The Firebird

Kim Normanton (0:13)

Hello, and welcome to Super Great Kids' Stories, wise tales from storytellers around the world, which will make you laugh and sometimes cry.

Recommended for ages 5 to 105 I'm Kim, and I love stories.

This week, we have a fairy tale from Russia, the largest country in the world, which stretches across two continents. The story is told by Nell Phoenix, who lives in London, and told the Bad Breath Lion and the Doubling Pot. This story is called The Firebird. It's a magical tale, which we rate at 2 out of 3 screams. Fairly scary, because one of its characters is a mean, talking skeleton, which has magic powers. I hope you're up for listening, because it's a really good story. But if skeletons are not your thing, then maybe have a listen to Anansi and the Magic Yams. Or the Goanna and the Fairies. Or the Ran in the Chilli Patch.

I hope you're having a good week, Supergreat Kids. Here in the UK, we're enjoying a rather sunny autumn, with golden sunshine and lots of colourful leaves to crunch through. I've been cat-sitting for my friends' cats, who are called Lily and Frankie. Lily thinks she's a princess, and Frankie, well, he thinks he's a lion. He was so pleased to see us that he brought us a present. It was a little mouse. Luckily, it was still alive. Unluckily, we had to chase it all around the kitchen in order to catch it and let it out into the fields again. Another reason I'm feeling cheery is because the Super Great Kids' Stories audio book, which is the recordings of the stories from our Super Great Book, has been shortlisted for an award, the British Audio Awards, which is very pleasing. It's a bit like being given a gold star or a whole sheet of smelly stickers. We'll let you know next month if we win anything.

Now, are you ready to brave this week's scary fairy tale from Russia? Are you sitting uncomfortably? Hold the hand of an adult or the paw of your dog or teddy, and let's give a very warm welcome to Nell Phoenix.

Nell Phoenix (2:59)

Hello everyone, my name is Nell Phoenix, and I am absolutely delighted to be here today to share another great story with you for Super Great Kids. I love this story, I hope you like it too.

Once upon a time, not twice upon a time or three times upon a time, once upon a time and never again, there was a kingdom, and in the kingdom there was a king, and the king had a palace. And in that palace, the king looked around at all his courtiers and he said, I need something new, go out there, choose for me something that I've never seen before and bring it back to me. And if you don't, it will be the worse for you.

And all the courtiers scurried around and out the doors and climbed through the windows to get away and left standing there, in the middle of the throne room was one boy called Ivan. And the king leaned down to Ivan and said, go.

So Ivan left the palace. He went further and further than he had ever gone before. He found himself in a forest and he looked around. What has the king never seen before? He looked up, he saw a squirrel in a tree. Has the king seen a squirrel? Yeah, he's seen a squirrel, hasn't he? He walked a little further. Look at the beautiful blue bird. No, he's seen a blue bird before, hasn't he? And then something fell from the sky. It was an acorn. No, he's seen an acorn before, hasn't he? And he went further and further and it grew dark. And there, in the middle of the forest, there was a wall. And Ivan thought, why is there a wall in the middle of a forest? What could be behind it?

And being a curious boy, he began to climb. He heaved himself up over the great stones of the wall. And he threw his leg over the top and he looked down on the other side. And there, on the other side, there was a garden bathed in moonlight. And in the middle of the garden, there was a tree. And on the tree, you'd think there would be leaves, you'd think there would be acorns, you'd think there would be berries or fruit. But no, the tree was glinting.

Jewels were growing on that tree. Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, red and green and shining, bright.

And Ivan slipped down from the wall, landed his feet on the other side. And he tiptoed across the moonlit garden towards the tree. He was just reaching up, just about to pluck a jewel from the tree. When something caught his eye, he looked between the other trees and there, coming towards him through the glade of trees, there was something that looked like a flickering flame. You know what I mean? Like the flame of a candle that you'd stick in your birthday cake. It was flickering this way and that way in the little breeze. All the colors of the flame, like yellow and orange and red and a little bit of blue, maybe green, flicking towards him. And he thought, what could this be? And so he hid. He looked around for somewhere to hide. And there was the stump of a tree. That's a broken down tree. And it had a great hole in it. Well, he couldn't fit in it, but he could crouch down behind it. And that's what he did. And he saw the flame coming closer and closer. But the flickering flame wasn't just a flickering flame. The flickering flame was a bird. A firebird, thought Ivan. A firebird. I thought firebirds only lived in stories. Surely the king has never seen a firebird before. I will catch the firebird and will take it to the king, and the king will keep it in a cage. And he watched as the firebird flicked past. And he leapt from behind the stump. He tried to catch it, but whoosh! The firebird flew past. Round the firebird came again and Ivan leapt, but swoosh! The firebird flew up, but dove back down again. And this time, ha! Ivan had his two hands wrapped around it. And he could feel the beating heart of that little bird ba-doop-ba-doop-ba-doop-ba-doop-ba-doop-ba-doop against his fingers. Please! The firebird spoke. Please, Ivan. How did it know Ivan's name? Please, Ivan, let me go.