Once upon a time there lived a poor man and his wife. They had only one child, a boy. One day they decided to pick flowers and went into the forest, taking the child with them. While they were collecting flowers, they left the child on a goat skin under a tree that was illuminated by the sun. They thought that they would easily find him later.
They wandered through the forest as much as they wanted, picking flowers as much as they wanted, and then they remembered about their child, left under a tree that was illuminated by the sun, they began to look for this tree - but is only one tree illuminated by the sun? They wandered and wandered through the forest - they never found their child.
Meanwhile, the giant went hunting and noticed a crying child under a tree on a goat skin. The giant examined the child and, seeing that it was a boy, was delighted.
“My wife didn’t have a son,” he said. “Now I’ve found a boy for her!”
He brought it home and said to his wife:
“You wanted to have a son, so I found a boy for you!”
“Okay,” said the wife and began to care for the child.
The giant hunted, killed deer and fed his son deer bone marrow. Days passed, the boy grew up. When the giant went hunting, he was bored.
One day the giant's wife asks him:
- Why are you bored, boy?
- How can I not be boring? - he answers. “He leaves and leaves me at home.” I want him to take me with him to have fun at least once.
The giant returned from another hunt, and the next morning his wife said to him:
“You’re going hunting again, take the boy with you at least once.” Without you, he dies here of melancholy.
“Okay,” the giant answers. “If he wants it that way, I’ll take him with me.”
And he took the boy hunting with him. On the way he asks him:
- Do you see something white there? This is a river. Look there! The giant pulled out a young tree and threw it, but the tree did not reach the near bank of the river.
- Can I throw too? - the boy asks the giant.
“Try it,” the giant answers.
The boy pulled out a sapling and threw it; the tree fell into the waters of the river.
The giant was amazed:
- Praise you, God! - he said to himself. - What a miracle!
He pulled out the sapling again and threw it. The tree fell into the waters of the river. The boy also pulled out the tree again, threw it, and the tree flew across the river to the other bank.
“May God give you a long life,” said the giant. “You have good inclinations!”
They hunted until evening, and returned home in the evening.
- I have never seen such a diva before! - the giant said to his wife.
And he told her how the boy threw a tree and it flew to the opposite bank of the river. The wife answered this to the giant:
- Okay, okay, but other people's manure doesn't stick to your butt.
The giant went hunting every day, but never took the boy with him again; he left him in the care of his wife. One day she made it clear to the boy that he was not their son. The boy became sad, spent time thinking about his parents and one day asked the giant's wife:
-Who were my mother and father?
When the giant returned home, his wife said to him:
— The boy misses his parents and asks me about them. How should we deal with him?
The giant said:
“There is a remedy for this: let him take this goat skin and walk around the villages, showing it and saying that he buys such skins. In this way he will find his parents.
The boy pinned the goat skin to his stick and began to walk around the villages. But he could not find his parents anywhere. Finally, on the outskirts of one poor village, he saw a house off to the side; approached him and called for someone to come out. A woman came out to him. He shows her the goatskin so she can get a good look at it and asks if they have the same skins for sale.
When the woman examined the goat skin, a guess arose in her, and she shed tears.
The boy asks her:
“What’s wrong with you, good woman, why are you crying?”
- How can I not cry? - she answers. “I laid my boy on the same goat skin in the forest under a tree, and he disappeared.” I remember this now and cry.
The boy realized that he had found his mother, but did not reveal anything yet, he only said to the old woman:
- Let's go into the house!
They came in. The house turned out to be poor; there was not even food in it. But when the boy went in search of his parents, the giant gave him a felt whip. This whip could do anything that was asked of it. The boy struck with his whip and said:
- Let a large table appear in this house, filled with all sorts of dishes!
And such a table appeared in the house, they satisfied their hunger, ate as much as they wanted. Then the boy asks the old woman; - Don’t you have a husband? Where is he? She replied:
“It’s our turn to graze the Aldar’s pigs, and he grazes them.” He is a poor man.
- Where does he graze them? - asked the boy.
“He will return in due time,” she answered.
“It’s okay, I’ll check on him,” said the boy. “He’s hungry, I’ll feed him something.”
He went to the old man, found him and sent him home, while he remained to graze the pigs in his place. The old man punished him:
“The pigs won’t cross the bridge until you kiss each of them on the ass.”
In the evening, he drove the pigs to the village, and in front of the bridge they balked, expecting him to kiss each of them on the ass. He stuffed their sides with a thick stick with a knob and killed some on the spot, while others fled from him.
The Aldara village was surrounded by a fence. There were four gates in the fence. This is because a boar appeared in the forest, which attacked an Aldar village and kidnapped a boy or girl into captivity. Therefore the Aldar kept the gates locked; they were guarded by gatekeepers.
It was the turn of the swineherd's son to guard the gate. He spent the night on guard, and in the morning he hammered the bolts on the gate with his hand and went home. People could not pull out the bolts and sent for him themselves. He appeared, pulled out the bolts and opened the gate; no one else was able to open them.
When this news reached the Aldar, he gave his word to marry his daughter to the one who would kill the boar, and together with his daughter he promised to give him half of his fortune.
The swineherd's son asked Aldar:
- I heard this rumor. Would you really do this?
“Yes, I will do that,” the Aldar assured him. “I will fulfill my word exactly.”
Then the swineherd's son harnessed the oxen and went into the forest. He loaded the oxen with firewood and was just heading back when the boar rushed at him.
The swineherd's son pulled out a sapling and hit the boar on the neck with it. The boar fell on the spot. And the swineherd's son cut down a large tree and, without clearing it, tied it to a boar. The boar woke up and rose to his feet; the swineherd's son drove him ahead of the bulls and drove him to the Aldar village. When people saw the boar from a distance, they rushed in different directions shouting:
“Here a boar is coming at us with a whole tree that hasn’t been cleared of its branches!”
The swineherd's son chased them, stopped them and said:
-Where are you running? Don't be afraid! He's not dangerous anymore! Aldar fulfilled his word. He married his daughter to the swineherd's son. He gave him half of his fortune, but he refused, declaring that he himself had sufficient wealth.
By morning, houses appeared for the swineherd’s son, in comparison with which the Aldar’s houses seemed nothing. He played a wedding, gave big feasts and is still living and thriving.
Just as we have not seen any of this, let no misfortunes, no diseases befall us.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru