“Nothing changes, Vasya. Things are, or they are not. Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it.”
Part fairy tale, part historical fiction, has a certain dreamlike quality for most of its length and was fascinating from beginning to end. The time frame appears to be well before Russia became a single country.
The plot was complex, with several subplots going on all at once. There were romantic elements and pseudo-romantic elements. Much of the story turned on the instability of the change between the old religions and the new.
The main character was Vasya, daughter of Pyotr Vladimirovich. She was a wild child who believed all her nurse’s fairy tales and fed the household spirits, and the barn spirits, and the spirits of the fields and woods and waters.
Meanwhile, the old priest, who turned a blind eye to such behavior, died and a new priest was sent to take his place. The new priest determines to make it his mission to reform the religious habits of all the people in the village. Unfortunately, he falls prey to one demon he fears so much.
His religious zeal comes to oppress Vasya more and more the older she grows, and after several attempts to cage her in various ways marrying her off, sending her to a convent... She finally runs away into the forest where she meets up with the frost spirit she was promised to all along.
Bear and the Nightingale is a gripping retelling of an old Russian story that is neither weighed down by the historical source material nor carried away by the more mythical touch of lore. It is a solid start to a trilogy that will inspire research and birth daydreams.
