Silver Hoof

"Silver Hoof" (Russian: Серебряное копытце, romanized: Serebrjanoe kopyttse, lit. "Small Silver Hoof") is a fairy tale short story written by Pavel Bazhov, based on the folklore of the Ural region of Siberia. It was first published in Uralsky Sovremennik in 1938, and later included in The Malachite Casket collection. In this fairy tale, the characters meet the legendary zoomorphic creature from the Ural folklore called Silver Hoof. In 1944, the story was translated from Russian into English by Alan Moray Williams and published by Hutchinson. In the 1950s, another translation was made by Eve Manning. It was included in James Riordan's collection of stories The Mistress of the Copper Mountain: Tales from the Urals, published in 1974 by Frederick Muller Ltd. Riordan heard the tales from a headteacher when he was bedridden in Sverdlovsk. After returning to England he rewrote the tales from memory, checking them against Bazhov's book. He preferred not to call himself "translator", he believed that "communicator" was more appropriate.