Once upon a time there lived in the tundra two comrades, two brothers-in-arms - the sun and the raven. They were strong and brave. And no one could say which of them was better. The fame of their prowess spread throughout the tundra.
Many times the sun heard from the wind that the North had a beautiful daughter, that many strong, brave people went to the North to look at the beauty, but no one had yet returned back.
The sun thought: “I am the strongest in the world, I turn ice into water, snowy deserts become blooming tundra from my rays, so won’t I melt the frosts that fenced off the North with my rays?”
The sun was dressed warmer: he was wearing double deer clothes, one with the fur on the outside, the other with the fur on the inside. He sat down on a reindeer sleigh and rushed to the North.
He's going, he's going. The further you drive, the colder it gets. On the road we began to come across deer and dog bones, and then human bones. The wind howls, the frost crackles, the earth cracks. The sun froze my toes and hands. The deer have suffocated from the frost, but the North’s home is still not visible. The sun decided to return home, and on the way back his nose froze.
One day the sun went into the tundra to collect firewood and met there his neighbor, a brave raven. Raven and his younger brother also came here to get firewood. The raven's younger brother saw the sun and asked:
-Who is this?
“This is the sun,” said the elder brother.
“Hey, noseless sun!” the kid laughed.
“Hush, hush, the sun will get angry, don’t laugh at it,” said the elder.
The sun heard the conversation and said:
- Don't laugh! I warm the whole earth, and then my nose and cheeks froze, what will happen to you if you end up where I was?
Then the elder raven asked:
- Where have you been, sun?
The sun told about the North, about the beauty, his daughter. Many young men died because of her, but no one has yet reached the beauty.
“So, this is not a fairy tale,” said the raven. He also heard about the North and his beautiful daughter, he heard that no one could get there. Raven asked:
-Where is the road to the North?
“Go to where the north wind comes from,” answered the Sun.
A raven rides home with firewood and thinks: “I am the one to whom nothing is forbidden on earth, I rise to enormous heights, I descend into the abyss of the sea, high mountains are accessible to me, the depths of the sea are accessible to me. Am I really not going to reach the North?”
The raven comes home and asks his wise old father:
- Tell me, father, how to reach the North?
“There is an eternal icy desert there, my son,” answers the old raven.
- It’s not true, the mighty North lives there with a beautiful daughter. For many years many strong people have been trying to see it, but no one can get there. Tell me, father, everything you know about the North; otherwise I won’t be able to sleep the whole night.
“Okay, my son, if you already know that this is not a fairy tale, listen to me: your grandfather died on the way to the North, like everyone who wanted to see the one you strive for.” To get there, you need different clothes. The clothes we are wearing are not suitable. Go to your own father - Takayutan, who lives at the bottom of the sea. He couldn’t keep you and gave you to me to raise when you were a baby. Takayutan will ask you who you are, answer him that Sokholylan. This is your real name. Takayutan will help you get to the North.
The raven sank to the bottom of the sea and knocked on Takayutana's yaranga. The owner of the deep sea heard the knocking and was surprised who dared to come to him at the bottom of the sea. He said to his daughter:
- Ask who is there. The daughter came out and asked:
- Who are you?
- I'm Sokholylan.
“Father,” said the daughter, “this is Sokholylan.”
“Let him come to me quickly,” said Takayutan. Sokholylan entered.
- It’s you, come, my son! I recognize you. Tell me, I'm listening
“Father,” said Sokholylan, “help me get to the North.”
- Yeah, you want to get to the North and take his daughter. Until now, no one has succeeded in doing this. I'll give you stone deer - you don't need to feed them, they won't freeze, and you'll ride on them without stopping. You can leave these deer anywhere - no one will take them. These will be simple stones; and most importantly, I’ll give you a seal. You will put on this seal when you hear the ringing of a tambourine. When you come to the North, don’t tell him who you are, call yourself his seal nephew. There will be a terrible snowstorm in the North’s yaranga, don’t pay attention to it and don’t say anything to the North about your daughter. Know: he does not like suitors. A large ice vessel will hang on the wall of the yaranga. In the evenings, the sons of the North hit this vessel with a stick, and it makes sounds pleasant to the ear. Take a blade of grass from the insole and hit the bottom of the vessel several times. It will crack. And then do as your mind tells you.
“Let me leave now, father,” said the raven and wanted to leave the yaranga. But Takayutan shouted:
- Wait, my son, I didn’t tell you everything. Don’t take your wife home right away, you won’t be able to do this. Come back alone first. And I’ll give you another piece of advice on how to bring your wife. Now try to get to the North and fulfill your first wish. Go!
The raven travels day and night without rest. The frost is getting stronger and stronger. The wind howls, the snowstorm blows, the earth cracks. The white bones of the grooms lie all around, and the raven continues to ride. My nose is already frozen, my cheeks, fingers and toes are frozen. I began to think about whether to go back, but I was ashamed and thought: “Then no one will say that there is nothing inaccessible to a raven.” I drove for a long time. But then I heard the barely perceptible sound of a tambourine. It seemed to him that it was ringing in his ears, but then the sounds of the tambourine became louder. With difficulty, he took the knife with frozen fingers, cut his clothes and put on the seal that the owner of the sea had given him. He immediately felt warm. The frost and wind rushed on and did not touch him.
North came out of his yaranga and noticed a moving point in the tundra. He sent the strongest winds there, he himself began to blow with all his strength, and the point kept moving and moving closer to the dwelling of the North.
- Look, wife, someone is coming to us. After all, before, as soon as I blew, everyone who walked here froze, but this one is moving. ‘Who could it be?
The youngest son of the North looked out and said:
- Yes, it’s a seal!
Then a raven approached in the form of a seal, threw the stone deer, and entered the yaranga.
“Hello, guest,” said Sever.
“Yeah,” answered the raven.
- Why did you come?
- So, stay for a while. My mother blizzard is your sister. She lives in the distant tundra. She sent me to see how her brother Sever was living, whether he was alive or well.
- Okay, sit down.
He sat on the white skins of crows. He sees: an ice vessel hanging on the wall, all transparent, but nothing is visible in it.
The brothers, the sons of the North, gathered in the evening, began to beat the vessel with sticks and dance to these sounds. Then we got tired and went to bed. The crow took the grass from the insole and began to slowly hit the bottom of the vessel. Suddenly the bottom fell off, and a girl of unprecedented beauty fell onto the raven’s chest. Raven thought: “It’s not for nothing that people strived for the North! That’s what wealth it hides!”
He hits the jar with weed as if he doesn’t notice anything. The youngest son of the North said to his father:
“Father, look, some woman fell from an ice vessel onto the seal’s chest!”
“Be quiet, be quiet,” said Sever, “you’re dreaming all this.”
Then Sever thought: “Perhaps the guest does not see my daughter,” and pretended to be asleep.
And the raven also pretended to be tired and falling asleep. Sever stood up, walked up to the raven, picked up his transparent, barely visible daughter from his chest and carried him to the next yaranga. After this, Sever fell into a deep sleep. There was silence all around.
Early in the morning, when everyone was still sleeping, the raven got up and went to the yaranga to the beauty, the daughter of the North. In the passage, he took off the seal and turned into a beautiful young man.
When he lifted the curtain and entered, the daughter of Severus was sitting on soft deer skins and waiting for him.
-Are you Sokholilan? she asked. - Yes, you were not mistaken.
- I was waiting for you, I knew you would come; I thought about you constantly, but I didn’t know what you were like. I'm tired of always sitting in an ice vessel or in this yaranga, where the sun's ray does not penetrate. My father doesn’t even let me out to look at the sun.
“It’s good that you didn’t see the sun,” the raven thought about his rival. Then he said:
-You are very beautiful. I have never seen girls like you. Tomorrow I'll go home. If you agree, then my stone deer will bring me here again, and I will then take you to my land.
- Come, come quickly! - said the girl. The raven put the seal back on and took on his previous appearance. Then he sat on the sledge and went hunting on his stone deer. Not far from Sever’s dwelling, in the mountains, he killed several wild deer and brought them to Sever in the evening:
- Here, uncle, is my gift to you. Tomorrow I'm going home. But I will come to you again soon. I know the way here now.
The North thought: “What should I do with him? If he came the first time, then he will come the second time!”
- Okay, nephew, come! - said North. The raven quickly rushed on the stone deer to the seashore. He quickly rushed through the tundra and mountains and found himself near the sea. He sent his reindeer into the depths of the sea and was soon at the bottom, at the dwelling of Takaitan. I knocked.
“Run quickly, open it, it’s my son Sokholylan who has returned from the North,” Takayutan said to his daughter. The raven came in. “They greeted each other.”
- Well, tell me, son, did you get to the North, did you see his daughter?
“I got there and saw his daughter.” She agrees to be my wife. “But I didn’t take it right away, as you told me,” the raven answered.
-Okay, everything is fine, my son. Now take herds of whales, walruses, bearded seals, sea lions, seals and drive them to the North. The water will go with the beast.
North is sitting in the canopy, drinking hot tea. Then the youngest son runs into the yaranga and shouts:
- Father, look, the water is coming at us like a wall! The North looked out of the yaranga and thought: “Hey, the water will flood the whole earth!” Then he shouted to his sons:
- Run to the highest mountain!
And they all ran to a high mountain; The North only forgot about his daughter in the ice vessel. The water flows like a wall, and behind it are herds of sea animals, raven. A raven jumped out onto the shore, ran into the yaranga and grabbed an ice vessel with a beauty, the daughter of the North.
- Hey, North, I fulfilled my promise, I’ve come to you. Why did you climb the mountain?
- Where is my daughter? - Sever asked his wife.
“They forgot it at home in an ice vessel,” said the old woman. The raven raised his hand up, and the water rolled back to its banks. And herds of whales, walruses, bearded seals, sea lions and seals remained lying on the shore. Sever with his wife and sons returned to their home. The raven holds the beauty tightly in his arms. He says to the North:
“I’m not a seal, but Sokholylan, the son of the owner of the seabed.” You've seen my strength now. But I’m not taking your daughter away by force. She wants it herself.
- Yes, father, I want to leave with the raven. I'm tired of sitting in an ice vessel, I want to see the world.
“I only ask,” said Sever, “when my daughter wants to return to me, don’t force her, let her go.”
“Okay,” said the raven, “I will fulfill your wish.” Now accept all these animals as a gift from me.
Raven pointed his hand to the North at the flocks of sea doors lying on the seashore.
The raven wrapped the daughter of the North in warm furs, placed her on his lap and rode home on the sea lions.
The sun heard that the raven had returned from the North, came to him and asked:
- They say you were with the North?
- Yes, I just returned from him.
-Have you seen the daughter of the North?
- Not only saw her, but also married her.
“Show it to me,” asked the sun.
“Well, look,” said the raven and opened the curtain. A girl of unprecedented beauty was sitting on deer skins. This was the daughter of the North. The daughter of the North saw the sun and said to the raven:
- Give it to me, because you and I are brothers. And you know the custom of our fathers that a friend’s wife can also be my wife.
- No, that won't happen! - the raven said firmly. The sun got angry and went overseas. Night has fallen on the tundra. A raven sleeps with his young wife, wakes up - sees darkness and sleeps again. But he’s tired of sleeping, and the day still doesn’t come. All the inhabitants of the tundra were afraid of the eternal night and went to the raven to ask not to anger the sun. The raven sent an ugly woman to the sun, but she returned and said:
“The sun doesn’t look at me, doesn’t talk to me.” Then the raven sent his sister, a beautiful girl, to the sun.
She comes to the sun and asks him:
- Come back to us, sun, bring us daylight. If you want, I will become your wife.
-No, let the raven give me the daughter of the North, then I will return to the tundra again.
- Am I worse than the daughter of the North? - said the beauty, the raven's sister.
- Fine. Although you are not so beautiful, I will marry you, but we will not return to the tundra. Let the raven know that one cannot offend a mighty friend, said the sun.
- How can I be happy away from my family? - said the beautiful girl.
- Fine. We will live here and a little in the tundra. Let the inhabitants of the tundra see me a little. But I will walk far from them. Let the raven remember this.
The daughter of the North saw that there was no sun nearby, that the inhabitants of the tundra were freezing and unhappy with the raven, and he was powerless to return the sun to the tundra. She laughed at the raven and went to her father Sever. And since then the sun has lived more overseas and sent only the coldest rays to the tundra.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru