‘The wolf took Ivan to the ends of the earth, to the enchanted realm of the sorcerer. In the dead of night he entered the forbidden palace. His eyes were blinded by the sight of the bird in all her fiery glory, imprisoned in a golden cage. She wept molten tears and sang a mournful song, bewitching him.
“I will free you!” Ivan whispered.
But just then, the sorcerer came upon them.
“You will never free her,” the sorcerer said, his eyes dark and dead like burned-out coals. “Because only the greatest act of love will free her. Are you so brave and so foolish, young Ivan, that you are willing to take her place?”
“No,” cried the bird, imploring him. “Do not do this!”
But young Ivan, so brave and foolish, did not listen. He remembered the old man and the old woman and their daughter Snegurochka. He threw himself against the bars of the golden cage, where he was consumed by tongues of flame, and the Firebird’s blazing heart.’
– ‘The Firebird’, The Anthology of Russian Tales