--- title: Koschei the Deathless in A Court of Splintered Harmony Comes From the Slavic Folk Tale That Hides His Death Inside an Egg description: Koschei the Deathless, villain of A Court of Splintered Harmony, comes from Slavic folk tales. Read the original story and the books that retell it. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T10:00:00.042Z updated: 2026-11-04T10:00:00.082Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/koschei-the-deathless-acotar image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/unsplash-x69k221aghw.webp categories: Fiction, Reading Lists content_type: Feature publication: Rich Books schema_type: Article --- A Court of Splintered Harmony sold 1.7 million copies on its release day, 27th October, according to figures from its publisher, Bloomsbury, reported by Variety. That is up 600% on the first-day sales of A Court of Silver Flames in 2021. The villain at the centre of the sixth A Court of Thorns and Roses book is Koschei the Deathless, and if you search his name you mostly land on fan wikis. Koschei is far older than Prythian. He is the sorcerer of East Slavic folk tales, a villain storytellers passed from village to village for centuries before anyone wrote him down, and you can read his original story tonight. ### Book: A Court of Splintered Harmony (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 6) By Sarah J. Maas Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series. What was broken will be remade. Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories, attracting powerful allies hell-bent on reclaiming what was once theirs: the human lands. The Night Court will not stand idly by while innocents are attacked. But with Prythian still piecing itself together in the wake of the devastating Hybern War, the task of uniting is proving more difficult by the day. To make matters worse, those who rule and protect the Night Court are reeling from recent betrayals and revealed truths. The rifts dividing them seem insurmountable. But to defeat Koschei's creeping shadow, they must find a way back to each other and resurrect their former alliances. To survive, they must find a way to repair the splintered harmony all around them. The Court of Thorns and Roses series includes: A Court of Thorns and Roses A Court of Mist and Fury A Court of Wings and Ruin A Court of Frost and Starlight A Court of Silver Flames A Court of Splintered Harmony A Court of Forgotten Melody ## Koschei in A Court of Thorns and Roses Koschei first enters the series in A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017), when the Bone Carver tells Feyre and Cassian about his older brother, an ancient being bound beside a lake on the continent. He is the sorcerer who cursed the human queen Vassa to live as a firebird by day and a woman by night. A Court of Silver Flames brings him closer, and A Court of Splintered Harmony opens with him stirring in the heart of the continent while the Night Court tries to hold itself together. ### Book: A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 3) By Sarah J. Maas The third A Court of Thorns and Roses book, in which the Bone Carver first tells Feyre and Cassian about his older brother, Koschei. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=A+Court+of+Wings+and+Ruin) [A Court of Wings and Ruin on Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=A+Court+of+Wings+and+Ruin) | [on Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-court-of-wings-and-ruin-sarah-j-maas/1125299079) A Court of Splintered Harmony is Movement I of what the series now calls the Valkyrie Cycle, and Bloomsbury lists it at 352 pages. A Court of Forgotten Melody follows on 12th January 2027 with Movements II and III in a single volume of 928 pages. A fourth movement is still to come, which gives you two months to read the tale Koschei comes from. ## The Folk Tale of Marya Morevna The best-known Koschei story is 'Marya Morevna', also called 'The Death of Koschei the Deathless'. The Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev included it in his great collection of folk tales, published in eight volumes between 1855 and 1867. Prince Ivan marries Marya Morevna, a warrior princess. She rides off to war and tells him never to open one door in her castle. Ivan opens it and finds Koschei chained to the wall, thin as a skeleton, begging for water. Ivan brings him a bucket, then another. After twelve buckets, Koschei breaks his chains and carries Marya away. Ivan chases them three times, and each time the sorcerer's horse catches the lovers with ease. Koschei finally cuts Ivan to pieces, seals him in a barrel and throws it into the sea. The husbands of Ivan's three sisters, wizards who fly as an eagle, a falcon and a raven, bring him back to life. They tell him that only a horse faster than Koschei's can save Marya, and the one place to find such a horse is the stable of the witch Baba Yaga. Ivan survives her trials, wins the horse, kills Koschei and burns his body. The Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang put the tale into English in The Red Fairy Book in 1890, under the title 'The Death of Koschei the Deathless'. It is out of copyright, so you can [read it free on Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/540) in an evening. ## Koschei's Death in a Needle, an Egg and a Duck Other tales explain his nickname. Koschei cannot die while his death stays outside his body, so he hides it. In one version his death is a needle inside an egg, the egg is inside a duck, the duck is inside a hare, the hare is inside a chest, and the chest lies buried on Buyan, an island at the edge of the world. In 'Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard', the hero tracks down the egg and squeezes it, and every touch on the shell lands on the sorcerer's body until he dies. Folklorists file this plot as tale type 302, the giant who had no heart in his body, and Europe is full of it. The Serbian villain Baš Čelik, or Head of Steel, hides his strength the same way. So do the Hungarian Lead-Headed Monk and the Slovak Iron Monk, and a Lithuanian tale calls its villain Emperor Without-Soul. The earliest printed version of the tale type appears in a Swedish manuscript from 1702. When you read Koschei, you are reading one of the stories that the whole continent shares. One reading of his name links Koschei to the Slavic word for bone, which suits a prisoner wasted to a skeleton in a dungeon. Alexander Pushkin turned him into a miser in the prologue to Ruslan and Ludmila, where King Kashchei wastes away over his gold. In 1910, Igor Stravinsky put Kashchei on stage as the villain of his ballet The Firebird, so the firebird and the sorcerer were sharing a story long before Vassa. ## Books to Read Before A Court of Forgotten Melody **The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1890).** The English telling of 'The Death of Koschei the Deathless' sits among tales from Russian, French, Danish, Romanian and Norse traditions. Start here if you want the story exactly as Victorian readers first met it. ### Book: The Red Fairy Book By Andrew Lang The second of Andrew Lang's coloured Fairy Books, first published at Christmas 1890. It gathers tales from Russian, French, Danish, Romanian and Norse traditions, including 'The Death of Koschei the Deathless'. [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-red-fairy-book-andrew-lang/1100386155) [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-red-fairy-book-andrew-lang/1100386155) | [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=The+Red+Fairy+Book+Andrew+Lang) | [Read free on Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/540) **Russian Fairy Tales, collected by Aleksandr Afanas'ev, translated by Norbert Guterman (Pantheon).** More than 175 tales from the Afanasyev collection, with black-and-white drawings by Alexander Alexeieff. Koschei, Baba Yaga and the Firebird all live in its 672 pages, and it rewards dipping in on winter nights. ### Book: Russian Fairy Tales *The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library* By Aleksandr Afanasyev More than 175 tales from the collection of the Russian folklorist Aleksandr Afanasyev, translated by Norbert Guterman and illustrated by Alexander Alexeieff, with Koschei the Deathless, Baba Yaga and the Firebird among them. [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/russian-fairy-tales-aleksandr-afanasev/1001875251) [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/russian-fairy-tales-aleksandr-afanasev/1001875251) | [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9780394730905) **Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (2011).** Marya Morevna grows up in a version of St Petersburg in the first half of the 20th century, and Koschei arrives at her door to claim her as his bride. If you love the romance in ACOTAR, this is the Koschei novel to read next. ### Book: Deathless By Catherynne M. Valente A retelling of the folk tale of Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless, set in a version of St Petersburg in the first half of the 20th century. First published by Tor in 2011. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781472108685) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781472108685) | [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deathless-catherynne-m-valente/1100188865?ean=9780765326317) **The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden (2017).** Kaschei is the main villain of the second book in the Winternight trilogy, set in medieval Moscow and the snowbound forests around it. Read The Bear and the Nightingale first. - [The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy Book 1)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=The+Bear+and+the+Nightingale+Katherine+Arden) by Katherine Arden - [The Girl in the Tower](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781785031069) by Katherine Arden [The Bear and the Nightingale on Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=The+Bear+and+the+Nightingale+Katherine+Arden) | [on Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bear-and-the-nightingale-katherine-arden/1121860857?ean=9781101885956) | [The Girl in the Tower on Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781785031069) | [on Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-girl-in-the-tower-katherine-arden/1125814983?ean=9781101885987) **A Court of Silver Flames (2021).** The fifth ACOTAR book holds most of what you learn about Koschei before Book 6, and A Court of Splintered Harmony picks up six months after it ends. A reread before 12th January will pay off. ### Book: A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 5) By Sarah J. Maas The fifth A Court of Thorns and Roses book, told by Nesta Archeron and Cassian. A Court of Splintered Harmony picks up six months after it ends. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781526635365) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781526635365) | [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-court-of-silver-flames-sarah-j-maas/1137236764?ean=9781635577990) **A Court of Splintered Harmony (2026) and A Court of Forgotten Melody (12th January 2027).** - A Court of Splintered Harmony (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 6) by Sarah J. Maas - [A Court of Forgotten Melody (A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 7)](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781037205682) by Sarah J. Maas [A Court of Splintered Harmony on Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781037200076) | [on Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-court-of-splintered-harmony-sarah-j-maas/1151104530) | [A Court of Forgotten Melody on Amazon](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781037205682) | [on Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-court-of-forgotten-melody-sarah-j-maas/1151104531) ## FAQ **Q: What is the story of Koschei the Deathless?** Koschei the Deathless is an immortal sorcerer from East Slavic folk tales. In the best-known version, 'Marya Morevna', a prince frees Koschei from a dungeon by giving him water, and Koschei carries off the prince's wife, the warrior princess Marya Morevna. The prince dies, returns to life with the help of his sisters' husbands, wins a magic horse from the witch Baba Yaga and finally defeats the sorcerer. **Q: Who killed Koschei the Deathless?** In 'Marya Morevna', Prince Ivan kills Koschei with the help of a horse he earned from Baba Yaga, then burns the body. In other tales a hero finds the egg that holds Koschei's death, hidden inside a series of animals on the island of Buyan, and breaks or squeezes it. **Q: What does Koschei mean in Russian?** The meaning of the name is uncertain. One explanation links it to the Slavic word for bone, describing a man as thin as a skeleton. Another links it to an old word for a captive or servant, borrowed from Turkic languages. **Q: Is Koschei mentioned in ACOTAR?** Yes. Koschei is first mentioned in A Court of Wings and Ruin as the older brother of the Bone Carver, bound beside a lake on the continent. He returns in A Court of Silver Flames and becomes the central villain of A Court of Splintered Harmony and A Court of Forgotten Melody.