Last night, the girls and I were reading the Russian fairy tale of Finist the Handsome Falcon. The Falcon turns into a handsome prince when he comes to visit his beloved beautiful maiden. When her evil sisters found out, they hid knives at the window sill. When he tried to fly through the maiden’s window, his wings were badly cut. He told the maiden he will not come back, but she will have to go to “thrice nine lands” to find him. She will have to wear out three iron staves, three pairs of iron shoes, and gnaw away three iron loaves before she finds him. So in the course of her journey, she broke 3 staves, wore out 3 pairs of shoes, and she is down to gnawing on her last loaf.
What! She’s been eating loaves of bread made out of iron???? She is one tough maiden!!