There once lived a peasant in the mountains, but what his name was and the name of his farm is unknown. The peasant was single, and his farm was run by a woman named Hildur; no one knew anything about her relatives. Hildur did all the housework, and she did it well. All the inhabitants of the farm respected Hildur, including the owner, but great friendship never arose between them, because Hildur was a stern, silent woman, although very courteous.
The peasant was rich, and his farm prospered, but one thing was bad - no one would come to him as a shepherd. And he kept a large flock, and it was difficult for him to get by without a shepherd. There were no hunters to graze his cattle, and not because he was strict or his housekeeper was stingy, but because on that farm the shepherds did not live to old age - on the first day of Christmas they were found dead in bed.
On Christmas Eve, everyone usually went to church, and someone alone stayed at home, cooked food for the holidays and at the same time guarded the estate. Since Hildur settled on the farm, she was always the only one left at home. She had a lot to do, so she went to bed late. It happened that people would return after service, fall asleep, and she would still be busy with housework.
More than one shepherd died on the farm on Christmas night, rumors about this spread throughout the area, and it became difficult for the owner to find workers who would agree to graze his sheep. However, it never occurred to anyone to blame the owner or his household for the death of the shepherds, especially since the shepherds died as if by natural causes. In the end, the owner became ashamed of hiring people to certain death, and he gave up on both the herd and the income from it.
And then one day an unfamiliar guy comes to him, looking strong and brave, and offers his services.
“I don’t need workers,” the owner tells him.
And the guy asks:
-Have you already hired a shepherd for the winter?
“I haven’t hired and I don’t intend to hire,” the owner answers him. “I suppose I heard what awaits my shepherds.”
“I heard that,” says the guy, “but their fate doesn’t scare me.” Take me with you.
And the owner agreed. The guy began to work for him, and they were very pleased with each other. And the rest of the household liked the shepherd, because he turned out to be a reliable, hard-working person and willingly took on any task.
Before Christmas, nothing special happened on the farm, and on Christmas Eve, as usual, the owner and his people went to church. Only Hildur and the new shepherd remained at home. Everyone was doing their own thing. Evening came, the shepherd returned home, ate and lay down closer to the door, he decided that it was better for him not to fall asleep that night. However, he did not feel fear. He heard people return from church, have dinner and go to bed. He, too, began to be overcome by sleep - after his work, this was not surprising. But the shepherd knew that he would be in trouble if he fell asleep, and tried his best to stay awake. Soon he heard someone approaching his bed, and it seemed to him that it was Hildur. The shepherd pretended to be asleep. Suddenly he felt that she put something into his mouth. “This is no way,” the shepherd thought, but did not resist. Hildur bridled the shepherd, led him out the door, jumped on his back and drove him at full speed. At some large hole, or maybe a crevice, she stopped, jumped off the shepherd, let go of the reins and disappeared into the crevice. The shepherd decided that it would be foolish to let Hildur go without finding out where she had gone. However, he felt that with this enchanted bridle he would not get far. He then began to rub his head against the stone, threw off the bridle and, as soon as he freed himself, jumped into the crevice in which Hildur had disappeared. After running a little, he saw her, she was walking quickly across a wide green meadow. The shepherd has already realized that Hildur is not the ordinary woman that people take her for. He also realized that if he ran after her across the meadow, she would immediately notice him, so he took out a magic pebble, held it in his left hand and ran as fast as he could after Hildur.
Meanwhile, she had already run up to a large, beautiful palace. People came out of the palace to meet her. A man walked ahead, dressed more richly than the others. He kissed Hildur, and the worker realized that it was her husband. The others bowed respectfully before her, as if greeting a queen. The man was accompanied by two teenagers. They joyfully rushed to Hildur, and it was clear that these were her children. Then the entire retinue escorted Hildur and the king to the palace, where a magnificent reception awaited them. Hildur was dressed in royal robes, and her fingers were decorated with gold rings.
The shepherd followed everyone into the palace. He didn't touch anyone to avoid being discovered, but he tried not to miss anything. The palace chambers were decorated with unprecedented luxury; the shepherd had never seen anything like it in his life. Tables were brought into the hall and all kinds of dishes were served, and soon Hildur entered in royal robes. The shepherd was amazed. The guests were invited to the table, and Hildur took the place of honor next to the king. The courtiers sat on either side of them. Everyone started eating. When the guests were satisfied, the tables were taken away and the warriors and maidens began to dance, and whoever did not want to dance had fun as his heart desired. The king and queen were talking quietly with each other, and it seemed to the shepherd that they were both sad.
During this conversation, three more children, younger than those who had met Hildur, approached them and also greeted their mother. Hildur hugged them tenderly. She sat her youngest son on her lap, but he whined all the time. Then she lowered the child to the floor, took the ring off his finger and let him play. The child stopped crying and busied himself with the ring, then he dropped it and it rolled on the floor. The shepherd stood very close, he managed to pick up and hide the ring, so that no one noticed anything, although everyone was very surprised where the ring had gone.
Towards morning, Queen Hildur began to get ready for the journey. The courtiers begged her to stay with them a little longer and were upset that her decision was unyielding. In the corner of the hall, the shepherd noticed an old woman who was looking maliciously at the queen. She was the only one who didn’t greet her when she arrived, and now she didn’t persuade her to stay. The king saw that Hildur was leaving, despite all the pleas, and approached the old woman:
- Remove your spell, mother! - he said. – Let my wife stay with me and may my happiness be long!
– As it was, so it will remain! I will not lift my spell! - the old woman answered him angrily.
The king fell silent and sadly returned to the queen. He hugged her, kissed her and once again asked her not to leave him. But Hildur replied that she was forced to leave, for such was the spell cast by his mother.
“Apparently, my fate is so evil,” she said. – It’s unlikely that we’ll see each other again. The time has come for me to pay for all my atrocities, although I did not commit them of my own free will.
While she was saying this, the shepherd left the hall - after all, he had already learned everything he needed - and ran across the meadow back to the chasm. There he got out, hid the magic stone in his bosom, which made him invisible, put on the bridle and began to wait for Hildur. Soon she came, jumped on his back and drove him home. She didn't even notice that all this time he was only pretending to be asleep. At home, she immediately went home, and the shepherd decided that he no longer needed to be careful, and fell fast asleep.
In the morning the owner was the first to get up. He was eager to find out if the shepherd was alive. He was ready, as had happened more than once, to experience bitter sorrow instead of the grace of Christmas. While the owner was getting dressed, the rest of the inhabitants of the farm woke up. The owner approached the shepherd and touched him on the shoulder. Seeing that he was alive, he loudly thanked God for this mercy. The shepherd opened his eyes. The owner asked if anything special had happened to him during the night.
“No, nothing special happened to me,” answered the shepherd. “Unless I had a wonderful dream.”
- What dream? - asked the owner. And the shepherd told everyone the story that had just been told. People listened to the shepherd with their mouths open. When he had finished his story, Hildur said:
- All this is an empty fiction! How can you prove that everything happened like that?
The shepherd took out of his pocket a ring that he had picked up at night in the palace of the aulvas.
“Although I don’t think that the veracity of my story needs to be proven,” he said, “this is true proof that I visited the kingdom of the aulvas at night.” Whose ring is this, Queen Hildur?
- My! - Hildur answered. “And God grant you happiness that you lifted my mother-in-law’s spell from me.” Not by my own will, but by hers, I did evil.
And Queen Hildur told them her story.
“I come from a humble family of aulvas, but our current king fell in love with me and took me as his wife against the will of his mother. Then she got angry and cursed me, saying that our happiness would be short and our meetings would be rare. Since then, I have become a slave of the earthly kingdom and evil has always accompanied me. Every Christmas, through my fault, a person died because I put a bridle on him in order to ride him to the kingdom of the aulvas and see my dear husband. My mother-in-law wanted people to know about my crimes and punish me for them. Only a very brave and strong person who would dare to follow me to the kingdom of the aulvas could free me from the spell. Now you know that all the shepherds on this farm died due to my fault, but I hope you will not judge me for something against which I was powerless. And I will thank the shepherd who freed me from bondage and from evil spells. Now I can’t hesitate any longer, I want to quickly return home to my loved ones. Thank you all for your kindness to me!
After these words, Queen Hildur disappeared, and since then she has never been seen among people again.
And about the shepherd, it must be said that in the spring he got married and set up his own yard. The owner helped him, and he himself had money. He became the best owner in the entire area, and people constantly turned to him for advice and help. Everyone respected him, and he was so lucky that they said about him that every animal had two heads. And he himself believed that he owed his happiness to Queen Hildur.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru