Horses of King Conal.
In ancient times, a king ruled in Eire, who took a queen, beautiful and kind, as his wife. She was so kind that all the people in the country loved her, especially the poor, and not a day passed that they did not appear at the royal castle with their requests. The king and queen had three glorious sons, and there was no one happier than them in the entire kingdom of Ireland until the day the queen fell ill with an unknown illness. She felt that her death was close, and called the king to her, and told him:
“If I die and you marry again, promise me to send my three sons to the most remote part of the kingdom so that they do not end up under the power of a strange woman.” Let them live there until they become adults.
The king swore that he would fulfill the queen's wishes, and she died peacefully.
The king mourned her bitterly for a year, or even two, and did not even think about taking a new wife until his advisers told him that for the good of the state he should marry. Then he ordered a castle to be built in the most remote part of the kingdom and sent his three sons there with servants and teachers to look after the children. And then he got married and was happy again until his new wife gave him a son.
And then one day, shortly after the birth of his son, the king went hunting, and the young queen went out for a walk in the vicinity of the castle. As she passed the hut of the half-mad old bird-keeper, she heard the old woman complaining that the new queen did not care at all about the poor.
“You don’t care about the poor and miserable people who live near the very walls of your rich castle,” the old woman shouted after her. “Not like the glorious, kind queen who was the wife of our king before you.” It is not without reason that they say that the noble lady was ready to take off her cloak from her shoulders and give it to anyone who needed it most.
Hearing these words, the young queen stopped and decided to ask the bird-keeper about the late queen. She promised the old woman a hundred colorful goats, a hundred sheep and a hundred cows so that she would tell her everything, and heard from her about the three royal sons living in a secluded castle in the most remote part of the kingdom.
“And when they grow up,” the old woman finished, “your own son will have nowhere to lay his head like a bird from heaven.”
The story of the old henkeeper alarmed the young queen; she was afraid for the fate of her son, but the old woman reassured her:
“Listen to me, and I will teach you how to get rid of the king’s sons.” Make the king invite them to visit here in the castle, and while they are staying here, ask them to play chess with you. I will give you the enchanted board and you will win. When you have won against all three, say that as punishment you order them to go after the three horses of King Conal, because you want to ride them three times around the borders of the kingdom. They will ride, and you will not see them again, because many heroes went in search of the horses of King Conal, and none of them returned. And your son will be king when the time comes.
The queen went home and that same evening, as soon as the king rode up from hunting, she asked him why he was hiding his sons from her.
“Bring them back to the castle,” she asked, “and you will see that I will love them no less than my own son.”
And so the king returned his three sons and ordered a great feast to be prepared in their honor. And all the people in the kingdom rejoiced because they saw them again in the royal castle.
After the feast, the queen called each of the berets, one by one, to play chess with her. She played with each one three times; I won twice, and lost on purpose the third time.
In the evening the eldest of the brothers came to her and asked:
– What punishment will be given to me and my brothers for losing to you?
“I require an oath from you not to sleep twice under the same roof and not to eat twice from the same table until you bring to me three of King Conal’s horses, because I want to ride them around the borders of the kingdom three times.”
“But where, tell me, O queen, should we look for King Conal’s horses?” – asked the eldest prince.
“Go around the four parts of the world,” answered the queen, “and you will certainly find them in one.”
“And now I will assign a punishment to you,” said the elder brother, “for the game that you lost to me: I take an oath from you to climb to the roof of the castle and stand there and watch, never going down, until we return with the horses.”
- Cancel your punishment, and then I will cancel mine! - exclaimed the queen.
“If a person in his youth evades the very first punishment that is assigned to him, then nothing worthwhile will come of him,” said the prince. - We're going after the horses!
The next day the three brothers said goodbye to their father and went in search of the castle of King Conal. And so, after traveling for many days and not finding even a trace of this castle, they met some lame man with a black cap on his head.
- Who are you? And what brought you to these parts? And where are you in such a hurry? – asked the man in the black cap, stopping in front of them.
“We are the sons of the Irish king,” answered the eldest of the brothers, “and we are looking for the three horses of King Conal to bring them to our stepmother.”
“Come with me,” said the lame stranger, “we will spend the night together, and tomorrow I will go with you and show you the way to the castle of King Conal.”
It was already getting dark, the brothers followed the stranger and spent the night in his hut. And the next morning, very early, a man in a black cap woke them up and said:
“Many brave heroes have already tried to get the horses of King Conal and paid for it with their lives. But,” he added, “I will help you, and maybe you will succeed.” And without me you will never find them.
And so the four set off and reached the castle of King Conal before dark. However, they waited until midnight and only then went to the stable to get the horses. Great was their joy when they saw that all the guards were fast asleep.
The three brothers and the man in the black cap took advantage of this, and each chose a horse. But as soon as they touched them, the horses madly reared up and began neighing so loudly that they raised the entire castle to their feet. The guards rushed at the brothers and instantly grabbed them and the man in the black cap. And then they took the prisoners to King Conal.
King Conal sat in the main hall of his castle on a large throne made of pure gold. On either side of him and behind the throne stood guards with drawn swords. And in front of him, oil was boiling and bubbling on a hot fire in a huge cauldron.
- What's happened! - King Conal exclaimed, seeing a man in a cap in front of him. – If the Black Thief had not died, I would have said that it was him!
“I am the Black Thief,” said the man in the black cap.
- Really? - said the king. - Well, we'll check it later. Who are these three guys?
“We are the sons of the Irish king,” answered the three brothers.
“Well,” said King Kona.l, “let’s start with the youngest.” Just first spread the fire under the boiler, otherwise the oil will all boil away!
Then the king turned to the Black Thief and asked:
“Well, isn’t this young man close to death now?”
“Once I was closer than him,” answered the Black Thief, “and I was saved.”
“Tell me,” says the king, “and if you really were closer to death than he is now, I will give him life.”
“Deal with each other,” said the Black Thief and began his story.
Three enchanted girls.
In my youth I had lands and untold riches. My life flowed in complete peace and contentment until three witches appeared and completely ruined me. Then I went out onto the high road and became a famous robber, the most famous in the entire Irish kingdom - the Black Thief.
So, these three witches were the daughters of the king who ruled in Zira at that time. During the day these were the most beautiful girls in the whole kingdom, and at night, according to the spell of an evil wizard, they turned into three vile witches.
And it so happened that, even before I lost all my property and went out onto the high road, I gave the order to my servants to stock up on peat for seven whole years - to cut it and bring it to me. A huge pile grew near my house, so big, like a real black mountain. And then one night - it happened after midnight - I returned home from the feast and what do I see: three terrible witches grabbed peat from my pile, threw it into three baskets, put the baskets on their backs and carried it away. So they carried my peat that winter until they carried it all.
The next year I again made a supply of peat for seven years, but the witches appeared again and began to take it away. Then one night I waylaid them, waited until they filled their baskets, and followed them all the way to the hills. I noticed how they descended into an underground gallery under the rocks at a depth of one hundred and twenty feet. Looking down, I saw that a fire was burning there, and the witches were boiling a whole ox carcass in a huge cauldron. I looked around to find something to throw at them, and, noticing a huge boulder near the entrance to the dungeon, I began to push and roll it until it fell right on top of the witches. The boulder broke the pot and spilled all the broth over the ashes.
I started to run, but the three witches soon caught up with me. To escape from them, I climbed a tall tree, but they noticed me, stopped below and began to look at me through the branches. The eldest of the three witches turned the middle one into a sharp ax, and the youngest into a ferocious hound dog. Then she grabbed an ax and began to chop down the tree under me.
With the first blow, the witch cut the tree trunk by a full third. She struck with the ax a second time and cut another third. Finally she swung it for the third and final blow... but just then the rooster crowed, and before my eyes the ax turned into a pretty girl; the witch who cut down the tree into another pretty girl, and the fierce hound into a third. The sisters held hands and walked away, happy and innocent in appearance, like any three girls in the kingdom of Eire.
“Well,” said the Black Thief to King Conal, “wasn’t I then closer to death than this young man is now?”
“Perhaps he was,” agreed the king. - Well, his brother will go instead! The oil is just boiling, so don’t put it off.
“And yet,” said the Black Thief, “once I was closer to death than he was at that moment.”
“Let’s listen to your story,” said King Conal, “and if you really were closer to death than he was, we will release the second young man too.”
And the Black Thief began his second story.
Thirteen enchanted cats.
After I broke the pot for the three witches who stole my peat and all my livestock, they killed all my chickens, trampled my crops, and, in general, brought me to such poverty that I had to go out onto the high road to feed my wife and whole family.
One night I was driving an old nag and a little cow home so that I had something to feed the children, and I was so tired, trudged after them, that I sat down in a dense forest under a tree to rest. It was cold, and since I had a flint in my pocket, I struck a fire to warm myself. I didn’t sit by the fire for long when I saw thirteen huge and creepy cats creeping out of the darkness from all sides! So big and terrible that the world has never seen: twelve cats are the size of an adult man, and the thirteenth, their leader, is even larger. Huge, fierce, with wild green eyes that lit up and sparkled as he sat down by the fire and stared at me. The rest sat down in groups of six on either side of him and all began to purr together, as loudly as if thunder had thundered in a quiet night.
A little later the main one, the red cat, gets up, raises his muzzle and, looking at me through the fire, says:
- I don’t want to starve anymore! Give me something to eat now!
“But I have nothing except that white nag over there, which is tied to the tree behind you.”
The red cat jumped on the horse and, tearing it in half, ate one half himself and left the other half for his twelve friends. They quickly dealt with her and even gnawed her bones.
Then all thirteen returned to their places by the fire and sat around me, licking their lips and purring so loudly you could cover your ears.
A little later the main cat spoke again and said:
– I’m hungry again. Give me something else!
“But I have nothing except this hornless cow,” I answered.
The red cat pounced on the cow and split it in half, just like the horse had done before. He ate one half himself and left the other half for his twelve friends. While the monster cats were eating the cow, I took off my cloak and wrapped it around a tree stump, and pulled my cap over the top. I wanted it to look like me, because I knew well what these monsters would do when they were done with the cow. Then he climbed the tree himself.
The cats very quickly finished with the old cow, returned to their places and again sat around the fire. Soon the red cat looked at the stump that I left in my place and said:
- Do you have anything else? I'm dying of hunger! Stump, of course, did not answer, then the leader of the cats jumped over the fire straight onto him and began to torment and tear him with his claws. But very soon he noticed that he was mistaken.
“Aha,” he said, “that means you escaped!” Well, it’s okay, we’ll quickly find you, no matter where you’re hiding!
And he ordered his twelve cats to go around the entire kingdom of Eire, but to find me. Six cats were supposed to look for me underground, and six on the ground. He himself sat down under a tree. Soon the cats returned, having crawled all over the ground from top to bottom and not even finding my traces.
Then the ginger cat happened to look up at the tree and saw me.
“Yeah,” he said. - There you are! It’s okay, you’ll soon fly away from me. “Come on,” he ordered the twelve cats, “gnaw this tree!”
Twelve cats immediately surrounded the tree and began gnawing on the trunk. Before I could blink an eye, they chewed him up and threw him to the ground right in front of their leader. But when the tree fell, I managed to jump onto the branches of the neighboring one. Then the cats began to gnaw at this tree, and only at the last minute, before it fell, I saved myself on the third tree.
So they followed me all night, gnawing every tree in which I hid, until I reached the very last tree in this forest. They started gnawing at him, too, and I just didn’t know how I could get away from them now. They had already gnawed half the trunk, when suddenly, out of nowhere, thirteen terrible wolves appeared: a pack of twelve wolves and one huge, ferocious one - their leader.
The wolves attacked the cats, and a bloody and cruel battle ensued between them, until finally twelve cats and twelve wolves found themselves lying dead on the ground. And only two leaders continued to fight. But then the leader of the wolves dealt a terrible blow to the red cat; the red cat only managed to grab the wolf by the head and tail and tear it in half, and both fell dead on top of each other.
Here I could calmly leave the tree on the ground and go home. And when I began to descend, the tree creaked and swayed under me - after all, the cats almost completely managed to gnaw it.
“Well,” asked the Black Thief, “wasn’t I closer to death that time than this young man is now?”
“Indeed, he was,” answered King Conal. “And I give him life, because I’m not going to break my word.” But there is still a third brother left, so turn up the heat under the oil so that it is hot! - And he added: - Well, have you ever been closer to death than this young man is now?
- Of course! – answered the Black Thief.
“Tell me,” said King Conal, “and if he really was, I will set him free along with his brothers.”
And the Black Thief told King Conal the third story.
The treacherous student.
After I had been practicing my craft for some time, I mastered it to such perfection that I took on several students to teach them the same,” the Black Thief began his story. “Among them there was one, a young man, who was different in intelligence from all the others; I worked with him more than anyone else. He was very smart, and learning came easily to him. Pretty soon I taught him everything I knew, and he became an even more skilled thief than I was.
This was in those days when, on the other side of our kingdom, a giant lived in a stone cave. And since this giant robbed and robbed the surrounding nobility, everyone knew that his cave was chock-full of gold and various other riches. So my student and I decided to go there one fine day and collect as many valuables as we could carry. We set off on a journey and, after traveling for many days, we reached the giant’s cave, which was located in the mountains.
It was an underground cave hidden in the rocks. There was only one passage leading into it - a deep, dark chasm. We watched the giant for several days. Usually he left every morning, and returned in the evening with a bag over his shoulders, filled, we could swear, with gold and jewelry.
And so one morning, when the giant had left, I tied my student with a rope around his waist and began to lower him into the hole between the rocks leading to the giant’s cave. But when he was already halfway there, he suddenly started screaming, screaming for me to pull him back up. I pulled him out and he admitted that he was afraid to go down.
“Go down yourself,” he says, “and I’ll hold the rope and pull you up.”
I descended, and when I reached the giant's cave, I saw huge yellow heaps of gold and sparkling white heaps of silver and precious stones. I untied the bag and poured into it all sorts of goods, as much as one person could lift, and then sent the bag on a rope up to my student. After that I shouted to him to lower the rope for me. At first there was no answer, then I heard him shouting to me:
– I won’t study with you anymore! Enough! I've already become a better thief than you. Be healthy! I hope you have a pleasant evening with the giant.
And I never heard anything more from him. Then I looked around to find at least some way out of the giant’s cave, but it was impossible to get out of there; even a fly would not have taken a single step on the steep and slippery rocks. And then in the corner of the cave I noticed a pile of dead bodies. I crawled under them, since there was nowhere else to hide, and stretched out to my full height, as if I were dead myself.
In the evening the giant returned, carrying three more dead men. He threw them into a common pile, right next to me, and began to light a fire in the hearth. When the hearth began to glow, he hung a huge black cauldron of water over it, took a huge basket and filled it with the dead. I was the first, and he threw six more at me. He dragged the basket to the cauldron and overturned it, so that six dead men fell into the boiling water, and I, I don’t know how, managed to cling to the bottom of the basket. Then the giant threw the basket with me into the far corner of the cave. So, not for long, I was saved...
The giant had dinner, sat down comfortably in a chair and began to snore. I took a moment and crawled out from under the basket. Then I approached the exit of the cave and what do I see - I got lucky, I got lucky! – the giant forgot to turn his ladder towards the wall. The ladder was hollowed out in the trunk of a tree, and when the giant left the cave or returned to it, he only had to turn the ladder with the steps towards the wall, and no one could use it, unless he was as strong as himself. I climbed up the stairs and instantly found myself on the ground.
- Well, do you think I was closer to death then than this young man is now?
“I swear you were close enough!” - said the king. “And I will have mercy on him, just as I had mercy on his brothers.” Now it's your turn! Now you yourself will end up in the pot, and that will be the end of the matter. Yes, you’ve probably never been so close to death as you are now!
“Needless to say, there’s nowhere closer,” said the Black Thief. “And yet one day I was even closer.”
- When is this? - asked the king. “Tell me, and maybe I’ll set you free along with the others.”
And the Black Thief told the story of how he escaped from three cannibals.
Three cannibals.
“One day,” the Black Thief began, “I was tired on the road, and I also wanted to eat, so I went up to some house to ask for something to eat. I walk in and see a young woman with a baby on her lap. The woman has a knife in her hands, and she either raises it over the child, as if she is going to kill him, or takes it away. And at the same time he cries bitterly, but the dear child laughs and bursts out with joy.
- Why do you keep swinging a knife at the child? – I asked the woman. - And why are you crying so bitterly?
Then she told me her story:
“Last year, when I was with my father and mother at the fair, suddenly, out of nowhere, three giants flew at people. No one even had time to come to their senses: whoever had a piece in their hands did not have time to put it in their mouth, and whoever had it in their mouth did not have time to swallow it. The giants robbed everyone of them, but they grabbed me and took me away from my father and mother to this house, and then they told me to become the wife of the eldest giant. But I begged him not to marry me until I was eighteen years old. And I will be eighteen in a few days, and then there is no salvation for me unless someone kills three cannibals before that.
- But why do you want to kill this child? – I asked.
“Yesterday they brought this boy and said that he was the son of the king. They gave it to me and told me to make a pate out of it, and that the pate would be ready for dinner today.
- Don't kill the boy! - I said. “I have a pig here, you can make pate from it, they won’t even realize it.”
The girl did as I advised her and prepared pig pate. The three cannibals ate the pate with great pleasure and only said that it was very tasty, but not enough. Then the older cannibal - he still had not eaten - sent his younger brother to the cellar to cut off a piece from some dead man and bring it upstairs. He went down into the cellar and, grabbing me, cut off a sizeable piece from my leg just above the knee. The elder cannibal liked this piece so much that he himself went down to the cellar to pick me up and roast me over the fire. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, but hadn’t even taken a few steps before I plunged my knife right into his heart. And he fell to the ground dead.
Then the middle brother also went down to the cellar to find something to eat. He, like the other one, threw me on his back, but I also stabbed him and laid him on the ground next to my brother.
And the younger brother waited and waited at the table for reinforcements to be brought, finally he got angry and also went down to see what had delayed his brothers so much. He found them stretched out on the ground, began to stir them up and discovered that they were both dead. He looked around in surprise and noticed me. Swinging a huge iron club over his head, the giant rushed at me. He aimed at my head and brought the club down with such force that it sank three feet into the ground. But I managed to dodge, and not a single hair fell from my head. While the giant was trying to pull the club out of the ground, I ran up to him and plunged my knife into his side three times.
He raised his club again, aimed at me, but I dodged again and again, while he was pulling out his club, I stabbed him in the stomach three times. But he swung at me a third time, and the insidious branch of his club dug into me and drilled a large hole in my side. Then the giant fell to the ground and gave up his ghost. However, I was also very weak, blood was pouring out of me. And I was just about ready to close my eyes forever, when a girl ran down the steps into the cellar. Seeing her, I raised myself on my elbow and shouted to her:
“Hurry up and run for the giant’s sword, it’s hanging on a nail near his bed, and cut off his head!”
She ran out and immediately returned with a sword in her hands. Fearlessly, no worse than any man, she swung and cut off the cannibal's head.
“Now I will die with a light heart,” I said.
“No, you won’t die,” she said, “I’ll take you to the next cellar, where there is a cauldron of living water, and your wounds will heal immediately, and you’ll get up as if nothing had happened.”
And she immediately threw me on her back and hurried to another cellar, where a cauldron of living water was kept. She lifted me to the edge of the cauldron, but then I completely lost consciousness. Then she immersed me in living water, and before the water had time to touch my skin, I was again healthy and full of strength.
- Well, was I close to death then? – the Black Thief asked King Conal.
“Of course,” answered the king, “but even if I hadn’t, I still wouldn’t have thrown you into the cauldron, but would have given you life, like the others, because if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here today - after all, I am the very child who was supposed to be baked in pate for the cannibals for dinner.”
“My father knew that the Black Thief saved my life,” said the king, “and he searched the whole world to find you and reward you, but he never found you.” Therefore, you are welcome to us, you will be a dear guest, and in your honor I will order a great feast to be prepared.
Well, they feasted, and then the king presented the Black Thief with gold, silver, and everything possible, and gave three horses to the three sons of King Eire, so that they could take them and show them to their stepmother.
“When she rides them all over the kingdom,” said King Conal, “release the horses and they will gallop back to me.”
And so the three brothers brought the three horses of King Conal to the kingdom of Ireland and came to their stepmother, who, from the very day they left, stood on the roof of the castle and waited for them to return.
-Have you brought the horses? – the stepmother was surprised.
“Yes, they did,” the brothers answered. “But we are not going to give them to you for good.” Your task was to go after King Conal's horses and bring them here. We did it!
And with these words they released the horses. Like the wind, the horses rushed back to King Conal.
-Can I go down to the castle now? – asked the stepmother.
“Not yet,” said the youngest of the brothers. “After all, I haven’t yet given you my punishment for the game that I won against you before we left.”
-What is your punishment? – asked the evil queen.
“Remain in this place until there are three more king’s sons who would agree to go after King Conal’s horses.”
As soon as the queen heard this, she fell dead from the roof of the castle.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru