Once upon a time there lived a king, and in his kingdom there grew a tall tree - so tall that its top was not visible. The king really wanted to know how high that tree was and what grew on it. He sent messengers to all corners of the kingdom and ordered to notify everyone: if there is such a fellow who can climb the top of a tree and pick the fruits from it, the king will give his daughter to that young man as a wife and bequeath the kingdom to him. Many people came to try their luck, but no one managed to reach the top, and others fell from the tree and killed themselves.
One daredevil from distant lands decided to try his luck. He walked through a dense forest and met a shepherd. The fellow asked him if he was going the right way. And he sees that there are some iron hooks on the shepherd’s feet, like animal claws. The guy was curious about what it was. The shepherd said that with such hooks he quickly climbs trees to escape wild animals. The good fellow, although he was dressed in a rich outfit, invited the shepherd to exchange clothes with him. But in addition he asked for those iron claws. The shepherd laughed and thought that the passer-by was joking: what a whim it is to exchange beautiful clothes for rags. But, seeing that the fellow really wanted to change, he agreed and, in addition to the gentleman’s clothes, received a lot of money in addition.
So the young man came to the royal city, changed his clothes, only left the iron hooks with him, and went straight to the king - he bowed low to him and told him why he had come. The king gave him permission. Then the young man took his iron claws with him, took all kinds of food for seven days and climbed the tree. People look at him and are amazed at how deftly he climbs. But for three days and three nights now the young man has been climbing the tree, and there is still not a single branch on the trunk. It was only on the fourth day that branches seemed to appear in the heights, and on the seventh day he saw that they were not branches, but a palace. He reached the palace and knocked on the iron door. Soon steps were heard, the door opened, and he saw a beautiful girl. She invited the guest to enter, led him into the silver hall and treated him to all sorts of dishes and wine. Three enchanted maidens lived in the castle. The good fellow stayed with them for the night - after all, he had not slept for a whole week.
In the morning the girls woke him up, fed him delicious food, and then the most beautiful of them said:
— On the way to the top you will meet two more palaces. It will take you fourteen days to climb until the first one. Six girls live in that palace, and they will tell you what to do next. Here's a loaf of bread for you. When you get hungry, thirsty, or tired, lick it, and immediately your hunger, thirst, and fatigue will go away.
Ten days have already passed, and the castle is still not in sight. On the eleventh day something sparkled in the heights, and on the fourteenth a young man knocked on the door of a wonderful palace made of pure gold. In the golden palace, the girls greeted him just as cordially as in the silver one, fed him, gave him something to drink, put him to bed, and the next morning they said:
- There is another palace above us. It will take you three weeks to get there. Nine girls live there, and they will tell you how to reach the top of the tree.
At parting, the girls gave him a loaf of bread - as soon as he licked it, hunger, thirst, and fatigue would go away. In the third palace, built of precious stones and beautiful pearls, the young man was greeted just as warmly, fed, given water and left to spend the night. Nine girls lived here, one of them had golden hair. From her the young man learned that he would have to climb to the top for a whole month.
“You will find five golden fruits there,” said the girl, “three on the right and two on the left.” The ones on the right can be cut with these scissors. But woe to us if you cut off the ones on the left. The tree will sway violently and collapse along with the palaces, and we will all die. As soon as you have done your job, immediately go down to the ground. A great crowd of people have gathered there, everyone can’t wait to see you: they want to know what fruits you will bear, and to hear what happened to you along the way. But don’t tell a single living soul, not even the king, about what you saw and heard. And the next morning, wait for us by the main road. We will ride in a diamond carriage drawn by golden horses. Those horses rush faster than birds. If you have time to touch the carriage, the spell will be broken; if you don’t have time, the devil will take us to a castle without windows and doors.
The fellow came down to earth. The people seem to be invisibly, everyone is asking what he saw and what he did for so long on the tree. But he keeps quiet, he even hid his loot from the king. The next morning I got up early and went to the appointed place to wait for the carriage. With the first rays of the sun, a small cloud of dust swirled in the distance. Closer, closer, finally very close; Now the carriage is already visible. But she rushed past like a whirlwind, the fellow did not have time to touch her.
He completely lost his head from grief. And when he calmed down a little, he went to the king, told him everything without hiding, showed him three golden fruits and said that he would go around the world looking for a castle without windows and doors.
The fine fellow has been wandering around the world for two months now, and he has never heard of a castle without windows or doors.
At the end of the third month, he got lost in a dark forest. In the morning he sees in the distance, on a hill, it looks like the light is breaking, well done and turned in that direction. He approaches the place and sees a rickety hut standing. And Luna lived in the hut. He boldly knocked on the dilapidated door, the rusty bolt rattled, the door opened and - oh horror! The young man even recoiled: in front of him was a terrible old woman, and in her hands was a burning torch. That old woman was as old as the world, big as an oak, black as a firebrand, eyes like small bowls, hair like a horse's mane, and she was thin, skinny - well, skin and bones. The old woman was the mother of the Moon. She looked angrily at the guest and asked why he came. The good fellow replied that he was looking for a castle without windows and doors, would she show the way to it. And the old woman answers:
“I haven’t been away from home for more than an hour in many thousands of years.” How do I know about such a castle? My daughter Luna probably knows about him - after all, she walks around the whole world every night. Now go away, no matter how bad it gets. The Moon will return soon, and if it finds you here, beware: it will tear you to shreds!
The poor fellow began to beg his grandmother not to drive him away, but to hide him in some nook and find out from her daughter about the castle, and when she left, she would tell him everything. He begged so tearfully that the old woman took pity and hid him under the stairs. So Luna came home and already from the threshold she sensed the human spirit. He asks his mother if she is hiding a person. At first, the mother refused, but Luna was so furious that she had to tell everything without hiding. The old woman begged, asking for mercy and to help the poor fellow find a castle without windows and doors - if, of course, the Moon knows where that castle was erected. The Moon took pity on the young man, ordered him to crawl out from under the stairs and said to him:
“I’d be glad to help you, but I myself don’t know about such a castle, I don’t know.” Let it be known to you that I have never illuminated the whole earth. That’s right, that castle is hidden in some desert where I haven’t looked yet. You better go to the Sun, it sees more than I do. Maybe the Sun will show you the way to the castle.
The young man wandered through the forest for a long time, but still could not find the Castle of the Sun. Finally I found him and went in there. Only the Sun's mother was at home. She was even older and scarier than Luna's mother. She also had mercy on the guest, hid him and promised to ask him about the castle. The Sun returned home in the evening and scolded his mother for letting a man into the house.
The unfortunate man heard this, went out to the Sun and so sadly began to ask to help him in trouble that the Sun took pity on him and said:
“Maybe there is such a castle on earth, but I don’t know about it.” I also don’t look into every corner of the earth. Here is the Wind - it blows out all the holes and must know about everything in the world. Go to him!
For three days the young man searched for the house of the Wind. Finally found it. Luckily, the Main Wind was at home at that time. The fellow told him his sadness and asked for help. The wind listened attentively, and when he finished, he took the pipe and played it, so loudly that all the winds in the world heard it. They rushed immediately, but no one had ever heard of a castle without windows and doors. One wind was late - his leg hurt, and he fell behind the others. He came running an hour later and told about the castle without windows and doors. And if the Main Wind doesn’t believe, then let him go and see for himself. The winds take no more than a quarter of an hour to get to that castle, and for a person it takes several years. The Main Wind felt sorry for the poor fellow, and he ordered to weave a large basket - it would be more convenient to carry a person in the basket. So they wove a basket, the fellow climbed into it, and the Main Wind picked it up and in the blink of an eye delivered it to the castle itself. The Wind began to look around the castle to see if there was any crack to get inside. On the highest turret he noticed a small hole. He made his way through it and rushed through the castle with such force that the walls shook. There were eighteen girls in the castle, plus the devil and his mother. All the girls except Golden Hair were dead.
The golden-haired one was considered the biggest sinner, and therefore the devil doomed her to great torment - to die last, so that before her death she would see the torment of her friends. The Wind grabbed the devil and, as hard as he could, threw him through the hole outside and there he ground him so much that only dust and ashes remained from the devil. Then Wind grabbed the mother of the devil and shook her so hard that all her bones cracked. He ordered to tell how the girls were tortured. The old woman fusses and insists that she doesn’t know anything about this, because it is the work of her son. The Wind threatened to deal with her like the devil if she locked herself up. The old she-devil got cold feet and told everything frankly. She also had to discover how girls could be revived: there was a waterspray hidden in the closet, and if you sprinkled it on the girls, they would immediately come to life. The Wind took the watersprinkler, sprinkled one maiden as a test, and she came to life. Then he grabbed the old woman, threw her into the hole and ground her like the devil. Then he revived all the girls one by one and breathed strength into Golden-haired - she was barely breathing. Then he carried everyone one by one into the basket, and destroyed the castle.
The rescued girls, along with the young man, were safely delivered by the Wind to the royal palace. But the good fellow married not the princess, but the Golden-haired One. And they lived in love and harmony for many, many years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru