Ruslan and Ludmila

Pushkin's first major long poem, a playful fairy-tale epic set in the Kiev of legend. On her wedding night the princess Ludmila is carried off by a sorcerer, and her bridegroom, the knight Ruslan, sets out to find her, meeting rival suitors, wizards, a giant head and enchanted landscapes. Light, witty and full of mischief, the poem mixes folk tale with sophisticated irony, and made the young Pushkin famous. Glinka later turned it into an opera.