Once upon a time there lived a little girl. She was not born from her father and mother, but was molded by pitchfork sorceresses from snow - they took that snow from a bottomless abyss under the rays of the summer sun on Elijah’s day. The wind breathed life into her, dew nourished her, clothed the forest with leaves, and cleaned the meadow and decorated it with flowers. She was whiter than snow, redder than a rose, brighter than the sun. There has never been such a girl in the world, and there never will be.
Once a girl spread a rumor around the world that on such and such a day and in such and such a place there would be a running competition. Whichever of the young men on horseback overtakes her, she will marry him. In a few days the news spread throughout the world, and thousands of suitors - one more beautiful than the other - came together on horseback. The prince himself arrived. The girl stood at the marked place, the grooms mounted their horses.
“Over there I put a golden apple,” said the girl, “whoever gets there first and takes it, I will marry him, but if I take it first, then know: you will all die right there.” Be careful not to lose face.
The riders looked at each other; everyone hoped to get the girl. “On foot, of course, she won’t overtake any of us,” they thought to themselves. “But who will be the first, whom God and happiness will help?”
As soon as she clapped her hands, everyone rushed at once. They galloped halfway, and the girl released her small wings and overtook everyone. The suitors shamed each other, spurred their horses and caught up with the girl. But she tore a hair out of her head, threw it on the ground - and a dense forest immediately grew, so that the suitors did not know where to go. The girl was again far ahead of them, but they spurred their horses and still caught up with her. Then she shed a tear - terrible rivers immediately overflowed and almost drowned everyone. Now no one was chasing the girl anymore, except the prince. He swam after her on a horse, and when he saw that the girl was far away, he mentioned the name of God three times, and she froze in place. He grabbed her, put her on a horse, swam across the rivers and rode home through the mountains. But as soon as he drove up the highest mountain, lo and behold, there was no trace of the girls!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru