Czar Swietosar, prepared her, that she must choose one among the many royal suitors. She was allowed now, for the first time, to go walking and search for flowers. She went with her face unveiled, her beauty was without protection. She became separated a little, innocently, from her attendants, and was carried away by a mighty storm to the land of the cruel dragon. Her two brothers, who sought her and came, after long journeys, to the enchanted castle of the imprisoned Wassilissa, were killed by him. Wassilissa with the golden hair thought nevertheless of rescue and through flattery wheedled the secret from the dragon that no adversary lived who was stronger than he. However, jokingly he added, that at his birth it was foretold that his adversary was named Ivan Pea.
The mourning mother of the beautiful Wassilissa went to walk in the garden with the Bojar woman. The day was hot and she wanted a drink. In the garden there broke from the slope of a hill a stream of spring water which was caught in a white marble trough. She dipped up the clear, pure water with a ladle and drank hastily swallowing thereby, suddenly, a pea. The pea swelled and the Czarina had a sinking spell. The pea continued to grow and the Czarina had to carry the burden.
After a time a son arrived, Ivan-from-the-Pea, who grew by hours instead of by years and in ten years became a knight of marvellous strength who conquered the dragon and rescued Wassilissa, etc.
This fairy tale calls to mind two mythological representations of impregnation after the manner of the Freudian transposition, of Demeter's daughter Cora and Eve in Paradise.
Cora, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, with the daughters of Oceanus, looked for spring flowers. As she plucked the death's flower narcissus the earth suddenly opened, and Hades rose and stole Cora from the midst of her companions.
Later Zeus, who first put aside the prayers to send her back, condescended to the arrangement that Cora need only spend a third of the year in the underworld. The denial of a return altogether was based upon Cora having received from her spouse the seed of a pomegranate and eaten it—symbol of fertilization (cited from Stending, "Griechische und römische Mythologie," Leipzig, Göschen, 1905, III Auflage).
