In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a son, Martynka. All his life the old man hunted, killed animals and birds, and thus fed himself and fed his family. The time came - the old man fell ill and died. Martynka and her mother strained and cried, but there was nothing to do: you can’t bring a dead person back. We lived for a week and ate all the bread that was in stock. The old woman sees that there is nothing more to eat, she must start getting money. The old man left them two hundred rubles. She really didn’t want to fix the little bottle, but no matter how hard she tried to fix it, she had to fix it—she wouldn’t die of hunger!
She counted out one hundred rubles and said to her son:
- Well, Martynka, here’s a hundred rubles for you; go ask your neighbors for a horse, go to the city and buy bread; Maybe somehow we’ll miss the winter, and in the spring we’ll start looking for work.
Martynka begged for a cart with a horse and went to the city. He drives past butcher shops - noise, swearing, crowds of people. What's happened?
Otherwise the butchers caught a hunting dog, tied it to a post and beat it with sticks; the dog is tearing up, squealing, snapping... Martynka ran up to those butchers and asked:
- Brothers! Why are you beating the poor dog so unmercifully?
“How can you not beat him, damn it,” the butchers answer, “when he ruined a whole carcass of beef!”
- That's enough, brothers! Don't beat him, better sell him to me.
“Perhaps buy it,” one man says jokingly, “give me a hundred rubles.”
Martynka pulled out a hundred from his bosom, gave it to the butchers, and untied the dog and took it with him.
The dog began to fawn over him, wagging his tail like this: he understood who saved him from death.
When Martynka arrived home, her mother immediately began asking:
- What did you buy, son?
— I bought myself my first happiness.
- Why are you lying, what happiness is there?
- And here he is - Zhurka! And he shows her the dog.
— Didn’t you buy anything else?
- If I had some money left, maybe I would have bought it; only the whole hundred went for the dog. The old woman scolded:
“We,” he says, “have nothing to eat ourselves: today I collected the last scraps from the bins and baked a flat cake, and tomorrow even that will be gone!”
The next day the old woman pulled out another hundred rubles, gave them to Martynka and punished her:
- Here, son! Go to the city, buy bread, and don’t throw away money for nothing.
Martynka arrived in the city and began to walk the streets and take a closer look. An evil boy caught his eye: the boy caught the cat, hooked it around the neck with a rope and began dragging it to the river.
- Wait! - Martynka shouted. -Where are you taking Vaska?
- I want to drown him, damn him!
- For what offense?
— He pulled the pie off the table.
- Don’t drown it, better sell it to me.
- Perhaps buy it: give me a hundred rubles.
Martynka did not hesitate for long, reached into his bosom, pulled out the money and gave it to the boy, and put the cat in a bag and took it home.
- What did you buy, son? - the old woman asks him.
- Kota Vaska.
— Didn’t you buy anything else?
- If I had some money left, maybe I would buy something else
- Oh, you such a fool! - the old woman shouted at him - Get out of the house, look for bread for yourself from strangers.
Martynka went to a neighboring village to look for work; he walks along the road, and Zhurka and Vaska run after him.
Pop towards him:
-Where, light, are you going?
- I’m going to hire myself as a farm laborer.
- Come to me; Only I hire workers without ranks: whoever serves me for three years, I won’t offend him anyway.
Martynka agreed and worked tirelessly for three summers and three winters for the priest.
The time for reckoning has come, the owner calls him:
- Well, Martynka! Go and get paid for your service. He brought him to the barn, showed him two full bags and said:
- Take whichever one you want!
Martynka looked - there was silver in one bag, and sand in the other - and thought: “This thing was prepared for a reason! It would be better if my labors were wasted, and I’ll try, take the sand - what will happen?”
He says to the owner:
- Father, I choose a bag of fine sand.
- Well, light, your good will; take it if you disdain silver.
Martinka put the sack on his back and went to look for another place; He walked and walked and wandered into a dark, dense forest. There is a clearing in the middle of the forest, in the clearing there is a fire burning, a girl is sitting in the fire, and such a beauty that you can’t even think of it, never guess it, just say it in a fairy tale.
The red maiden says:
- Martin, the widow's son! If you want to gain happiness for yourself, spare me, cover this flame with the sand for which you served for three years.
“Indeed,” thought Martynka, “it’s better to help a person than to carry such a burden with you. Wealth is not great - sand, there is a lot of this goodness everywhere!”
He took off the bag, untied it and started pouring it in: the fire immediately went out.
The red maiden hit the ground, turned into a snake, jumped onto the good fellow’s chest and wrapped herself in a ring around his neck.
Martynka was scared.
- Don't be afraid! - the snake warned him. - Go now to distant lands, to the thirtieth state - to the underground kingdom; there my father reigns. When you come to his courtyard, he will give you a lot of gold, and silver, and semi-precious stones; you don’t take anything, but ask him for a ring from his little finger. That ring is not simple: if you throw it from hand to hand, twelve young men will immediately appear, and whatever they are ordered to do, they will do everything in one night.
The good fellow set off on his journey. Is it close, is it far, is it soon, is it short? He approaches the thirtieth kingdom and sees a huge stone. Then the snake jumped off his neck, hit the damp ground and became the red maiden as before.
- Follow me! - says the red maiden and led him under that stone. They walked for a long time along an underground passage, suddenly the light began to dawn - lighter and brighter, and they came out onto a wide field, under a clear sky. On that field a magnificent palace was built, and in the palace lives the red maiden’s father, the king of that underground side.
The travelers enter the white stone chambers, and the king greets them kindly.
“Hello,” he says, “my dear daughter, where have you been hiding for so many years?”
- You are my light, my father! I would have completely disappeared if it weren’t for this man: he freed me from the evil inevitable death and brought me here to my native place.
- Thank you, good fellow! - said the king. “You should be rewarded for your virtue.” Take for yourself gold, and silver, and semi-precious stones, as much as your soul desires.
Martyn, the widow’s son, answers him:
- Your Royal Majesty! I don’t need gold, silver, or semi-precious stones: if you want to reward me, give me a ring from your royal hand - from your little finger. I am a single man; I’ll start looking at the ring more often, I’ll start thinking about the bride, and thus relieve my boredom.
The king immediately took off the ring and gave it to Martyn:
“Here, take good care of it, but be careful: don’t tell anyone about the ring, otherwise you’ll get yourself into big trouble!”
Martyn, the widow's son, thanked the king, took the ring and a small amount of money for the journey and set off back the same way as before. Whether it was close, far, soon, or shortly, he returned to his homeland, found his mother, and they began to live and live together without any need or sadness. Martynka wanted to get married, he pestered his mother and sent her as a matchmaker:
- Go to the king himself, marry me to the beautiful princess.
“Eh, son,” the old woman replies, “if you cut down the tree on your own, it would work out better.” And then, look, you made it up! Well, why should I go to the king? It’s a known fact that he will get angry and order me and you to be put to death.
- Nothing, mother! Probably, if I send it, then go boldly. What will be the answer from the king, tell me about it; and don’t go home without an answer.
The old woman got ready and trudged to the royal palace; came to the courtyard and straight to the main staircase, and rushed without any report.
The guards grabbed her:
- Stop, old witch! Where the hell are you going? Even generals don’t dare walk around here without reporting...
“Oh, you so-and-so,” cried the old woman, “I came to the king with a good deed, I want to marry his princess daughter to my son, and you grab me by the skirts.”
She made such a noise that God forbid! The king heard the screams, looked out the window and ordered the old woman to be allowed in. So she entered the sovereign’s room, prayed at the icons and bowed to the king.
-What do you say, old lady? - asked the king.
- Yes, I came to your mercy; It’s not out of anger to tell you: I have a merchant, you have goods. The merchant is my son Martynka, a very clever man; and the product is your daughter, the beautiful princess. Won't you give her in marriage to my Martynka? There will be a couple!
- What are you, or have you gone crazy? - the king shouted at her.
- No way, your royal majesty! Please give me an answer.
The king immediately gathered all the gentlemen ministers to him, and they began to judge and decide what answer to give to this old woman. And they decided this: let Martynka build a palace in one day, and let a crystal bridge be made from that palace to the royal one, and on both sides of the bridge there would be trees with golden and silver apples, on those trees different birds would sing, and let him also build a five-domed cathedral: there would be a place to receive the crown, there would be a place to celebrate the wedding.
If the old woman’s son does all this, then you can give the princess for him: that means he’s painfully wise; and if he doesn’t do it, then both the old woman and his head will be cut off for their offense.
With such and such an answer the old woman was released; She goes home, staggers, and bursts into tears.
I saw Martynka:
“Well,” he says, “I told you, son: don’t do too much; and you are all yours. Now our poor little heads are gone, we will be executed tomorrow.
“Come on, mother, maybe we’ll stay alive; go to bed; morning is wiser than evening.
Exactly at midnight, Martyn got out of bed, went out into the wide courtyard, threw the ring from hand to hand - and immediately twelve young men appeared before him, all with the same face, hair to hair, voice to voice.
“What do you need, Martyn, widow’s son?”
- Here’s what: make me a rich palace in this very place, and so that from my palace to the royal one there would be a crystal bridge, on both sides of the bridge there would be trees with golden and silver apples, on those trees there would be different birds singing, and even build a five-domed cathedral: there would be a place to receive the crown, there would be a place to celebrate the wedding.
Twelve fellows answered:
- Everything will be ready by tomorrow!
They rushed to different places, rounded up craftsmen and carpenters from all sides and got to work: everything was going well for them, the job was done quickly. The next morning Martynka woke up not in a simple hut, but in noble, luxurious chambers; He went out onto the high porch and looked - everything was ready: the palace, the cathedral, the crystal bridge, and the trees with golden and silver apples. At that time, the king stepped out onto the balcony, looked through the telescope and was amazed: everything was done as ordered! He calls the beautiful princess to him and orders her to prepare for the crown.
“Well,” he says, “I didn’t think, I didn’t think about giving you in marriage to a peasant’s son, but now it’s impossible to avoid it.”
While the princess was washing, drying herself, and dressing up in expensive clothes, Martyn, the widow’s son, went out into the wide courtyard and threw his ring from hand to hand - suddenly twelve young men seemed to grow out of the ground:
- Anything you need?
- But, brothers, dress me in a boyar caftan and prepare a painted carriage and six horses.
- Now it will be ready!
Before Martyn had time to blink three times, they brought him a caftan.
He put on a caftan - it fit just right, as if it was tailored to measure.
I looked around - there was a carriage standing at the entrance, wonderful horses harnessed to the carriage - one hair was silver, the other was gold. He got into the carriage and went to the cathedral. They've been ringing for mass there for a long time now, and a crowd of people has flocked, apparently and invisibly.
Following the groom came the bride with her nannies and mothers, and the king with his ministers.
They defended mass, and then, as it should be, Martyn, the widow’s son, took the beautiful princess by the hand and accepted the law with her. The king gave a rich dowry for his daughter, rewarded his son-in-law with a great rank and gave a feast to the whole world.
Young ones live for a month, or two, or three. Every day Martynka builds new palaces and plants gardens. Only it hurts the princess’s heart that she was given in marriage not to a prince, not to a prince, but to a simple peasant. I began to think about how to get him out of the world; I pretended to be such a fox, that’s for sure! She looks after her husband in every possible way, serves him in every possible way, and asks everything about his wisdom. Martynka remains calm and doesn’t say anything.
One day he was visiting the king, got quite drunk, returned home and lay down to rest. Then the princess pestered him, let him kiss and pardon him, seduce him with affectionate words, and finally cajoled him: Martynka told her about his miraculous ring. “Okay,” the princess thinks, “now I’ll do it to you!”
As soon as he fell sound asleep, the princess grabbed his hand, took the ring off his little finger, went out into the wide courtyard and threw the ring from hand to hand.
Twelve young men immediately appeared before her:
- Anything you need, beautiful princess?
- Listen, guys! So that by morning there would be no palace, no cathedral, no crystal bridge, but the old hut would still stand; let my husband remain in poverty, and take me to distant lands, to the thirtieth kingdom, to the state of mice. I don’t want to live here out of shame alone!
- We are glad to try, everything will be done!
At that very moment the wind picked her up and carried her away to the thirtieth kingdom, to the mouse state.
In the morning the king woke up and went out onto the balcony to look through a spyglass - there was no palace with a crystal bridge, no five-domed cathedral, but only an old hut.
“What would this mean?,” the king thinks. “Where did it all go?”
And, without hesitation, he sends his adjutant to find out on the spot what happened.
The adjutant rode on horseback, examined it and, turning back, reported to the sovereign:
- Your Majesty! Where there was the richest palace, there still stands a thin hut, in that hut your son-in-law lives with his mother, but the beautiful princess is not in sight, and no one knows where she is now.
The king convened a large council and ordered his son-in-law to be tried, why, supposedly, he seduced him with magic and ruined the beautiful princess.
They condemned Martynka to put him in a high stone pillar and not give him anything to eat or drink: let him die of hunger. The masons came, removed the pillar and walled Martynka up tightly, leaving only a small window for light.
He sits, poor thing, in prison without drinking or eating for a day, and another, and a third, and sheds tears.
The dog Zhurka found out about that attack, ran into the hut, and the cat Vaska was lying on the stove, purring, and began to swear at him:
- Oh, you scoundrel Vaska! You just know to lie on the stove and stretch, but you don’t know that our master is imprisoned in a stone pillar. Apparently, he forgot the good old thing, how he paid a hundred rubles and freed you from death; If it weren’t for him, the worms would have devoured you long ago! Get up quickly! We must help him with all our might.
Vaska the cat jumped off the stove and, together with Zhurka, ran to look for his owner; ran to the post, climbed up and climbed into the window:
- Hello, master! Are you alive?
“Barely alive,” Martynka answers, “I was completely exhausted without food, I had to die of starvation.”
- Wait, don’t push; “We’ll feed you and give you something to drink,” said Vaska, jumped out the window and went down to the ground.
- Well, brother Zhurka, our master is dying of hunger; How can we manage to help him?
- You are a fool, Vaska! And you can’t imagine this! Let's go around the city; As soon as I meet a baker with a tray, I will quickly roll under his feet and knock the tray off his head; Here you look, don’t make a mistake, quickly grab the rolls and rolls and drag them to the owner.
They went out onto a large street, and a man with a tray met them. Zhurka threw himself at his feet, the man staggered, dropped the tray, scattered all the bread and ran to the side in fear: he was afraid that the dog was probably mad - how long before trouble would come! And the cat Vaska grabbed the bun and dragged it to Martynka; gave one - ran for another, gave another - ran for a third.
They also scared the man with the sour cabbage soup and got more than one bottle for their owner. After that, the cat Vaska and the dog Zhurka decided to go to the thirtieth kingdom, to the mouse state, to get a miraculous ring: the road is long, a lot of time will pass...
They brought Martynka biscuits, rolls and all sorts of things for the whole year and said:
- Look, master, eat, drink and look around, so that you have enough supplies until we return.
We said goodbye and set off on our way.
Whether it’s close, whether it’s far, whether it’s soon, whether it’s short, they come to the blue sea.
Zhurka says to the cat Vaska:
- I hope to swim to the other side, what do you think?
Vaska answers:
- I’m not an expert at swimming, now I’ll drown!
- Well, sit on my back!
Vaska the cat sat on the dog’s back, grabbed the fur with his claws so as not to fall, and they swam across the sea.
They crossed to the other side and came to the thirtieth kingdom, the mouse state. In that state there is not a single human soul to be seen, but there are so many mice that it is impossible to count: wherever you go, they go in packs!
Zhurka says to the cat Vaska:
- Come on, brother, start hunting, starting to strangle and crush these mice, and I will begin to rake and put them in a pile.
Vaska is accustomed to this type of hunting. How he went to deal with the mice in his own way; whatever bites you, the spirit is gone! Zhurka barely has time to put them in a pile. I made a big stack in a week! A great sadness fell upon the entire kingdom. The mouse king sees that there is a deficiency among his people, and it turns out that many of his subjects have been put to an evil death.
He crawled out of the hole and prayed to Zhurka and Vaska:
- I hit you with my brow, mighty heroes! Have pity on my little people, don’t completely destroy them; better tell me what you need? I will do everything I can for you.
Zhurka answers him:
“There is a palace in your state, and in that palace lives a beautiful princess; She took away our master’s miraculous ring. If you don’t get us that ring, then you yourself will be lost and your kingdom will perish: we will devastate everything as it is!
“Wait,” says the mouse king, “I will gather my subjects and ask them.”
He immediately gathered mice, both large and small, and began to ask: would any of them undertake to sneak into the palace to the princess and get the miraculous ring? One mouse volunteered.
“I,” he says, “often visit that palace; During the day, the princess wears the ring on her little finger, and at night, when she goes to bed, she puts it in her mouth.
- Well, try to get it; If you perform this service, I will reward you royally.
The mouse waited until nightfall, made his way into the palace and quietly lay down in the bedroom. He looks - the princess is fast asleep. He crawled onto the bed, stuck his tail in the princess’s nose and began to tickle her nostrils. She sneezed - the ring jumped out of her mouth and fell on the carpet.
The mouse jumped from the bed, grabbed the ring in his teeth and took it to his king. The mouse king gave the ring to the powerful heroes the cat Vaska and the dog Zhurka. At that time they thanked the king and began to hold advice with each other: who would better save the ring?
Vaska the cat says:
- Give it to me, I won’t lose it for anything!
“Okay,” says Zhurka, “watch out for him better than your own eyes.”
The cat took the ring in his mouth, and they set off on their way back.
When we reached the blue sea, Vaska jumped onto Zhurka’s back, grabbed onto his paws as tightly as possible, and Zhurka jumped into the water and swam across the sea. An hour floats, another floats; suddenly, out of nowhere, a black raven flew in, stuck to Vaska and started hitting him in the head.
The poor cat doesn’t know what to do, how to defend himself from the enemy? If you put your paws into action, no matter what, you will capsize into the sea and go to the bottom; If you show your teeth to a raven, you might drop the ring. Trouble, and that’s all! He endured it for a long time, but in the end it became unbearable: a violent raven pierced his head until it bled; Vaska became embittered, began to defend himself with his teeth - and dropped the ring into the blue sea. The black raven rose up and flew into the dark forests.
And Zhurka, as soon as he swam ashore, immediately asked about the ring. Vaska stands with his head down.
“I’m sorry,” he says, “I’m guilty of you, brother, because I dropped the ring in the sea.”
Zhurka attacked him:
- Oh, you damned oaf! Happy is your god that I did not recognize this before; I would rip you apart and drown you in the sea! Well, what do we come to the owner with now? Now get into the water: either get the ring, or get lost!
- What's the gain if I disappear? Better let's manage: just as we caught mice before, so now we'll start hunting for crayfish; Maybe, luckily for us, they will help us find the ring.
Zhurka agreed; They began to walk along the seashore, began to choke the crayfish and put them in a pile. They've laid a big pile! At that time, a huge crayfish crawled out of the sea and wanted to take a walk in the clean air.
Zhurka and Vaska were now grabbing him and pushing him in all directions.
- Do not strangle me, mighty heroes. I am the king over all crayfish; I will do whatever you order.
- We dropped the ring into the sea; find him and deliver him, if you want mercy, and without this we will completely ruin your entire kingdom!
The Cancer King at that very moment summoned his subjects and began asking about the ring.
One small crayfish volunteered.
“I,” he says, “know where it is: as soon as the ring fell into the blue sea, a beluga fish immediately picked it up and swallowed it before my eyes.”
Then all the crayfish rushed across the sea to look for the beluga fish, grabbed it, poor thing, and began to pinch it with their claws. They chased her, chased her, they just didn’t give her peace for a single moment; the fish went back and forth, spun, spun, and jumped out onto the shore.
The Cancer King climbed out of the water and said to the cat Vaska and the dog Zhurka:
- Here you are, mighty heroes, beluga fish. Tease her mercilessly, she swallowed your ring.
Zhurka rushed at the beluga and began to bite it from the tail. “Well,” he thinks, “now we’ll eat our fill!”
And the rogue cat knows where to find the ring as quickly as possible - he set to work on the beluga’s belly, gnawed a hole, pulled out the intestines and quickly attacked the ring.
He grabbed the ring in his teeth and God bless his feet; He runs with all the strength he has, but on his mind he has this thought: “I’ll run to the owner, give him the ring and boast that I was the one who arranged the whole thing; the owner will love and favor me more than Zhurka!”
Meanwhile, Zhurka has eaten his fill and looks - where is Vaska? And he guessed that his comrade was on his own: he wanted to curry favor with the owner by lying.
- So you’re lying, Vaska the rogue! Now I’ll catch up with you, I’ll tear you into small pieces.
Zhurka ran in pursuit, whether long or short, he caught up with the cat Vaska and threatened him with inevitable disaster. Vaska spotted a birch tree in the field, climbed up it and sat down at the very top.
“Okay,” says Zhurka. “You can’t sit on a tree all your life; someday you’ll want to get down; and I won’t take a single step from here.
For three days the cat Vaska sat on a birch tree, for three days Zhurka watched over him, never taking his eyes off him; Both got hungry and agreed to peace.
They made up and went together to their owner, running to the post.
Vaska jumped into the window and asked:
-Are you alive, master?
- Hello, Vasenka! I thought you wouldn’t come back; I've been without bread for three days.
The cat gave him a miraculous ring. Martynka waited until midnight, threw the ring from hand to hand - and immediately twelve young men appeared to him.
- Anything you need?
- Build my former palace, guys, and the crystal bridge, and the five-domed cathedral, and bring my unfaithful wife here; so that everything will be ready by morning.
No sooner said than done. In the morning the king woke up, went out onto the balcony, looked through the spyglass: where the hut stood, there was a high palace built, from that palace to the royal palace a crystal bridge stretches, on both sides of the bridge there are trees with golden and silver apples.
The king ordered the carriage to be laid and went to find out if everything was really the same or if he had just imagined it. Martynka meets him at the gate, takes him by the white hands and leads him to her painted chambers.
“So and so,” he reports, “that’s what the princess did to me.”
The king sentenced her to be executed: according to his royal word, they took the unfaithful wife, tied her tail to a wild stallion and let her go into an open field. The stallion flew like an arrow and pushed her white body along the ravines and steep ravines.
And Martynka still lives, chewing bread.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru