ABSTRACT
The plot of the song about Prince Mikhailo can be stated in relatively few words. While he is away from home, his mother kills his wife during childbirth in the bathhouse. After his horse stumbles, the Prince returns home, looks for his wife, finally learns from the servants that his mother has killed his wife and child, finds their bodies, and commits suicide. The ballad belongs to an international subject about a conflict between a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law, the setting for the murder in a bathhouse apparently being a Russian modification. About seventy variants of this song have been collected.
