The Falcon Pipiristi () is a folktale from the Komi people, first published in 1938 in the Russian language. In it, the heroine asks her father to bring an item that belongs to a falcon named Falcon Pipiristi, which she uses to summon him to her bedroom, but her sisters place hooks on the window to hurt him, causing him to fly away. The heroine then goes on a long journey to regain Pipiristi, finding him under the power of a witch, with whom she trades expensive gifts to spend a night in Pipiristi's room. Similar tales have been collected by folklorists from Komi sources.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird": a heroine is secretly visited by a prince in bird form, her family plots to hurt him, causing him to fly away, and the heroine goes after him.
Source According to Глеб Алексеев (Gleb Alekseev) and А. A. Попов (A. A. Popov), the tale was provided by an informant named P. G. Doronim, in 1934.
Summary In this tale, a man is ready to go to the market, and asks his daughters what presents he can bring them: the elder asks for some fabric for a summer dress, the middle one for a silken handkerchief, and the youngest for the net ("сеть", in the original) of Falcon Pipiristi. The man finds the articles for his elder daughters, but cannot find the net. The second time, the man goes to the market again and asks which gifts he can bring to his daughters, and they repeat their previous requests. Once again, the man finds the summer dress and the handkerchief, and still no sign of the net, to the cadette's great sadness. The third time, the man goes a third time to the market, and his daughters ask for the same things again. This time however, the man finds Falcon Pipiristi's net, an expensive and beautiful object. He brings the net to his youngest daughter, who takes the net with her and goes to her room.
Soon enough, Falcon Pipirist himself flies in through the girl's window, his body and feathers of a golden colour. They spend the night together. However, the girl's sisters learn of the clandestine meetings and place some fishing hooks on their cadette's window. The next time Pipiristi flies in, the hook injures his feathers and body. Feeling betrayed, the Falcon tells the girl go find him beyond "thrice-nine" lands, "thrice-nine" rivers, and "thrice-nine" green sands, then flies away. The girl cries for his departure, and decides to go after him. She takes a perfumed soap, a beautiful comb and a silken staff with her, and begins a journey through the distant lands. She reaches the beach and finds a swan flying overhead, to which she asks to carry her across the sea. Next, she reaches the green sands, where she finds a camel that she asks to help her ferry across the desert. Finally, the girl reaches a village, where she learns Pipiristi is living with a witch's daughter in a hut. She is advised to hire herself to the witch as a new maidservant.
One day, the girl is combing her hair with her comb, which the witch sees and wishes to have for herself. The girl trades the comb for a night in Pipiristi's chambers, and a deal is made, but the witch gives the human falcon a soporific wine. At night, the girl sings a song to a sleeping Pipiristi about how she crossed distances to reach him, but he does not nudge. The next morning, Pipiristi comments that he had a strange dream about his former lover, which the witch dismisses. For the next two nights, the girl trades the perfumed soap and the silken staff for two other nights with Pipirist: on the second night, the witch drugs Pipiristi again and the girl cannot wake him up.
For the third night, the human falcon avoids drinking the wine, and only pretends to be asleep; the girl, his true wife, enters his room and cries over him to wake up. Pipiristi opens his eyes and spends the night with the girl until the morning. The next morning, the witch knocks on Pipiristi door, but the couple pretend to he asleep. In a fit of fury, the witch gathers the elderly, gives them wine and asks them which marriage is strong, the first or the second, and the elderly answer that it is the first one. She dismisses them, summons the middle-aged people, gives them wine and asks them which crown is stronger, the first or the second, to which they answer the first one. Still not obtaining the answer she wants, she gathers the young, who also answer that the first crown is stronger. Thus, Pipiristi ties the witch to a horse, lets the animal loose and the witch's body bursts in pieces. Pipiristi then lives with his first wife.
Analysis Tale type In their commentaries to the Komi tale, Глеб Алексеев (Gleb Alekseev) and А. A. Попов (A. A. Popov) stated that "it was difficult" to find a parallel to the Komi "Pipiristi Falcon" tales among the Russians. However, Russian scholar criticized this position and noted that the Komi tale had indeed a Russian parallel: "Финист ясный сокол" ("Finist Bright Falcon"). In the same article, Andreev, who developed the first East Slavic Folktale Classification in 1929, classified the tale, numbered 44 in the Komi publication, as East Slavic tale type 432, "Финист ясный сокол".
In the Russian tale type SUS 432, "Финист ясный сокол" ("Finist Bright Falcon"), the prince comes to the heroine's room in bird shape; her jealous relatives (stepmother or sisters) place blades in the window to hurt the bird prince, and he flies away. The heroine then goes after him to cure him.Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 133. The East Slavic tale type corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird".Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 146–147.
Motifs According to the Syrjänisches Wörterbuch ("Zyrian Dictionary"), by linguist , the falcon-prince's name is alternatively registered as pipiristi, pipiriski, and pipilisti. Fokos-Fuchs also mentioned that, in the Vychegda dialect of Zyrian, a pipiristi se̯ke̯l appears in a fairy tale as a shining garment or jewel, while in a tale sourced from Syktyvkar it is a se̯ke̯l 'falcon', and the name of the heroine's lover who married a second spouse in a second narration from Syktyvkar. Fokos-Fuchs interpreted Pipirist Sekel's name as "Flaming Falcon" or "Fire Falcon".
Variants Overall, at least five variants of type SUS 432 are reported from Komi sources.Коровина, Н.С. "ТИПОЛОГИЯ ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЯ КОМИ И РУССКИХ ВОЛШЕБНЫХ СКАЗОК (сюжетный состав, художественно-стилевая структура)". Сыктывкар, 2013. p. 22. (In Russian).
Falcon Pipiristi 1 Komi scholarship published two Komi tales translated to Russian with the title "Сокол Пипиристи" ("Falcon Pipiristi"). The first tale was collected from a source named A. A. Цембер, in 1912. In this tale, a man has a wife and three daughters, and asks his daughters which presents he can bring them from the market: the elder asks for an English sarafan, the middle one for a blue sarafan, and the youngest for Falcon Pipiristi. The man goes to the market and finds the elders' gifts, for he cannot find this falcon. The next time when he goes to the market, the man is asked to bring the elder daughter a "garus" sarafan, the middle daughter a gray sarafan, and the same falcon to the cadette. The man brings the sarafans, but cannot find the falcon. Thus, the youngest daughter takes some cookies with her and goes to meet a wise old woman and asks her where she herself can find Pipiristi. The old woman advises her to go to a certain green meadow and catch Pipiristi, then throw the cookies to distract her pursuers. It happens thus, the girl brings the Falcon Pipiristi with, which she wears and goes to church in splendid clothes, amazing the attendees. During the mass, she leaves church and goes back home, where the hides the clothes behind the oven, then goes to welcome her family, who has come back from church. The family mention the woman at the church, whom the girl feigns ignorance about. The next day, the girl goes again to church with the Pipiristi clothes, and again leaves it in the middle of the sermon. One of her sisters chases after her and sees the strange woman entering their house. The third day, the girl prepares to go to church in the Pipirist clothes, and finds the clothes have disappeared from behind the stove. She then goes to meet the same wise old woman, who warns her that she caught the falcon the first time, and may not have the same luck the second time. Still, the girl goes to the same meadow with some cookies, captures Pipiristi and rushes back, throwing some food behind herself to deter whoever it is that is chasing after her. However, she runs out of food, and her pursuers retrieve the bird, leaving her alone. The girl loses Pipiristi and lives in sadness. However, the same tale was collected by linguist Dávid Fokos during fieldwork in 1911, with the Komi title pipiristi sekel, from informant Andrej Andrejevies Czember, who heard the tale in Ust-Sysolsk.
The Falcon Pipilysty Finnish linguist Yrjö Wichmann collected during the period 1901-1902, in Kortkeros, a tale from the Syryenen (Komi people) with the title pipili̯sti̯ sḙkḙl, which he translated to German as Der falke Pipilysty ("The Falcon Pipilysty"). In this tale, a rich merchant asks his three daughters what they want as gifts. The elder two ask for shoes and a headscarf, while the youngest asks for the Falcon Pipilysty. The merchant does not find the bird in the first two journeys, but on the third be brings home the Falcon Pipilysty. While her sisters go to church, the bird becomes a human youth and he gives her beautiful clothes to go to church. One day, the girl burns Falcon Pipilysty's birdskin, and he disappears beyond the mountains. She has to go after him, and brings with her a spool of golden thread, yarns of silk and a golden frame. She reaches a meadow where a hut is located, and finds her husband there, living in the hut with a joma. The girl uses the three objects to bribe the joma for three nights with her husband. On the first two nights, she tries to wake him up by recounting her arduous journey so far, but he does not flinch. On the third night, the husband awakes and escapes with the girl.Wichmann, Yrjö. Syrjänische Volksdichtung. Helsinki: Société finno-ougrienne, 1916. pp. 104-110 (Komi text and German translation for tale nr. 36).
Princess Martha (Wichmann)