out more handsome than anyone had ever seen. The king sees this and jumps in as well but is instead boiled alive. The archer is chosen to be king and marries the princess and they live happily ever after. The Firebird concept has parallels in Iranian legends of magical birds, in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about The Golden Bird, and related Russian magical birds like the Sirin. The story of the quest itself is closely paralleled by Armenian Hazaran Blbul. In the Armenian tale, however, the bird does not glow, but rather makes the land bloom through its song. In Czech folklore, it is called Pták Ohnivák (Fire-like Bird) and appears, for example, in a Karel Jaromír Erben fairy tale, also as an object of a difficult quest. Moreover, in the beginning of this fairy tale, the bird steals magical golden apples belonging to a king and is therefore pursued by the king's servants in order to protect the precious apples. The story of the firebird comes in many forms. Some folk tales say that the Firebird is a mystical bird that flies around a king's castle and at night swoops down and eats all the king's golden apples. Others say that the firebird is just a bird that flies around giving hope to those who need it. Some additions to that legend say that when the firebird flies around, his eyes sparkle and pearls fall from his beak. The pearls would then fall to the peasants, giving them something to trade for goods or services. In the most common version of the legend, a Tsar commands his three sons to capture the firebird that keeps flying down from above and eating his apples. The golden apples are in the Tsar's orchard and give youth and strength to all who eat them. The sons end up barely missing the bird, but they catch one of his feathers that glows in the night. They take it to a dark room and it lights the room completely. Literary and musical works The story of the Firebird quest has inspired literary works, including "The Little Humpback Horse" by Pyotr Yershov and "These Feathered Flames" by Alexandra Overy. The most famous version of the Firebird legend was the production by Sergei Diaghilev of Ballet Russe, who commissioned composer Igor Stravinsky to score the enormously popular large-scale ballet called The Firebird. In Stravinsky's ballet,