“The Little Old Woman.”The Snow Queen and other tales : a selection of traditional Russian fairy tales, André Bay, Marie Ponsot, New York: Golden Press, 1962, pp. 45-46.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time there was a young girl who went for a walk in the forest, searching for a dove which she could hear singing. The girl forgot the way home, and when the sun set she began to cry. Suddenly, a white dove appeared and gave her a golden key. He instructed her to walk to a nearby pine tree and use the key to unlock a little door in its trunk. He flew away and she did as she was told, finding a little room with milk, honey, and bread. She ate her fill and wished to sleep, but there was no bed, so she called out to the dove. He gave her another key and told her to unlock a different tree. She did and fell asleep on the warm bed inside, and had dreams that the dove returned with many golden, silver, and jeweled keys, with which she found whatever she needed. The next day the dove noticed her torn dress and gave her a new key, which unlocked a tree full of beautiful dresses. The girl lived happily for some time like this, and one day the dove asked her for a favor. He asked her to follow him to a cabin, where she was to go inside without knocking and ignore the old woman inside, and go to the next room. There would be millions of gorgeous jeweled rings, but she was to find a single plain one and bring it out to him. She agreed, but when she got to the next room, she could not find a single plain ring. The old woman slipped past the table with a bird in a cage with a plain gold ring around its neck, which she seized. The woman vanished and the girl went outside to wait for the dove, leaning against a tree. Suddenly, the tree became a young man, who told her that she had freed him from the trap of a wicked enchantress, who doomed him to take the forms of a tree or a dove. He brought her back to his father’s place and they were married, living happily ever after.