# Princess Eléna the Fair — Russian Folktales character guide

> Princess Eléna the Fair in Russian Folktales by A. N. Afanasyev.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Eléna, Eléna the Fair

**First appearance:** 0032-the-princess-who-would-not-smile

## Snapshot

A princess so beautiful and clever that she sets lethal riddles for suitors, solving theirs or taking their heads.

## Who they are

Princess Eléna the Fair lives behind a contest of wits: any suitor who cannot stump her dies, and her magical book has solved every riddle yet. She is not merely a prize but an adversary, gloomy at the prospect of marriage and willing to set impossible tasks to escape it. Her intelligence and resistance give the wooing arc its real stakes, turning courtship into a duel where the princess is the most dangerous player.

## In the story

### [The Tale of Iván Tsarévich, the Bird of Light, and the Grey Wolf](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/chapters/the-tale-of-iv-n-tsar-vich-the-bird-of-light-and-the-grey-wolf)

The beautiful princess whom Tsar Afrón desires; she is abducted by the Grey Wolf from her garden.

### [The Princess to Be Kissed at a Charge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/chapters/the-princess-to-be-kissed-at-a-charge)

The tsar's daughter who builds a temple and decrees she will marry the man who kisses her on a flying horse; she eventually recognizes and chooses Ványa.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/characters/princess_elena
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/characters