In the old days, good housewives, as soon as they finished all the day's chores around the house, began to do needlework - spinning wool or weaving cloth until late at night. Ineri, the wife of a wealthy farmer, also stayed up late. Their house stood on Tyree Island, not far from a beautiful green hill. This hill was called Berg Hill, and fairies were rumored to live in it. One night, when the farmer himself and other household members were already asleep,
Aineri was still sitting and spinning wool by candlelight. And finally she was so tired that she clasped her head in her hands and exclaimed:
“Oh, if only someone would come, it doesn’t matter whether from the sea or from the land, from far away or not far away, and help me make cloth!”
Before she had time to utter these words, she heard a knock on the door, and someone’s thin melodious voice called out to her:
- Aineri, kind hostess, open the door for me - I came to help you! Aineri was confused, but still opened the door. There was some unfamiliar tiny woman standing on the threshold, dressed all in green from head to toe. She entered the room, went to the spinning wheel and immediately began to spin. But as soon as Ineri closed the door behind her, an even louder knock was heard, and again someone’s voice sang:
- Aineri, kind hostess, open the door for me - I came to help you! Aineri pulled back the bolt again, and another strange little woman, also all in green, entered the room. She immediately sat down on the bottom, into which a spindle whorl with a tow was stuck.
But that's not all! Following the second woman in green, a third appeared, then a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh... In a word, there were so many of them that poor Ineri lost count of them. She stood there, not knowing what to do, and was only amazed at the unprecedented zeal with which all her guests set to work. Some were ruffling and carding the wool, others were quickly running the shuttle in the loom, others were warping the warp without a break, others were preparing to felt the cloth and for this purpose they boiled water on the hearth - in it they were going to soak the woven cloth so that it would wash and shrink. And one little gnome, who came along with the fairies, picked up Ineri and led her to dance. “No other way than all the fairies of Berg Hill came to me!” - thought Ineri. And the dark, tiny women in green made more and more noise and knocking as they jostled and argued for free space. It’s surprising that they didn’t wake up the farmer with their hubbub - after all, he was lying in the next room. But, oddly enough, he slept so soundly that Ineri began to be afraid - what if the fairies had bewitched him?
Moreover, her assistants kept shouting in shrill voices that they were hungry, and she tried to feed them to their fill. I must say that Aineri had already been exhausted for the day, and now, when they came to help her, she could barely stand on her feet. The night passed, and the insatiable hunger of the tiny women grew with the same fabulous speed with which they worked. It seemed that if you collected bread and meat for them from all over the world, this would not be enough for them.
By midnight, Ineri was completely exhausted and could only think about one thing - how to get rid of her fairy assistants. More than once or twice she went into the next room and tried to wake up her husband. But it would be easier to lift the millstone! The farmer slept like the dead; his wife screamed loudly in his ear, but he didn’t move.
Ineri was racking her brains - what to do? And finally I decided to go and consult with one wise old man who lived nearby. She baked some buns and handed them out to the tiny women in green, leaving one small bun to finish baking. Then she quietly jumped out the door and ran along the path to the old man’s hut. There she told him about her trouble and asked him for advice.
- How can I get rid of these little women? - she asked the old man.
- How can I wake up my husband? He sleeps as if under a spell. The wise old man first scolded Aineri for the fact that she, without thinking carefully, asked for help “either from the sea, from the land, from far away, from nearby,” then he said:
- Never again in your life wish, do not ask, do not beg for something that could turn against you. You guessed it - your husband was bewitched. You will wake him up only when you drive your fairy assistants out of the house and sprinkle him with water, in which the fairies are preparing to roll cloth. Here's how you can get rid of fairies: go home, open the door and shout at the top of your lungs three times: "Berg Hill is burning!" Here your green guests will quit their work and run to the fire. They will run out, and you lock the door, then scatter, scatter, scatter at random the spinning wheel, the spindle whorl with the tow, the loom - in a word, everything that they touched. Turn all things upside down. And then everything will work out for you on its own.
Aineri thanked the elder for his good advice and hurried home. And as soon as she approached the unlocked door of her house, she shouted at the top of her lungs:
- Berg Hill is on fire! There's a fire in Berg Hill! Berg Hill is all in red flames!
Before she had time to shout this, the fairies rushed out of the house en masse, pushing and trampling each other. As they ran, they all wailed - mourned what was left in their hill, and each named what was most dear to her: Oh, my husband and children, And my cheese and butter, Sons and daughters, And flour chests, Comb and carders, Whorls and threads, Cows and fetters, Horses and traces, Harrows, pantries, Hammer, anvil... Oh, earth opens up, And Berg Hill is on fire! If our hill burns, it will be the end of both fun and dear troubles! As soon as all the fairies ran away, Ineri quickly entered the house and locked the door. Then, on the advice of the elder, she began to turn over and scatter at random everything that the fairies touched: she tore off the lace from the wheel on the spinning wheel; she twisted the spindle and tow in the opposite direction, turned the loom upside down, and removed the water from the fire for felting the cloth.
Before she had time to finish this, the fairies returned. They saw that their hill was not on fire at all, and they guessed that Aineri had deceived them in order to lure them out of her house. They knocked on the door with their fists, so loudly and quickly that it seemed as if it was hail.
- Aineri, kind hostess, let us in! - the fairies shouted.
- I won’t let you in! - she answered. Then they began to ask for a spinning wheel:
- Good spinning wheel, get up and open the door for us!
“I can’t,” answered the spinning wheel, “the lace was removed from my wheel.” The fairies shouted to the whorl:
- Good whorl, open the door for us!
“I wouldn’t mind opening it,” answered the spindle whorl, “but they twisted me the other way.”
Then the fairies remembered the loom and began to ask for it:
- Good machine, open the door for us!
“I would have gladly opened it,” answered the machine, “but they turned me upside down.”
There was still water left, in which the fairies were going to roll the cloth. And the fairies began to ask her:
- Good water, maybe you’ll at least open the door for us?
“I can’t,” answered the water, “because they took me off the fire.”
The fairies didn't know what else to come up with. Finally they remembered the small bun that was browning in the fireplace.
“Bun, bun, fluffy bun,” they shouted, “open the door for us, and quickly!”
The bun jumped and galloped towards the door. But Aineri rushed after her, pinched her, and the bun fell to the floor. Well, the fairies realized that they couldn’t enter the house, and they began to squeal and scream, so shrilly that it was enough to cover your ears. Then Aineri finally remembered the water in which the fairies were going to roll the cloth. She scooped up some water with a ladle, ran into the bedroom and sprinkled this water on her husband. He woke up immediately - and it was high time! - and when I woke up, I heard a terrible noise behind the wall. The farmer jumped out of bed, opened the front door and stood on the threshold, frowning angrily.
The noise immediately died down, and the fairies, like green shadows, began to melt and disappeared completely. And Aineri was never disturbed again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru