Once upon a time there lived a king and he had three daughters. He cherished them more than his eyes, and when old age approached and his hair was dusted with snow, he began to think which of the three should be queen after his death? All three are beautiful, all are dear to a father’s heart.
Finally he decided: let the daughter who loves him the most inherit the throne.
He called his daughters and said:
“I have become old, my daughters, I don’t know how long I am destined to live.” It's time to put one of you on the throne. But in order to choose fairly, I want to know how much you love me. Answer me, eldest daughter, how do you love your father?
“Oh, my father, I love you more than gold,” the eldest daughter cried, kissing her father’s hand.
- Welcome! Now speak, my middle daughter!
- Oh, dear father! I love you like my maiden crown! – the middle daughter threw herself on her father’s neck.
- Welcome! And you, my youngest daughter, how do you love me?
- I, father, love you like salt is loved! - Marushka answered, looking affectionately at her father.
“Oh, you scoundrel,” the sisters attacked her, “comparing your father to salt!”
“Yes, I love him like salt,” Marushka repeated and looked at her father even more tenderly.
The father was seriously angry. How can you compare a parent with some insignificant salt that everyone takes and sprinkles in a pinch!
- Get out of my sight! If you have no more love for me than salt! When times come that salt becomes more valuable than gold, then come back, I will make you a queen! - shouted the king.
Marushka cannot say a word out of grief. But the order is her father’s law. She collected her simple belongings and moved away wherever her eyes were looking. She walked for a long time, not making out the path, until she finally reached the dark forest. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an old woman appeared at the edge of the forest.
- Marushka! Where are you heading? You hang your head, don't you look happy? Why do you need to know about this, grandma? After all, you can’t help me! - Marushka answers.
- You, girl, speak, and I’ll listen, maybe I’ll give you some advice, or don’t you know that a gray head is wise to give advice!
Marushka told the old woman her grief. “I don’t need anything now,” he says, “just to live until the day when my father understands how much I love him.
In truth, the old woman herself knew everything about Marushka, because she was not a simple old woman, but a wise prophetess! But she didn’t say anything to the girl, but called her to her service. Marushka was delighted. There will be a place to lay your head. There will be someone to tell your sadness to. And she followed her grandmother. They came to a hut behind the wooded mountains. The old woman fed the girl what she could. And then! Marushka is already tormented by hunger and thirst.
- Now don’t be lazy, get to work. Do you know how to spin, twist, and weave? What about herding and milking sheep?
“No, grandma, they didn’t teach me anything like that, but if you show me, I’ll soon learn,” answered Marushka.
- I’ll show you, I’ll show you, daughter! My teaching will be of use to you, and when the time comes, it will be useful in life.
Marushka was a girl as diligent as a bee, and although she had never known any work before, she soon learned everything. She rolls up her sleeves, ties up her white apron, and the work is in full swing in her hands - it’s a delight to watch.
And at this time the older sisters live in the palace and do not bother. They fawn over their father, throw themselves on his neck, and show their love. Their father refuses them nothing and indulges them in everything. The eldest always dresses up in expensive dresses and adorns herself with gold, while the middle one gives feasts and balls and bewitches the suitors. They are completely spoiled, they don’t know what else to ask their father. Finally, the old king began to realize that his eldest daughter loved gold more than her father! And when the middle one announced that she was going to get married, I realized that she didn’t need an old father.
He remembered his youngest daughter Marushka, but it was too late, there was no word from Marushka.
“God be with her,” the old king drives away gloomy thoughts. “After all, she loves me no more than salt.”
One day, our daughters were expecting guests again. There was a rumor that the matchmakers were going to the middle one. Suddenly the cook runs into the royal chambers, trembling and turning white as a sheet.
- Oh, the king - father! - he yells. - A great misfortune has happened!
-Are you out of your mind? – the king is surprised.
- It won’t take long to get going! After all, all our salt has disappeared, either it has become soggy, or it has disappeared through the ground, but there is not a single powder! What are we going to salt with now?
- What a fool! Send someone else!
- There is nowhere to send, in every house, in the whole country there is not a crumb of salt!
- Then salt without salt, or cook something where salt is not needed! – the king snapped, angry.
What about the cook? - “Come what may! Master-master, if he orders it so, let it be so!”
And let's cook all foods without salt. At first he cooked whatever came into his head, then he switched to only sweet dishes. Well, what a concoction it was, you couldn’t put it in your mouth! Fewer and fewer guests came to the royal feasts, and then the guests completely forgot the way to the castle. After all, now the king did not even have what could be found in the poorest hut: “Bread and salt and good will. The king walks as if submerged in water, and his daughters rush about as if scalded. The golden days are over! Gold is a dime a dozen, but there is not a pinch of salt in the whole kingdom, even to the ends of the earth! Disappeared as if she had never existed!
Little by little, people’s desire for food began to disappear. They ask for salt, even a crumb, even a drop of poppy dew on the tongue! Cattle are dying, cows and sheep are not producing milk because the salt has disappeared. People began to get sick and fall off their feet.
The king and daughters wander like shadows. This is what trouble has befallen the kingdom! For a pinch of salt, the king promises as much gold as a person can carry!
The king realized that salt is more expensive than gold, and then his conscience torments him, because it turns out that he offended his daughter Marushka in vain.
Meanwhile, our Marushka’s life is not bad. There is no job that she couldn’t learn. But she still doesn’t know about her father’s trouble. The wise old woman, of course, knows everything, but remains silent for the time being.
One day she calls Marushka to her and says:
“I once told you that your time would come and your hour would strike!” It's time for you, daughter, to return home!
- Oh, good grandmother, how can I return home if my father drove me away? – Marushka cried.
“Don’t cry, daughter, everything will work out.” In your area, salt has now become more valuable than gold. So you need to go to your father!
The soothsayer told her everything, and then added:
– You served me honestly! How can I reward you for your faithful service?
- I don’t need anything! This is to you, grandma, thank you for your good advice and kindness. Here's just a handful of salt for my poor father.
- That's all? After all, I can do anything, no matter what you ask,” the kind soothsayer smiled.
“No, grandma, thank you, just salt,” Marushka answers her.
- Well, well! If you revere salt this way, may you have enough salt for the rest of your life! Here's a magic wand for you, dear. When the midday wind blows, follow her. You will pass through three valleys, through three mountains - stop and hit the ground with your stick! At that place the earth will open - you go inside! Whatever you find there is all yours. This is your wedding dowry from me!
Marushka thanked the kind prophet, took a golden stick and a bundle of salt and sadly wandered away. Marushka was sorry to part with the wise woman, but she still hoped to return for her and invite her to the royal castle. And the old woman says goodbye to her:
- Don’t be sad about me, be kind to people, then they will answer you kindly!
Here is the forest edge. Marushka wants to thank the old lady again, but she looks, but she’s not there, as if she had never been. Marushka was left alone in the middle of an open field, like a finger. She looked around, sighed, remembered everything and hurried to her home.
She comes to the castle, and - either she hasn’t been seen for a long time, or she was wearing a scarf - no one recognizes the king’s daughter! They don’t want to let me see the king.
“Let me through,” Marushka asks, “I’m bringing a gift to the king that’s more valuable than gold.” He will heal him immediately!
They reported to the king, who ordered the guest to be admitted. Marushka came in and asked for bread. The king orders the bread to be brought, and he sighs heavily:
“We have bread, but we don’t have salt!”
- If it’s not, it will be! - Marushka answers, cuts off a piece of bread, unties her knot, sprinkles the bread with salt and hands it to the king.
- Salt! - the king was delighted, - oh, dear, and this is a precious gift! Ask for whatever you want, whatever you want, you will get it!
“I don’t need anything, father, just love me like you love salt!” - Marushka answers and takes off the scarf from her head.
The king was overwhelmed with joy when he recognized his dear Marushka! She asks, begs, to forget the insult. And Marushka caresses her father, hugs him, and doesn’t take her eyes off him. - All's well that ends well, father! - speaks.
The good news spread throughout the castle, throughout the kingdom, that the youngest daughter came and brought salt. Everyone is happy and the sisters too. Yes, not so much Marushka, but salt. Marushka does not hold any grudges; she treats her sisters with bread and salt. And he gives everyone who comes from his magic bundle. The king began to worry that they themselves would not be left without salt.
“Don’t rush to give away good things,” he says, and she reassures her father:
- Enough for everyone, father!
And it’s true that as much salt as he gives out, so much will come!
Everyone around was cheerful. The king’s ailments disappeared as if lifted by hand. To celebrate, he convened the elders and, right under a clear sky, declared Marushka queen. Marushka stands there rejoicing, suddenly a warm wind blows in her face. She told her father everything that the wise old woman had told her, and followed the wind. She passed three valleys and three peaks, hit the ground with her stick - the ground opened up, and Marushka went inside.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there were huge chambers in front of her. The walls, ceiling and floor shine and sparkle like ice. On the sides there are adits, and there are gnomes climbing the walls, holding burning lamps in their hands and greeting Marushka with these words:
– Welcome, queen, we are waiting for you! Our lady ordered to show you the kingdom. Now it's all yours!
They began to run around Marushka, waving lamps, and climbing up and down the walls. The walls sparkled, as if covered with precious stones. Marushka walks around and admires this beauty. The little men run further, leading her along long corridors, where shiny ice icicles hang from the ceilings. They show a garden with beautiful scarlet ice roses and marvelous flowers. They pick the most beautiful rose and serve it to their queen. Marushka brings the rose to her face, but, alas, the rose does not smell at all!
-What is this? – the queen asks the dwarves. “I have never seen such beauty before!”
- It's all salt! - the subjects answer.
- Really? Does salt grow? – the queen is amazed. - What should I do? How dare I take salt from here?
- Take it, Marushka! Take as much as you want. The salt will never run out, and your people will never again be left without salt! - the dwarfs answered her.
Marushka thanked them warmly and went upstairs. But the earth did not close behind her.
Marushka returned home, showed her father the rose and told him everything. The king realized what wealth his daughter received from the good sorceress.
But Marushka still can’t forget her grandmother. He orders the carriage to be laid and goes to the forest with his father, wanting to invite the old woman to his castle.
Marushka thought that she knew the way, that she remembered every forest path, but no matter how much she walked, no matter how much she searched, all the stitches and paths seemed the same to her, like poppy seeds. The hut disappeared, and the old woman could not be found. Only now did Marushka realize that it was a good sorceress. She had to return home.
The gifted bundle had long since run out of salt, but now Marushka knew where the salt grew: people began to take it from there. And now they take it, but the salt doesn’t go away! And everyone has plenty of it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru