In ancient times, when Santa Claus, gray-haired like a harrier, still walked around the world, there lived a king, rich, as befits a king. And he had a son named Yonitsa, nicknamed Fat-Frumos*. Jonitsa had many pleasures: he loved to lead round dances, and he was not averse to listening to lautar musicians, but the dearest things to the young man were the good horses from his father’s stable.
He groomed them, cherished them, and took them to the pasture, where the clover was sweeter.
But I must tell you that nowhere did such clover grow as near the big lake. It was called Miracle Lake. No, no, but now one fairy, now another fairy came out of it - to show itself to people.
One evening Jonitsa, together with the royal groom, drove the horses to pasture to that lake.
Jonitsa went to sleep on the bank, and the groom stayed behind to look after the horses. Suddenly the water in the lake stirs - and a fairy comes ashore, a beautiful maiden, such beauty cannot be found in the whole wide world. She approaches Jonitsa, kisses him and says:
* Fat-Frumos is a good fellow, a hero.
- Wake up, dear friend!
And Jonitsa is sleeping - she doesn’t smell anything. The girl, well, kiss him, shed tears, but he sleeps in a heroic sleep - he doesn’t move.
There was nothing to do - the fairy had to return back to the lake.
When the horses had eaten enough, the groom pushed Jonitsa, and they set off on their way back. The dear groom told the king’s son how the fairy came out of the lake. Jonitsa became sad and was annoyed with himself.
The next evening they again took the horses to the pasture. Jonitsa decided not to go to bed, but sleep is sweeter than honey, and he closes his eyes against his will. No wonder they say: he knocked down both the army and the governor.
A fairy came out of the lake, woke up Jonitsa, didn’t wake her up, started crying and went into her lake. The groom saw everything and marveled at how Jonitsa was sleeping - he couldn’t smell anything.
And in the morning he told him about the fairy, how she cried and killed herself over him...
For the third time, Jonitsa and the groom led the horses into the night to the Miracle Lake.
Jonitsa walks back and forth along the bank, looking with all his eyes, waiting for his fairy, but she is still not there. Let me, Yonitsa thinks, lie down on the grass, it will be more convenient to wait. I just lay down, sleep was right there, and the young man was exhausted. A fairy came out of the lake and woke him up, kissed him, hugged him. Jonitsa is sleeping - even if the guns fire. Then the fairy says:
- Sorry, goodbye, dear friend. I won't come to you anymore. She took Jonitsa’s ring off her finger, put it on her hand, and
ring - for him. And so it was.
The stableman pushed Yonitsu away, saying, “So, so,” he said, “you missed the fairy again.” Yonitsa looks - he has someone else’s ring on his little finger, on the ring are the words: “Ilyana Kosynzyan, golden braid, flowers sing in the braid, do not give peace to the nine kingdoms.”
I read Jonitsa’s inscription and also lost my peace. He returned home, distributed all the goods to the poor, made himself a pair of iron bast shoes, took a steel staff and went around the world to look for Ilyana Kosynzyana.
First of all, he turned to his brother-in-law, his younger sister’s husband, and asked:
—Have you heard anything about Ilyana Kosynzyana?
“I haven’t heard of it,” the son-in-law answers.
Jonitsa went further, came to his second son-in-law, the middle sister’s husband, and asked if he had heard about Ilyana Kosyn-zyana.
“I’ve heard fairy tales,” the son-in-law answers. “You’ll only hear about her in fairy tales.”
There was nothing to do, Jonitsa tied his iron bast shoes tighter and continued on his way. The heart is the best guide.
So he comes to his third son-in-law, the husband of his elder sister, and says:
— You’ve seen a lot in your time, maybe you know about Ilyana Kosynzyana?
“Until now, no such daredevil has been found who would visit Ilyana Kosynzyana,” the son-in-law answers. “There is no road to her kingdom, neither to pass nor to pass.” You’d better go home, there’s no point in you wandering around the world making people laugh.
Jonitsa bit his tongue and harbored longing in his heart. I said goodbye to my son-in-law and set off on the road again.
He walked, walked through high mountains, wide valleys, dark forests, and smooth roads. Now he asks whoever he meets about Ilyana Kosynzyana, but everyone just shrugs their shoulders in response.
“What do I need life without Ilyana? - Yonitsa thinks. “I will walk as long as the earth carries me, while the sun shines in the sky.” So he wanders around the world, and Ilyana can’t get out of his head. Sometimes he imagines that there she is, in front of him. An obsession, and that’s all.
He reached the mountain behind which the sun sets in the evening. He began to climb it and saw a cave. He entered the cave and went deeper and deeper: not a single living soul around, only snakes rustling and animals prowling. But Jonitsa walks on as if nothing had happened, and knows no fear.
And then he saw a light ahead, quickened his pace, went out into the wild and saw: a fast river was running, the water was blacker than soot, and on the river a mill was working, the wheels were flashing by - it was lovely to watch.
Jonitsa enters the mill - no one is there. What kind of mill is it without people? Jonitsa looked around and saw an old man in the corner, lifting his eyelids with hooks, so decrepit. He doesn’t have time to pour flour into bags, the grain is grinding so quickly.
- Hello, grandfather! - Jonitsa says to the old man.
“Hello, well done,” the old man replies. “Please tell me, how did the wind bring you to me?” No human foot has ever set foot here.
- A person will reach everywhere, beyond the nine seas, beyond distant lands. So I walk and walk, torturing everyone I meet, but it’s all to no avail. Maybe you, grandpa, can answer me, after all, you’re as old as you are?
The old man raised his eyelids with hooks, looked at Jonitsu and asked:
- What are you looking for, good fellow? Jonitsa answers:
— I’m looking for Ilyana Kosynzyana, have you heard of her?
- How can you not hear, if this mill is hers, for her, my dear, I grind flour day and night. Every morning nine giant birds fly here, each carrying four sacks of wheat, within 24 hours I have to grind them into flour.
It was as if a stone had been lifted from Jonitsa’s soul. Word for word - you see, the old man had already entrusted him with pouring flour into bags in his place, and he himself lay down and immediately fell asleep. He was really tired.
And that’s all Jonitsa needs. He immediately filled all the bags with flour, and climbed into one himself and sewed it tightly from the inside.
Then a great noise arose, giant birds flew in and shouted to the old man:
- Hey, is the flour ready?
The old man perked up, raised his eyelids, back and forth - his assistant was missing, and the trace disappeared. There was nothing to do, the old man loaded the bags onto the backs of the birds, and only they were seen: those birds flew faster than the wind, faster than thought.
And the old man remained at the mill to grind flour. And for a long time he puzzled over where his guest had disappeared: either he fell into the water, or he returned to people in the free world.
And Jonitsa reached the kingdom of Ilyana Kosynzyany unharmed. The birds gave the bags to the baker. The baker untied one bag - the same one where Jonitsa was sitting - and he gasped.
- How did you get here? Living souls do not wander here.
“That’s another way to say it,” Yonitsa answers and shows him the ring, and on the ring the words: “Ilyana Kosynzyan, golden braid, flowers sing in the braid, do not give rest to the nine kingdoms.”
Well, the baker took him to live in his house.
The time had come for the baker to bake bread for Ilyana Kosynzyana - she only ate bread baked with his hands. Jonitsa says to the baker:
“Let me bake some bread, you’ll see, I won’t let you down.”
“Well, bake,” says the baker.
Jonitsa kneaded the dough in his own way and put it in the oven. The bread was baked to perfection - the baker just threw up his hands.
He took the loaves to Ilyana Kosynzyana, she took one loaf in her hands and asked:
- Who baked such bread, fluffy and rosy?
- I baked it, who else! - the baker answers.
When all the bread was gone, Jonitsa again volunteered to help the baker, and his bread turned out to be twice as fluffy and golden brown as before.
Ilyana was amazed again; even she had never eaten such bread: it just fit into her mouth. It’s a well-known fact: the bread is as good as the kalach.
For the third time, it was time to bake bread. Jonica's heart swelled with joy. He got down to business, well, he thinks it wasn’t, and baked Ilyana Kosynzyana’s ring into one loaf.
The baker brings bread to his mistress, she took the loaf, broke it - the ring fell out.
Ilyana picked it up and looked - the ring was hers - and she asked the baker:
- Who baked the bread?
The baker did this and that, but in the end he had to admit that Jonitsa worked for him.
Ilyana immediately sent for Jonitsa, they brought him to her mansion, she kissed him on the mouth, and then ordered him to dress him in a dress all embroidered with gold. While he was traveling, he became completely shabby.
Two weeks later, Ilyana married Yonitsa Fat-Frumos and threw a feast on the mountain, so that the news about him spread across nine seas, to distant lands.
After the wedding, Ilyana gave Jonica a bunch of keys to all the barns and storerooms. There was only one cellar that she did not give Jonitsa the key to.
A day passed, another passed, and Jonitsu began to be curious: what was in that cellar? He asked Ilyana for the key, well, she gave it.
Jonitsa went to the cellar, unlocked the doors, looked inside and saw: there was a huge barrel. He hears a voice from the barrel: open the door wider. Yonitsa opened the doors, and then the hoops on the barrel began to burst! Yes, how a monster broke free - a Serpent the size of a mountain. He grabbed Ilyana Kosynzyana and took her to distant lands.
Jonitsa cried bitterly, but tears cannot help the grief. Again he set out on the road to look for his Ilyana.
He put on a pair of iron bast shoes, took a steel staff and went wherever his eyes led him.
Our fellow is coming, bitterly repenting, he has no one to blame but himself.
Whether long or short, Jonitsa comes to the house of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa and knocks on the door. Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa tells him:
“If you are a kind person, come in, but if you are an unkind person, get out of here, otherwise I’ll unleash a dog with iron fangs on you, you won’t leave alive.”
“I’m a kind person,” Jonitsa answers.
Paraskeva-Friday let him in and asks where he is going. Jonitsa told her how it happened.
“Well, well,” she says, “it’s true: a bad head gives no rest to your feet!” At least you don’t lose hope - that’s good. I'll give you a bow and arrows, you'll need it.
Jonitsa took the bow and went on his way.
He goes through kingdoms, goes through states and comes to a hut. Crows circle above her, wolves howl around her - fear, and that’s all!
Jonica comes inside. He sees: a monster sits, Baba Yaga, with hooves instead of legs, sharp claws like sickles, iron fangs in his mouth.
Baba Yaga asks what wind brought him here. Jonitsa tells her that he came to be hired as a worker.
“That’s good,” says Baba Yaga, “I just need a shepherd, hire me, and my work is trivial: you will take a mare at night for a year and bring her home.”
No sooner said than done.
The year in those days lasted only three days. Jonitsa decided that he would get through it somehow.
Evening came, Baba Yaga brought him a mare and told him to take good care of her, otherwise he would lose his head.
Jonitsa mounted the mare and galloped off to the pasture. And I didn’t forget to take my bow and arrows with me.
He gallops along the road, and towards him is a bird with a broken leg. As soon as Jonitsa pulled the bowstring to shoot the bird, it said to him:
“Don’t touch me, good fellow, better bandage my leg, I’ll still be useful to you.”
Jonitsa took pity on the bird, bandaged its leg and went on his way.
I arrived at the pasture, thought and thought, and did not get off the mare. I decided it would be better this way.
The mare was nibbling the grass, and Jonitsa was pecking at her astride her, and he fell asleep.
The mare threw him to the ground, and she turned into a bird, flew into the forest and sang songs with other birds.
Jonitsa wakes up just before dawn, and lo and behold, he’s not sitting on a mare, but on a stone, with a bridle in his hands.
He cried and wailed, so pitifully that some birds even stopped singing.
Suddenly Jonitsa hears a voice:
- Don’t be afraid, well done, your mare will be found.
He sees that the bird whose leg he was bandaging is sitting in front of him.
So this king bird called all her subjects and ordered them to sing songs and listen by their voices to see which of them was the impostor. As the birds began to sing, they recognized the impostor by her voice and brought her to Jonitsa. He hit her with the bridle and said:
“I don’t tell you to be a bird, but I tell you to be a mare again.”
The bird again became a mare, Yonitsa saddled her and instantly found himself at Baba Yaga’s hut.
When Baba Yaga saw them, she became enraged, rushed at the mare, and gave her a beating: look, she says, if he finds you next time, blame yourself.
The next day, in the evening, Jonitsa again went to the pasture.
He drives and drives and on the road he meets a lame hare: he hobbles with his scythe, dragging his paw. Jonitsa took aim at him with a bow, and the hare said:
“Don’t touch me, it’s better to bandage my paw, and I’ll still be useful to you.”
Jonitsa bandaged his paw and released the hare.
We arrived at the pasture, Jonitsa again did not get off the mare, and so that sleep would not overwhelm him, he took prickly burrs and stuck them behind his collar.
Yes, sleep appeared like an unexpected guest and closed his eyes.
The mare threw him off, turned into a hare and rushed off into the forest.
Yonitsa woke up, saw that there was no mare, he began to cry and lament throughout the entire field, throughout the expanse. Then a lame hare galloped up to him and said:
“Don’t cry, don’t worry, we’ll bring it to you in no time.” The hare gathered all his brothers, they became strangers among themselves
search - and found it by his teeth; he had horse teeth. They began to pinch and bite the stranger hare and drive him out of the forest. And Jonitsa is already standing, waiting.
“I don’t tell you to be a hare, I tell you to be a mare again!” He hit the hare with his bridle, the hare became a mare again,
Yonitsa saddled her and in the blink of an eye rushed to Baba Yaga.
And Baba Yaga sits, boils water in a cauldron, waits: Jonitsa will return without the mare - she will cook him alive in the cauldron. When she saw the young man on horseback, she almost burst out of anger, but she bit her tongue and didn’t say a word to Jonice. She rushed to the mare and, well, treated her with a hot iron whip until she got tired, and then again ordered her to hide from Jonitsa so that he would not find her.
On the third day, in the evening, Jonitsa again rode to the pasture and again fell asleep on horseback, as if someone had bewitched him. And this time the mare turned into an ancient oak tree in the thicket of the forest and took root just in the place where the lame hare had lain down, scaring him away from his home.
Jonitsa woke up - look for the mare. He had killed himself before, but now he completely hung his head. It's hard to escape Baba Yaga alive. But friends won’t leave you in trouble.
The king bird and the lame hare come to Jonitsa and say to him:
- Don't be afraid of anything! Take your staff and hit every tree in the forest, then you will find the mare.
Yonitsa listened. When the turn came to the ancient oak tree, it began to rustle and stagger, and Jonitsa said:
“I don’t tell you to be an oak tree, I tell you to be a mare!” The oak tree became a mare, the young man saddled her and galloped home.
When Baba Yaga saw them, she gnashed her teeth, so that they squinted and crooked, but there was nothing to do. One year has passed.
Jonica says:
—Are you satisfied with my service?
“I’m so pleased,” Baba Yaga grumbles. “Well, let’s go to the stables and choose a horse for yourself, as agreed.” Just eat first, I'm probably starving.
Jonitsa began to eat, and meanwhile the king bird flew up to the window and whispered to him:
- Choose the most invisible horse.
Jonitsa and Baba Yaga went to the stable, and she began to show him the horses. There were all sorts of them: bay, dun, and brown. Choose anyone.
And in the far corner stood a mangy nag, it was embarrassing to look at.
“I’ll take this one, I guess,” says Jonitsa.
“Why do you need such a bastard,” says Baba Yaga, “choose yourself a good horse.”
But Yonitsa stubbornly stood his ground, Baba Yaga had to give him the nag.
He said goodbye to Baba Yaga and led the nag out the gate. And she barely trudges, stumbles.
But as soon as they left the yard, what a miracle, a heroic neigh was heard, and the nag turned into a wonderful horse, even flying into the skies.
That horse had fourteen spleens; he could gallop day and night without rest.
Yonitsa jumped onto his horse, just thought about Ilyana Kosynzyana, and lo and behold, he was already at the palace where the Serpent lives.
Ilyana was just walking through the water to the well, saw Jonitsa, immediately recognized him, and threw herself on his neck. They immediately mounted their horses and rushed off.
The snake immediately found out about this, saddled his horse and set off in pursuit of them at full speed.
But where can he keep up with the heroic horse! The Snake sees that things are bad, he began to shout to Jonitsa’s horse so that he would throw his owner to the ground, otherwise, they say, he would bathe him in milk and feed him oats and sugar.
Jonitsa didn’t stop and shouted to the snake horse that he would feed him only clover and bathe him in dew.
The snake horse heard this and instantly threw the Snake off of itself, smashed it to the ground and trampled it with its hooves.
Then Jonitsa mounted a snake horse, Ilyana remained on the heroic horse, and they rode far away, to Ilyana’s palace.
Then they threw a feast for the whole world, all the fairies from the Miracle Lake came to that feast, sang, danced, and did not get tired.
And Yonitsa and Ilyana Kosynzyana began to live and live, and to this day they live, if they did not die.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru