What king is Nabokov referring to in A Russian Beauty?

Nabokov's short story ends with the following lines:





';I repeat the words of the merry king in my favorite fairy tale: Which arrow flies for ever? The arrow that has hit its mark.';





Does this fairy tale actually exist, or did he just make it up?What king is Nabokov referring to in A Russian Beauty?
Hi Trevor,





It seems that the king and the fairy tale mentioned there were indeed MADE UP by Nabokov. There certainly isn't any Russian fairy tale with such words that would be well-known by the Russians.





One researcher mentions that the last paragraph of this short story (the original title is just ';A Beauty'; - ';Krasavitsa';) actually refers to a TEASING GAME of questions and answers that a young Nabokov used to play. His cousin - Nikolai Nabokov - describes how Nabokov would make up ';a writer, a poet, a king or a general'; and would ask questions about that fictional person's life. This game was known to upset the ';victim';, especially if it was his younger sister Olga.


(source: Abstracts of a conference paper by V. Desjatov, 2006, in Russian http://www.philology.nsc.ru/index.php?op鈥?/a> )





Maxim D. Shrayer - a researcher of Nabokov's short stories - suggests that his sister was indeed a PROTOTYPE of Olga's character, in which case the explanation given above makes some sense, being an additional detail hinting at his sister. You can read more on this subject here:


http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/shr鈥?/a>


(scroll down to ';11. Olga, Sonia, and Other Russian Beauties';)





You could probably find more background information on this short story (and on the citation in particular) in a good edition of Nabokov's works with commentary.


There's one article that might be helpful as well. It is in Russian but was published in a German magazine WIENER SLAWISTISCHER ALMANACH in 1996:


http://www.slavistik.uni-muenchen.de/Pub鈥?/a>


The article by I. Belobrovceva and S. Turovskaja is titled ';Krasavica'; Vladimira Nabokova: Vechno letjaschaja strela, popavshaja v cel''; (=Vladimir Nabokov's ';A Beauty';: ';The Arrow That Has Hit Its Mark';).





Hope that helped. Oh and say hi to the beautiful city of Paris for me! :)What king is Nabokov referring to in A Russian Beauty?
';The rare, strange thing is to hit the mark; the gross, obvious thing is to miss it. We feel it is epical when man with one wild arrow strikes a distant bird.';


The Man who was Thursday by Chesterton. Nabokov, I seem to recall, had read a lot of his works. Report Abuse