lady returned home and banged the pails together and yelled that Mother Wednesday's children had been burnt at sea
• Wednesday ran outside and the lady returned inside and locked her out, crossing up the door with linen

The Dead Mother, via source

Russian Tales via http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-russian-fairy-tales.html