1 Косоручка Some Grimm variations of this type of tale include “The Girl Without Hands,” “The Handless Maiden,” and “The Girl With Silver Hands.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Without_Hands, accessed 2008-03-05; see also http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/other.html, accessed 2008-03-19)
2 Жене ненавистно стало, что он приказыват сестре. The wife felt jealous because he asked his sister, rather than her, to look after the house in his absence. The wicked sister-in-law here plays a role that is usually filled by a wicked stepmother or stepsister(s) (as in “Cinderella”). The roles are similar in that a power struggle is created because of the wife’s vulnerability and jealousy.
3 голову снесла саблей The beheading of the horse, like the beheading of the child that follows, prefigures the mutilation of the sister that forms the core of the story.
4 чтоб она сама над собой что не сделалаали над младенцем, паче чаяния она родит Note how casually a child is introduced as soon as he becomes necessary for plot development. There is also no motivation in the text for the husband’s fear that his wife might harm herself or her hypothetical child.
5 Сестрица милая It is the narrator, rather than the brother, who uses the affectionate language here, making us complicit in the brother’s emotions. This is narrative voice device called “direct indirect speech,” and it is common in both literary and folk texts.
6 братец ей по локоть ручки отрубил That the sister is not particularly traumatized by this experience and goes about her business after crying is an example of the alienation from emotion and violence that is common in fairy tales, a feature that Max Lüthi called “depthlessness” (referring to the characters’ lack of emotional depth).
7 Вот он зашел, она кой-как опять заговорила его, вытащила у него записку, прочитала, изорвала и написала, что как записка на двор, так чтоб ее со двора согнать. The sister-in-law expresses her jealousy by falsely accusing the maiden of giving birth to a baby that was half wolf and half bear. The theme of a mother being falsely accused of giving birth to wild children is common in other stories, such as “The Three Little Birds.” From a psychological perspective, the sister-in-law’s actions can be explained as motivated by envy for the Oedipal attachment her husband shares with his sister (although they are siblings, and not parent and child, as in a strict Oedipal relatinoship, the brother is clearly his sister’s caretaker, and therefore fulfills a paternal function). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armless_Maiden, accessed 2008-03-05)
8 привязали младенца к ее грудям The child has to be bound to her body because, lacking arms, she is unable to hold or carry him. This detail will play an important role later in the story.
9 я там была и мед-вино пила, по усам текло и в рот не попало This is a clichéd ending designed to lend credence to the preceding tale (see also the link to the Encyclopedia entry). It is interesting that although narrator is female here, and therefore presumably bare-faced, the formula nonetheless refers to whiskers.