Once upon a time, there lived an old blacksmith in a mountain village. And he had a son named Sulemen. He grew by leaps and bounds and soon became so strong that none of his peers could defeat him. If Sulemen happened to fight with them, he always remained the winner.
And rumors about Sulemen spread throughout the village: “He is the strongest, most courageous man!” One day, a horseman rode up to the blacksmith’s house, which stood on the outskirts of the village.
- Hey, who's alive here? Help me get off my horse! - he shouted.
The old blacksmith was at home alone at that time. He came out to hear the cry, and just froze... He sees: a dwarf sitting astride a rooster - he is as tall as an inch, and his beard stretches for a mile. The old man took the dwarf off the rooster, and the dwarf pulled out a hair from his beard and tied the old man’s hands and feet with it. Then he entered the house, ate the dinner prepared for the whole family, took all the food supplies from the pantry and rushed off on a rooster.
Since then, the dwarf on a rooster has become a frequent visitor to the village: either he will take away the ram, or he will grab the chicken, or he will carry away the bread. And sometimes people are carried away somewhere... He left him completely dead. And the strength of the dwarf, as the people said, is all in his beard. Fellow villagers came to Sulemen and asked:
– You, the strongest and most courageous, protect us from the villain!
Sulemen thought and said to his father:
“Make me a sword, so sharp and heavy that it can cut iron with one swing.” I want to test my strength and fight a bearded dwarf.
The father forged a sword from all the iron he had. Sulemen hit the anvil with his sword, and the sword shattered into pieces.
“No,” said Sulemen, “such a sword is not good for me!” Then the Aul residents collected all the iron that they had, and the old blacksmith forged a miracle sword for his son.
Sulemen took the sword in his hands and hit the anvil with it. The anvil split into two halves.
- This sword will suit me! - he exclaimed. - Well, now hold on, bearded dwarf!
As soon as Sulemen said this, he heard some noise on the street. He looked out the window of the forge and saw: a bearded dwarf on a rooster rode up to the neighboring house.
- Hey, who's there? Come out and live! Welcome the guest! - the dwarf shouted.
But there was no answer. Everyone in the house hid. Nobody comes out. Then the dwarf got off the rooster and stamped his foot. The door opened on its own and the dwarf entered the house.
Sulemen took the sword, quietly crept up to the porch, grabbed the rooster by the tail and raised the sword over him. And the rooster says to him in a human voice:
– Don’t destroy me, good man! Let go! I'll still be useful to you!..
Sulemen was amazed.
“Some miracles!..” he thought.
- Okay, live! - he said to the rooster and let him go.
And he immediately disappeared. And in Sulemen’s hand the feather from the rooster’s tail remained. He hid it in his pocket, turned around, and a bearded dwarf was standing in the doorway.
Sulemen contrived and caught the dwarf by the beard. And she slipped out of her hands, flew up and hit Sulemen so hard that he fell, hitting his head on the ground. The dwarf laughed and curled up into a ball.
The ball rolled along the street, and Sulemen followed after it. It seems that the dwarf is already very close, Sulemen is about to catch up with him! But the dust swirls in front of Sulemen and blinds his eyes. Sulemen falls. And the dwarf laughs and rushes forward.
The ball rolled to the end of the street and suddenly fell into a hole, only the dwarf's beard still lay on the ground. Sulemen ran up to the pit, grabbed his beard, and it slipped out and disappeared. Only one hair remained in Sulemen's hands. Sulemen looked into the hole where the dwarf had fallen, and it was dark there.
He rushed after the dwarf, jumped into the hole and found himself in a dungeon.
"What to do?! Where should I go? - thinks Sulemen. Suddenly he sees a rooster rushing towards him. Runs up and says in a human voice:
- Listen to me: now two rams, black and white, will come here and start fighting. Try to grab the white ram by the horns and sit on it. If this succeeds, the white ram will carry you up to the ground. But if you sit on a black ram, it will take you to the underground kingdom of an evil wizard - a dwarf with a beard.
He said and disappeared. And now two rams appeared from both sides - black and white - and began to fight.
Sulemen wanted to grab the white ram by the horns, but missed, grabbed the black one and doesn’t remember how he ended up on his back.
And the black ram carried him deep underground, to the kingdom of the evil dwarf. He threw it to the ground and disappeared.
Sulemen looks: in front of him is a luxurious garden and a narrow path stretches between the bushes, and a dwarf runs along it, his beard curls behind him like a snake.
Sulemen rushed after him, and the dwarf ran away from him, and faster, faster... He reached a large lake and dived into the water.
“What should I do?” thinks Sulemen. “How to lure the evil dwarf out of the lake?” He looked around and saw: not far from the lake there was a large village.
“I’ll go to this village,” Sulemen decided. “I’ll find out who lives here, and I’ll ask about the villainous dwarf, and then to the lake. I’ll sit on the shore and lie in wait: as soon as the villain comes out of the water, we’ll fight...” Sulemen noticed that smoke was rising from the chimney of the outermost house. He came closer, knocked on the door and entered this house.
An old woman sat by the fireplace and wept bitterly.
- Long life to you, mother! – Sulemen greeted her from the threshold.
- Hello, son, come in, be a guest.
- Thank you, mother! I'm starving. Do you have anything to eat? – asked Sulemen.
“I would love to feed you, son, but I can only give you this flatbread - I don’t know if you will eat it: it is half and half with straw and mixed with dirty water,” said the old woman, giving the flatbread and continuing to cry bitterly.
- Tell me, mother, why do you keep crying? And why do you eat bread half and half with straw, and take only dirty water when there is a clean lake nearby? – Sulemen asked in surprise.
- Uh... uh... son, if only you knew how the villainous dwarf mocks us! We work for him day and night, and bake bread half and half with straw. We take water from a dirty pit. He gives a jug of clean water from the lake only if we give him a young girl. He has already taken almost all the girls from the people of our village, keeps them in his underwater kingdom and forces them to wash and comb his beard, which has no end in sight. I kept hiding my daughter. But recently the villain saw her and demands that I bring her. And if I disobey, he will drown me and my daughter in the lake. So I cry day and night and don’t know what to do!.. - the old woman said, sobbing.
- Calm down, mother, don’t cry, don’t worry! Don't take your daughter anywhere. I will deal with this villain! - said Sulemen and went to the lake.
He came close and saw: a bird of unprecedented beauty sitting on the shore with a heavy chain around its neck. The end of the chain went into the lake. The bird lowered its wings and hung its head.
- Why are you on a chain? Who tied you up? – asked Sulemen.
“It’s all the bearded dwarf’s fault,” answered the bird. – I was a girl, I lived in a village above, I saw the sun. The dwarf kidnapped me from my parents, forced me to wash and scratch his beard, but I refused... So he turned me into a bird and keeps me here on a chain.
Sulemen came closer, he wanted to break the chain, and the bird would beat its wings.
“Don’t touch the chain!..” she whispers. - Your hand will stick to the iron, the chain will drag you into the lake!..
Sulemen obeyed, did not touch the chain with his hands, but pulled out his sword and hit it. The chain broke into a thousand pieces and fell into the water. The miracle bird flapped its wings and rose above the lake.
- Ah!.. What have you done, good man! You saved me, but you yourself will die! Run away from here quickly!
As soon as she said this, the water in the lake became cloudy, began to boil, and began to surge in waves... One-eyed monsters appeared from the water...
“Wow... wow!..” exclaimed Sulemen. - There are a lot of them! A whole horde!..
Suddenly he hears a quiet voice:
- Don't be afraid, Sulemen! You have a hair from the dwarf's beard. Throw it at the one-eyed monsters!..
Sulemen looked around - no one was around... He put his hand in his pocket, and there was a feather from a rooster’s tail and a hair from a dwarf’s beard.
Sulemen let the monsters get closer and threw a hair from the dwarf’s beard into the lake. At that same moment, all the monsters disappeared into the depths of the lake, only the circles on the water remained.
Before Sulemen had time to catch his breath, the lake began to seethe again, became agitated, and the long-bearded dwarf himself appeared from the water. He rose above Sulemen, his beard curled in the air, trying to catch Sulemen. Sulemen gathered his strength, grabbed the dwarf by the beard with his left hand and pulled him to the ground, and with his right waved his sword and cut off his beard. Then the dwarf spun like a top and crumbled into dust...
As soon as Sulemen sheathed his sword, the wide wings of a bird rustled. Sulemen sees: the miracle bird he saved is flying towards him. She hit the ground and turned into a beautiful girl.
“Thank you, kind man,” said the girl, “you freed me from the spell of the evil dwarf.” Now I am a man again!..
Sulemen looked, and the villagers were already running towards them from all sides... People rushed to the lake and began to greedily drink clean water.
Then they surrounded Sulemen and thanked him.
“We will always remember the good you did for us!” they said. “You saved us from the villainous dwarf!” We worked day and night for him - extracted gold, silver, precious stones from the depths of the earth... He took everything for himself... And he starved us. Didn't give water. You saved us! Now we are free! Stay live with us.
– Thank you, good people! “I’m glad I helped you,” Sulemen answered. “But I can’t live without high mountains, without a blue sky, without the sun.” I have to go home!.. But how can I get out of here?..
He had just uttered these words when he heard a whisper:
- Throw my feather into the lake!
Sulemen took a rooster feather out of his pocket and threw it into the lake... And immediately a rooster appeared. He flapped his wings and turned into a black horse...
And the horse suddenly spoke in a human voice:
- You are a kind person, Sulemen! He saved me from the spell of the evil dwarf!.. He regretted not killing me when, by the will of this villain, I was a rooster. Thank you!.. I took an oath to serve you faithfully all my life. And now I’ll help you get out of here... Sit on me and hold on to the reins tighter!..
Sulemen said goodbye to the inhabitants of the underground village. He jumped on his horse, gave his hand to the girl, and together they rushed back...
They rushed for a long time... Finally they found themselves in front of an iron gate, on which hung such a huge lock that neither a key could open it nor cut it with a sword...
- What should we do now! – the girl exclaimed. “After all, this lock was only opened by a dwarf!”
- Don't be sad! – the horse spoke again in a human voice. “The spell has lifted from me, but the magical power still remains in me.”
The horse hit the gate three times with its hoof, and it opened. Above their heads, the riders saw a blue sky and a bright sun!
The horse rose up, carried them to the surface of the earth, and they rushed off again...
Some time passed, and Sulemen and the beautiful girl drove up to his home.
The old blacksmith, Sulemen's father, seeing his son alive and unharmed, and even with a beautiful girl, was so happy that he did not know where to seat them and what to treat them with. The horse was fed, caressed, and he stayed with them.
And the residents of the village, as soon as they learned about Sulemen’s return, ran to the old blacksmith. They cried with joy and hugged Sulemen. Soon Sulemen's wedding took place.
Just as we have never seen a bearded dwarf, let us never know misfortunes and misfortunes.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru