The Bear and the Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) is a historical fantasy novel by Katherine Arden. The story is set in medieval Russia and was heavily inspired by the country’s folklore and history. It follows Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna, a girl who lives in an isolated village at the edge of a forest and can communicate with household spirits and other supernatural beings that others cannot see. Her life is upended when her father marries a pious woman who forbids the villagers from honoring the old spirits in favor of Christian practices. As the villagers turn away from tradition, their protective spirits weaken, allowing darker forces to encroach.

The novel is the first book in the Winternight trilogy and is followed by The Girl in the Tower (2017) and The Winter of the Witch (2019). The Bear and the Nightingale received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2018, and the series as a whole was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2020. Arden’s other novels include Small Spaces (2018) and The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024).

This guide refers to the 2017 e-book edition published by Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of animal cruelty and death, religious discrimination, child death, sexual violence, death, and child abuse.

Plot Summary

The story begins in medieval Russia, or Rus’, in a remote northern village near the forest called Lesnaya Zemlya. Pyotr Vladimirovich, the boyar, or local nobleman, lives there with his wife, Marina, and their four children: Kolya, Sasha, Olga, and Alyosha. One winter night, Dunya, the family’s elderly nursemaid, tells the children a folktale about Morozko, the winter demon, who tests the resilience of mortals and sometimes rewards the brave with treasures.

Marina tells Pyotr that she is pregnant with their fifth child, a daughter, who will inherit the magical powers of her own mother. Despite Pyotr and Dunya’s concerns over her frail health, Marina chooses to give birth and dies shortly afterward. Her daughter, Vasilisa (Vasya), grows into a wild and free-spirited girl. The powers that her mother foresaw her possessing manifest in her ability to see the chyerti, the household and nature spirits that are invisible to everyone else. They protect the people in exchange for offerings, but their influence is fragile.

As a child, Vasya spends most of her time exploring the forest surrounding the village. One day, she gets lost and stumbles across an oak tree, where she meets the spirit Medved in the form of a menacing, scarred man. Before he can harm her, his brother, Morozko, intervenes and tells Medved to sleep. Vasya flees and returns home. After Sasha fails to find either man his sister mentioned, he tells his father that she needs a new mother in her life other than Dunya. Pyotr agrees and travels with him and Kolya to Moscow to find a new wife and make arrangements for Olga’s marriage. Sasha becomes a monk, and Pyotr marries Anna, the daughter of his brother-in-law, the Grand Prince Ivan.

Anna, like Vasya, can see the chyerti but believes they are demons. Her visions led to her ostracization by her family but also to her becoming a deeply religious woman. Before the family leaves Moscow, a drunken Kolya threatens a strange man, who turns out to be Morozko. In exchange for his son’s life, Pyotr promises the demon to give Vasya a strange sapphire pendant, which he entrusts to Dunya.

In Lesnaya Zemlya, Anna brings her rigid Christian beliefs to Pyotr’s household and immediately clashes with Vasya. After the village priest dies, he is replaced by the charismatic and ambitious Konstantin. Konstantin sees the lingering pagan beliefs of the villagers as an obstacle to his mission, becoming determined to root them out. Between Konstantin and Anna, the villagers are pressured to stop leaving offerings for the chyerti.

Konstantin identifies Vasya as a threat to his mission of converting the villagers, due to her independence and connection to the supernatural. He becomes obsessed with her, both loathing and desiring her, which only worsens her stepmother’s hostility since Anna is, in turn, infatuated with the priest. The protective spirits weaken, and danger creeps into the village as the animals grow sick, crops die, and the weather worsens. Medved stirs from his sleep and begins to manipulate Konstantin, convincing the priest that he is the voice of God. The priest’s sermons fuel the villagers’ fear of damnation, which in turn gives Medved the power to prepare to break free from his confinement.

As Vasya grows into adolescence, her encounters with the supernatural world become more frequent. She befriends the vazila and the domovoi, the stable and house spirits, and makes contact with the spirits of the forest. They all warn her of the growing danger posed by Medved. However, her ability to see the chyerti and interact with them increasingly isolates her from the villagers. Her family begins to worry about her as well. Morozko visits Dunya in her dreams and scolds her for not giving Vasya the necklace with the sapphire pendant. Pyotr attempts to marry Vasya off to a wealthy yet brutish suitor, but it falls through since the girl refuses to be confined by societal expectations.

Medved’s power grows as he manipulates Anna, Konstantin, and the fearful villagers, turning them against Vasya. Morozko warns Dunya of this, and the woman gives Vasya the necklace shortly before her death. Under Medved’s influence, Anna and Konstantin decide to send her to a convent. When Vasya learns of this plan, her stepmother says that she can only stay if she brings back snowdrops, which are not yet in bloom. With the necklace as protection, Vasya escapes into the forest and is nearly caught by Medved, only to be rescued at the last moment by Morozko.

Vasya later awakens in his home, where he nurses her back to health and brings her a magical horse, Solovey, to be her companion. During her stay, he tells her about his ancient rivalry with his brother. Medved is bent on destroying everything once he escapes imprisonment, beginning with Vasya, her family, and her village. Meanwhile, Medved convinces Konstantin to sacrifice Anna to him as a replacement “witch” in Vasya’s place. The priest leads Anna to the oak tree and leaves her to her doom at the demon’s hands.

Vasya returns to her village with the snowdrops, given to her by Morozko, only to discover that her stepmother has gone missing. She sets out with Alyosha and Solovey to confront Medved at the oak tree. Anna dies, finally freeing Medved. Vasya summons the household spirits, and they, along with Morozko, battle Medved and his forces. As the tide turns against them, Pyotr arrives and sacrifices himself to save his daughter. With Morozko’s help, Vasya manages to imprison Medved once again.

In the aftermath, the villagers are left to rebuild their lives. Vasya threatens Konstantin into leaving, and the family buries Pyotr and Anna. Knowing she cannot live a normal life in a place that fears her, Vasya leaves with Solovey.