The Bear and the Nightingale

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-11

Part 2, Chapters 12-17

Part 2, Chapters 18-22

Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 23 Summary: “The House That Was Not There”

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Vasya awakens in a place that is simultaneously a fir grove and a house. Morozko appears and explains that she is in his home. Despite his cold demeanor, Morozko heals her frostbite and other injuries, though the process is excruciating. He tells her that he brought her there for her safety and insists that she must fully recover before returning home. Since they are in a place beyond time, she will be returned to the moment she left.

While Vasya recovers, Morozko goes back to northern Rus’ and retrieves a nightingale, who appears as a young bay stallion when they return to the house. The horse, Solovey, tells Vasya that Morozko brought him to be her companion.

Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary: “I Have Seen Your Heart’s Desire”

Despite Father Konstantin’s insistence, the villagers are too afraid of wolves and demons to follow Vasya into the woods. Medved confronts the priest, angry that the girl escaped, and reveals his true identity as the Bear, Medved, a malevolent spirit of storms and chaos.

As Medved speaks, Konstantin is forced to confront how his pride led him to be manipulated by a demon. However, Medved offers him a deal: He will save Vasya from Morozko and return her to Konstantin if he provides another witch in her place. Medved hints at Anna as a potential target, noting her ability to see demons. Medved presses him to act before sunrise, and when Konstantin asks where to go, the demon tells him to find the snowdrops in the forest.

Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary: “The Bird That Loved a Maiden”

Vasya bonds with Solovey, and her strength returns as she rides with him. Morozko returns for sporadic visits, and he eventually reveals more of his history to her. He tells her that he is Death and that Medved, the Bear, is Fear. He explains that his brother thrives on chaos and destruction and is close to breaking free of his ancient bonds. Vasya offers to help fight him, but Morozko insists that she would only endanger herself and others if she tried.

Vasya awakens from a nightmare in which she sees her loved ones killed by Medved. Morozko comforts her. When Morozko presents her with lavish gifts as a dowry, she rejects them, refusing to be indebted to him. She only asks to bring Solovey with her, to which he agrees. He sends her and the horse home, along with a basket of snowdrops to fulfill her stepmother’s impossible demand.

Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary: “At the Thaw”

Convinced that he must fulfill Medved’s demands to save himself and free Vasya, Konstantin chooses Anna as the “witch” to deliver to the demon. The priest awakens Anna in the early morning and asks her to follow him into the forest. Though disoriented and frightened, Anna obeys, letting him lead her to the great oak tree, where the air is unnaturally warm and snowdrops bloom.

As they reach the tree, Medved manifests as a giant shadow. Anna panics and pleads with Konstantin to save her. The priest demands that Medved keep his promise to return Vasya and leave him in peace. He then advises Anna to pray and leaves her behind with the demon.

Part 3, Chapter 27 Summary: “The Winter Bear”

Vasya returns to Lesnaya Zemlya at dawn with Anna’s promised snowdrops, only for Irina to reveal that Anna is missing. Vasya looks for her stepmother at the church and learns from Konstantin that he traded Anna to Medved in exchange for Vasya’s safety.

Realizing that the Bear now has Anna, Vasya mounts Solovey and, with Alyosha, races toward the oak tree. There, they find Anna mortally wounded, caught between Medved and the upyr that was once Dunya. Morozko also appears, and the brothers summon their respective spirits of the forest to battle. While they fight, Vasya uses her blood to remind Dunya of her humanity, momentarily breaking through the upyr’s hunger. Morozko takes Dunya away to true death. Before he goes, he kisses Vasya.

While he’s gone, Anna dies, and Medved is freed. Vasya calls upon the household guardians, who respond to her plea and join the battle. Medved orders the rusalka to attack Alyosha, but Vasya convinces her to stop. Before she can move to save her brother, Pyotr arrives and offers his life in exchange for his children’s. Though the demon fatally wounds him, his stand weakens Medved enough for Morozko to bind him. Pyotr then dies in Vasya’s arms. Morozko disappears, and the snowdrops wither as the siblings are left to mourn.

Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary: “At the End and at the Beginning”

The villagers of Lesnaya Zemlya bury Pyotr and Anna side by side. Despite their whispers labeling her a witch, Vasya endures their judgment in silence. After the burial, she lingers at her father’s grave and summons Morozko. He reassures her that Pyotr’s death was his choice and a sacrifice made out of love and courage. Vasya accepts this but decides to act to protect her remaining family. She confronts Konstantin with Morozko at her side, and the pair intimidates the priest into leaving the village to go back to Moscow, warning him of dire consequences if he lingers.

That evening, Vasya shares a quiet farewell with her siblings. She announces her plans to leave the village to carve her own path, as the villagers will never forget their fear and suspicion of her. Alyosha and Irina plead for her not to go, but she promises she will return. As night falls, Vasya mounts Solovey. He takes her back to Morozko’s home, and the frost demon welcomes her inside.

Part 3 Analysis

While Morozko made brief, scattered appearances throughout Part 1 and Part 2, it’s only in the final section of The Bear and the Nightingale that he becomes a major character on the page. While Vasya, as the protagonist, is inevitably the one to fight Medved, the brothers’ duality of order versus chaos directs the final conflict. Their rivalry reaches a critical juncture in these chapters, with Morozko buying time for Vasya in his home in the fir grove.

The change in setting allows Arden a closer examination of their dynamic. His house, a space outside of time that shifts between a fir grove and a wooden dwelling, reflects the liminal nature of their relationship. While both are developing feelings for one another, neither is willing to acknowledge it. When Vasya begs Morozko to let her help fight his brother, he tries to send her home to safety with a dowry, just like the maiden in the story. Vasya is heartbroken, remembering how he comforted her after her nightmare, and thinks, “That was nothing. That is not how the story goes. I am only the girl in the fairy tale, and he the wicked frost-demon. The maiden leaves the forest, marries a handsome man, and forgets all about magic” (268). Like Anna’s demand for the snowdrops in winter, their relationship is, for the moment, impossible.

Konstantin and Anna, meanwhile, complete the downward spirals of their respective character arcs, once more invoking Ancestral Traditions Versus Religious Orthodoxy. Haunted by her ability to see the spirits, Anna is consumed by terror, making her an easy target for Konstantin and Medved. Her obedience to the priest, even as he leads her to her death, shows the vulnerability of individuals who place their trust in corrupt authority figures. In turn, Konstantin’s willingness to sacrifice her to secure his absolution marks the culmination of his moral corruption. Medved mocks him for this by pointing out his hypocrisy in believing that he, the spirit of Fear, was God, saying, “What difference is there between me and the one you call God? I too revel in deeds done in my name. I can give you glory, if you will do my bidding” (251). Konstantin, too absorbed in his own pride, did the bidding of a demon—the very spiritual force that he claimed to hate the most. Once Konstantin leaves Anna with Medved, he essentially exits the story, except to explain what he did to Vasya once she returns with the snowdrops.

At the heart of the novel’s final chapters is the conclusion of Vasya’s journey from a misunderstood village girl to a self-determined woman. She completes her character arc by embracing her role as a mediator of The Connection Between Humanity and Nature. In her conversations with Morozko in Chapter 23, Vasya is still torn between familial obligations and the burgeoning awareness of what she is. Her trials—fleeing the village, battling the Bear, and enduring the loss of her father—test her resilience. By the final chapter, she claims her identity and chooses freedom over societal expectations.

Vasya’s ultimate decision to leave Lesnaya Zemlya is a victory for her and also a concluding statement for the novel’s exploration of The Role of Women in Patriarchal Societies. She rejects the roles of both wife and nun, which the other characters try to force upon her. Alyosha questions her on this choice, and she replies, “I will have my freedom, Alyosha […] I brought snowdrops to my stepmother, when I ought to have died in the forest. Father is gone […] [W]hat is there for me here but walls and cages? I will be free, and I will not count the cost” (290).

Though secondary to Vasya’s arc, Pyotr’s journey provides emotional weight to the novel’s conclusion. Though much of the devastation in Lesnaya Zemlya was a result of his decisions, he ultimately redeems himself through his self-sacrifice. His death binds Medved and, in turn, saves his children as well as restoring order to the village. As Vasya notes in her words to her brother, their father’s death also frees her from the constraints of familial expectations, enabling her to fully embrace her own path. She can finally depart the familiar world to explore the unknown.