Once upon a time there lived a king, and no one could approach his princess.
And then one prince appeared from a distant land. He set off on a journey, went out, walked and walked, and lo and behold, there was a man lying on the road. The sun is so warm, but he wrapped himself in a sheepskin coat and shouted that he was cold.
- Who are you, man? - I'm Cold. - Wouldn't you hire me? - Well, you can. - Well, let's go. - Okay!
So they both went. They see another one lying on the road, some bread next to him, and he is screaming that he is dying of hunger. The prince asks him:
- Who are you? - I'm Hunger. - Wouldn't you hire me? - Well, I'll hire you.
He already has two. The three of them go. They are walking, and here a man lies by the river and screams:
“Don’t let me, good people, die of thirst!” “And who are you?” “I am Drought.” “Why are you screaming while you’re lying by the river?”
He answers:
- Eh-eh! Yes, this is not enough for me, I would drink the whole river at once, and there would not be enough water. The prince says to him: - Hire me! - I will.
He already has three. They went and went and went, and finally came to the distant land where that king reigned. They let the king know that so and so, some prince after a princess, had come to the king. The king says:
- Okay, call him here.
They invited him there: the king began to treat him, and he realized that he was a prince. Asks him:
- What do you want? - I, a gentleman, came to marry the princess. He answers him: “Well, I’ll give it to you if you complete the three tasks that I give you.” Do you undertake to fulfill them? - I will. - But if you don’t fulfill them, you will be punished by death. - And if, - he says, - I do, then who will pay me for them? - Then you will take my princess.
They stayed there as expected, and then the king ordered his servants to slaughter a hundred bulls for the prince’s dinner. They quickly did it and cooked it, baked three hundred large loaves of bread and brought a hundred tubs of water. When everything was prepared, they called him:
- Well, go, if you eat this dinner, then you will take my princess. And he asks: “Is everything ready, is everything okay?” The king answers that everything is ready. And he stands, looks at all this sadly and says to Hunger: “What should we do, who will eat all this?” “Heh!” heh! This is not enough for me even for one lunch, there’s nothing to lick my lips with.
And as he began to eat, as he began to eat, he ate everything to a crumb and screamed for more to be served to him. Let's go to the king.
- Most Serene Monarch! They gobbled it up so much, they ate so much that they only left the bones and shouted: come on, they say, more. - Now give him something to drink, and then let him take my princess.
The prince was greatly saddened.
“Come on, don’t push,” Drought tells him, “as soon as I start sucking with my mouth, the hoops get caught, so I’ll drain them and blow them all out at once!”
He drained one after another and still shouts:
“Give me some water, otherwise I’ll die of thirst!” They came to the king: “Tsar, he blew out a hundred tubs of water so much that even the hoops got caught and dried up.” The king says: “Once I drank this water, I would drink all the water from the sea!” “And the king said to his servants: “I have an iron stove, light it red-hot so that sparks fall all around, let them spend the night there, and they will burn to the ground.”
The prince became very sad.
“Well,” he says to his servants, “now we’re finished!” “Here we made a bed for you, lie down and sleep.”
The prince and his two servants were very sad, because they did not know what would happen to them. Then Cold says to him:
“Don’t be sad, prince, don’t worry, I’ll hit you with the cold, you’ll have to take cover and wrap yourself up, otherwise you’ll freeze.”
And as he blew in the cold, the whole oven became covered with frost. All four climbed into the oven and shouted:
- Save me!! Don't let us freeze, or we'll die!
At this point the king was very frightened, he realized that nothing could be done with them now, because he had agreed with him that if this one completed three jobs, he would receive the princess.
The king tells him:
- Prince! You have already won the princess from me, but do one more job for me, then I will give you my entire kingdom. And he asks? - What kind of work? He says: “I have such a castle that no one can spend the night in it, but if you spend the night there, then I will sign the whole kingdom to you.”
“Well, I agree,” the prince replies.
They agreed about the kingdom, and the king takes him to show him the castle so that he can spend the night in it for three nights. And in that castle there were a hundred sworn Forks, there was a whole gang of them, and at midnight they played and danced in the castle. The prince went to that castle, took with him four candles and four new caps, as soon as he lit these four candles, he immediately covered them with caps so that they would not go out.
And then at midnight he hears such a gang coming that the whole castle is shaking, as if on water - they are playing like that, dancing like that. They entered the castle, and the prince was sitting at a table and was very frightened of them. His sworn Pitchforks ask him:
“Who are you and why did you come to our estate?” He answers them like this: “I will build another palace from this castle - you have nothing to do here.”
And as soon as the frost hit, everyone started chattering their teeth. They invite him to dances, to dinner, and so on, but he doesn’t want anything, he just sits, a candle burns in front of him, and Cold walks around and feels so cold that it’s impossible to even stand. Pitchfork tells him:
- Most Serene Prince! Whatever you demand from us, we will fulfill everything for you, just don’t drive us out of this castle. “No, nothing will help you now.” I will destroy you all.
Then a hundred devils attacked him in a heap, and he began to chop them down, began to destroy them along with Hunger and Drought - only fifty remained. Twelve o'clock has already struck, and these fifty have disappeared.
The next midnight, even more of them appeared than before, all with noisy playing and singing. And there was one lame man among them, and he gave him a cane.
“Take it, but just don’t hit me, otherwise they’ll mock me, because I’m subordinate to them, and as soon as you hit me with this cane, everyone will submit to you.”
And the prince was still sitting. And when they found them, how there were so many of them that they couldn’t crowd the palace, they were going to kill him.
And as soon as he grabbed this cane and began to beat, as he began to beat them, he beat them so much that there was no one else to beat, everyone had to submit to him.
- Most Serene Prince! Whatever you demand from us, we will do everything for you, just don’t take the castle from us! “No, now nothing will help you, I have to take it away, I’ll build another palace from it!” They extinguished one candle, and he took off the cap from the other - he only had two candles left, the devils surrounded him, and the lame man asked: - Your Serene Highness! Just don’t hit me, I’ll help you, whatever you want, I’ll do it for you, don’t be afraid, I won’t do anything to you, and you’ll drive them all away.
They arrived at the castle on the third night, a crowd appeared again, and even more, they just arrived, sat on the roof, they could not come to an agreement. And the lame man gave him such a sword that he would cut whoever he hit in two. They just flew in and said:
- Prince, we will give you anything - silver, gold, diamonds, just leave this castle, they say that beyond the red sea lives such a beautiful princess that you will go around the whole world, but you will not find such a beauty anywhere, if you want, we will bring her to you. He agreed to this: “I’ll leave you all alone if I like her, I don’t like mine.”
So they took it and, as promised, brought it. And that girl has golden hair and golden feet, and pearls fall from her eyes when she wants to cry. He was so comforted and rejoiced and said to the sworn Pitchforks:
“Since you did this to me, I will give up the castle to you voluntarily.”
And the lame man said to him again:
“There is such a broadsword here that it will cut down as many troops as you can with your eye, you don’t leave until they give you this broadsword.”
And this is how the Pitchforks came together, the prince tells them:
“I will give up the castle to you voluntarily, just give me the broadsword that is hidden here.”
But they don’t want to give it, so he then took the arapnik and beats them. And the lame devil says again:
- There is a tub of strong water here, when they become weak, then, having drunk it, they receive such strength that there is no one stronger in the world; you can overcome the whole world.
And he went, led him to the tub, the prince drank once - he became stronger, the second time - even stronger, and the third time - even stronger. The devil says:
“There is such water here that if you want to have a comrade, splash it behind you, and you will have a soldier.” Well, I did everything for you, because they are mocking me.
The prince stood near the tub and began to splash, as he began to splash - the soldiers did so much that there was no end in sight. And they had different weapons needed for war, all of them were in that castle.
So he surrounded the castle with an army, how he besieged it and how he began to beat the damned, how he began - he drove away all the damned, leaving only one lame. And the lame devil says to him:
“If you ever die, I will come to your aid and revive you.”
And so the prince writes to the king who gave him the job, so that tomorrow at seven o’clock he will go to battle.
- Eh, he's a fool! - says the king. - What will he do to me? I have an army, I have everything, and he’s there in the castle, and who knows whether he’ll survive, and he writes like that! “And the king wrote to him that he was ready to fight him immediately.”
The king went out at the appointed hour to the field where he ordered, with his great army. The prince also appeared, and as he stood near the tub and began to splash behind him, such an army appeared, such an army was advancing that there was no end in sight for it. When the king saw this, he was afraid of such an army, and they were all in red uniforms, like, you know, like karmazin. And so quickly he surrounded the king, set upon him, and gave him no mercy: “After all, you wanted to deprive me of my life in three places, and I wanted to deprive you of my life in one place.” And he no longer wanted to take his princess, he conquered his kingdom and began to rule in that castle.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru