A Halloween tale...

One dark winter night, whilst sitting in our city apartment my Babushka, sat down with me in front of the fire and told me the sad, sad tale of Tsarevna Yuliya. As Babushka spoke, the fire died down and the light grew dim and she spoke of the forest at the edge of the village so dark and mysterious, People would not travel the forest path after dusk or before dawn and on Halloween, people would not even speak it's Name.. Belogorsk, in Mother Russia deep within the Kemerovo Oblast.


Yuliya was in love with a tailor son and would often walk through the forest to meet him in the grove that lay in the center, but unknown to either of these ill fated lovers, the tailors' son had caught the eye of another. A witch of sorts lived within the forest and spied the young man walking in the moonlight and had vowed to have him for herself. So she cast a spell upon him, a evil cruel spell which turned him into a shadow of himself, a living yet not living a creature of the night.

From Suede

So, as she hurried to meet with her love, she did not know what had become of him and she found his enchanted body on the forest floor, the leaves drifting over him, covering him. She bent to kiss him, and he open his eyes, but not the eyes she recognized, blank empty, enchanted eyes, not the eyes of her lover, but then he was able to speak to her, and to gather her up in his arms and tell her he was he one true love. For many nights the Yuliya continued to meet her love in the forest, but the tailors son could never return to the village, changed as he was and rumours spread about a creature of the night, and it was decided that the a group of the village men would go and capture the beast and if not capture then kill. With many men and guns, the villagers entered the forest, and along within the group was the father, the tailor. Who feared his son had been taken by the creature, as it had been many weeks since his beloved son disappeared without a trace. He crept slowly around the grotto and spied the creature sitting quietly upon a rock and lifted his rifle to take aim, as the creature turn, he recognised him.. Father he cried, and ran towards him. The terrified tailor took aim and shot the creature a mortal wound between the eyes.


Yuliya, heard the shot and knew, and ran to grotto, and held her lover in her arms, as he died and as the enchantment fell away,his father realised how he had taken the life of his only son.In her grief and horror, Yuliya picked a mushroom from the forest floor, and ate it, to join her lover in death.

From Suede

From Suede

From Suede

It is said that the fated lovers still meet in the grotto on All Hallows Eve, the night on which they both met their doom.

From Suede