Once upon a time, a very long time ago, perhaps back in the days when St. Paul came from Iberia to our island, there lived in Ouessant one beautiful girl of about sixteen or seventeen, and this girl’s name was Mona Karbili. Mona was so beautiful that everyone who saw her said to her mother with delight:
- What a beautiful daughter you have, Zhanna! She is as beautiful as a Morgana; we have never seen such a beauty on our island. You'd think she was the daughter of some Morgan.
“Don’t say that,” objected Mona’s kind mother. “God knows, her father is Fansh Karbili, my husband.” This is as true as the fact that I am her mother.
Mona's father was a fisherman and spent almost all his time at sea. The mother worked on a piece of land near the hut, and in bad weather she spun flax. Mona went with other girls to the seashore to collect various edible shells, which fed the whole family.
The Morgans - there were many of them on the island at that time - must have noticed Mona and, just like the people, were amazed by her beauty.
Once, when she, as always, was sitting with her friends on the shore, the girls started talking about their suitors. Each praised her for being a good fisherman, deftly able to navigate the boat through the many pitfalls that surround the island.
“It’s in vain, Mona, that you turn your nose up at Ervon Kerdudal,” said Margarita Arfour to Fansh’s daughter Karbili. “He’s a nice guy, he doesn’t drink, he never quarrels with his comrades, and no one is better at steering a boat in dangerous places - at the Old Mare and at Cape Stiff.”
- Here's another! - Mona answered with contempt (because, having heard enough praise for her beauty, she became vain and arrogant). “There’s no way I’ll be a fisherman’s wife!” I am beautiful as a Morgana, and I will only marry a prince or the son of some noble nobleman, rich and strong. Or at least for Morgan.
It so happened that her words were overheard by an old blinker, who must have been hiding behind some rock or under some seaweed. He rushed at Mona and dragged her to the bottom of the sea.
The girls ran to the village to tell Mona's mother what happened. Zhanna Karbili was spinning on the threshold of her hut. She threw down the tow and spindle and rushed to the sea. She called loudly for her daughter, even went into the water and walked as far as she could to the place where Mona disappeared. But it was all in vain, no one’s voice responded from the water to her cry and desperate call.
The news of Mona's disappearance quickly spread throughout the island and did not particularly surprise anyone. “Mona was Morgan’s daughter,” people said, “and apparently her father dragged her into the sea.”
Mona's kidnapper was the Morgan king of the island of Ouessant. He took the girl to his underwater palace. The palace was a real miracle; the most beautiful royal dwelling on earth could not compare with it.
Old Morgan had a son, the most beautiful of Morgans; this son fell in love with Mona and asked his father for permission to marry her. But the king himself decided to do this, and therefore answered his son that he would never allow him to marry the daughter of the earth.
“In our kingdom,” he told his son, “there are many beautiful Morgan girls who would be happy to have a royal son as their husband.” And when you choose one of them, I will give my consent.
The young blinker was in despair. He announced to his father that he would never marry if he could not marry the one he loved - Mrna, the daughter of the earth.
The old Morgavian, seeing that his son was wasting away from grief and melancholy, forced him to woo Morgana, who was famous for her beauty and was the daughter of one of the noble nobles of the court. They set a wedding day and invited many guests. The bride and groom went to church, followed by a magnificent wedding procession. After all, these sea inhabitants, although they are unbaptized, have their own faith and temples under water. They say that they even have their own bishops, and Gulvain Penduff, an old sailor from our island, who has traveled all the seas in the world, assured me that he had seen them more than once.
Poor Mona was ordered to stay at home and prepare the wedding dinner. But she was not given any provisions, absolutely nothing, only empty pots and pans - these were large sea shells. Old Morgai told her that when everyone returned from church, she must serve a wonderful dinner on the table, or she would die. Judge for yourself what confusion and grief the poor thing was in! And the groom was no less sad and concerned!
When the cortege moved towards the church, the groom suddenly exclaimed:
-Oh, I forgot my fiancee’s ring at home!
“Tell me where it is, and I will send for it,” his father told him.
- No, no, I’ll go get it myself, no one else will find the ring where I hid it. I'll run home and be back in a minute.
And he left alone, not allowing anyone to accompany him. He walked straight into the kitchen, where poor Mona was crying in despair.
“Don’t be sad,” he told her, “dinner will be ready on time.” Lean on me
He walked up to the hearth and said:
- Good fire to the hearth! - And a fire immediately began to blaze in the hearth.
Then the prince began to touch each pan, each pot, each spit and dish in turn with his hand, saying:
- In this pot there will be salmon, in this - flounder with oysters, on a spit - duck, here - fried mackerel, in these jugs - wines and the best liqueurs...
And pots, pots, dishes, jugs were filled with food and drinks with one touch of his hand. Mona could not come to her senses from surprise, seeing that dinner was prepared in the blink of an eye without any help on her part.
The young blinker hurriedly rushed to catch up with the motorcade. They came to the church. The marriage ceremony was performed by the naval bishop. After that, everyone returned to the palace. The old king went straight to the kitchen and said to Mona:
- Here we are back. Is everything ready?
“It’s ready,” Mona answered calmly. Surprised by this answer, he began to raise
lids from pots and pans, looked into the jugs and said with a dissatisfied face:
- They helped you. But I'll deal with you yet! We sat down at the table. The guests drank and ate a lot, then singing and dancing began.
Around midnight, the newlyweds retired to their magnificent bedroom, and the old Morgai ordered Mona to escort them there. She had to stand by the bed and shine it, holding a burning candle in her hand. When the candle burns down to her hand, death awaits Mona.
Poor Mona obeyed. And the old blinker was waiting in the next room and from time to time shouted from there: .
- What, the candle hasn’t burned down to your hand yet?
“Not yet,” Mona answered.
So he asked several times. Finally, when the candle had almost burned out, the newlywed said to his young wife:
“Take Mona’s candle for a moment and hold it while Mona lights another one for us.”
Young Morgana, not knowing anything about her father-in-law's intentions, took the candle from Mona's hands.
At that moment the old king asked again:
- What, the candle burned down to your hand?
“Answer: “yes,” whispered the young blinker.
“Yes,” Morgana said.
And immediately the old king ran into the bedroom, rushed to the one who was holding the candle, and, without even looking at the girl, cut off her head with one blow of his saber. Then he went out.
As soon as the sun rose, the newlywed went to his father and told him.
- Father, I came to ask your permission to get married.
- Marry? Didn't you get married yesterday?
- My wife is no longer alive.
- Not alive? So you killed her, you unfortunate thing?
- No, father, it was not me, but you killed her.
- I? Did I kill your wife?
- Yes, father. Wasn’t it you who struck off the head of the one who held the burning candle by my bed last night with a blow of a saber?
- Yes, but she was the daughter of the earth!
“No, my father, it was Morgana, whom I married by your will.” And now I am already a widower. If you don’t believe me, you can easily see for yourself - her body is still lying in my bedroom.
Old Morgan ran into the bedroom and saw that his son was telling the truth. His anger was terrible.
-Who do you want to marry? - he asked his son, having cooled down a little.
- Daughter of the earth.
The old king did not answer and left the bedroom. But several days passed, he must have realized how stupid it must be to compete with his son, and agreed to his marriage with Mona. The wedding was celebrated very magnificently and solemnly.
Young Morgan was very attentive to his wife and spoiled her as best he could. He fed her with small tasty fish that he caught himself, gave her various decorations made of precious sea pearls, found for her beautiful shells, mother-of-pearl and golden, the rarest and most wonderful sea flowers and herbs.
But, despite all this, Mona was drawn to the earth, to her father and mother, to a poor hut on the seashore.
The husband did not want to let her go: he was still afraid that she would not return. And Mona was very sad, crying day and night. Finally one day young Morgan said to her:
“Smile just once, my joy, and I will take you to your father’s house.”
Mona smiled at him, and Morgan, who was a wizard, said:
- Bridge, rise!
Immediately a beautiful crystal bridge rose from the water so that they could cross from the bottom of the sea to the land.
Seeing this, old Morgan realized that his son was a wizard like him, and said:
- I’ll go with you too.
All three walked onto the bridge: Mona in front, her husband behind her, and old Morgan a few steps behind.
As soon as Mona and her husband, who were walking ahead, stepped onto the ground, young Morgan said:
- Bridge, go down!
And the bridge sank into the depths of the sea, carrying old Morgan on it.
Mona's husband did not dare to accompany her all the way to her parents' house. He let Mona go alone, telling her:
- Come back when the sun goes down. I'll be waiting here for you. But make sure that no man kisses you or even touches your hand.
Mona promised to fulfill everything and ran to her home. It was lunch hour and the whole family was gathered at the table.
- Hello, father and mother! Hello brothers and sisters! - Mona screamed, running into the hut.
Good people looked at her, dumbfounded with surprise, and no one recognized her: she was so beautiful, so majestic in her magnificent attire! Mona was saddened by this meeting; tears came to her eyes. She began to walk around the house, touching every thing with her hand and saying:
“We brought this stone from the shore, and I sat on it by the fire. And here is the bed on which I slept. Here is the wooden cup from which I ate soup. And there, behind the door, is the gorse broom that I used to sweep the house. And here is the jug with which I walked along the water to the source.
Hearing all this, the parents eventually recognized Mona and, crying with happiness, began to hug her, and everyone was happy that they were together again.
But it was not for nothing that Morgan, Mona’s husband, ordered her not to kiss any man: from that moment on, she no longer remembered anything about her marriage, about life with the Morgans. She stayed with her parents, and soon people began wooing her from all sides. There was no end to suitors, but Mona didn’t listen to anyone and didn’t want to get married.
Mona's father, like every inhabitant of the island, had his own piece of land, where he planted potatoes and all sorts of vegetables, and some barley. This, plus the tribute that the sea paid them daily in fish and shellfish, was enough to feed them. In front of the house there was a threshing floor where bread was threshed, and there was a stack of straw. Often at night, when Mona was lying in bed, she imagined that through the howl of the wind and the dull noise of the waves beating against the coastal rocks, she heard someone moaning and complaining outside the door of the hut. But she thought that these were the souls of the poor drowned people calling out to the living, who had forgotten them, and asking them to pray for them. She whispered a funeral prayer and, feeling sorry for those who are at sea in such weather, calmly fell asleep.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru