1 леший See Ivanits 65–70.
2 Русалка See Ivanits 75–82.
3 Избушка там на курьихножках Baba Yaga typically lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs. A traditional explanation for this image is that huts were often built on stumps (to keep them off the damp ground), and the splayed roots at the base of the stump resemble chicken feet.
4 И тридцать витязей прекрасных / Чредой из вод выходят ясных, / И с ними дядька их морской; Cf. in Pushkin’s Tsar Saltan, where thirty-three knights emerge from the sea, with their captain, дядька Черномор, at their head.
5 королевич In Russian tales, as in those of other traditions, the hero is often (although not obligatorily) a prince.
6 богатыря The legendary mighty warrior is a common figure in Russian folk epics, and sometimes in fairy tales based on epics. The most famous богатырь is Илья Муромец.
7 В темнице там царевна тужит The damsel in distress is a common fairy-tale cliche in Russian, as in other traditions.
8 Кащей Кащей (also spelled Кощей) Бессмертный is a common fairy-tale villian. He is typically depicted as a dessicated old man with a fondness for kidnapping young women.
9 И там я был, и мёд я пил A reference to a common poetic ritual ending to fairy tales. The words represent an intrusion of a first-person narrator (“I was there”), and may represent a coded request to be paid in drink for having told an entertaining story (“I tried to drink mead and beer, but none of it got in my mouth” = “I’m thirsty, and would appreciate being given something to drink now”).