In a certain region there were two large kingdoms, one ruled by King Petar, the other by King Tatar.
Tsar Petar had a beautiful daughter - you won’t find her more beautiful in the whole world.
The Tatar king sent a messenger to King Petar - he asked to give him his daughter as a wife, but no, so he would go to war against his neighbors, conquer the people, ruin the country, seize the king’s daughter by force, and take King Petar himself as a captive.
The king listened to the messenger and answered:
- Go and tell the Tatar king that my daughter has died, let him look for another bride, and forget about battles and wars.
As soon as the messenger left, King Petar built an impregnable tower - such that two people could fit in it with a supply of food and drink for three years. When everything was ready, the king and his daughter entered the tower and walled themselves up in it. King Petar placed his faithful servant on the throne and ordered him to reign and rule the country for three years, and when three years had passed, to dismantle the tower and release him and the princess to freedom. If anyone wants to see him, King Petar ordered to answer that he had left his kingdom and went to talk with King Sun, to ask him why the winter day is shorter than the summer day, and also colder, why his subjects cannot work all year round with the same diligence, but sit in winter with folded arms.
Soon the Tatar king appeared in the country. He was looking for King Petar and his daughter. They told Tatar that the king’s daughter had died, and King Petar went to the Sun to find out something from him. The Tatar Tsar walked around the entire palace, made sure that there was not a soul there, there was dead silence everywhere, and turned back.
Three years later the tower was dismantled. King Petar came out of there unharmed, but there was no trace of his daughter. The father did not even notice how the princess disappeared.
On the day that King Petar left the tower, one criminal who was in prison was sentenced to death. Crowds of people flocked to the prison to gaze at the condemned man. And the slave who was awaiting death shouted to the crowd:
“If King Petar knew what he doesn’t know now, he would have released me and given me life, and I would have found his daughter and brought him to the palace!”
Rumor spread throughout the city, and finally the king himself heard about the condemned man’s boast. He called the slave to him and asked:
“Are you really going to find my daughter if I have mercy on you?”
The slave answers:
“I’ll take it, just free me from my heavy shackles!”
King Petar ordered to remove the criminal's shackles, give him money for travel expenses, and sent him to search for the princess.
The slave wandered around the world for a long time, asking everyone and everyone about the Tsar’s daughter, but no one had ever heard of her. He walked nine lands and suddenly, at the edge of the ninth land, he came across a hut, entered it and saw an old woman.
“God help you, mother,” the slave exclaimed, walked up to the old woman and kissed her hand.
- God bless you, son! What's nice to say?
“I’m looking for the daughter of King Petar,” the slave answered and told everything in order: how the princess disappeared from the tower, so that the father did not notice; how he himself was condemned to death and he promised to find the king’s daughter if the king had mercy on him; and how he had already passed through nine lands, and neither heard nor heard anything about the princess.
Grandma tells him:
“Your happiness is that you immediately called me mother and kissed my hand.” Now you have become my son. My other five sons are snakes. Whoever they find here, they will immediately tear to pieces. But I won’t let you offend.
The old woman sat the slave down next to her and began to tell:
“My eldest son is such a clever thief that he will steal a lamb from the womb of a living sheep, and she will not even feel it.” My second son has a special sense of smell - he finds traces: even if the trace is nine years old, my snake will still smell it. The third son is a master builder - before you have time to clap your hands, he has built a huge house. The fourth son is a sharp shooter; at least it will hit a star in the sky. And the fifth skillfully catches - he can even catch lightning from the sky with his hands. If my sons don’t find the princess, then no one in the whole world will find her.
She barely had time to utter such words when there was a noise and buzz outside the door - five kites, five of the grandmother’s sons, returned. The old woman in the blink of an eye hid the slave behind the door under a trough so that the snakes in their hearts would not tear him apart. The snakes burst into the house and shouted:
- Good evening, mother!
And the mother answered them:
- God bless you, my children! Welcome! How are things going?
“Okay, mother,” one of the sons responded.
“Something here smells like the human spirit,” the younger snake suddenly says. - Admit it, mother, is there anyone who is a stranger to us?
- But you guessed right, son. This is your brother-in-law. I became his mother instead, and accepted him as my son, because he came into the house and called me mother and kissed my hand.
— What does our brother-in-law need here? - asked the snake.
“He is looking for the king’s daughter,” the mother answered and told everything in order, and then said: “Tomorrow, my children, go look for the princess throughout the world.” Now swear to me that you will not do anything bad to your brother-in-law.
The snakes swore. The old woman was delighted and released her named son from under the trough. He greeted and kissed his new brothers and, while kissing the snakes, lost more than three buckets of blood. Then everyone had dinner and went to bed. The snake mother and her sons were tired and quickly fell asleep, and the poor slave tossed and turned in bed all night in pain.
Early in the morning, at dawn, the snake brothers rose and, together with their brother brother, headed to the country of King Petar. That snake, who had a keen sense of smell, immediately fell on the princess’s trail. The brothers guessed that the princess was carried away by a seven-headed snake, quietly creeping up while the princess’s father was sleeping. Then one of the brothers, who was a clever thief, entered the palace of the seven-headed serpent - and saw that the kidnapper was sleeping, clinging to the princess’s knees. The serpent instantly picked up the girl in his arms and flew out of the palace with her so quietly that the seven-headed serpent did not feel anything. And when I woke up, I immediately realized who had kidnapped the girl, and rushed after him. The serpent-builder saw that the seven-headed monster was catching up with his brother, and erected a tower. And everyone took refuge in that tower. A seven-headed snake flew up, moved its heads in rage, pulled three to the left, three to the right, and lifted the seventh, middle one, up and doused the tower with an angry flame. The sun disappeared, the darkness thickened, as if midnight had come. The seven-headed serpent crushed the tower into powder, picked up the girl and soared under the clouds. Then the fourth snake, a sharp shooter, pulled the bowstring, hit the seven-headed monster right in the heart, and the monster released the girl. The princess began to fall, and after her a seven-headed snake flew to the ground. Then the fifth brother rushed to the girl - the one who caught the lightning with his hand - and carefully, so as not to harm the princess, he picked her up, and the other brothers jumped up to the seven-headed snake, and before he could reach the ground, the brothers blew off all seven of his heads.
So five snakes rescued the king's daughter from captivity. The snakes are happy that they saved such a beauty, but they immediately quarreled because they could not decide whose she would be.
A slave intervened in their quarrel, who went in search of the princess, and said:
- Brothers, this girl belongs to me! You know that I must take her to her father, and then he will have mercy on me. If I had not gone in search of the princess, you would not have found her, because you would not have known anything about her.
One snake says:
- This girl is mine! If I had not picked up her trail, you would never have taken possession of the princess, and you, slave, would have looked for her in vain!
The second serpent says:
- This girl is mine! If I had not stolen her, you would never have taken possession of the princess, and the slave would have looked for her in vain, and you, dear brother, would have been in vain on her trail.
The third serpent says:
- This girl is mine! If I hadn’t built a tower in an instant and hidden you in it together with the princess, the seven-headed serpent would have caught up with my brother and taken the beauty away, and then the slave would have searched for her in vain, my younger brother would have followed the trail in vain, and the second brother should not have kidnapped the princess.
The fourth serpent says:
- This girl is mine! If I had not hit the seven-headed serpent, he would have carried away the princess, and in vain would the slave have searched for her, in vain did my younger brother follow the trail, the second brother should not have kidnapped the princess, and the third should not have built a tower.
The fifth serpent says:
- This girl is mine! If I had not caught her when she was falling to the ground, she would have fallen to death, and you still would not have taken possession of her, and, therefore, the slave would have searched for her in vain, the younger brother should have followed the trail in vain, the elder brother should not have kidnapped the princess, the third should not have built the tower, and the fourth should not have aimed at the snake.
So the brothers bickered over the girl until they met Vetrov’s mother and asked her to judge who should own the princess.
Mother Vetrov listened to the brothers and asked:
- Tell me, what did the mother of the clear Moon advise you?
The brothers admitted that they did not go to the mother of the clear month. Then the mother of the Winds tells them:
- Go to the mother of the Moon, she will judge you better, because her son has almost walked around the whole world.
The brothers went with the girl to the mother of the Month. They didn’t say hello properly, but they started shouting from the doorway:
“The Mother of the Winds sent us so that you could decide which of us this girl belongs to!” “And they told her how they saved the princess and why everyone considers the girl theirs.”
The mother of the month asks them:
—Have you been to the Mother of the Sun?
The brothers replied that Mother Sun had not yet visited them. Then the mother of the Moon tells them:
- Go, my children, to the mother of the Sun, she will judge you better than anyone, because her son has walked around the whole wide world.
The brothers set off on their way to the mother of the Sun. They didn’t really say hello, but they started shouting from the doorway:
“The Mother of the Moon sent us to you so that you could decide who this girl belongs to.”
And the brothers told why they had an argument.
Mother Sun asks:
- Do you children have your own mother?
The brothers answered that there was. Then the mother of the Sun sent them home and said these words:
- Go, my children, to your own mother. A birth mother is the fairest judge of her children. So your mother, better than anyone, will sort you out and decide who should own the girl.
The brothers went home and told their mother where they had been, what feats they had accomplished, and to whom they had gone for advice. They also told about how the mother of the Sun sent them home to their own mother so that she could decide who the girl should belong to.
The mother says to them:
“Listen, my children, to what your own mother will tell you.” You are my sons, and let the princess be my daughter. You are brothers, and let her be your sister.
And the brothers agreed with her decision.
So six brothers and their sister stand in heaven. These are seven bright stars in the constellation Stozhary. Every year they go around the mother of the Winds, the mother of the Moon and the mother of the Sun and thank them for their advice. There are times when they travel from Djurdzheva to Vidovdan, and at this time you cannot see them in the sky.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru