The old woman had two poor sons. They went hunting with guns.
We walked and walked and killed a bear. The skin was removed and dried. The eldest son was a master of playing the accordion, the youngest was a master of dancing. The elder says to his brother:
- I am a master of playing, and you are a master of dancing. Let's go to the city to earn money.
And let's go. We came to the city. One plays, the other dresses up as a bear and starts dancing.
He danced very beautifully. Rumors about this reached the king. The king ordered to invite that man with the bear to his place. The king looked and looked and said
person:
- Leave me the bear for the night! The man says:
- I don’t know, we need to think about it. The king says:
- Think, think.
And the guy went outside with the bear. They went out, and the bear said:
- Leave me, leave me, brother, don’t be afraid. So they returned to the king, and the guy said:
- I'll leave the bear!
He went out and walked around the city alone to play the accordion. Early in the morning the king took the bear and went into the forest. Whether it was long or short. He came to the shore of the lake and began throwing sticks, branches, trees crosswise. So he threw and threw, and the lake became dry. He moved on. He came to the middle of the lake, poked with a pole, and found a door. I removed the mud around and went downstairs. There was a house made there. Opened the second door. The bear is watching, and all the girls are sitting in the house. One of them is the king's daughter. When they entered, the girls got scared and started screaming. The king calmed them down and began to ask the bear to dance. When the bear began to dance, the girls were all happy and gathered around the bear. King's daughter
says:
- Father, leave me the bear for three days.
At first my father didn’t want to leave, but then he agreed and said:
- He eats everything you eat.
And he left. The girls began to eat and feed the bear. After eating, they began to force the bear to dance. He started dancing. The girls laugh. The princess strokes and feels the bear.
When I began to stroke it with my hand, I found a knot. And then she said:
- This is not a bear, but a man! She took it and tore open the skin. A young guy came out of his skin.
This is how they lived until their father arrived. K. When his father arrived, the skin was sewn back on him. And the girls taught the guy how to come back. The king's daughter said:
“The father will tell the people: whoever finds his daughter will marry her to him.”
You start looking and immediately ask him for the keys. When he promises to give it to you, you turn to the people and say: You have heard everything, and after that you will come here.
And the princess gave the young man a ring. After some time, the princess’s father came and took the bear away. He brought him to the owner.
A little time passed, the king spread the news throughout the city:
Whoever finds my daughter, I will give her to him as a wife. People gathered near the king's house and waited to see who such a daredevil would be. The young man threw off his bearskin and came to the square where people had gathered. He looks and everyone is afraid. How do they know where to look? He said:
“I’ll go look!” and he holds his hand in his pocket, where he has the ring. Tsar
says:
- If you find it, bring her here. The young man says:
“I’ll find it, but will you give me what I need?” The king didn’t know what the guy needed, he thought and said:
- I'll give you what you need! The young man turned to the people and said:
- Did you hear what the king answered? The people shouted:
- We heard! And the young man said:
- Come with me then!
And all those gathered followed him. The king went along with everyone else. The young man turned to the king:
- Give me what I need! The king asked:
- What do you want?
- Keys! - answered the young man.
The king did not want to give up the keys; The young man turned to the people and said:
“You heard how the king promised to give me what I needed, but now he doesn’t want to give it!”
Then the king gave the keys to the young man. The young man walks in front, the king follows him, and everyone else follows the king. The forest ended, we came to the lake. The young man did everything the same way as the king did then. He walked up to the door in the middle of the lake and opened it. The girls came out to meet him, and with them the king’s daughter. The young man took out the ring and gave it to the king's daughter in front of the king himself. The princess says to her father:
- This is your bear. It wasn’t a bear, but this young man.
From then on, the princess and the young man began to live together. And now they live.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru