Fairy tales and folk tales are often quite odd. Unexpected things happen. It’s not always obvious who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. The reader is left with questions. Seven Simeons, a Russian tale retold and illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff, is no exception to the weirdness rule. It’s an odd story, and if you’re looking for a moralistic fable, look elsewhere.
King Douda is rich, wise, powerful, and very good-looking. He’s also unhappy because he can’t find a “worthy maiden for a bride, a princess who would be as good-looking as himself.” So far we have Adam looking for his Eve. But when King Douda does hear of a princess who might match his exceptional beauty, it is a disappointment because she lives on an island so far away that it would take twenty years to go and fetch her and bring her back to marry King Douda.
It’s clear that only a miracle can help King Douda claim his bride. And that’s where the seven Simeons come into the story, seven peasant brothers all named Simeon who have been instructed by their father to work hard and each learn a different trade. Their “trades” are more like magical skills, similar to those of The Five Chinese Brothers (or seven in some versions), and the rest of the story is about how the seven Simeons serve King Douda and help him to gain his bride, the beautiful Helena.
The language in this tale is fairy tale/folk tale language, and the illustrations are quite Russian with peasants in blousy Russian costume and Russian boots and beautiful red and green ink prints of ships and castles and birds and fish and all sorts of wonders. The story ends, of course, with a wedding feast, but not before the seven Simeons show off their miraculous trades and abduct the princess, who promptly falls in love with the handsome King Douda. The couple ask for forgiveness from Princess Helena’s father, which is granted. “Let the fools go. I forgive them. It must have been God’s own will that my dear daughter should marry King Douda.”
If you’re still looking for a moral in all of that, it might rather lie with the seven Simeons, not with the handsome King and his bride. The seven Simeons, one of whom is a talented thief, remain hard-working peasants even when they are offered rich rewards. They only want to go back to their wheat fields, and probably they are the ones who truly live happily ever after. But this tale isn’t really meant to teach a lesson. It’s not teaching that you should name all of your sons the same name and instruct them to work hard and learn a trade. Nor is it saying that it’s acceptable for kings to kidnap their prospective brides. Or that thieves should be rewarded. It’s just an odd little Russian story with Caldecott honor winning illustrations.