In one village there lived a blacksmith. He had a son - the hero Halim.
Since childhood, he ate so much and grew so quickly that no matter how much the blacksmith cut the sheep, he could not feed his son enough.
Finally, three camels a day were no longer enough for the hero. He felt ashamed that he was eating up his father, and he decided to leave his home in order to hunt for food for himself.
Before leaving home, the hero asked his father to forge him an iron chain weighing forty pounds, hung it around his neck and went wherever his eyes led him.
The hero wandered around the world, hunted, ate, slept and moved on again.
One day he met the hero Sadakan. He stood on the road and with one hand uprooted a perennial elm tree. There was a rumor about Sadakan that he was the first strongman in the world.
When the famous strongman saw a young hero, taller than himself, with a magpie chain around his neck, he wanted to measure his strength with him.
The heroes decided this: whoever wins will be the main hero.
They began to fight.
But the famous strongman Sadakan could not even budge the young hero Halim, the son of a blacksmith. And so he was defeated. Having lost his glory, Sadakan hated the winner out of envy.
The heroes walked around the world for a long time, shot a lot of game, beat various animals, and finally came to a distant country.
Here they hunted well and killed a lot of wild goats. They cooked a large pot of food, ate it, and hid the leftovers for tomorrow. The next morning when they woke up, the cauldron was empty and all the goat skins had disappeared.
The heroes began to look for the thief, but found no one nearby; We went further and came to the edge of a deep gorge.
They looked into it and saw: a huge marvel lay on the skins of the goats they had killed yesterday.
Div was sleeping, and the hero Halim, without thinking twice, threw his forty-foot chain at the Div so that he killed him with one blow.
Then the heroes carefully descended into the gorge and there, behind the golden gates, they saw a beautiful garden with ponds, ditches, fountains and flower beds. The captive divas lived in this garden.
An old woman sat at the gate of the garden and never wanted to let the heroes into it. But Halim forcefully opened the golden gate and entered the garden. He announced to the captives that the div had been killed and now they were free and could go wherever they wanted.
And to one of them, the most beautiful one, which he liked, the young man offered to become his bride and go traveling with him. The beauty also liked the hero, and she agreed to go on a journey with him.
The defeated strongman Sadakan looked at the winner with envy: he also liked the beauty.
Halim picked up his bride like a feather and headed towards the exit of the gorge.
Approaching the place where they descended into the gorge, Halim the hero took the iron chain from his neck and, swinging it, threw it up. She caught on a tree growing on the edge of the gorge. Then Halim the hero ordered Sadakan to climb up the chain first and better secure it at the top. Sadakan stood up and helped the beauty get out. Now it was Halim's turn. But the envious Sadakan decided to take advantage of the opportunity. He unhooked the end of the chain at the top and threw it down, right on the head of his winner.
The hero Halim fell to the bottom of the gorge, and the end of the chain hit him on the head. Falling, the hero crashed badly and lost consciousness. The treacherous strongman took possession of his comrade's bride and went to his home.
The hero would have lain for a long time at the bottom of the abyss if the captive divas he had freed had not seen him.
After the heroes left, they also went out of the golden gate and ran away from the diva’s possessions.
When leaving the gorge, they saw Halim lying in blood, thought that he had been killed, and spread this news throughout the world.
And so, when Halim the hero, broken and dying of hunger, lay at the bottom of the gorge, the clear sky above him was suddenly clouded by a shaggy cloud, a dark piece tore off from the cloud, flew towards him into the gorge and fell next to him. It was the carcass of a young sheep.
The hero greedily ate the fresh fat lamb and felt better. Every day at the same hour, the clear sky was suddenly covered with a dark cloud, and a lamb carcass fell towards the hero in the gorge.
The hero began to recover quickly. Finally, he could get to his feet.
Again he began to throw up the end of his iron chain in order to hook it on something there.
Suddenly the hero felt that the chain was rising up on its own. He grabbed it with both hands and in an instant found himself at the top.
Then he saw that a huge bird was holding the end of the chain in its beak. She released the chain and, like a dark cloud, flew towards the mountains and disappeared from sight. Halim did not know what kind of bird it was; he had never seen such huge birds.
The hero took his bow and arrows, shot himself some game, ate a hearty meal, and immediately went around the world to look for his bride.
An unknown city appeared in the distance. Halim entered it, heard crying and sobbing, and soon learned that for several years the people here had been suffering from a terrible dragon. Every day this monster demands a camel, a ram and a girl to eat. All the girls in the city have already been eaten, only one remains - the daughter of the padishah, who will die that night.
The hero walked around the city and asked about the dragon. He was told that the dragon lived in the river, outside the city. As soon as the dragon sees its prey, it begins to forcefully draw in air. A whirlwind rises, picks up the victim and carries him straight into the dragon’s mouth. Many brave souls tried to rid the city of the dragon. But they didn’t deliver, but they themselves died, that’s what the city residents told the hero.
In the evening the hero went to the river where the dragon lived. By midnight, he felt that the dragon's breath was pulling him into the river, but an iron chain helped him stay on the bank.
Suddenly the dragon stopped sucking in air, climbed out onto the shore and rushed at the hero.
When the dragon was already very close, the hero threw the chain behind his back, swung and hit the dragon on the head with all his might with the chain.
The monster fell to the ground with a broken skull. The winner cut a wide belt from the back of the dragon along its entire length and went to the city. There, approaching the palace of the padishah, the hero threw a belt cut from the back of a dragon onto the roof and left.
At dawn the padishah went to cry at the place where his daughter died. But, to his surprise, he saw his daughter unharmed and the camel and ram intact.
The padishah's servants ran to the river, quickly returned and said that the dragon had been killed, and a wide belt had been cut out of its full length from its back.
Returning to the city, the padishah and his daughter saw on the roof of the palace a belt cut from the back of a dragon.
- But who killed the dragon? Where is the winner? - asked the padishah. Nobody could answer his question.
Then the padishah ordered to announce throughout the city:
“Whoever removes from the roof a belt cut from the back of a dragon will be the padishah’s son-in-law!”
Many tried to remove the belt, but no one could move it - it was so heavy and thick.
Then a young hero came, inserted his little finger into a hole in the belt and immediately pulled the belt off the roof.
The padishah was delighted with the hero, hugged him and immediately announced that he would marry his only daughter to him.
But the hero said that he already has a bride.
The padishah wanted to thank the hero for saving his daughter and allowed him to ask him for whatever he wanted. Halim the hero told the padishah about his treacherous companion, who had stolen his bride, and asked for advice on how and where to find her.
The padishah ordered to convene all the wise men of his city and ordered them to give the hero good advice.
The sages consulted for several days. Finally, they reported to the padishah:
- Somewhere, both far and close from here, lives a wonderful bird, Simurgh - the bird of Good. This bird is so big that it can carry an entire camel in its beak. When she spreads her wings, she covers the sun. With the flapping of her wings she creates a storm. This bird lays huge eggs and lives for two thousand years. Only the bird Simurgh can help the hero find his bride.
The hero thanked the sages and went to look for the bird Simurgh.
The hero walked for a long time. Finally I saw a mighty plane tree, the top of which went into the sky. The plane tree was so thick that if it had been cut crosswise, a whole village could have sat on its stump.
The hero came closer to the plane tree and in its hollow saw a nest with chicks as large as camel cubs. The chicks were alarmed by something and screamed loudly.
The hero looked around and saw a huge snake with an open mouth crawling towards the plane tree along the road.
Without thinking twice, the hero took the chain from his neck, threw it over his shoulder, ran towards the snake and hit him on the head with the chain while running. The snake lay dead on the ground. The chicks in the nest calmed down and stopped screaming.
At this time, the hero saw that a huge bird was flying and was carrying a camel in its beak. The bird landed on a branch of a tall plane tree, and it swayed all over from its weight.
The bird tore the camel into pieces and threw the pieces to its chicks, who immediately swallowed them. The hero guessed that this was the Simurgh bird, and in the nest were its chicks.
The bird Simurgh saw a dead snake on the road and a hero under a tree and said:
“Before, the snake stole eggs from my nest, but now he wants to eat my chicks too.” I see, hero, you saved my children from death. For this I will fulfill any of your requests.
“Wasn’t it you who saved me from starvation in the Diva Gorge?” Wasn't it you who grabbed the end of the iron chain and helped me get out of there? - exclaimed the hero.
“You killed the villain diva,” said the bird, “for this I helped you out in trouble.” How else can I help you now?
The hero asked the bird how he could find his lost bride, and Simurgh told him to prepare for a long journey.
“I will take you to where your bride is hidden.” To fly without stopping, slaughter forty sheep, tie them with a chain by the legs and throw them over my back. Then sit on me and hold on tightly so as not to fall.
The hero did everything the bird told him.
The Simurgh noisily flapped her large, powerful wings, quickly flew up and flew with the hero over the forests, mountains, and seas. The bird flew without stopping, and the hero fed it along the way, feeding it large pieces of lamb meat into its beak.
But now all forty rams have already been eaten, and the Simurgh continues to fly further.
“Give me some more meat, there’s only a little time left to fly,” said the bird to the hero. Without thinking, he cut a piece from his thigh and gave it to the bird.
“Here we have arrived,” said Simurgh after a while. “Now go straight, you will reach a large garden.” In it you will find your bride. And I will fly back to my chicks.
The hero stepped onto the ground, but limped from pain in his thigh and stopped.
“What’s wrong with you?” asked the bird.
Seeing the deep wound on the bogatyr’s bogatyr, she realized that the hero did not spare himself.
Then Simurgh touched her wounded thigh with her beak - and in an instant everything healed, and no trace remained of the wound.
Halim the hero thanked the bird Simurgh for the great service, said goodbye to her and continued on his way alone.
He soon came to a large garden fenced with an iron fence. He began to knock on the iron gates, but no one answered. Then the hero tore out the iron gates along with the pillars, entered the garden and at the very end of it he saw his bride. She sat sadly on the ground under a weeping willow, and her kidnapper Sadakan stood in front of her and demanded that she marry him.
Halim the hero approached the deceiver, grabbed him by the hands, lifted him high into the air and threw him down with such force that he completely sank into the ground.
The hero returned home with his beautiful bride, took off the iron chain from his neck and devoted all his heroic strength to deeds useful for the people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru