It was a long time ago. One king named Eremey decided to marry off his daughter. But the condition was not the groom’s wealth or nobility, but his ability to speak eloquently. He announced this publicly: I will marry my daughter to the one who outshines me in eloquence, even if that person is poor.
Having heard about this condition of the king, all sorts of nobles and ministers there, without thinking for very long, said to themselves: “Eh, no, we won’t make suitors, it’s better not to try to compete with the king in word dispute.”
But the son of one poor peasant, Ilyush, heard the king’s word and rejoiced. “Can’t I try my luck,” he thought. “Wouldn’t I make a groom for the Tsar’s daughter?” And he left his home for the capital. But he is going to the city, and is in no hurry. If you rush, they say, you will only make people laugh. We must act for sure - it’s better not to take on such a task alone. It would be nice to find such a good fellow who doesn’t mince his words.
And then Ille comes towards him. Ilyush stops Ille and, pointing to the empty field, says:
- Look, Ille, there are twelve wolves coming.
Ille looks and looks, but sees nothing. This is what he says:
- There are no wolves there.
“If that’s the case, go on your way, guy, you and I are not on the same path,” says Ilyush and remains alone in the field.
After some time, Ilka comes across him. Ilyush stops him and again, pointing into an open field, says:
“You see, Ilka, twelve wolves are coming!”
“You’re kidding,” Ilka answers. “There are no wolves there.”
Ilyush and him:
- If so, go your way, I’m not on the same path with you. Ilyush goes further - he meets Ilyuk*. Ilyush stops him and, pointing into an open field, says:
- Look, Ilyuk, twelve wolves are coming straight towards us! Ilyuk peers at the empty field for a while, and then says:
- And you, guy, it turns out, you don’t see well. After all, there are not twelve of them, but twenty-four!
Then Ilyush was delighted and said:
“I can cook porridge with you, and with you I’m on the same path.” Let's go together to get the princess.
Ilyuk agrees, and the two of them go to the royal palace.
When the guys entered the royal chambers, King Eremey was dining on fried chicken. Seeing the guests, he immediately spoke to them:
“I ordered this chicken to be slaughtered today, otherwise it’s become fashionable to fly up onto the roof and peck at the stars.” Leave it alone - look, all the stars will be eaten.
Ilyush says in the same tone as the king:
- There was no need to worry. Our chickens have long pecked all the bright stars, only small and dim ones remain.
The Tsar even forgot to eat the chicken, looks at Ilyuk, and then, as if checking the correctness of his words, asks Ilyuk:
- Is this man telling the truth? Ilyuk answers:
- I don’t know whether this is true or not, I live as a shoemaker, I don’t raise poultry. But I saw with my own eyes how three days ago a neighbor’s chicken carried half a month in its beak.
From Ilyush’s words it turned out that Ilyush was telling the truth. The next dish the king was served was cabbage.
“We will have good cabbage,” says the king. “Forty or even fifty tubs can be fermented from one fork.”
Ilyush his:
- Well, our cabbage will be larger: from each head of cabbage three hundred, or even four hundred tubs will come out.
King Eremey looks at Ilyuk:
- Is this man telling the truth? Ilyuk, in turn, answers:
“I don’t presume to say whether this is true or not, I live by the shoemaker’s craft.” But a week ago heavy rain fell over our village. And just during this rain, a regiment of soldiers passed through the village. So all of them - and there were probably more than three thousand of them - sheltered from the rain with one cabbage leaf, and they all remained dry.
Again, in the eyes of the king, what Ilyush said became true. They served a new dish - bull meat.
“With us, when they slaughter a bull,” says the king, “then you can build a whole house out of the bones, but you can cover that house with the skin and still have some left over.”
“Our bulls will be larger,” Ilyush is not shy in front of the king. “We have enough bones from one bull to build an entire village, and enough skins to cover it all.”
- Is this man telling the truth? - the king asks Ilyuk.
And Ilyuk answers:
“I don’t know whether it’s true or not, I live as a shoemaker.” But ten days ago one bull passed by us, and its tail still stretches across the village. When I walked here, I had to step over this tail.
So these words of Ilyusha become true before the king. And the king had no choice but to admit that he was defeated in the verbal competition with Ilyush and give his beautiful daughter for him.
Ilyush married the princess, and I was at their wedding. He sang, but did not hear his voice; danced - even though his legs didn’t move; I ate butter and didn’t feel the taste; I drank honey - it ran down my lips, but didn’t get into my mouth.
[Ilyush, Ille, Ilka, Ilyuk - the same name Ilya.]
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru