Dazhbog Perunovich was proud of his power. He believed that no one could be stronger than him, and was quite surprised when he was convinced of the opposite.
Once he was flying like a clear Falcon into the sky, and saw that a glade rider was riding in an open field, and she was fast asleep. Her helmet rests on the clouds, her golden braids flow like fire.
Tarkh Dazhbog flew to the ground, turned into a knight and, without hesitation, struck Zlatogorka with his club. But she didn’t even notice it. Dazhbog was surprised, drove up again, and hit again. Then he hit him a third time with all his might, then she woke up, picked up Dazhbog along with the horse and put him in a casket, and locked the casket with a key and put it in her pocket. And I almost forgot about the acquisition, but when I remembered, I took Dazhbog out of the casket and demanded:
- Take me as your wife. Then you will live as before. If you refuse, you won’t live. I’ll put it on my palm and press it with the other - it’ll just get wet between my palms!
There is nothing to be done, Tarkh admitted to Maya Zlatogorka that she has been in love with him for a long time and he agrees to accept the golden crown.
Once Dazhbog and Zlatogorka were driving through the Holy Mountains, and suddenly they ran into a large stone coffin in a field. Zlatogorka wanted to try it on, climbed into the tomb and closed herself. And then she couldn’t get out, because that coffin was enchanted by the Black God. Dazhbog wanted to break it with the sword Kladenets, but after each blow the coffin was engulfed by an iron hoop.
Then Dazhbog went to Viy to ask for a magic ring that could lift the spell. Viy gave the ring, and Dazhbog disenchanted Maya. But Maya’s life was returned only for a while until she gave birth to Kolyada. And they drove across an open field, and Spring came - Vyshen Dazhbog, and behind it Summer - Maya.
Where Dazhbog passes through the field, there he will sow crops in the field. Wherever the goldfish passes, the golden ears will ripen.
*This story is reconstructed from the epic about Dobrynya and Zlatogorka, as well as from Russian songs sung in Oseniny, on the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. In Russian conspiracies, a prayer to God (Dazhbog) for the sword Kladenets on the island of Buyan has been preserved (here this island is Atlantis, the land of Svyatogor and Zlatogorka): “I pluck three blades of grass: white, black, red. I will throw a red blade of grass across the Okiyan Sea, to the island of Buyan, under the sword of Kladenets, I will swing a black blade of grass under the black raven, that raven that made a nest on seven oak trees, and in the nest lies a bridle from a heroic horse, I will tuck a white blade of grass into a patterned belt, and in the patterned belt is sewn and curled a quiver with a red-hot arrow. A red blade of grass will bring me the sword Kladenets, a black blade of grass will take out a bridle of abuse, a white blade of grass will open a quiver with a red-hot arrow. With that sword I will repel the foreign force, with that bridle I will turn back the fierce horse, with that quiver, with the red-hot arrow I will defeat the enemy adversary.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru