An old man and an old woman had two sons. The eldest, Kekhitran, was twelve years old, and the youngest, Kehermen-Ketil, was only a year and a half old.
One day the brothers ran out into the street to play. Suddenly, out of the blue, Vikhor flew in. He spun, spun everything around, picked up and carried Kehermen-Ketil to the kingdom of Peri.
In that kingdom, King Peri took Kehermen-Ketil under his upbringing. The guy began to grow by leaps and bounds. And soon he grew taller than nine arshins, with oblique fathoms at his shoulders, and the strength in him was exorbitant.
All the children of the kingdom of Peri were afraid of the hero Kehermen-Ketil. When he went out into the street, his peers ran away and shouted from a distance:
“We won’t play with you, son of man!” Get away from us!
Kehermen-Ketil was angry with the children of the kingdom of Peri for such speeches and, when he managed to catch one of them, he beat and offended them.
The parents complained to King Peri:
- Your adopted son, son of man, does not allow our children to live, beats the children, maims them. Quiet him or send him somewhere from our kingdom.
“What a problem with this Kehermen-Ketil,” the king thought, “we must somehow get rid of him. It was in vain that I accepted the guy then.” The king thought and thought and came up with an idea. Says to the foster child:
“It’s not fitting for you, such a hero, to play with small children!” Make a ball and a stick, if you can, and play with my soldiers.
Kehermen-Ketil is glad of this. I went into the forest and uprooted two centuries-old oak trees. From one he made a huge, heavy stick, and from the butt of another oak he carved out such a large ball that only two strong men could lift it. He went out into the street and shouted:
- Come out, who wants to race a ball with me!
The king sent twenty selected strong soldiers and punished them:
- Play with Kehermen-Ketil and remember: his strength is exorbitant and you need to beat him at all costs. If you gain the upper hand, maybe it will become more peaceful and it will be easier for me to rid our kingdom of him. After all, I didn’t know when I took him from Vikhor as my foster child that a human son would grow up like that in one year and become a mighty hero. He has gained strength, but his mind is childish, so he is mischievous.
The soldiers came out to the square, and Kehermen-Ketil said:
- Let's decide who should start first.
Kehermen-Ketil was the first to start. He positioned the ball more comfortably and hit it with such force with a stick made of whole oak that the ball flew with a terrible whistle. Many soldiers were deafened by that whistle, others were knocked off their feet by the air, and those who stood on their feet and tried to catch the ball were completely crippled. Some had their hands, some had their heads torn off.
Kehermen-Ketill threw the stick and said with annoyance:
- What a game! Twenty people couldn’t catch the ball, and they even got hurt!
And the king was sitting on the porch, saw all this and thought: “Well, how angry he is about something, he can ruin our entire kingdom in our hearts.” And he immediately ordered to call Kehermen-Ketil.
“I see that in our kingdom there is no fighter for you.” You would go down to the underworld. There, I heard, there are strong mighty heroes. You will find someone to measure your strength with.
- How to get there? - asked Kehermen-Ketil.
“Get out of here right at noon, and you’ll find a hole in the ground.” This will be the entrance to the underworld.
Kehermen-Ketil threw his stick over his shoulder and set off on his way. He walked and walked and noticed that in one place light was breaking through from under the ground. He came closer and saw a narrow gap. The light came out of this hole. With a stick and hands he raked the earth, widened the entrance and descended into the underworld. I looked around and noticed the only path. He walked and walked, got tired and wanted to eat. He sat down near the path to rest, and then, out of nowhere, a huge bull with such large sharp horns was rushing straight at him that it was scary to look at. A bull stopped not far away, began to dig the ground with its hooves, its eyes burning with fire. He bent his head and rushed at Kehermen-Ketil, who lightly hit him with his stick and killed the bull on the spot.
Kehermen-Ketil grabbed the bull by the tail, lifted it higher and shook it with such force that the bull's carcass fell out of the skin.
“Dinner came running to me,” he said.
He satisfied his hunger, rested and moved on. The path led him to the hut. He looked out the window and saw an old man sleeping on the stove. He knocked and shouted:
- Grandfather, let me spend the night!
- Who are you, good fellow, and how did you get here?
“I am the son of man, my name is Kehermen-Ketilem.”
And he told the old man how Vikhor carried him away as a small child, and was adopted by King Peri.
“Tsar Peri said that in the earthly kingdom you have many heroes and have someone to measure your strength with.
“You seem to be a good guy, not crooked,” said the old man, “and I feel sorry for you.” King Peri, your adoptive father, deceived you, or he himself knew nothing about the underworld. A terrible monster owns our kingdom. That monster has twelve hands, with forty fingers on each hand. He himself lives in a dungeon, from there he puts out his hands and with his countless fingers grabs everything living, both here and in this world. And as soon as he grabs someone, he immediately drags him into his dungeon and devours him. There were many strong and brave heroes who tried to defeat the monster, to save him from the twelve-armed world, but they all died. Soon there will be no one left alive who does not move to the other end of the earth. And you can’t stay here. Get away while you're alive, away from here. Yes, hurry up.
- Leaving is a simple matter. I'll have time to leave. But tell me, how can I see the twelve-armed king? - asked Kehermen-Ketil.
“There is no need for you to seek your destruction,” answered the old man. - And the time is late now, go to bed and rest - the morning is wiser than the evening.
With those words, the old man climbed onto the stove and soon fell fast asleep. And Kehermen-Ketil quietly left the hut and set off along the path along the river bank. Whether he was walking close or far, he saw: the roof was rising low above the ground, and from under the roof, from the upper windows, hands were stretched out in all directions, and many long fingers on those hands were moving. “No other way than this is the twelve-armed underground king himself,” thought Khermen-Ketil and suddenly felt himself being pulled and pulled forward. And then I just noticed that his fingers were holding him tightly, and he saw his hand. From afar, the underground king grabbed the young man.
Kehermen-Ketil began to break free. And this way and that he turns, tries to free himself, and step by step, against his will, he steps closer and closer to the roof. And when the monster dragged him very close - all that remained was to pull him through the window - Kehermen-Ketil rested his feet on the wall, strained himself and jerked back so hard that he completely tore off his furry arm as thick as a ten-foot log. He threw his hand into the river, and he returned to the hut and went to bed.
In the morning, when we had breakfast, I said to the old man:
“I’ll go at least from afar and see what kind of twelve-armed monster this underground king is.”
“As I said yesterday,” said the old man, “I will say the same today: don’t go.” The underground king will destroy you.
“What will happen will happen, but I’ll go,” Kehermen-Ketil stands his ground, “I’ll see who gets it!”
“Well, it’s your choice,” the old man waved his hand. -Have it your way. Go, but first listen to what I have to say. It's not a joke you started...
He told everything he knew about the twelve-armed underground king, and at the end he added:
“If you remember what I told you and get down to business, maybe you’ll defeat the damned monster.”
Kehermen-Ketil thanked the old man, picked up his stick and walked along the familiar path. When the roof of the underground palace appeared in the distance, all eleven hands stretched out in his direction and a voice was heard:
- Ah, here he comes again! Do you think he tore off one arm and left me weak? Eleven hands left! I won't let you out of here alive. Now I'll swallow you!
- First, heat the bathhouse - at least I’ll wash myself from the road - and then do whatever you want.
“Well, wash yourself,” said the underground king and ordered the bathhouse to be heated.
Some time passed, the maid came running:
— The bathhouse is ready, there’s a lot of heat and steam, you can wash yourself!
“Go and wash quickly,” the underground king hurries, “there’s no need to spend time!”
“Our custom is this: first the owner checks the heat, and only then the guests go to take a steam bath.
“Be it your way, I’ll amuse you before I die.”
While the underground king was in the bathhouse, Kehermen-Ketil dropped into the palace and, as the old man taught him, opened the treasured casket. He placed a bottle of living water where the powerless water stood, and put the powerless water in the place of living, strong water.
At that time the underground king returned from the bathhouse:
- Go and wash yourself quickly, it’s time for me to have lunch!
“I’ve changed my mind,” answered Kehermen-Ketil. “Let’s fight first, and then I’ll go to the bathhouse.”
“Let’s fight, let’s fight,” said the underground king and handed him a bottle of living water, “drink a little.”
And he grabbed a bottle of powerless water and began to drink. He immediately felt that his strength decreased tenfold. Meanwhile, Kehermen-Ketil drank living water, and his strength increased tenfold.
- Oh, I gave you the wrong driver! - the underground king shouted. - Give me your bottle!
The good fellow threw out the empty bottle, grabbed the underground king and pulled him out of the dungeon. Then he swung his stick and killed the exhausted underground king with one blow. He cut his body and freed a great multitude of people. Apparently and invisibly, people from different countries fell, swallowed by the twelve-armed monster. People go and glorify the hero Kehermen-Ketil. The good fellow met both his father and his older brother Kehitran. They hugged, said hello, and all returned home together. There they arranged a feast for the whole world.
At that feast, everyone drank and ate and glorified the heroism and prowess of the conqueror of the underground king - the valiant Kehermen-Ketil. And I was at that feast, I learned about everything and told you about it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru