In a certain kingdom there lived a poor, poor woman. To all the troubles that befell her, she was also childless. One day a healer told her that if she drank an infusion of herbs collected on the night of Ivan Kupala, she would give birth to a child.
No sooner said than done. And that woman, in her old age, gave birth to a child so beautiful that you couldn’t take your eyes off it. And since the herb collected on the night of Ivan Kupala was basil, she named the boy Green Basil. The child grew by leaps and bounds, as he was protected by magical power. And wherever his foot stepped, basil grew.
So he lived, not so much in contentment, but in poverty. And he would have had to grieve for a long time if trouble had not happened in the kingdom in which he lived with his mother. A cruel, twenty-four-headed dragon has taken possession of their land; I stole the keys to all sources of drinking water. People and livestock were thirsty and dropped like flies. The king tried to break it off this way and that, but you can’t take a dragon with your bare hands. And when the king found out that until he gave the dragon his daughter as his wife, he would not see the key, he became completely ill with grief and fell into bed. Willy-nilly, I had to give him my daughter in order to save the springs and not die of thirst myself. As they say, your own shirt is closer to your body. This is the kind of misfortune that befell this kingdom. One day Green Basil was busy in the barnyard, but suddenly he heard loud speeches in the square in the middle of the village. And these were the heralds sent by the king to all corners of the kingdom to inform the people that whoever saved his daughter from the dragon would give her as a wife and half the kingdom in addition. Young and old listened to this, some shrugged their shoulders, some became thoughtful, and remained in their thoughts - no one dared to try their luck, because there was nothing more menacing than this dragon in the world. And people who can’t overcome their own fear certainly can’t cope with a dragon. Only Green Basil, having heard what they were talking about, rushed as fast as he could to his mother and said:
- So, they say, and so, mother, I’m going to help out the king’s daughter. The mother burst into burning tears and said to him:
- Where are you going, my dear son, and why are you leaving me in my old age?
years at the mercy of fate? You see, tea, good fellows don’t dare to go, but where can you go...
But Green Basil did not even think of giving up his decision and immediately began to select a weapon within his power.
For two years he wandered around the world until he found a master blacksmith who undertook to forge a weapon to his liking, and ordered him a double-edged sword of such a size that a hundred fellows could not budge it. He returned home, went to bed and slept for three whole days - it’s no joke, he’s been traveling for two years! Waking up, he packed a little food into his knapsack for the long journey, said goodbye to his mother and set off on his way. For six months he walked along untrodden roads through deserts and forests. The food had already run out, and he lived on water alone. He went on like this for many more days and nights. One fine day he reached some forest, but, tired from walking, did not reach the edge, but decided to sit down and rest anywhere. He was so tormented by hunger that he, poor fellow, began to chew leaves. Suddenly the idea struck him to climb to the top of the tree and see how far it was to the edge of the forest. He instantly climbed a tall tree and saw a flickering light in the distance. He quickly jumped out of the tree and went to the light. He walked and walked like this until he finally found himself in front of the dragon’s castle, where the king’s daughter lived. Green Basil wondered how he could fight the dragon. He didn’t think long and knocked on the gate. Hearing the knock, the princess - and she was just at home alone - was very frightened and asked in a voice trembling with fear:
-Who's there?
Basil Green heard a gentle silvery female voice, became cheerful and answered:
- Open up, it’s me, Green Basil, I heard about you from your father’s heralds. And the heralds also said that the one who delivers you from the serpent will receive you as a wife and half a kingdom in addition, but no one dared to follow you. Only I decided to do this. I wandered for two years, forged myself a weapon and came to help you out.
Then the girl pulled back the locks, and the good fellow entered the house. Seeing how handsome and stately he was, the girl was speechless with joy; but soon she came to her senses and cried bitterly. She was very afraid that the dragons would fly in and kill Green Basil, and then there would be no one else to help her out.
Green Basil began to console her:
“Don’t cry, better give me something to eat, I’m so hungry and tired that I can’t even talk.”
The girl fed him without hesitation and said:
- Lie down and rest. When the snakes return, I will wake you up and you will fight them.
No sooner had Green Basil touched the pillow than he was engulfed in a deep, sweet sleep. And the girl stood next to him and could not stop looking at his beauty.
One thing that worried her was that the dragons would soon return.
Meanwhile, the dragons were flying home, and from the flapping of their wings the earth shook, the doors creaked - everything was shaking. They flew up to the threshold and immediately sensed the spirit of a stranger... And the girl, as soon as she saw them, lost her voice from fear and could not utter a word, only tears rolled from her eyes. A hot tear fell on the face of Green Basil, he woke up immediately and asked quietly:
— Have you arrived?
The girl did not answer him, since she could not speak, but only nodded her head and waved her hands: yes, they say, the snakes have arrived and are standing at the door. Basil grabbed the Green Sword and rushed to the door where his dragons were waiting. The twenty-four-headed dragon, to whom all the others obeyed, ordered the six-headed one to go and see what kind of stranger had entered their house. The six-headed one stomped around at the door and finally decided to go in and see who was in their house, and the rest of the dragons stepped aside, waiting for him with an answer.
The six-headed dragon sensed that his hour of death was close, but since the elder commanded, he had nowhere to go.
He stuck his head halfway into the room, opened his mouth wide, and stuck out his tongue. Thick smoke pours out of its mouth. When Green Basil saw him, not at all timid, he took the sword out of its sheath and went to cut it. He waved his sword once and cut off the dragon's head, waved it again and cut off his body. Then he threw the heads and pieces of the body out the window and stood outside the doors again, waiting to see what would happen next. The dragons waited and waited in the courtyard for the return of the six-headed one, and, seeing that he was taking a long time to answer, the eldest ordered the eleven-headed one to go and see what was happening in the house. When the dragon reached the door, he immediately sensed that his hour of death was near, but did not dare to disobey his elder. He pushed the door, opened his mouth, stuck out his tongues, and thick smoke poured out of his mouth, like from a chimney. As soon as he opened the door, Green Basil swung his sword, cut him into pieces, and threw his body in the same place as the body of the six-headed dragon. Then he moved closer to the door and waited for the twenty-four-headed man. Although he was the terror of the earth, Basil was no longer afraid of him. Seeing that the dragons he sent were not returning, the elder realized that something was wrong in the house. Therefore, he decided to stick twelve heads into the house first, and leave the remaining twelve in the yard. And thick smoke poured out of his mouth, and sparks flew throughout the house. Green Basil looked at him and thought that this would not be easy to cope with, but still did not lose heart.
Only the dragon stuck its twelve heads through the door. Green Basil struck them with all his might with his sword and chopped them off in one fell swoop... The snake, who had, in addition to the severed ones, twelve more heads, felt something hot envelop his neck, but did not realize that it was his twelve heads that had been cut off, and therefore he kept crawling and crawling into the house until he had penetrated it entirely. Green Basil again raised his sword and with great difficulty cut off the remaining twelve heads. But the body of the snake, even with its heads cut off, continued to shake, and this caused the earth to tremble..
Only in the morning it froze. Here the girl, in joy, began to sing of the valor of Basil the Green and his battle with the dragons. And Green Basil says to her:
“You start cooking dinner, and I’ll lie down to rest, I’m really tired from the battle.”
Having become cheerful, the princess cooked a wonderful dinner and prepared all sorts of dishes. She was overjoyed that Green Basil had destroyed all the dragons and freed her from their clutches, and that she would soon become the wife of a handsome and brave knight. When the food was ready, she woke up Basil, and they ate together, then began to prepare for the journey to the royal palace. God knows how the Half-Man found out about everything that had happened. He was one-legged, one-armed, half-headed, one-eyed and one-eared. And when he found out, he quickly rushed to the castle of dragons. Green Basil and the princess were getting ready to go. And shouted
Half-Human:
- May, Green Basil, come out and fight! You and I will fight, and let the winner get the princess.
The princess had already heard about this Half-Man before, dragons spoke about him many times, and therefore she cried bitterly, saying:
- Green Basil, if you overcome this, it means that you were destined to live. And then we will live in happiness and harmony.
Basil took the Green Sword in his hands and went out into the courtyard. He swung his sword and cut off a piece of the Half-Man's head. But he ran to the side and began shouting again:
- Come out and fight me, Green Basil! Green Basil was frightened when he heard that the Half-Man was challenging him to fight again. He ran up to the monster and with one blow cut off the remaining piece of the head, chopped the body into pieces, and collected the pieces and placed them under the threshold of the house. And only then he entered the house and said to the girl:
“I cut him into pieces, now he won’t be resurrected.” But the Half-Man came to life and began to shout again:
- Green Basil, come out, let's fight!
This time Green Basil was scared to death. But still he took the sword in his hands and went out to fight. And the Half-Man hid behind the door and, as soon as Basil came out, rushed to him, pulled out a sword and cut off his head. Green Basil fell dead to the ground.
Having killed Green Basil, the Half-Man threw the sword near him, entered the house and said to the princess:
- Let's go to your father.
The princess bitterly mourned the death of Green Basil, but there was nothing to do, she had to set off on the road with the freak. They walked and walked until they reached the royal palace. They arrived there on a dark night, and the princess shouted to her father:
- Father, let me in.
When the king heard her voice, he immediately recognized her, ran out to meet her and hugged her tightly. Many years had passed since he had seen her. To celebrate, he called guests into the house and began asking about the fight with dragons. Here the Half-Man entered into the conversation, but he was so ugly and disgusting that, looking at him, the king felt terrified. What can you do: I gave my word - hold on. They quickly agreed among themselves that the engagement would take place on the second day, and a year later they would celebrate the wedding. After the engagement, the bride and groom were separated. The half-man was cheerful. and the princess is sad - she could not forget the Green Basil. Meanwhile, the mother of Basil the Green, yearning for her son, abandoned her small and poor household and set off on the road in his footsteps. The path along which she walked was dotted with basilicas, and just on the day when the princess and the Half-Man went to the royal palace, the mother of Green Basil found the dead body of her son.
She began to mourn him. But at this time, ants crawled past, collecting food for the winter. Suddenly one ant attacked another and tore off his head, and the third, seeing this, approached the dead ant and laid his head on it. to the neck. Then he rubbed the wound three times with a basil leaf, and the ant came to life. Seeing this, Basil the Green's mother decided to do the same. Green Basil woke up from his sleep and was very happy to see his mother. Then he told her about his struggle with dragons and Half-Man, showed the corpses of the killed dragons and said:
- Go home to our small and poor farm, which you left unattended. And I'll go looking for
The half-man who killed me, and I will measure my strength with him again. His mother set off home, and Green Basil headed west. He walked like this, day after day, from dawn to dusk, until he reached some hut in which a light was burning. As soon as he approached the hut, a dog barked at the threshold, and then a woman’s voice was heard from the house:
- If you are a good person, come in, and if you are not, come through. My house is guarded by a dog with iron claws and steel fangs, and he will tear you to shreds. Green Basil, being an honest man and with a pure soul, decided to enter
to the hut. He bowed to the woman who lived there alone and told her about all his adventures from beginning to end. And she says to him:
“Spend the night with me, and in the morning I’ll tell you where the power of the Half-Man lies and how you can defeat him.”
This woman was Holy Friday. The next day, Holy Friday woke up in the morning and called all the birds from all over the world. She fed them and asked if they knew where the Half-Man was. The birds told her that they had not heard anything about him.
Holy Friday then woke up Basil the Green and said to him:
“Go all the way west until you find my sister.” Maybe she knows something about the Half-Man, and I can't help you.
And Green Basil set off on the road again. He walked for two days until he reached the house of the sister of Holy Friday, Holy Trinity, and told her about all his ordeals. She also told him to wait until morning. The next day she got up at dawn, called all the birds from all over the world and asked them if they knew where the Half-Man was.
“We don’t know anything, but the dove is not here with us, maybe he knows.”
Soon the dove also arrived. The sister of Saint Friday asked him the same thing, and the dove answered:
“The half-man is at the royal court. He became engaged to the king's daughter, and the wedding will take place a year later. The king decided to find such musicians, whose playing would make both young and old dance... And so I brought with me a magic pipe that I found in the dragons’ lair: maybe it will come in handy for someone. I learned about the power of the Half-Man from his own words. He told me that he
the power is located to the east of the royal palace. You have to cross nine boundaries, and in the first village, at the ninth boundary, there is a high mountain on which sheep graze. In this mountain there is a deep crevice in which a lame hare lives. In the stomach of this hare lies a golden apple, and in it are nine worms. It is in these nine worms that the power of the Half-Man lies, and whoever gets there and kills the worms will kill the Half-Man. Having said this, the dove flew away, and the Holy Trinity entered the hut, woke up the tired Green Basil and said to him:
- Take yourself a magic pipe and go to the royal palace, there is the Half-Man who killed you. When you get there, you will notify the king through his bodyguard that you want to play at his daughter’s wedding. You see, the king is looking for musicians whose playing would make both young and old, mountains and rivers dance. Play the pipe for him. After you agree on a price with the king, you will leave the royal court, go east and cross nine borders. And in the first village beyond the ninth border you will be hired as a shepherd. Then you will take the sheep and climb with them to a high mountain, and having climbed the mountain, you will see a deep chasm. Then you will play the pipe. As soon as you start playing, a lame hare will come out of the crevice and start dancing to your music, you can kill him instantly. In it you will find a golden apple, and in the apple there are nine worms. Here in
These nine worms contain the power of the Demi-Man. As soon as you kill the worms, he will immediately die, and the princess whom you saved from death will go to you. But know that your path will be difficult, terrible thunderstorms, violent streams will block the road to the power of the Half-Man. Only if you manage to overcome all these obstacles will you find what you are looking for.
Green Basil thanked her, kissed her hand and went to the royal palace. He walked and walked until he reached the palace, and through the gatekeeper he told the king that he wanted to play at the wedding.
Hearing this, the king ordered the traveler to be allowed into the courtyard, and when he saw him, he asked what instrument he played. Green Basil answered him:
“I don’t play God knows what instrument—the pipe, but as soon as I play for you, the grass and the leaves of the trees and the whole world will dance.” Then the king laughed:
- Musicians like you can only play for sheep,
but not at my daughter’s wedding, however... come on, play, let’s see what you can do.
Green Basil took out his magic pipe and began to play. And such sounds poured out that only the king and the courtiers began to dance, but also the trees and the stones of the pavement. The king liked this very much, he gave the musician a good price and ordered him to come play at the wedding.
Green Basil then asked permission to see the bride, and the king answered him:
“You’ll see the bride when you come to play.”
He left the Green Royal Basil, the courtyard and headed east, to the high mountain where the power of the Half-Man was hidden.
He walked for a long time, overcame all the difficulties of the path, but when he reached the ninth milestone, such a strong hurricane arose that the world had never seen before. Suddenly a wall of water grew in front of him, and such huge black snakes swam through the water that the Basilica of the Green began to tremble. Nevertheless, he rushed into the water to cross this line, as he crossed the others. While he was struggling with the waves, a hurricane broke the dam on the pond of one rich boyar. There were a lot of fish in this pond, and one big fish rushed to Green Basil to eat it. While struggling with a fish, he lost his pipe, which he tucked into his belt, but discovered this loss only when he went ashore. Angry and dejected, he said:
“Well, now go further, if you can!” He took a deep breath and again rushed into the water to look for his magic pipe. While he's in. he dived into the water in search of a pipe, the snakes swam up and rushed at him in a heap, about to destroy him.
But Green Basil knew that the snake did not open its mouth in the water and did not pay any attention to them, but continued to look for the magic pipe. He searched for her for a long time and finally found her under a large stone. He began to climb out of the water onto land in order to move further towards the big mountain. But the snakes wrapped themselves around his body, arms and legs and were just waiting for him to come out of the water in order to sink their poisonous fangs into him... Green Basil was not taken aback and, as soon as he emerged from the water, he began to play the magic pipe. The snakes began to dance, and he thus got rid of them. Then he headed to the first village of the ninth boundary, where the power of the Half-Man was located. Arriving at village, he asked to stay with one person for the night, so he could rest on the road. The man accepted it. After Green Basil had rested, the owner asked him where he was going and what he was looking for? Green Basil answers:
“I’m looking for an owner so that I can hire him as a shepherd to herd sheep.”
The owner promised to locate him and took him to the village priest. The priest agreed to hire him and made the following speech:
“I’ll hire you, but know that you are responsible for my sheep with your head, make sure that no one strays from the flock.”
Only Green Basil thought least of all about sheep. He bowed to the priest and went to a large mountain where the sheep were grazing. Having arrived there, he took out a pipe from his belt and began to play, and continued to play until the hare came out and began to dance. Then Green Basil rushed to him, grabbed him by the ears, hit him on the head with a pipe and crushed his skull. Then he cut his body in half and found a golden apple in which nine worms were hidden. To celebrate, Green Basil, without leaving his spot, killed two worms. The half-man immediately fell ill. Green Basil hid the golden apple in his pocket, and such joy overwhelmed him that he played the pipe without ceasing until half of the sheep died from dancing.
Then he turned his face to the west, from where he had come, and set off on the way back, to the king’s court, where the girl he loved lived, who became the bride of the vile Half-Man. And the princess sat in the mansion and thought about her bitter lot: she really didn’t want to marry a freak.
Walking to the royal palace, Green Basil passed by a fair and bought himself a silk dress, the kind that only doctors wore at that time. Meanwhile, the king, seeing that the Half-Man was sick, summoned the best doctors from all over the universe. See, he was afraid that if his son-in-law died, the other kings would accuse him of murder. But none of the doctors who examined the patient could determine what illness had overcome him. Here Green Basil reached the royal palace and entered the king under the guise of a doctor: as if he had come to examine the sick Half-Man and heal him. The king ordered the doctor to be allowed into the Half-Man's room. While Green Basil was waiting for the royal order, he took out an apple and killed five more worms. And then he quickly walked into the room of the Half-Man, who was lying in bed with his head bandaged, barely breathing. The doctor approached him, and the Half-Man, as soon as he looked at the doctor, that is, at Green Basil, immediately recognized him and shouted:
-Where did you come from? After all, I killed you and threw your body under the threshold. But Green Basil did not mince words:
- I was resurrected and learned to heal, and now I came here to treat you like this,
how you treated me. You coveted someone else's work and took the girl, regardless of the fact that I defeated the dragons. You avoided the fight, but desired glory and boasted that it was you who defeated the dragons and you should get the princess. Well, know that human labor is never in vain. And I learned healing and found the source of your strength. And if you want to see it, look - it’s in my pocket.
Green Basil took out the last worms from the apple and, placing it on the table, slammed it. Here the Half-Man gave up the ghost. The king and queen were very happy and the princess was quickly called. The princess entered the room and, when she saw the Green Basilica, almost fainted.
“Are you, Green Basil, the one who saved me from death?” - she screamed.
Soon they had a wedding, danced for a whole year and another night, and the people had fun and rejoiced that they had gotten rid of the dragon and the monster of the evil Half-Man.
And I was at that wedding, I could have walked there forever, I ate a bull in one breath - My belly almost burst.
Then he jumped on the stallion and brought the fairy tale to an end.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru