Folklore & Fairytales discussion

Basically, The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship is a Russian folktale that is about a young peasant boy who goes out to find a flying ship after the Tsar of Russia made a proclamation that whoever builds him a flying ship will marry his daughter the Princess. When the fool finally does get a flying ship, he meets up with several passengers who all have superman abilities and once they reached the Tsar's palace, the Tsar doesn't want the Fool to marry his daughter, so he sets up three impossible tasks that they could never fulfill.

Have you read this story before and what are your thoughts on this story? Also, there were several different versions of this story released, including a stop motion film that came out in 1990. Here are the different versions of this tale:

Reminds me a bit of "The Golden Goose", in which the fellow (who I believe is named Simpleton) has to perform a list of impossible tasks to win the princess -- drink a cellar full of ale, eat a mountain of bread, and find a ship that can sail on land as well as on sea. Happily, he was helpful to a magical guy earlier in the tale who was happy to return the favor many times over. (:

Danielle wrote: "Reminds me a bit of "The Golden Goose", in which the fellow (who I believe is named Simpleton) has to perform a list of impossible tasks to win the princess -- drink a cellar full of ale, eat a mou..."

Oh yeah! I remembered the Golden Goose and now I'm seeing so many similarities between the two stories, especially about how the main character is being helped by various characters with powers.