Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman. In their old age, they had a son. They named him Ivan. Before the son could learn to walk, his mother died. The father married again shortly after. Three girls were born from his second wife.
The stepmother immediately disliked Ivan, and when he grew up and started going to school, she began to think about how to completely drive him away from the world.
Ivan had two favorites: a foal and a shaggy puppy. He constantly played with them, fed and groomed them. And when he returned from school, each time he first ran to the foal, then played with the dog, and only then went into the house.
The stepmother thought and thought about how to destroy her stepson, and this is what she came up with. She baked cakes for him, mixing poison into the dough. The guy, they say, will eat such a flatbread and give his soul to God.
That day, as always, Ivan, coming home from school, stopped by to see his beloved foal. I came to the barn, and the foal stood in it, saddened by something.
- foal, why are you so sad? - Ivan asked.
“How can I not be sad,” the foal answers. - Your stepmother wants to poison you: she baked cakes with poison for you.
“What should I do?” asks Ivan.
“You take a cake, pretend that you are eating, and leave the house yourself, and give the cake to the puppy,” said the foal.
Ivan entered the hut.
“Oh, child, you’re probably hungry,” the stepmother fawned at him, “so I baked you a flatbread, eat it.”
Ivan takes the flatbread and, pretending to eat it, runs out into the yard. The puppy was already waiting for him, and Ivan gave him a cake, the puppy ate the cake and he felt sick.
Ivan did not immediately return to the hut, but walked for some time with his peers. And when I came home, my stepmother was very surprised.
“How did he manage to stay alive?” the stepmother thinks. And he comes up with another, more reliable way to deal with his stepson. The next day she hung a sharp ax on a thin rope above the door. The calculation was simple: the guy would come home from school, slam the door and the ax would fall right on his head.
But Ivan, as always, before entering the hut, ran to his favorite foal. The foal stood sad again.
“Why are you so sad again?” asks Ivan.
“How can I not be sad,” the foal answers, “if the stepmother wants to destroy you at any cost.” She hung an ax over the door, and as soon as you slam the door, the ax will fall and break your head.
“What should we do?” asks Ivan.
“Take the puppy with you, open the door and let him go forward,” said the foal. “And as soon as the dog enters the hut, slam the door hard, but stay in the hallway.”
Ivan called the puppy and took him to the hut. As soon as the puppy crossed the threshold, Ivan slammed the door hard, the ax crashed and crushed the poor dog's head. Only after this did Ivan himself enter the hut.
The stepmother loses her temper: “How does this stepson manage to avoid inevitable death? There's something wrong here." And in the end he goes to a healer for advice.
“So and so,” she says to the healer. “There is a boy left from my husband’s first wife.” The boy is unlucky, useless. I tried this way and that to get rid of it, but nothing worked.
The healer says to the stepmother:
- His foal knows witchcraft. So first you need to finish off the foal, then it will be easy to deal with the boy.
The stepmother returned home and told her husband: kill and kill the foal. And it’s as if he bites her, and kicks her, and in general there is no life from him. The husband felt sorry for the foal, but what can you do, he had to give in to his wife’s insistence.
The next morning Ivan left for school, and his father began to twist the rope in order to tie the foal more tightly when he began to stab him.
Ivan returned home and first of all goes to the foal. He stands heartbroken, tears rolling from his eyes.
- What's happened? - Ivan asked.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen soon,” said the foal. “The stepmother went to the healer, who told her that I am saving you from death. Now your father is making a rope in the hut to tie me tighter when he stabs me.
- What should we do? - Ivan cried with grief.
“You try to do this,” says the foal. - Go to the hut and tell your father: I raised the foal, looked after him, let me ride him around the yard one last time. Father will allow it, and you quickly sit on me, and when you sit down, whip me properly.
Ivan entered the hut. He sees his father weaving a rope.
“Why did you need the rope, father?” asks Ivan.
“Yes, my wife asked me to slaughter the foal,” the father answers, “I may need a rope.”
Ivan began to cry.
“Allow me, father, to ride my beloved foal for the last time,” he asks his father. “After all, I looked after him the most, I raised him.”
“Well, go for a ride, son,” the father answers.
Ivan went out into the yard, saddled the foal, jumped on it and hit him with a belt. In the blink of an eye, the foal jumped over the gate and, like the wind, rushed across the field. The stepmother realized it, sent a chase, but it was too late: not a single horse could catch up with the foal.
On the way, Ivan and his foal came across a herd of pigs. The foal paused and said:
- You, Ivan, go to the shepherd and ask him to slaughter one pig. Give the meat to the shepherd, take only one bottle yourself. I'll wait for you here by the road.
Ivan did as the foal ordered and returned to him with a pork bladder.
“Now put the bubble on your head,” the foal told him.
Ivan put on the bladder, sat on the foal again and they rushed on.
They drove and drove and reached a big city. The foal stopped and said to Ivan:
— A king lives in this city. You go to the king, hire him to guard his royal garden, and I will stay here. If you need me, just whistle, and I will stand in front of you like a leaf in front of the grass.
Ivan went to the king and hired himself to guard the garden. There was a hut in the garden. At night, Ivan walked around the garden, and during the day, from morning to evening, he slept in a hut. If someone asked him about something, he always answered: “I can’t know.”
The king had three daughter-brides. But, instead of the expected matchmakers, news suddenly arrives that on such and such a day the eldest daughter will be eaten by a three-headed black snake.
The entire royal family, all the royal servants and ministers fell into hopeless grief. The king sends messengers to all corners of his kingdom and through them announces: “Whoever saves my eldest daughter, I will marry her to him.”
The day appointed by the serpent has arrived. Everyone went to the lake behind the royal garden. Ahead walked the brave fellows who wanted to fight the serpent and become related to the king.
A three-headed black snake swam out of the lake with a hiss. And all the good guys were blown away like the wind. Seeing this, Ivan jumps out of the hut and whistles loudly. At that same moment, a foal appears, already saddled and with a saber at the side of the saddle. Ivan takes the bubble off his head - his hair used to be copper-red, but now it has turned golden - he jumps onto the foal and, with a saber in his hand, rushes to the lake. With one swing he cuts off all three heads of the serpent. And before anyone had time to come to their senses, Ivan had already returned to the garden, put a bubble on his head and lay down in the hut, and released the foal into the field.
The king's daughters passed by the hut and could not resist reproaching Ivan:
“You sleep all day, Ivanushka the fool, you didn’t even come to see how the good fellow killed the snake.”
“I can’t know,” Ivan answered them.
Some time passes and new news falls on the king like snow: on such and such a day the middle daughter will be eaten by a seven-headed serpent.
Again there is groaning and crying in the royal palace. The king again calls on the brave young men to stand up for his daughter and promises to give her in marriage to the one who saves her.
But the appointed day comes, a seven-headed black snake emerges from the lake with a hiss, and again the brave fellows, at the sight of the snake, hit the bushes.
Ivan came out of the hut, whistled for the foal, and when it came rushing, he took the bubble from his head and galloped to the lake. With his first blow, Ivan cut off five heads of the snake. The snake, in turn, hit Ivan with its tail and broke his ring finger. The Tsar's daughter herself ran up to Ivan and bandaged his finger with her handkerchief. Ivan swung his saber again and cut off the last two heads of the snake. And while everyone around was gasping and groaning in joy and surprise, Ivan let the foal go into the field, and he climbed into the hut, put a bladder on his head and went to bed.
Again the tsar’s daughters passed by the hut and again laughed at Ivan:
- The fool sleeps and sees nothing, hears nothing.
Tired after the fight with the snake, Ivan really did not hear what the princesses were saying. He was already fast asleep.
But then the middle daughter suddenly saw her handkerchief on Ivan’s finger, and in a hurry, Ivan didn’t put on the bubble very carefully - golden hair was visible from under it. The princess was frightened and thought: “Will I really have to marry this fool?”
But the princess’s fears were in vain. Among the brave fellows, as the first time, there was one who claimed that it was he who killed the snake. The king gave his eldest and middle daughter to their false saviors.
Some more time passes, and new news plunges the entire royal court into sadness and despondency: on such and such a day the twelve-headed snake will eat the youngest daughter. The servants are crying, the mother and father are sobbing.
And again the cry is heard throughout the entire kingdom:
- Whoever saves my daughter will be her husband.
The youngest daughter was indescribably beautiful; The brave fellows who had come from all over the kingdom promised the Tsar: we will save, we will definitely save!
But then the appointed day came, a twelve-headed snake swam out of the lake with a hiss, and the brave men, immediately forgetting their loud promises, retreated back.
Ivan came out of his hut, called the foal, and when he rushed, he sat on him and, with a saber in his hand, flew to the lake - only his golden hair fluttering in the wind.
With the first swing, Ivan cut off five heads of the snake this time too. The snake hit him with its huge tail and drove him waist-deep into the ground. The ground on the shore of the lake was soft, and Ivan managed to get out to a new place. Again he swung his saber and cut off five more heads. The snake, in turn, hit Ivan again and drove him into the mud up to his shoulders. Who knows, maybe Ivan wouldn’t have gotten out if some of the emboldened young men hadn’t helped him. And as soon as he got out, he slashed with his last strength with his saber and cut off the last two heads of the snake.
A cry of universal joy echoed over the lake. Everyone rushed to thank the golden-haired daredevil who defeated the terrible snake. But there was no trace of the winner. Ivan jumped onto his fleet-footed foal and was like that. At the hut he put a bubble on his head and fell asleep.
Again the princesses walk past the hut from the lake and shake their heads:
- Our Ivan slept through the current battle with the snake. The daughters come to their father, and the brave fellow is already sitting there, beating himself in the chest:
“It was I who saved the king’s daughter, I defeated the serpent!”
The king puts his daughter's ring on his finger, and the wedding feast begins.
In the midst of the wedding feast, the Tsar remembered his garden watchman Ivan and said:
- Go to the hut, call Ivan the Fool here too. Today is a joyful day for everyone, let him also rejoice and have fun with us.
Let's go call Ivan, Ivan doesn't come. “I can’t know,” he says. The king sends for the watchman for the second time. “I can’t know,” Ivan replies to the second invitation. And only when they came to call him for the third time, Ivan came out of the hut, tore the bubble from his head so that it burst, and Ivan’s golden hair scattered over his shoulders, after which he called his foal and jumped on him.
First, Ivan made three circles around the royal court. He sits on a foal, holds a finger tied with a handkerchief in front of him and shakes his golden hair from time to time: they say, do you recognize who fought with the snake? Of course, everyone recognized him.
Ivan reached the third circle, tied the foal to the hitching post and proceeded to the royal chambers. And he entered them with his tied finger raised up.
The tsar’s youngest daughter, as soon as she saw Ivan at the door, immediately recognized him and said: “Here is my savior!” — ran up to him and kissed him.
The Tsar, without hesitation, tore the ring off the finger of the young liar and put it on Ivan’s finger, and ordered the self-proclaimed savior to be hanged.
The same fate threatened the husbands of the king’s eldest daughters. Ivan stood up for the impostors: he asked the king to release them on all four sides. The king agreed.
After this, the wedding feast continued for three days and three nights in a row. I was at that feast, drinking honey and beer with Ivan.
And Ivan, they say, still lives happily with his young wife.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru