One man's wife died and left little orphans - two brothers and one sister. The widower grieved and grieved, but the house needed a mistress, the little children needed a mother, so he married a second time.
One day the brothers ran out into the yard to play.
“You will be the horse,” says the elder, “and I will be the coachman.” You shout “i-go-go”, and I will chase you. "But-oh, Sivka, but-but!"
“No, guys,” the stepmother tells them, “you’d better play gray wolves.” Get on all fours and shout “oooh”.
The stepchildren listened to their stepmother, got down on all fours, and howled like a wolf. And the father, looking at his sons, is not overjoyed.
- Look how our kids are frolicking! - he says to his wife. And she clapped her hands and said:
- So let them turn into wolves, let them prowl through dense forests, through flammable sands, through loose ravines!
Before she had time to say anything, both brothers turned into wolves and ran towards the forest.
The sister jumped out onto the porch behind them, crying, freaking out, wringing her hands, calling her dear brothers.
Only then did father and daughter understand what kind of stepmother he had brought into the house: she was not a woman of God, but an evil witch - laume.
This is what the father says to his daughter:
- Take care of all the housework, Marite, and please your stepmother as best you can. Perhaps she will have mercy and return my sons to human form.
The stepdaughter got up before everyone else in the house, and went to bed later than everyone else. The work in her hands was a success: she spun more finely than anyone else, and weaved faster than everyone else, and if she took up any handicraft, the whole village came running to see it. But everything was not enough for the stepmother.
“You’ve grown up completely, girl,” she said to her stepdaughter. “You can’t sit on your father’s bread forever, it’s time for you to prepare your dowry!”
Marita listened to her stepmother, wove herself a piece of linen, sewed a shirt, a sheet, draped it and, as usual, began to embroider towels. Yes, they turned out so beautiful that she couldn’t take her eyes off them. She embroidered everything on them: how they lived well with their father and mother, and how mother died, and their father brought an evil stepmother-laume into their house, and how the brothers ran out into the yard to play, and their stepmother turned them into wolves, and how she herself, Marite, stood on the porch and broke her hands. The stepmother saw these towels and didn’t say anything, but only harbored even more anger towards Marita in her soul. She waited until her husband took her grain to the mill, grabbed her stepdaughter’s towels and threw them out the door.
Go get your towels too! - shouts.
And she pushed Marite out into the street, and bolted the door behind her.
Marita tied her towels into a bundle and walked along the road, bursting into tears. She turned towards the forest. She walked through the forest for three days and saw something burning in the distance, as if a fire were burning. And this was the house of the Sun, here it came down to rest in the evening.
Marita knocked on Sunny’s window. The Sun let her into the house and asked her affectionately:
-What are you crying about, beauty? The girl told Sunny how the evil stepmother laume of her brothers turned her into wolves, and she burst into even more tears.
“Sunny, red Sun, have you seen my dear brothers?” - asks.
“Stay with me until the evening,” said the Sun, “in the evening I will gather to myself all my rays that have scattered throughout the world during the day, and I will ask them if they have seen your brothers.”
She lit the stove for Marita, baked for Sunny and cooked all sorts of food, and set the table full of dishes.
It got dark outside the window, and its rays began to gather towards the Sun to rest. The hosts and their guest sat down at the table, and when everyone had eaten, the Sun asked his rays:
—Have you met the Marite brothers, whom the evil stepmother Laume turned into wolves?
“No,” the rays answer, “we only wandered around the world during the day, and wolves prowl more at night.” Ask the Moon, girl, maybe he knows something about your brothers.
She asked Marita the way to the Month, said goodbye to the owners, and when she looked back from the threshold, she saw that Solnyshka’s room had remained unswept after dinner. She took up the broom, swept the floor thoroughly, collected the rubbish and was about to throw it into the stove.
“Stop, beauty,” says Sunny, “don’t throw away the rubbish, but tie it in a corner of the towel, maybe it will come in handy for you.”
Marita listened to his advice, tied the dirty linen in a bundle of towels and hit the road.
She was walking through the forest and saw that ahead of her something was turning silver and blue, just like a block of ice shining. And this was Mesyatsev’s house, here he went down to rest in the morning.
Marita knocked on the Moon’s window, and she stood there, bursting into tears. She feels sorry for her brothers, she wants to find them as soon as possible.
The Moon let her into the house and asked tenderly:
-What are you crying about, beauty? The girl told him about her brothers, how their evil stepmother laume turned them into wolves.
- Moon, Clear Moon, have you seen my dear brothers? - asks.
“Spend the night with me,” says the Month, “and in the morning I will gather to myself all my rays that wander around the world all night, and I will ask them if they have seen your brothers.”
She lit the stove for Marita, baked and cooked all sorts of food for the Moon, set the table full of food, went to bed, but couldn’t sleep - she was still waiting for the rays of the Moon. To dispel the melancholy, she undertook to wash the clothes for the Month. Her underwear turned out to be white as boiling water. She stretched the rope in the yard and hung out the laundry. And then the windows began to brighten, its rays began to gather for rest for the Moon.
The hosts and their guest sat down at the table and ate.
“Have you seen the Marite brothers, whom the evil stepmother laume turned into wolves?” - the Moon asks its rays.
“We saw,” the rays answered, “they made a lair for themselves on the Glass Mountain, but an ordinary person is not able to climb this mountain.”
Marita asked the rays of the Moon for directions to the Glass Mountain, said goodbye to the owners, went out into the yard, and saw that the clothes she had washed had already dried on the line. She began to take it off, then untied the rope from the posts, rolled it into a rope, and wants to hang it on a hook in the kitchen.
“Stop, beauty,” says the Month, “don’t hang the rope on the hook, it’s better to take it with you, maybe it will come in handy for you.”
She listened to Marita Mesyatsa, took the rope with her and set off on her journey. She walked and walked through dense forests, flammable sands, and loose ravines, and lost count of the days and nights that she spent on the way. I was tired, exhausted, and barely made it to the Glass Mountain.
She set foot on the Glass Mountain. But this mountain is steep and slippery, there is no way to climb it. It is all naked, only a dry pine tree sticks out at the very top.
“What should we do?” - thinks Marite. And at this time the Sun came out from behind the clouds and looked straight into her face. She remembered the dirty laundry that Sunny told her to tie in a corner of the towel. She began to sprinkle this rubbish in front of her, her feet no longer slipped - and that’s how she got to half of the Glass Mountain. And then the night had already fallen, it was dark all around, and Marite had only walked halfway.
Further on, the mountain is even steeper, even steeper, and Marite’s trash is already out.
“What should I do next?” the poor thing thinks.
And then the Moon came out from behind the clouds and looked her straight in the face. It was then that Marite remembered about the rope that the Moon told her to take with her.
She made a loop out of a rope, swung it with all her might and threw it over a withered pine tree that grew on Glass Mountain. So she walked along the rope to the very top. And at the top the entrance to the cave turns black. Marite entered the cave, and in the cave there was a staircase leading down. Marite went down these stairs, went down, counted a thousand steps and lost count. The stairs led her to a rich mansion. The girl looks - this is either a human dwelling or an animal lair.
In the middle of the mansion there is a rich table, two beds against the walls, but the beds are not covered with blankets, but with forest moss, and gnawed bones lie around them. Marita guessed that this was the home of her brothers.
“What if my brothers don’t recognize me,” the poor thing thinks, “and they will bite me to death? Let me hang my towels on the walls here. If their brothers recognize them, that means they are still human, but if they don’t recognize them, it means they have indeed turned into wild animals.”
Marita hung her towels on the walls, and hid in the stove and waited.
In the morning the wolves returned to their lair, saw towels on the walls and said to one another:
- Look, brother, it’s me and my father, my dear mother and my sister who live happily.
“And it was my father who brought the evil laume stepmother to our house.”
“And she turned us into gray wolves.”
- And this is sister Marite on the porch crying, wringing her hands... Sister Marite, where are you, darling?
- I'm here! - Marite responded and crawled out of the stove.
The brothers told her that the evil laume cast such a spell on them: if anyone wants to disenchant them so that they turn into people again, that person must pick nettles, spin yarn from the nettles, weave sackcloth from that yarn, sew shirts from that sackcloth and put those shirts on the wolves - then they will turn into people again. Until they turn into people, this person must remain silent, words cannot even be uttered to him, “yes” and “no” cannot be said.
And pick nettles, and spin, and weave, and sew - he must do all this in silence.
- But who will take on such torment to save us! - said the younger brother and began to cry.
“I wouldn’t take on such torment if only I could save you, dear brothers,” answered Marite. “Today we’ll talk enough, and tomorrow I’ll become silent.”
The next day Marita picked nettles and began to spin nettle yarn. Her hands are covered with white blisters, but she is silent, she does not utter a word.
Then Marite wove sackcloth from the yarn and began sewing shirts for her brothers from this sackcloth. And he spins, and weaves, and sews - all this in silence.
And at this time, a brave young hunter was hunting in the forest near the Glass Mountain. He looked at the mountain and saw that smoke was curling over the mountain, which meant that someone lived here.
The hunter decided to climb the mountain to see who settled on it. He tied his horse at the foot of the mountain, looked - a path winds along the mountainside, strewn with rubbish so that his feet would not slip along it, and then a rope hangs, tied to a dry pine tree.
It took a long time or a short time for the hunter to climb the mountain, but finally he got to the very top, found a cave and went down the stairs to the wolves’ dwelling. Only now it didn’t even look like an animal’s lair, so Marite cleaned it up and decorated it.
The hunter entered the mansion and gasped: a beauty, such as he had never seen before, was sitting in this mansion by the window, sewing something.
-Who are you, beauty? - asks the hunter, and the girl is silent.
-Can't you talk to me or don't want to? - asks the hunter, and the girl doesn’t answer half a word.
“My mother looked everywhere for a bride for me,” says the hunter, “but as soon as she sees you, she won’t look for others.” And he himself comes closer to Marita. “Do you want to go with me to my mother?” Just say “no,” and I’ll leave immediately, leave you alone,” says the hunter.
And the girl doesn’t say “no” or “yes” in response.
“Ah, if so!” said the hunter, grabbed the girl in his arms and carried her out of the cave into the world.
He descended with his precious burden from the Glass Mountain, put the girl on a horse and took her with him. And he did not see that two gray wolves jumped out onto the road after him and spied where he had rushed off their sister.
It was bitter for the young hunter that his bride had not said a word to him all day, but he did not have to suffer for long.
By evening I sewed a second shirt for Marita. The hunter sees that his beauty came out onto the porch, and two gray wolves came running under this very porch. Before the owner had time to remove the gun from the nail, the beauty threw his shirt over the wolves, and the wolves turned into stately, tall guys. Then the bride spoke and told the hunter everything - about the laume stepmother, and about her witchcraft, and about the spell that she cast on the Marite brothers.
Only Marite didn’t know that her stepmother’s spell had not ended yet. When the girl sewed shirts for her brothers, she still had some sackcloth left, and this remainder could not be measured or hung, otherwise Marite’s brothers would turn into wolves again.
The happy bride knew none of this. All day long she sang songs and helped her mother-in-law prepare for the wedding. She and her groom decided to send a messenger to invite Father Marita to the wedding.
When the wicked laume stepmother found out about the good fortune that her stepdaughter and stepsons had, she decided to take her stand and turn the boys into wolves again. She dressed up as a gypsy, wrapped the kitten in rags and rocked it in her arms like a child.
The evil laume came up to her stepdaughter’s window and tenderly asked:
- Beautiful, beautiful, you will be rich, you will be happy!.. Maybe you have a bad sackcloth in your house? Measure me just four spans, my granddaughter for diapers... Do not regret on such a day!
And he thinks to himself: now he will cut off a piece, and the brothers will turn into wolves again. But Marita has never been stingy.
- Why should I measure out four spans for you? - he says. “You’re wearing all the sackcloth that I have left!” “And she threw sackcloth at the gypsy’s window.”
So Marite’s kindness saved the brothers from the evil witch. Soon they had a merry wedding between Marita and the hunter. A hundred guests were invited, a hundred geese were cooked, a hundred pies were baked. If they gave me such a wedding, I would even get married today!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru