Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife, and they had a son. And the husband heard that the children who suck the mother’s breast longer than others grow up amazingly strong, and he ordered his wife to feed the boy with her milk for ten full years. Ten years passed, he took his son into the forest to test how much strength he had. He showed him a tree and said:
“Come on, Hans, try to see if you can pull it out by the roots.”
Hans grabbed the tree with his hands, pulled as hard as he could, it shook from the base to the top, but still stood in the ground. His father took him back home and ordered his wife to feed his son with her milk for another ten years. After another ten years had passed, his father took him into the forest again, and this time Hans playfully uprooted a tree from the ground. The father was delighted, well, he thought his son had gained enough strength, he would be a good helper in the household. But here’s the thing: when the workers at the estate saw what kind of son the owner had, they almost all ran away. Is it easy, he starts reaping the ears of corn, throwing them so far away that sometimes you can’t find them at all, and he was like that in all his work. So one day his father says to him:
“No, Hans, things won’t work out that way for us; it’s not convenient for me to keep you at home.” Go around, son, around the world and look for a job in a place where there is more space and people live more lavishly than we little ones.
And Hans set off across the world to seek service for himself. So he came to one village, people advised him to visit the pastor, his employee had recently left, so there will probably be a place, but the only bad thing is that their pastor is quite a stingy guy. Well, Hans didn't look at it, even if he was a stingy guy. He came to the pastor's estate and asked to be a worker, he supposedly didn't need any salary: as soon as a year passed, he would give the owner three slaps on the wrist - that's all the payment. The pastor heard that all his money would remain with him, and immediately agreed to hire him.
On the first day, they told Hans to bring water and firewood to the kitchen. Yes, the buckets seemed too small to him, that they were of no use, he took two huge fermentation vats and began carrying water in them, and carried firewood around a whole woodpile at a time. The servant girl saw this and ran to the pastor in fright: they say, the new worker must be out of his mind, how wonderfully he manages things. The pastor was also taken aback; he immediately remembered about the pay that the employee would ask him in a year.
“Okay, wait,” he says to the maid, “I’ll send him into the forest, evil spirits are swarming there, he won’t get out of there alive - we’ll get rid of him.”
He called Hans and ordered:
- Tomorrow you will go to the forest for firewood.
- Yes, master! - Hans answers.
The next day he got up early, harnessed the horses and set off into the forest on a cart. He felled the tree, cut it down and began to load it onto the cart, and meanwhile the devils crawled out from somewhere, apparently or invisibly, and hovered around, not allowing passage. Hans, however, did not break down, grabbed a tall tree with a branchy top and tore it out of the ground with its roots, and then began to turn it over in his hands and throw the imps, like a broom, to the sides. He dealt with them, loaded the tree onto the cart and got ready to go home. But it was too heavy; the horse couldn’t move it; Hans, having nothing to do, unharnessed the horses, put them on top of the cart, and himself harnessed himself into the cart and dragged it home. Oh, the pastor was scared, he looked and couldn’t believe his eyes: the worker was walking out of the forest unharmed and was also carrying a cart with firewood and horses. And the pastor came up with a new trick to get rid of the employee. He called Hans and said:
He supposedly has a contract with the evil one, so he needs to go to hell and rescue the paper from the devil. If Hans fulfills his instructions, he will receive a full load of money as a reward. And he thought to himself: “Whoever ends up in the underworld has no way back.”
Hans did everything as the owner ordered: he came to the underworld and asked the devil for the pastor’s paper. And the devil dragged a heavy iron rim and said:
“Let’s first measure our strength, if you throw this rim above me, I’ll give you the paper, but if not, I’ll leave it with me, and then you won’t get out of hell.”
The devil was the first to take the rim and throw it so high that it disappeared from view and did not soon fall back. It was Hans’s turn to toss the rim, and he already realized that he was weak in this game to compete with the devil, but he didn’t show it. He grabbed the rim tighter, spread his legs wider, as if he was preparing to throw it up, but he didn’t throw it: he stood there, twirling the rim in his hands, as if he was thinking about something.
“Why don’t you quit,” the devil asks him, “what are you thinking about?”
And Hans responded:
- Yes, I’m thinking, throw it at the very top, so that it reaches the old man, do you know what’s sitting on the throne there? But then you will never see your rim again.
- No, no, wait! Don't throw it! - the devil shouts. “I’d better give you the paper.”
Hans took the paper and went with it to the stingy pastor, and when he saw the worker, he froze. It was a pity for him to part with the money, but there was no escape, he had to load a full cart, and so Hans said goodbye to him.
He was driving along the road, saw that there was a blacksmith shop, he went to the blacksmith and asked if he would forge him a staff. And he answers:
- No, I don’t. I'm a blacksmith, I can't afford to work on such little things.
- What is the change for? - says Hans. - I need such a staff that there is no less than ten pounds of iron in it, and even two pounds in the knob.
“Wow,” the blacksmith marveled, “I’ve never had so much iron.”
“No problem,” says Hans. He took a handful of coins from the cart and gave them to the blacksmith. “Here’s the money for the iron, and in a week I’ll come for the staff.”
Hans returned home, his father was happy when he saw his son, and when he saw the cart of money, he didn’t even bother. Hans gave all the money to his father; he himself was a little keen on it. The father thought that his son would now live in his own home and not have any worries, but Hans decided differently. As the week passed, he said goodbye to his father, took his staff from the blacksmith and set off again to wander around the world.
He walked and walked and came to the bridge, and near the bridge a man was standing, hewing stones: once he hit, he would split a block of millstone in two. "Oh man!" - thinks Hans. He approaches him and asks:
- Do you have to stand here, cut stones?
“But you have to earn bread through some kind of labor,” he answers.
“You have an unenviable job,” says Hans, “you’d better come with me, you won’t regret it.”
Well, the stonecutter willingly agreed, he didn’t have a wife or children, so he went with Hans.
They walked and walked and reached the forest, they looked, there was a man standing, chopping wood: once he hit, he would split a huge log in two. "That's it, man!" - thinks Hans. He comes up to him and asks what kind of bondage he has to stand here, toil with firewood.
“But there’s some work that needs to be done,” the woodcutter answers.
“Your job is worthless,” says Hans, “you’d better come with me, you won’t regret it.” And the three of them set off further.
They walked for a long time until they came to a dense, dense forest, and in the thicket itself there was a beautiful castle.
- What a beauty! - says Hans. - Let's see who lives here.
They entered the castle, and there were halls - one richer than the other, and all empty, not a living soul. And in one room the walls are hung from top to bottom with weapons. Hans says:
“Let’s get ourselves a gun and go into the forest, we’ll kill some game so we have something to eat, otherwise it looks like there’s no one we can expect treats from.”
They each took a gun and went hunting, and when they had shot enough game, they agreed that the woodcutter would stay at home to cook dinner, and the other two would go hunting again. So the woodcutter stayed at home, cooked the stew, fried the roast, and took great care to have everything ready for the arrival of Hans and the stonemason. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an old woman enters the room; She saw the prepared food and said to the woodcutter:
- Give me a little something to eat too.
“Eat to your health,” says the woodcutter.
He poured her some stew, served her some roast, and she ate it all. And when she finished eating, she picked up her stick and began to chop the woodcutter. At first he fought back, but the old woman was stronger and bludgeoned him until he fell to the ground, unable to move his arm or leg. The old woman lifted the hatch in the floor and pushed the woodcutter underground.
The other two returned home, looked, dinner had been prepared for them, but the woodcutter was nowhere to be seen. They thought: it’s true that sadness took over him, and he ran away. They ate, drank and went to bed. The next day the stonecutter had to stay at home and cook dinner, and Hans went into the forest again. Well, exactly the same thing happened to the stonecutter as to the woodcutter. Hans returned home and saw that dinner had been prepared, but the stonecutter was gone. “Good comrades, nothing to say,” thought Hans. The next day he had to hunt for game and cook dinner himself. As soon as he finished cooking, an old woman enters the room and asks for food. Well, Hans doesn’t mind, they sat down at the table together and began to treat themselves, and when they finished eating,
The old woman attacked Hans and started hitting him with a stick. Hans, however, did not hesitate: he grabbed the iron staff and also began to beat her as hard as he could. He soon began to notice: when the old woman hit him, a wound remained on his body, and he, of course, also wounded the old woman, but here’s the thing: she had a container hidden under her apron with healing ointment, she would anoint the wound and everything would heal right away. If things continue like this, Hans thinks, the old woman will kill him. He rushed at her, contrived and snatched the container with ointment, then hit her once or twice with an iron staff - she fell down and asked for mercy. And Hans said to her: until you tell me where my comrades have gone, I won’t stop beating. The old woman had to confess and show him the trap. He opened the underground and pulled out a woodcutter and a stonecutter - both were beaten and bleeding, and barely alive. He took the old woman’s ointment, smeared it on the wounds, and everything healed immediately. Meanwhile, there was no trace of the witches.
All three of them sat down at the table, refreshed themselves, and Hans said:
“Let’s go take a better look at the whole castle, there must be something here that you and I don’t know about and don’t know about.”
They began to go around all the halls one after another and in the end they came across a hole in the floor, and under it - a deep hole, like an abyss.
“We need to see what’s down there,” says Hans. They found a longer rope, tied a strong basket to it and decided in agreement that they would lower the woodcutter down first, followed by the stonemason, and then Hans would lift them back up and they would tell what they had seen. The woodcutter and the stonemason went down into the dungeon, walked back and forth and came across a door. They opened the door, looked, two princesses were sitting, one more beautiful than the other. They saw strangers and shouted: get out of here, I’ll get you out of here, while the witch is away, if you fall into her clutches, then you’re lost. They got scared and ran to the basket and gave a sign to Hans to quickly pull them up. He picked them up, and they told him what they had seen in the dungeon.
“Well, let me down now,” Hans tells them.
He went down, found the door and entered the princesses' room. Meanwhile, the witch managed to return, but Hans didn’t even raise an eyebrow, he grabbed an iron staff and, well, beat her - until she let both princesses go with him. Hans took the princesses to the basket, and they went up, first one, and then the other. And when both princesses went up, the stonecutter and the woodcutter agreed to leave Hans below in the dungeon: if he gets up, one princess will go to him, and one of them will be left with a nose. So they lowered the basket down, then they began to pull it up, and the basket was heavy, they thought that Hans was sitting in it, they lifted it halfway and cut the rope - the basket fell down. But they made a mistake: Hans only put the staff in the basket, and now it fell at his feet. Here he realized what and how. “Hey,” he thinks, “I can’t get up this way.” And he began to walk around the dungeon, looking around him to see if he saw anything new. I walked and walked and came across a thick iron grate - behind the bars the third princess was sitting, looking in the troll’s head, and the troll was not an ordinary one, with seven heads, he lay down and slept. Hans came up and knocked on the iron gate with his staff - the gate was wide open, and the troll immediately woke up from his sleep. Hans, however, did not yawn: he jumped up to him and in one fell swoop cut off all seven heads. Then he took the princess by the hand and led her along, and she happily followed him. They found the witch, and Hans began to bludgeon her with an iron staff, until he left until she promised to take him and the princess upstairs. The princess immediately asked to go home to her father and mother, and the witch had to fulfill her wish. Hans did not want to go with her, and the princess gave him two golden things as a parting gift: one - like half the sun, the other - like half a month.
Hans set off to travel around the world again. Some time passed when he heard that in one city the king promised a rich reward if a skilled goldsmith could be found to make him half a sun and half a month out of gold. Hans came to the goldsmith and asked to become an apprentice: I, he says, can make half a sun and half a month out of gold without any difficulty, the master can even now go to the king and say that he is taking on this work - in three days everything will be ready. The old master believed him and began to wait for what was promised. It’s time for Hans to get to work, but he doesn’t give a damn, he walks around the city all day long, and in the evening he goes home and sings songs. The goldsmith laments and complains to his wife: it’s no different, he got a rogue instead of an apprentice, he wants to laugh at the old man. However, on the morning of the last day, he heard a knocking and roar in the workshop, so loud that it was enough to cover your ears.
“He really got down to business,” says the master, “except to go and see what he’s done there.”
He came to the workshop, and Hans stood there and hit the floor with his iron staff as hard as he could - sparks were flying and the whole workshop was blazing with fire.
- What are you doing? - asks the master, neither alive nor dead.
“Well, everything is ready,” Hans replies, “it’s time for the master to go to the palace, bring half the sun and half the month!”
“No, thank you,” says the goldsmith, “I have suffered enough fear because of you, you’d better go yourself.”
“Well, I did it myself,” says Hans.
He came to the palace and, as he said that he had brought half the sun and half the month, he was immediately taken to the king, and the king was sitting at the table, and with him the queen and three daughters - the same princesses who were captives in the castle of the troll with seven heads. Yes, Hans noticed the princesses later, and when he entered the royal chambers, he saw first of all his friends, a woodcutter and a stonemason, they were also sitting at the table, both became big people, each took a princess as his wife. Hans showed the golden things that the princess had given him as a parting gift; the third princess, the most beautiful of them all, saw them, and she recognized her savior and told the king and queen about everything. She also said that she would only marry Hans; no one else loved her. Well, the king gave his consent, and they celebrated a magnificent wedding, the whole royal court walked and feasted. And Hans and the princess remained to live in the palace, and maybe they still live there to this day.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru