Konyok-Gorbunok

Also Known As: Russian Konyok-Gorbunok, also written Konek-Gorbunok; in English the Little Humpbacked Horse, also translated the Little Magic Horse
Region/Culture: Central and Eastern Europe
Mythos: Russian Mythology, Literary Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: Konyok-Gorbunok is a tiny talking horse, born of a magical white mare, who knows how to reach the Firebird, the Tsar Maiden and the bottom of the sea, and can carry his rider across the sky.
Role in Mythos: He is the wise helper of Ivan the Fool in Pyotr Ershov’s verse tale of 1834, the creature who turns every impossible royal order into a task Ivan can survive.
Relation to Humans: The little horse serves one master only and is loyal to the end, warning Ivan of danger, scolding his mistakes and doing the clever work while Ivan takes the credit. Russian readers have known him since 1834, and the tale grew so familiar that it was retold aloud by people who had never read the book.

Somewhere in a Russian village, the wheat is being trampled at night and nobody can catch the culprit. The two clever brothers take their turns on watch and spend them hiding or sleeping. The youngest, Ivan, the one the family calls a fool, takes his turn sitting in the field under the stars. Near midnight a white mare with a golden mane comes running out of the dark, and Ivan drops onto her back and hangs on until she gives up.

That is how Konyok-Gorbunok begins, before he is even born. In exchange for her freedom, the mare promises Ivan three foals. Two will be golden-maned horses of a kind no one has ever seen, worth a fortune at market. The third will be small, a foal no bigger than three vershki, with two humps on his back and ears as long as an arshin. Sell the two beauties if you like, she tells him, but never part with the little one for any price. He is the one worth keeping.

He is plainly a ridiculous animal. That is the joke, and the point.

The story comes from one author, and it should be said up front. The Little Humpbacked Horse is a fairy tale in verse written by Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, a student at Saint Petersburg University, who was about nineteen when he composed it. A long excerpt appeared in the journal Biblioteka dlya chteniya in 1834, and the whole poem came out as a book the same year. Ershov built it out of genuine Russian folktales, stitching together the Ivan the Fool stories, the magic horse Sivka-Burka, and the tale of Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf, the international tale type folklorists call Bird, Horse and Princess. The horse himself, with his humps and his absurd ears, is Ershov’s own. Since the 1990s a few writers have argued that Pushkin secretly wrote or heavily edited the poem. Most literary scholars reject this and credit Ershov.

The brothers steal the two golden horses and take them to the capital to sell. The humpbacked foal finds them anyway, and he and Ivan follow. On the road, Ivan spots a strange light in a field and finds a single feather of the Firebird, glowing without heat. The little horse warns him that taking it will bring trouble. Ivan takes it anyway. The tsar buys the golden horses, but they will obey no one but Ivan, so the fool from the village becomes keeper of the royal stables.

The trouble arrives on schedule. A jealous courtier spies on Ivan at night, sees the feather light up the dark stable like a lamp, and carries tales to the tsar. Now the tsar wants the whole bird. Konyok-Gorbunok knows where the Firebirds come to feed, and he tells Ivan how to set a trough of grain soaked in wine, wait under a cloak, and grab one by the tail while the flock is drunk on it. The bird is brought home. The tsar, having learned that this fool can fetch anything, sends him for more.

Next it is the Tsar Maiden, daughter of the Moon and sister of the Sun, who lives at the edge of the ocean. The little horse tells Ivan how to tempt her into a golden tent with food and drink, and how not to fall asleep while she sings. Ivan falls asleep anyway, but the horse wakes him in time. The Tsar Maiden comes to the capital and refuses to marry the old tsar until her ring is brought up from the bottom of the sea. She also sends Ivan to carry her greetings to her mother, the Moon.

So the little horse carries Ivan to the ocean, where a great whale lies across the water like an island, with a village on its back and peasants plowing its lip. The whale has swallowed thirty ships and has suffered for ten years without knowing why. Ivan promises to ask about it in the sky, rides on to the palace of the Moon and the Sun, and brings back the answer: let the ships go. When the whale coughs them out, it sends the fish of the sea to search for the ring, and a quarrelsome ruff finds the little red chest stuck in the sand, which the sturgeons heave up from the bottom.

The last order is the cruelest. The Tsar Maiden will marry only a young man, so the tsar must bathe first in a cauldron of cold water, then in boiling water, then in boiling milk. The tsar makes Ivan test it first. Steam rolls off the cauldrons and the yard is full of the smell of scalded milk. The little horse waves his tail, dips his muzzle into the cauldrons, sprays Ivan twice and gives a loud whistle, and Ivan dives in and comes out handsome. The tsar jumps in after him and is boiled alive. The people take the Tsar Maiden as their ruler, and she marries Ivan.

Konyok-Gorbunok’s powers are all knowledge and nerve. He knows where things are, who lives at the end of the world, and how to get there and back before sunrise, and he can fly with a rider on his back. What he does not have is size, beauty, or any authority of his own. Everything he achieves is done through a master who rarely listens, and his gift is the oldest one in the fairy-tale helper’s kit: being underestimated.

The poem’s own fate was a strange one. Censors demanded cuts from the first edition, and after the third edition in 1843 it was banned outright and not reprinted for thirteen years. Ershov restored and reworked it for the edition of 1856, which became the standard text. In Russia it has been reprinted constantly ever since, turned into ballets by Cesare Pugni in 1864 and Rodion Shchedrin in the twentieth century, and into animated films. The tale Ershov built from folklore went back into folklore, and the little horse with the long ears became as much a part of Russian storytelling as the Firebird he helped catch.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Konyok-Gorbunok?

Konyok-Gorbunok, the Little Humpbacked Horse, is a small magical talking horse from Russian folklore and literature. He is the helper of Ivan the Fool in a verse fairy tale by Pyotr Ershov, first published in 1834. With his advice and his ability to fly, Ivan captures the Firebird, wins the Tsar Maiden and finds her ring at the bottom of the sea.

What does Konyok-Gorbunok look like?

In Ershov’s poem Konyok-Gorbunok is a tiny horse, only three vershki tall, which is roughly the height of a hand. He has two humps on his back and ears an arshin long, close to the length of a man’s arm. He is born to a magical white mare with a golden mane, alongside two golden-maned horses.

Who wrote The Little Humpbacked Horse?

The Little Humpbacked Horse was written by Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov, a student at Saint Petersburg University, and first published in 1834. Ershov based it on Russian folktales, including the stories of Ivan the Fool, the magic horse Sivka-Burka and the Firebird. Some writers have claimed that Pushkin was the real author, but most literary scholars reject that claim.

How does The Little Humpbacked Horse end?

The story ends when the Tsar Maiden demands that her suitor bathe in cold water, boiling water and boiling milk. Konyok-Gorbunok protects Ivan, who comes out of the last cauldron young and handsome. The old tsar follows him in and is boiled to death, and the Tsar Maiden marries Ivan.

Is Konyok-Gorbunok from real Russian folklore?

Konyok-Gorbunok himself was created by Pyotr Ershov for his 1834 poem, but the story around him is built from genuine Russian folktales. Its plot follows the international tale of a hero who must fetch a magic bird, a horse and a princess. The poem became so well known that the little horse passed back into oral storytelling.