There lived three brothers, three sons of the same father. The two eldest only know, they sharpen their swords, no matter where they pave the way, they are so sharp! And the third has one thing: bows and arrows!
One day the younger one had a dream that he fell asleep in the open air and an old man came up to him, woke him up, and gave him a sheet of paper.
“Get it,” he says. “It’s written here: you’ll be a good person if you don’t fear anyone or anything in the world.”
And disappeared. The younger brother woke up in the morning and realized that this was not an ordinary dream. The letter remained in his hands. He went to his father and began to ask him to let him try his luck in distant countries. The brothers heard and also stood in front of their father with their swords, no worse than the younger one with his bow and arrows. The father is reluctant to let anyone go. But the sons do not give up. I had to agree.
- Well, my children, your will. Do as you please.
The two elders took their swords, the youngest his bow and arrows. The father gave his blessing for the journey, and the mother burst into burning tears next to the youngest.
And our fellows were sad to leave home, father and mother. But then their home disappeared behind the mountain, and they walked merrily. They walk and walk and approach the inn. And the inn belonged to the king, and he ordered the owner to give each traveler free food and drink. Our guys came in, ate and drank to their fill. And they walked forward even more vigorously.
So they walked until they reached an impenetrable beech thicket, where even a small bird could not get through. It’s already evening, but the forest doesn’t end, it gets even denser. There is nothing to do, we will have to spend the night. The brothers collected enough firewood to last the whole night. And they decided: whoever guards the fire should not dare wake up the brothers, no matter what happens to him. And in the morning I must not say a word about it, otherwise my head will be off my shoulders. Whoever's fire goes out will not live.
OK. They collected wood, stacked it, and lit a fire. The flames rose to the sky. The two youngest went to bed and fell asleep. The elder sat down by the fire and put his sword next to it. Either he will throw a twig, or he will take a nap.
He suddenly hears the trees cracking. He looked around and saw a three-headed dragon pushing through the trees, puffing, and rushing straight at him. The elder brother got cold feet and almost called out to his brothers. Yes, I caught it in time. “Don’t blow my head off,” he thinks, “if I scream.” But if I give in to the dragon, then all three of us will be lost. Eh, it was not! And the dragon is already very close. It hisses and spits fire! The good fellow grabbed his sword and bravely, like that! The dragon's head flew off. Two! Another one flew off my shoulders. And three-and! The third one flew off.
He grabbed the lifeless body and dragged it aside, into the thick of it. And he pulled out the tongues and hid them in a bag. He runs to the fire, and it is completely burning out. But the sky brightened, the dawn broke. The elder fire blew up and woke up the brothers. We got up. Nobody asks about anything. Neither how they slept, nor how they were on guard.
They went further, but the forests did not end. Evening found them in a thicket, more terrible than the one just before. They repeated what they had agreed on earlier, and when the fire flared up to the sky, the two went to bed. The middle one sat down by the fire and put his sword next to him. Either the firewood kicks up, or he struggles with drowsiness, but, lo and behold, somewhere a leaf rustled, somewhere an owl hooted, they won’t let you sleep. And suddenly he hears - the forest is cracking. He turned around and saw a six-headed dragon bursting through the forest, puffing, and climbing on him. The middle brother got scared and almost called the brothers. Yes, I came to my senses in time. What a good thing to take your head off your shoulders. “I will succumb to the dragon and lie with my brothers in bones. No! This will not happen!
The dragon hisses and spits fire, but our fellow boldly grabs his sword - right! He takes off two heads of the dragon. One more time! The other two fly off the shoulders. The third time he waved, the last two heads were lying on the ground. He grabbed the dragon and dragged the bastard into the thick of it, and hid the tongues in a bag. A single coal is smoldering from the fire, but dawn is already dawning in the sky. It fanned the fire and woke up the brothers. Nobody said a word to anyone about how the night went.
They move on, and there is no end to the enchanted forest. The night found them in such deep wilds that they couldn’t even see the sky above their heads. The brothers confirmed their agreement even more strictly and lit a fire. When the flames rose up to the sky, the two elders went to bed. The younger one sat down by the fire and put the bow next to it. He would throw a twig on the fire, or take a nap, but suddenly the forest would rustle, an owl would screech, and they wouldn’t let him sleep. But then there was a terrible crash through the forest! He looked and saw a dragon with twelve heads rushing at him! Our fellow didn’t wait for the dragon to fall on him, he grabbed his bow and raz, rraz! He shot arrow after arrow until he knocked off all the dragon's heads. He dragged the body into the bushes, pulled out the tongues, and put them in a bag.
But when I returned, there was no longer a spark in the fire! I turned over all the ashes, but they also cooled down. “Well,” he thinks, “the brothers will wake up, and then the end will come for me! While they sleep, we need to do something!”
He climbed to the top of the tallest tree, looked in all directions, was there a light somewhere in these dense forests? Nothing anywhere. Only in one direction did something flash, and even then very far away.
“Let it be far away,” he thinks. “My life hangs by a thread, I’ll have to find that light and bring it here.” He climbed down from the tree and set off in the direction where, in his opinion, he could get hold of a light.
He walks, and night meets him.
-Who are you? he asks.
“I am the night,” he hears in response.
– How long will you last?
- No, it will start to get light soon.
“It would be nice if you didn’t end longer, otherwise eternal night will come for me!” - Follow me! - orders.
And the night runs away. The smaller one was not too lazy, threw the bow off his shoulder and shot an arrow at her leg. The night had to follow him. He's limping and can barely drag his leg. She trudged and trudged, and suddenly she began to whimper:
- Oh, oh, oh, oh!
- What are you doing? he asks.
- Oh, the day is coming towards us, it will drive me away.
And it's true. Something turned white between the trees. Our shooter took aim, and so accurately! And shot the day. The day has stopped. Shooter to him:
- Good evening! And the day in response:
-Are you delusional? Don't you see, I'm day?
- Right! It would have been a day had it not fallen into my hands. And now you both - you and the night will stay with me!
He tied the night to the tree on one side and the day on the other, so that they wouldn’t stop him from doing what he had planned. And he set off further in the darkness. After all, that light was already nearby. So what would you think? The younger brother sees a huge fire blazing, and twelve giants are sitting around it. They have already had dinner, and the twelfth giant is finishing his glass.
- Eh, they didn’t leave me anything! – thought our shooter. He pulled the bowstring and knocked the glass out from under the giant’s nose, also scratching the tip of his nose.
The giants jumped to their feet. Where did they come from? Who is he? After all, not a single person has ever appeared in those forests. Our fellow goes out to the fire himself.
- Here I am! Are you looking for me?
- Did you break the glass?
- And who? Look, here's my bow!
- Well, if you are such a sharp shooter, we have been waiting for you for a long time.
They sat him down next to him and told him why they needed him: not far from here there is an enchanted castle; you can’t get any gold out of it with a shovel. The giants decided to take possession of this untold wealth. But they can’t get into the castle: there is a black dog there, she runs back and forth along the fortress walls, smells everyone from afar and makes such a barking noise that everyone in the castle jumps to their feet. That would be nothing. The giants would get along with all the inhabitants, but there is neither a gate nor a gate in the castle. There is only one window through which garbage is thrown out. The giants can only squeeze through this window one at a time. They began to keep the advice with our fellow.
“First of all, you shoot the dog,” they say, “and then we’ll drop you off at the window.” You're skinny, you'll get through. Everyone will sleep in the castle, because the little dog won’t bark. You look around and one by one you will drag us through the window.
So. They approached the castle. A sharp shooter shot the black dog just as it was about to bark. The twelfth giant brought him to the very window. The shooter was a slender, agile guy and climbed through without difficulty.
He walks around the enchanted castle, examining everything. And you really couldn’t get the gold out there even with a shovel, but he didn’t touch it. He just looks to see if there is at least one living soul in the castle to save him from the giants. I didn't have to search for long. He enters the chambers, and there are six maids sleeping there. I moved to the second. And there are just as many maids sleeping soundly. I entered the third, it was a wonderful light. In the middle there is a golden table with a glass of wine on it. Opposite the table is a golden bed, above the bed on the wall there is a golden sword hanging. A beautiful princess sleeps in bed.
The first thing that caught his eye was the sword. He wanted to take it off. But that was not the case. I am unable to move from the spot. “Why am I so weak that I can’t even move my sword? I tried again. No, no way... I’ll drink wine and refresh myself.
I drank wine and immediately became filled with strength. He went up to the wall, took off the sword like a feather, and girded himself with the sword.
“And now,” he says, “we can work hard!”
Just as he came quietly, he crept up to the window. And there the giants are waiting for him.
- Well, what’s there? - they ask.
“Everything is fine,” our young man answers. “You can even scrape a shovel full of gold, but all the residents sleep like the dead.” Get up!
The giants began to crawl through the window into the castle one by one. Just head through the window - and our fellow did it with a sword! And the body is dragged inside. He interrupted everyone. After all, from that wine his strength increased a hundredfold. Before the last giant had time to lose his head, thousands of people in the castle came to life. There was a noise and a cry: who was there, who drank the wine, who took away the golden sword?
Our fellow did not wait until he was captured, you and I know that his time was running out, and the agreement with the brothers was strict. He climbed through the window and hurried to where he should have been long ago.
He ran to the fire that the giants had built, took the light and rushed on. I got to the tree where they were tied day and night. They attacked him, where did he spend so much time? Doesn’t he know that everything in the world will go topsy-turvy if he hesitates even a little longer.
“Well, well, stop grumbling,” the young man answers them, “now I’ll put things in order.”
Untied them. He pushed the night in the direction where he needed to go, and the day in the opposite direction.
- Now go, and make sure you never meet again! - he threatened them and ran to catch up with the night.
He reached his extinguished fire. The brothers were still sleeping. He lit a fire, stirred the fire, and the flames were bursting into the sky. He pushed the brothers, they stood up and said:
- Oh, brother, what a long night it was! And he answers:
– And to me it seemed even longer than yours!
And not another word, so as not to break the agreement. However, the brothers realized that something had happened at the fire when the youngest had a golden sword shining on his side.
With difficulty they got out of the dense forest and little by little they headed back to where they had come from.
It was such a joy when we saw the same inn where we stopped at the beginning of the journey.
- Shall we go in? - the older brothers ask.
“Why not come in,” the younger one answers, “after all, he is for us, travelers, and the king ordered them to be fed and watered for free.”
The brothers enter, the innkeeper greets them with a bow, and now, they say, they will tell you where they were, what they saw. And he took off his hat in front of the youngest and sat him down in a place of honor. After all, the youngest has a sparkling golden sword at his side. The owner whispered a word to his servant and quietly sent him away. And he began to treat the guests to expensive dishes and drinks. Our fellows tasted good wine and had fun. The older one loosened his tongue.
“It’s not in vain,” he says, “that I walked around the world.” On that first night, when I was guarding a fire in a deep beech forest, a dragon with three heads rushed at me. And what do you think I did? He didn’t make a sound, as agreed, but grabbed his sword, hacked the dragon to death and dragged his body into the thicket. If you don’t believe me, look – tongues from three heads!
And he takes out three dragon tongues from the bag.
“Just think - three languages,” the middle brother interrupted him, “that’s just business!” I have six of them!
And he puts six dragon tongues on the table.
“Well, if you spilled the beans,” says the youngest, “okay!” This means our agreement is over. They came up with it themselves, they thought it over themselves. Now listen to my misadventures. Here are twelve languages for you - he takes them out and puts them on the table. - Look! And here’s a golden sword for you - he took out the sword, and it cut, only there was a whistle and it sparkled and sparkled, the rays went to all four directions of the world.
- How did you end up with the sword? - the brothers ask.
– I’ll tell you everything in order: with the dragon everything was like yours. But the sword is a different story!
And he told about that very long night and about what happened that night. Before I could finish speaking, the golden royal carriages were already thundering in front of the inn. The king and his daughter emerge from the first, and the royal courtiers from the rest.
- What's happened? What's happened? - everyone is making noise. Only the owner remains silent. After all, it was the king himself who ordered him to immediately send a servant as soon as a traveler with a golden sword arrived at the inn.
The younger brother only looked at the princess and immediately recognized her. It was she who slept in the castle under the golden sword. He began to doubt how she ended up here with the king.
The king came in and went straight to the younger one with a question:
- Was it you who sparkled with the golden sword? Answer, because we saw this shine even in the castle!
- Most Serene King, I sparkled with a sword, and the sword - here it is! – our fellow boldly answers.
- How did he get to you? – the king asks further.
“So, they say, and so,” the young man says again.
“Everything matches word for word, everything is correct,” says the king. “There’s just one thing you need to know.” Did you get this sword yourself or did you manage to get it somewhere? Let's find out now. The one who got the sword and entered the castle must be a very accurate shooter. After all, he managed to get into a black dog on a dark night. Come on, show me what you can do! If you knock the golden crown off my castle, that means you are it!
They poured everything out onto the street. They look. Our sharp shooter took his bow and arrow, took aim, and the golden crown fell from the castle tower.
The king takes him by the hand and declares him the liberator of his only daughter. He names him his son and blesses the young husband and wife.
The king gave them half the kingdom and that castle to boot.
And when the king died, the marksman began to rule the entire kingdom. He could have protected him if he had a bow and a golden treasure sword. His father, mother, brothers and all good people lived well under him!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru