"The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" | |||
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Short story by Pavel Bazhov | |||
Original title | Медной горы хозяйка | ||
Translator | Alan Moray Williams (first), Eve Manning, et al. | ||
Country | Soviet Union | ||
Language | Russian | ||
Genre(s) | skaz | ||
Publication | |||
Published in | Krasnaya Nov | ||
Publication type | Periodical | ||
Media type | Print (magazine, hardback and paperback) | ||
Publication date | 1936 | ||
Chronology | |||
Series | The Malachite Casket collection (list of stories) | ||
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"The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" (Russian: Медной горы хозяйка, romanized: Mednoj gory hozjajka),[1] also known as "The Queen of the Copper Mountain" or "The Mistress of the Copper Mine",[2] is a folk tale (the so-called skaz) of the Ural region of Russia collected and reworked by Pavel Bazhov. It was first published in the 11th issue of the Krasnaya Nov literary magazine in 1936 and later the same year as a part of the collection Prerevolutionary Folklore of the Urals.[3][4]
It was later reprinted as a part of the collection The Malachite Box in 1939.[5] In 1944 the story was translated from Russian into English by Alan Moray Williams and published by Hutchinson.[6] In the 1950s, another translation was made by Eve Manning.[7][8] The story was published in the collection Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov, published by Penguin Books in 2012. It was translated by Anna Gunin.[9] 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.[10] 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", believing that "communicator" was more appropriate.[11]