In one churchyard behind Kandalaksha there lived a fleet-footed girl. Many young people wooed her, but she always ran away into the forest.
In Lovozero lived the same fleet-footed young runner. He heard about the fleet-footed one and decided to catch up with her and marry her.
But the fleet-footed one managed to escape from the churchyard into the mountains. The groom went there too.
The girl was sure that no one would catch up with her, and, running into the forest, she responded to every call. Swift-footed called the girl, and she answered every time, but ran away.
They ran like this through the forest for a long time.
The young man saw that it was not easy for him to catch up with the fleet-footed one, and he decided to drive her up a high mountain and catch her there. The Sami young man did not run straight up the mountain, but simply did not let the girl run away to the side and drove her higher and higher to the top. The girl reached the top and, fearing that she would be grabbed, jumped up.
Swift-footed was already exhausted and did not notice how the girl jumped up. I saw only the empty peak and, exhausted, fell like a dying deer.
Immediately a swift-footed creature descended to the ground and saw that the man was dying. Her fear went away. She felt sorry for this man. She leaned over the dying man and asked:
- What do you want from me?
- Drink! - said the young man and died.
There was no water at the top of the mountain. The girl wanted to save the young man, and to quench his thirst, she gave him her breast.
But it was too late.
Milk flowed from her breasts, the wind blew it across the sky, the girl turned into stone, and the milk into silver. That's why they called the petrified girl the silver maiden.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru