I want to tell you a good tale about those distant times when on earth they still understood the language of four-legged and feathered creatures and listened to their wise words.
At that time she lived in a dark dense forest, in a lonely hut, a lame old woman with three beautiful daughters. The daughters bloomed next to the old woman, like bright flowers around a dry stump; The younger sister was especially pretty and sweet. But in the depths of the forest, only the sun during the day and the moon and the stars at night could admire the beauty of the girls.
Like a young man in love,
The sun looked at them
It played in colorful ribbons,
It blushed the patterns
The old woman did not allow her daughters to be lazy and waste time - they had to work from morning to evening. The girls spent the whole day at the spinning wheels - they spun yarn from golden flax. Neither on a weekday nor on Saturday evening did the poor things have time to stock up on a dowry. If at dusk or at night, when the moon was rising, they did not manage to secretly take up the knitting needles, then nothing was added to the dowry. The old woman immediately replaced the spun tow with a new one and, moreover, demanded that the thread that the girls spun be equally even, moderately twisted and thin. She kept the finished yarn under lock and key, in a hiding place where the girls did not dare to set foot.
Where the golden flax came from in the house and what kind of fabric the spun thread was used for, the spinners did not know; the old woman never told them about this. Every summer she went somewhere two or three times and sometimes disappeared for more than a week, but she always returned home at night, and her sisters never saw what she brought with her. Before leaving, the old woman left strands of hair for her daughters for as many days as she thought she would be away from.
And now the old woman began to get ready for the journey again. Having divided the yarn between her daughters for six days, she, as usual, began to teach them:
- Daughters, work hard, don’t yawn around, so that the thread on the spindle doesn’t break, otherwise the golden yarn will fade, and then the end of your happy life!
But the girls only laughed at the old woman’s instruction, and before she had time to move ten steps away from the house, the sisters began to mock her.
“We don’t need these stupid teachings,” said the younger one. “Tear the golden thread as much as you want - it won’t break, and even more so when you spin.”
“And gold cannot tarnish,” added the second sister.
So the girls laughed in their frivolity, until their laughter eventually turned into tears.
On the third day after the old woman left, an unexpected event happened that brought the sisters at first fear and tears, and in the end happiness and well-being.
A prince from the Kalev family, hunting wild animals with friends, got lost in a dense forest. He drove so far that he no longer heard either the barking of dogs or the sounds of a hunting horn, which would have helped him get out of the thicket. Either the forest spirits caught the voices of the people calling him, or the sounds were drowned in dense thickets, not reaching the prince. Exhausted, the young man got off his horse and lay down to rest in the shade of the bushes, and let the horse graze on the grass.
When the prince woke up, the sun was already setting. He began to look for the road and finally came across a small path that led to the hut of a lame old woman.
The girls were very frightened when they saw the unfamiliar young man; they had never seen strangers before. But in the evening, having finished their work for the day, the sisters became so friendly with the stranger that they forgot about rest. When the older sisters finally went to bed, the younger sister stayed with the young man. They sat on the threshold of the hut, and neither one nor the other wanted to sleep that night.
While they whisper sweet words to each other in the light of the moon and stars, let's see what the hunters do when they have lost their elder in the forest. They tirelessly searched for the young man, drove through the forest both along and across until it became completely dark. Desperate, they sent two messengers to the king with sad news, and they themselves lay down for the night under a branchy fir tree, deciding to start their search again the next morning.
The king immediately ordered the next morning, without waiting for dawn, to send a detachment of horse and foot soldiers to search for his missing son. But the forest was so large that only on the third day, at noon, did people manage to pick up the trail that led to the hut.
The prince was not bored in the company of his sisters and did not think about home. When leaving, he secretly swore to his younger sister to return soon and either kindly or forcefully take her with him. And although the older sisters did not even suspect about this conspiracy, the secret was soon unexpectedly revealed.
The youngest of the sisters was seriously frightened when, after the prince’s departure, she sat down at the spinning wheel and noticed that the gold thread on the spindle was torn. The girl quickly tied the ends of the thread into a knot and began to quickly turn the spinning wheel to make up for the time she had lost while making out with her betrothed. But suddenly the girl’s heart sank: she noticed that the golden yarn had lost its shine. Neither sighs nor tears helped - things were not going well.
“When trouble comes, open the gate,” says the old proverb. This is what happened now.
At night the old woman returned home. Entering the upper room, she instantly sensed that something was wrong here. Anger boiled in her heart. She called her daughters over and demanded an answer from them. No matter how the girls hid, no matter how they made excuses, nothing helped: lies walk on feet of clay. The cunning old woman immediately understood what songs the young man was singing to her youngest daughter. She burst out with terrible curses, showering them on heaven and earth.
In the end, she threatened to twist the young man’s head and throw him to be devoured by wild animals if he decided to return.
The youngest daughter, red as boiled lobster, could not find peace all day and did not sleep a wink at night. She was especially tormented by the thought that the prince, if he returned, would inevitably die. Early in the morning, when the old woman and sisters were still fast asleep, the girl slowly left the hut into the courtyard, hoping that the morning coolness would dispel her heavy thoughts.
Fortunately, as a child she learned from the old woman to understand the language of birds, and now it was useful to her. A raven sat on the top of a spruce tree and smoothed the feathers with its beak. Seeing him, the girl exclaimed:
- Dear raven, wisest of birds! Can you help me?
-What help do you need? - asked the raven.
“Fly over the forests and plains, fly until you see the beautiful city where the king lives,” answered the girl. “Find the king’s son there and tell him about my misfortune.”
And she told the raven about how her golden thread broke and what terrible threats fell from the old woman’s lips. The girl asked to tell the prince not to return again. The raven promised to fulfill her request if there was anyone in the city who knew the language of birds, and immediately set off on the road.
The old woman now did not allow her youngest daughter to sit at the spinning wheel, but forced her to wind the finished yarn. For a girl, this work, perhaps, would have been easier, but the old woman did not give the poor thing a minute of peace, showering her with curses and abuse from morning to night. If the girl tried to make excuses, the old woman would rage even more. An evil woman, if she starts swearing, no force can stop her.
In the evening, a raven’s cawing was heard from the top of the spruce tree: “Kra, kra!” - and the exhausted girl ran out into the yard to listen to what news the bird brought her. Raven was lucky enough to meet in the royal garden the son of a certain sage who commanded the winds. This young man knew the language of birds well. The raven told him the girl’s words and asked him to tell everything to the prince. Having learned about what had happened, the king's son was greatly saddened and began to secretly consult with his friends on how to save the girl.
“Tell the raven,” the king’s son instructed the sage’s son, “to quickly fly to the girl and tell her this: “On the ninth night, be ready - the deliverer will come and snatch the dove from the claws of the hawk.”
The raven, in order to reward him for his troubles and strengthen his strength, was given a piece of meat and sent on his way back.
The girl thanked the wise bird for the good news and kept everything she heard secret, so that neither the sisters nor the old woman guessed anything. But the closer the ninth day approached, the heavier the girl’s heart became: she was afraid that an unexpected misfortune would ruin the whole thing.
On the ninth night, when the old woman and the sisters went to bed, the girl tiptoed out of the hut and sat down on the grass under a tree to wait for her betrothed. Fear and hope filled her heart. The second roosters had already crowed, but no voices or footsteps could be heard in the forest. Between the second and third rooster crow she heard the distant clatter of horse hooves. So that the stomping and voices of approaching people do not wake up the sisters and the old woman, the girl
She ran in the direction from which the noise was heard, and soon saw a detachment of warriors. The king's son rode ahead; when leaving here last time, he made marks on the tree trunks, which now helped him find his way. Seeing the girl, the young man jumped off his horse, helped her into the saddle, then sat down himself, and they rushed off. The moon, peeking out from behind the trees, illuminated their path.
As soon as dawn broke, the forest was filled with bird voices. If the girl had listened to them and followed the advice of the birds, it would have saved her and the prince from many troubles. But the young man whispered sweet words in her ear, and the girl did not hear or see anyone except her betrothed, and he asked her to cast aside all fear and boldly rely on the protection of the soldiers. When the detachment reached the plain, the sun was already high.
The old woman, getting up in the morning, did not immediately miss her daughter. Only a little later, seeing that there was no one behind the reel, she asked her daughters where their younger sister was. But they didn’t know. Based on some signs, the old woman realized that her daughter had run away, and decided to punish the fugitive by sending a chase after her. The old woman brought a handful of nine magic herbs, dried and mixed, from the attic, added witch's salt to them, tied everything in a rag, wrapped it in a woolen thread and, muttering spells, sent a magic ball with a fair wind after her daughter, saying:
Mother of the Winds, wave your hollow,
Let the whirlwinds spread their wings!
Let my little ball rush,
Like the wind, like a bird;
Let it rush, deadly,
And make the fugitive fall!
By noon, the prince and his squad reached the bank of a wide river. There was a bridge across it, so narrow that it was only possible to cross it one by one. When the prince reached the middle of the bridge, the messenger of the wind, a magical ball in flight, lightly touched the horse. The frightened horse reared up, snoring, and before people had time to rush to help, the girl slipped off the pommel of the saddle into the river. The prince wanted to jump after her, but the soldiers held him back: the river was so deep that no mortal could help the trouble.
The prince almost lost his mind from horror and grief. The warriors forcibly took him to the castle, where he spent many weeks in a secluded room, mourning his bride. In the first days, the young man did not take any food or drink. The saddened king ordered to convene all the wise men of his country, but no one could say what the prince was sick with, and no one knew how to cure him. Then the wizard’s son, who served as the king’s gardener, gave him the following advice:
- Send messengers to the country of the Finns, to the old sage, he knows the matter better than the local sages.
The king hastened to send messengers to the Finnish sage, and a week later the old man flew to the kingdom on the wings of the wind.
- Good king! - said the sage. - This illness was sent to the prince by the wind. An evil magic ball struck the young man in the heart, which is why he is sad. Neither persuasion nor medicine will help here - only time will heal the wound. Let him be in the wind more often, so that the wind will dispel his melancholy.
And it’s true - the prince began to get better, began to eat and sleep. Eventually he told his parents about his grief.
The old king would like his son to find himself a new bride and quickly bring a young wife into the house, but the prince did not want to hear about it.
So, almost a year passed in grief and sadness. And then one day the young man accidentally found himself near the river where his beloved died. Remembering this, he cried bitterly. Suddenly he heard a gentle, beautiful voice, although there was no one nearby. The little voice sang:
By the spell of an evil old woman
We took on a weak wave,
The waves hid the poor thing,
I hugged cute Ahti.
Jumping off his horse, the prince looked around, looked under the bridge to see if anyone was hiding there. But as far as the eye could see, the mysterious songbird was nowhere to be seen. On the surface of the water, between the wide leaves, a water lily flower swayed quietly. This was the only thing that caught the young man's eye. But the flower could not sing; here, of course, there was some kind of magic. The prince tied his horse to a stump near the shore, sat down on the bridge and began to wait to see if the voice would be heard again. For a long time everything around was quiet, then the voice sang again:
By the spell of an evil old woman
We took on a weak wave,
The waves hid the poor thing,
I hugged cute Ahti.
Sometimes a good thought dawns on a person quite by accident. It was the same this time. “If I go to the forest hut now,” thought the prince, “who knows, maybe the gold spinners will help me solve this mystery.” The young man jumped on his horse and rode towards the forest. He hoped to find the threshold by the signs he left on the tree trunks, but the forest grew, and the prince wandered for more than a day before he found the path. He stopped in the forest at a distance from the hut and began to lie in wait to see if any of the girls would show up.
Early in the morning the eldest daughter went to the stream to wash herself. Approaching her, the young man told about his misfortune and about the mysterious song that he heard at the bridge. The old woman, fortunately, was not at home, and the girl called the young man into the upper room. From the prince’s story, the sisters immediately understood that the cause of the misfortune was the old woman’s magic ball and that their sister did not die, but was only entangled in the threads of witchcraft.
“Have you noticed someone in the river waves who could sing?” asked the elder sister.
“No,” answered the prince. “As far as the eye could see, there was nothing on the water except a yellow water lily flower with wide leaves.” But neither the flower nor the leaves could sing.
The girls immediately decided that the water lily was their sister, who drowned in the river and was transformed by magic into a flower. They knew that the enchanted ball that the old woman sent after their sister could turn her into anything, but it could not take her life. However, the sisters did not say anything to the prince; they didn't want to give him false hopes until they figured out how to save their sister. The old woman was only due to return in a few days, so they had time to think and consult.
In the evening, the elder sister brought a handful of magic herbs from the attic, ground them finely, mixed them with flour, kneaded the dough, baked a cake and treated the young man to it before bed. At night, the prince saw a strange dream - as if he lived in the forest among birds and understood their language.
When he told the girls his dream in the morning, the elder sister said:
- You came to us at a good hour, at a good hour you had such a dream. When you go home, it will come true. Magic herbs of wisdom were mixed into the cake that I baked for you yesterday. They will help you understand everything the birds talk about among themselves. These small winged creatures know a wisdom unknown to humans;
so listen carefully to the chirping of birds. And when happy days come for you, remember us, poor orphans, who, like prisoners, always sit at the spinning wheel.
The prince thanked the girls for their good advice and vowed to rescue them from slavery, at least at the cost of a ransom, at least by force, then he said goodbye and set off on his way. Great was the joy of the girls when they saw that the thread on the spindle had not broken and the shine of the gold had not dimmed: the old woman, returning home, would not be able to suspect them of anything.
Meanwhile, the prince was driving through the forest, and it seemed to him as if he was surrounded by many people: the singing of birds, their cries and chirps echoed in his ears, like intelligible and reasonable speech. The young man was amazed at how much wisdom remains unknown to man because he does not know the language of birds. True, at first the traveler did not understand much of the chirping of the birds, although they were talking about people. But these people and their secret affairs were unknown to the prince. Suddenly, at the top of a tall pine tree, he saw a magpie and a spotted blackbird. They had a conversation among themselves, which, as it seemed to the prince, concerned him.
- People are terribly stupid! - said the blackbird. “Even in the most trivial matter they don’t know how to do the right thing.” There, in the river, near the bridge, the daughter of a lame old woman, turned into a water lily, has been languishing for a whole year. She sings, complaining to passers-by about her grief, but no one will even think of saving her. That's just it. A few days ago, her ex-fiancé drove across the bridge and heard the girl’s complaints, but he turned out to be no smarter than the others.
“But the poor thing, through his fault, bears the old woman’s curse,” answered the magpie. “If he doesn’t gain any wisdom other than human wisdom, then the girl will remain a flower forever and ever.”
“It would not be difficult to save her,” said the blackbird, “if you told everything to the old Finnish sage.” He could easily free the captive from the water prison.
This conversation made the young man think. Driving further, he thought about who to send as a messenger to the country of the Finns.
Suddenly he heard one swallow chirping to another:
- Let's fly to the country of the Finns, there are better places for nests there than here.
- Wait, friends! - the prince shouted in the language of birds. - Say hello from me to the old Finnish sage and ask him for advice on how to return a human appearance to a girl turned into a water lily!
The swallows promised to fulfill his request and flew on their way.
Having reached the river bank, the young man let his horse graze, while he remained on the bridge, listening to see if the song would sound again. But nothing was heard, only the waves rustled and the wind whistled over the river. Saddened, the prince mounted his horse and rode home. He didn’t say a word to anyone about what happened to him during the trip.
Several days passed. One day the prince was sitting in the garden and thinking that the swallows that had flown to the country of the Finns had probably forgotten about his request. Suddenly he saw a large eagle circling high in the air above his head. The eagle sank lower and lower and finally sat down on a linden branch, not far from the prince.
“The old Finnish sage sends you greetings,” said the eagle, “and asks you not to be angry that he was delayed in answering: it was difficult to find anyone who was heading to your country.” To rescue a girl from captivity and return her to her human appearance, you must do this: go to the river, take off your clothes and smear your whole body with mud so that not a single white spot remains anywhere. Then hold your nose with two fingers and shout:
“Let a black cancer appear in the place of the young man!” And at that very moment you will turn into a cancer. Feel free to dive to the bottom of the river, don’t be afraid to drown. Get under the roots of the water lily, free them from the sand and silt, then grab the tip of the root with your claw, and the water itself will lift you and the flower to the surface. Swim downstream until a spreading rowan tree appears on the left bank. At some distance from it there will be a stone as high as a small hut. Having caught up with him, you must shout: “Water lily become a girl, cancer turn into a young man!” And your wish will immediately come true.
Having said this, the eagle rose into the air and flew on its way. The young man looked after him for a long time, not knowing what to think.
The prince pondered for more than a week: he did not have enough determination to do as the sage ordered. But one day the young man heard the voice of a raven saying to him:
- Why are you delaying? The Finnish sage never gave wrong advice, and the language
Birds have never deceived anyone before. Hurry to the river, save the girl and dry her tears.
The raven's words gave the young man courage. “Let me die,” he thought, “but death is better than eternal sadness.”
Mounting his horse, he rode along the familiar road to the river bank. Arriving at the bridge, the prince heard the song again:
By the spell of an evil old woman
Half asleep I'm rocking here.
By the river wave in the arms
The spring color is fading,
In the depths of the cold, dark
Your darling is hidden.
The prince hobbled the horse so that he could not go far, then threw off his clothes, smeared his body with mud, leaving not a single white spot anywhere, pinched his nose and, exclaiming: “Let a black crayfish appear in the place of the young man!”, he rushed into the river. The water rushed up noisily, and everything became quiet again.
The young man, who turned into a crayfish, began to free the roots of the flower, which had sunk deep into the river bottom, from sand and silt. This work took up a lot of his time. The roots grew firmly into the ground, and the crayfish had to work for seven whole days, and finally he managed to do the job. Having unraveled the roots, he caught his claws on one of them, and the water lifted him and the flower to the surface. The waves carried them further and further, and although there was a lot growing along the banks
bushes and trees, but the mountain ash and large stone were still not visible.
Finally, on the left bank they saw a branched rowan tree covered with clusters of red berries, and a little further away stood a stone the size of a hut. Having caught up with him, the swimmer exclaimed: “Water lily become a girl, cancer turn into a young man!” - and immediately two heads appeared on the surface of the water - a boy and a girl. The wave washed the swimmers to the shore, but they could not get out, since both were naked.
“Dear young man, I don’t have any clothes, so I don’t dare to get out of the water,” the girl said embarrassedly.
“I’ll close my eyes, and you go ashore and hide under the mountain ash,” answered the young man. “I’ll run to the bridge, where I left my horse and clothes before throwing myself into the river.”
When the girl hid under a rowan tree, the prince hurried to the place where he had left his horse and clothes, but found neither one nor the other. The young man did not know that he had been in the form of a cancer for seven days; it seemed to him that he had spent just a few hours at the bottom of the river.
Suddenly a magnificent carriage pulled by six horses drove up to the shore. In the carriage, the prince found clothes for himself and the girl he saved. Along with the carriage, a servant and a maid also arrived. Leaving the servant next to him, the young man sent a carriage with a maid and clothes to where his beloved was hiding under a rowan tree.
More than an hour later, the girl, dressed in a beautiful wedding dress, came to the prince, who was waiting for her by the river. The young man, also dressed in a rich wedding attire, got into the carriage next to the bride, and they drove into the city, straight to the church.
At this time, the king and queen in mourning clothes were sitting in the church, mourning their beloved son. Everyone believed that he had drowned, since his horse and dress were found on the river bank. Great was the joy of the parents when their son appeared before them alive and unharmed, and next to him was a sweet girl, both in dazzling clothes. The king himself led the bride and groom to the altar, where they were married. Then began the magnificent and noisy wedding celebrations, which lasted six weeks.
Time moves without stopping or resting, and yet the days of joy seem to fly faster than the hours of sorrow. Soon after the wedding, autumn came, then winter came with frost and snow, and our newlyweds had no desire to even set foot outside the threshold.
But when spring came again in all its glory, the prince and his young wife went out for a walk in the garden. Then the magpie, sitting on the top of the tree, shouted to him:
- Oh, you ungrateful creature! As soon as happy times came for you, you forgot about those who helped you in trouble! In your opinion, unfortunate girls should spin gold yarn until the end of their days? The lame old woman is not their mother, but a witch! She stole them in the far country when they were still small children. The old woman has many sins, she does not deserve mercy. It would be necessary to boil the poisonous root and treat it to the sorceress, otherwise she will again haunt the girls with her magic ball.
Then the prince remembered how he went to a forest hut to ask his sisters for advice, how he learned to understand the language of birds, how he swore to the girls to rescue them from captivity. He told his wife about all this, and she, shedding tears, began to beg her husband to hurry to help her sisters.
The next morning, waking up, she said to the prince:
“I had a prophetic dream that the old woman left the house and the sisters were left alone. Now is the time to go to their aid.
Without hesitating for a minute, the prince ordered to equip a large detachment of warriors and set off with them. The next day they reached a forest hut. The girls, as the dream had predicted, found themselves alone and with a joyful cry rushed to meet their deliverer. The prince immediately ordered one of the soldiers to gather poisonous roots and prepare such a dish for the old woman that when she returned
go home and eat, I never wanted to eat again.
After spending the night in the hut, the king's son and the warriors set off early in the morning, taking both girls with them, and arrived in the city in the evening. Great was the joy of the sisters when they met after two years of separation.
And the old woman returned home that same night. She quickly swallowed the food left on the table and went to bed, but never got up again. The poisonous root did its job.
When the king's son sent his military commander a week later to see what was going on in the forest hut, he found the old woman dead. In the hiding place were fifty cartloads of golden yarn, which was then divided between the three sisters. After the goods were taken away, the royal military commander ordered a red rooster to be placed under the roof of the hut. The flame, like a fiery rooster's comb, was already bursting out of the dormer window, when suddenly along the wall A large cat with burning eyes slid to the ground. The warriors began to chase the cat and eventually caught it. At this time, the bird sitting on the tree chirped: “Pinch the cat’s tail with a trap, and all the secrets will be revealed!” That's what the soldiers did.
- Have mercy on me, people! - said the cat. “I am the same person as you, although I was turned into a cat by the power of magic.” This is punishment for my crime. I lived in a distant country, in the castle of a king who owned untold riches, and ran a household there, and the sorceress was the queen’s first maid. We were overcome by greed, and we secretly conspired with the old woman to kidnap the king’s three daughters and many treasures, and then flee. We gradually took out all the precious utensils from the castle, which the old woman was turning into golden flax, and then we took the girls away too. The eldest of them was three years old, and the youngest was five months old. The old woman was afraid that I, having repented, would betray her, and turned me into a cat. As soon as the witch died, I regained the power of speech, but my human form never returned to me.
When the cat finished her story, the royal commander said:
- Go after the sorceress, you don’t deserve a better death! - and ordered to throw her into the fire.
And the royal daughters, like their younger sister, later married the princes. The golden yarn found in the forest hut constituted a rich dowry for them. Where the girls were from and who their parents were remained unknown. They say that the old woman buried many more cartloads of golden flax in the ground, but no one can say where to look for it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru