Sinyushka's Well
| "Sinyushka's Well" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Pavel Bazhov | |
| Original title | Синюшкин колодец |
| Translator | Alan Moray Williams (first), Eve Manning, et al. |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre(s) | skaz |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Moscow Almanac |
| Publication type | anthology |
| Media type | |
| Publication date | 1939 |
| Published in English | 1944 |
| Series | The Malachite Casket collection (list of stories) |
"Sinyushka's Well" (Russian: Синюшкин колодец, romanized: Sinyushkin kolodets, lit. 'Sinyushka's Water Well'), also known as "The Blue Crone's Spring" and "The Blue Baba of the Marsh", is a folk tale (the so-called skaz) of the Ural region of Siberia collected and reworked by Pavel Bazhov. It was first published in the Moscow Almanac in 1939 (pp. 256–266). It was later included in The Malachite Casket collection. "Sinyushka's Well" is one of the most famous stories in the collection and is still popular nowadays. The story was translated from Russian into English by Alan Moray Williams in 1944, and by Eve Manning in the 1950s.
It is one of the tales about mining pioneers. The tale is told from the point of view of the imaginary Old Man Slyshko (Russian: Дед Слышко, romanized: Ded Slyshko; alternative translation: Grandpa Slyshko).
There is a blue fog above Sinyushka's well. Her main function is to keep the mountain riches from the greedy and undeserving. Nataliya Shvabauer believed that this character did not exist in the original Ural folk tradition, but the author constructed it according to the "mythological canon".