There lived King Sun, and he had a son. The king raised his son locked up and hid him. The prince's son became eighteen years old, and the king released him. The king's son came out into the light of day, ran around all day, ran around the entire royal city. He ran to his father, to the king, and said:
- I want to get married. I will woo the merchant's daughter.
The king replied:
- No, I won’t take the merchant’s daughter for you. If you want to get married, I will go to King Wind, and I will marry his daughter to you.
The king was getting ready to go to King Wind. He took three hundred warriors with him and went. I went by steamer. He walked and walked and came to the camp of the Wind King. The royal camp is located on a cape, but on that cape there is not a tree or a blade of grass.
The king wrote a letter to King Wind and sent two soldiers to carry the letter. The soldiers left. We entered the house of the Wind King. But King Wind does not stand still in his house, does not sit, he runs around and around.
The soldiers put the letter on the table. King Wind read it. I wrote the answer. The soldiers carried the reply letter to the ship. The Sun King read it. The letter says this:
“If you defeat me, I will give my daughter for your son.”
King Sun read the letter, looked at the shore, and on the shore there were so many people coming down - the shore was black with people, like coal.
Approaching the ship, these people began to shoot at it. The king got scared and ran away. He escaped by steamboat. And his soldiers, who took three hundred with him, were killed by King Wind. Only thirty people remained.
The king came home. The son saw: “It must be my father who has returned.” He came down from the shore: “What kind of wife did my father bring me?”
And people from the city run to the ship, they want to see the prince’s wife.
The king came out to his son and said:
- I barely left. They almost killed me there. As soon as my breathing remained alive! Well, take the merchant’s daughter as your wife, as you asked.
And the son answers:
- No! Now I’ll go and woo King Wind myself!
He called the doctor and ordered:
- Make me a steamboat. The kind of ship that could carry me both by water and by land.
The doctor has gone. A little time passed, and I made such a ship. Glass steamer.
The prince took three soldiers with him onto the ship and set off. This is how the steamer goes - both land and water - it goes everywhere.
The prince is coming, he's going. Suddenly he says:
- Alien hero, where are you?
And then it was as if a small cloud obscured the sun.
This Alien hero has come.
This is what the Alien hero said to the prince:
- What happened that you remembered me?
- Yes, I’m going to woo King Wind. Help me!
The prince took the Alien hero onto his ship. Let's move on.
The prince says again:
- Bear hero, where are you?
Immediately the sun darkened a little. It was as if half the sky was covered with a cloud. This is the Bear hero who has come.
This is what the Bear Bogatyr said to the prince:
- Why did you remember me, prince?
- Yes, I’m going to woo King Wind. Let's go together, you help me.
Let's go together. After some time the prince says:
- Earth-hero, where are you?
Immediately the sky became like night. The whole sky has darkened, the sun is not visible. This Earth-hero has come. He walks and sinks knee-deep into the ground, as if he is crawling with difficulty.
This is what he said to the prince:
- Why do you remember me?
- Yes, I’m going to the Wind-King to woo. Let's go together, you help me too. I'll put you on the ship.
Earth-hero said:
“I don’t think your ship can handle me.” Well, let's hit the road! I'll look at you.
The steamer started moving. The hero earth grabbed the stern of the steamer, and the steamer stood in place, unable to move.
This is what the Earth-hero said to the prince:
- You go! If you get into any trouble, I will come to you myself. Go!
Let's go. We drove up to the cape, where the King of the Wind had his camp. The Tsarevich wrote a letter to Tsar Vetr: let him send his daughter on the ship to him right away; if he doesn’t send, then he will destroy this camp of the Wind King without a trace.
They carried a letter to King Wind. Two people were carried. They entered the house of King Wind and gave the letter. Tsar Wind read the prince’s letter and replied:
"If you defeat me, then I will give you my daughter!"
The people brought the answer from King Wind to the prince. The prince read the letter. He looks: so many people are coming down from the shore - the shore is black as coal.
The prince ordered:
- Come on, Bear Hero, come out!
The bear hero came out. He defeated all these people.
Came back to the ship again. I started drinking tea. The prince looks, and two such people come down from the shore - their shoulder blades are seven arshins wide. They are going to the ship. The prince cried out:
- Alien hero, come on out!
The alien hero came out. I approached these people.
We met and started fighting with swords. The Alien Hero killed one of them. Suddenly another man hit the Alien hero with his sword so hard that his back fell off; killed him. The prince saw this and ordered:
- Bear hero, come out!
The Bear Bogatyr came out again. And the prince says:
- Earth-hero, where are you? Where did you go? The bear hero killed another man, and he himself went down to the ship. The prince looks, and again a man walks from the mountain to the ship. The bear hero went to meet him. This man killed the Bear Hero. Suddenly, the Hero Earth comes from somewhere. He walks as if he is crawling on his knees on the ground. His legs go knee-deep into the ground, he’s so heavy. The prince shouts to him:
- Come out quickly! Now these are going to kill me!
The Earth-hero approached. Killed that man. I went down to the ship. King Wind called his son and said:
- Both my blood and yours are all one. You come down instead of me. The prince destroyed so many of my people! Maybe you will defeat them, they won’t kill you.
The son of the King of the Wind descended. The Earth-hero came out to meet him.
The Earth-hero said:
- This is where we recognize each other!
They began to chop. They've been chopping for so long, they can't do it anymore, they don't have the strength. Earth-hero said:
“It’s better not to fight with weapons.” Let's try to fight with our hands.
The prince, the son of the king of the Wind, answered:
- Okay, I’ll just go up to the shore, dress lighter, then we’ll fight again!
The prince went ashore, took off his iron chain mail, and the Earth-hero went down to the steamer and began to drink tea.
A little later they met again. The prince descended from the shore, and the Earth-hero rose a little towards him. This is what he said:
- Well, now let's measure our strength!
They grabbed hold. They fought and fought. But the Earth-hero defeated Prince Wind.
Prince Sun again writes a letter to King Wind:
“Send us your two daughters now! If you don’t send us, we’ll kill you.”
They took the letter to the cape to King Wind. They gave it away.
King Wind read it and said to his daughters:
- Well, go!
His daughters went down to the ship. The prince took the youngest of them for himself, and gave the eldest to the Earth-hero as his wife. We got ready to go back. The land-hero got ready to go on foot. The prince tells him:
“If I ever get into trouble again, you help me again.”
The Earth-hero has left. He put his wife on his shoulders and carried her. The prince went to his house. Spent the night at home. In the morning I woke up and got up. His doctor came and said:
- How did you find your wife? I know that the Alien Hero helped you. I know that the Bear Bogatyr also helped you. I know that these two were killed, only the Earth-hero remained. Well, now let's go to the house of the Sun King. Whichever of us is wiser, you or me, will get there!
The prince said:
- Well, let's go!
The doctor left. The prince said to his wife:
“So I bet with the doctor which of us would go to the house of the Sun King.” How will I get there?
His wife says:
- Yes! Your doctor is wise, he has already gone to the house of the Sun King.
She gave her husband, the prince, a white handkerchief.
- Climb up onto the roof of the house, put a handkerchief on the bed and sit on it yourself. This handkerchief will get you lucky.
The prince climbed to the top of the house, sat on a scarf and took off.
He flew and flew and sat down on the top of the house of the Sun King. He took the handkerchief and put it in his pocket. He stood up and shouted:
- Earth-hero, where are you?
It immediately became dark. He sees the Earth-hero coming. His wife is lying on his shoulder. He came and asked:
- Why are you remembering me again?
- Well, I argued with the doctor which of us would reach the house of the Sun King. I just came, but I don’t know how to enter the house. And he, the doctor, whether he came in or not, I don’t know.
Earth-hero answers:
- Well, he is so wise, he has been sitting inside the house of the Sun King for a long time.
I thought and said:
-And you sit on top of the house of the Sun King. I'll take his house!
He picked up the house of the Sun King in the palm of his hand and took it away. He brought him there to the city where the house of the Prince of the Sun stands. The prince went to his house and spent the night.
In the morning, King Sun got up and went out of his house into the street. What's happened? What kind of land is this around?
Says:
- I’ve never seen this land before!
And the doctor also went out into the street and ran away.
King Sun became sad and said:
“Someone took me away myself.” How can I bring my people to me? You need to go now.
Earth the hero came out and said:
- Come on, try it, go away, I’ll look at you!
King Sun got ready to go. He went out into the street, into the middle. He began to rise upward. All the people gathered to look at him. King Sun moved his hands a little - his hands became wings. Now he flaps his wings and flies away. Then the Earth-hero hit the wings with his hand - the feathers all fell off. The sun king cannot fly. So he shouted:
“I still have a horse at home.” Tied up in the royal stables. Bring it to me!
His son, the prince, got ready to go. He took a three-pound hammer and took a fathom-long pair of tongs. His wife gave him a bottle of water and said:
“If a horse threatens you and rushes at you, you spray water from this bottle in its face.”
The prince sat down on a white handkerchief, stood up, and flew away. He flew to the city of the Sun King. Asks:
-Where is the horse of the Sun King? Show me!
And people answer him:
- You better not go to him. You can't take him, he'll eat you!
The prince laughs:
- No! It won't eat me!
Came to the stables. He sees a horse there tied to a steel post with an iron chain. Seeing the prince, the horse neighed and galloped so hard that it broke the chain.
The prince splashed water from a bottle into his face. And the horse opens its mouth, about to eat the prince. The prince grabbed the pincers and covered the horse's mouth.
He jumped on his horse and hit him with a hammer. He hits so hard that the horse neighs loudly:
- Oh, leave me, prince! From now on I won't rage!
The prince brought a horse to his city. Earth-hero stuck a steel pole into the ground. He wrapped a chain around the horse's muzzle and hanged the horse. The Earth-hero says to King Sun:
- Well, look at your horse!
King Sun went out into the street, saw his horse on a pillar, and tears flowed from his eyes as if raindrops were falling. The next morning the prince and his people got up and looked, but the horse on the post was gone. Immediately the news came that in the lower half of the city people began to disappear.
The prince called the doctor and said:
- Go find out what it is?
He gave him a three-pound hammer and a fathom-long sharp tongs. The doctor left. The doctor went to the river and stood in the dugout at the entrance, keeping watch. Suddenly he sees a horse come out of the water and go into the dugout. The doctor wanted to hit him with a hammer, but the hammer fell from his hands to the side. His horse knocked him out and almost killed the doctor. The doctor jumped out through the window. He ran back to the prince. Says:
“Well, your horse almost killed me.” I can barely breathe!
The prince replied:
- Okay, I'll go myself.
Let's go. He sat down in the entryway of the dugout and laid out a white handkerchief. Sitting. Suddenly the horse comes out of the water and goes into the dugout. The prince hit him in the middle of the forehead with a hammer - the hammer bounced to the side. He pinched his muzzle with tongs and flew up on a scarf. The horse circles around him. The prince shouted:
- Hey! Earth-hero, where are you?
The Earth-hero has arrived.
- What happened to you?
“Now he’s going to kill me.” I have no strength.
The earth-bogatyr grabbed the horse and hit him with his fist. The horse's mouth was torn in two. The horse fell. The Earth-hero dragged him to a steel post, pierced his throat, and hung him on a chain. He tied it to the post twice with a chain. So I hung it.
The prince in the city of the Sun King himself became a king. They began to live. This will be the end of the fairy tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru