Once upon a time lived in Bamburgh Castle a mighty king and a beautiful queen, and they had two children - a son named Child-Wind and a daughter named Margrit.
Child-Wind grew up and went overseas to see the world and show himself. Shortly after his departure, the Queen Mother fell ill and died. The king grieved for a long time, but one day while hunting he met a beautiful foreigner, fell in love and decided to marry her. A messenger was sent with orders that the castle should prepare for the arrival of the new queen - the mistress of Bamburgh.
Princess Margaret was not very happy about this news, but she was not too upset either. She complied with her father's command and on the appointed day went down to the gate, ready to meet the new queen and give her the keys to the castle.
But it so happened that when Margrit greeted her father and stepmother, one of the new knights of the retinue exclaimed:
“I swear, there is no one in the world more beautiful than this northern princess!”
The Queen Stepmother was deeply hurt, but did not show it, only muttered angrily to herself:
Well, nothing! I will take care of this beauty!
That same night, the queen (and in fact she was a witch!) climbed the oldest, tallest tower of the castle and began to perform magical rites there. With the help of amulets - a dragon's tooth, an owl's claws, a snake's skin - she cast an evil witchcraft spell on her stepdaughter and cursed her with an unheard-of, terrible spell.
The next morning the maids and ladies-in-waiting did not find the princess in her bed, and no one in the castle could tell where she had disappeared.
On the same day, a terrible and disgusting monster appeared in the Windelstone Gorge, near Bamburgh - a huge ringed snake with iron scales and a fire-breathing mouth. This monster devoured sheep and cows that wandered into the gorge, and at night it struck fear throughout the entire area with its long, terrible roar.
The king was very saddened by these two misfortunes - the disappearance of his daughter and the appearance of a terrible snake. He sent a messenger with a letter overseas to his son Child-Wind, begging him to return home. For I myself am too old, my son, and I cannot bear the burden of these disasters,” he wrote in a letter to the prince.
Child-Wind, having received this news, began to prepare for sailing - he ordered the ship to be equipped and selected thirty of the best warriors from his detachment, the bravest and most reliable. Yes, I didn’t forget to consult with a sorcerer, an expert in white magic. And this is what the wise old man told him:
- To make your campaign successful, cut the bowsprit of your ship from a whole rowan tree trunk, because rowan berries ward off evil spells; Yes, take this rowan twig with you. Touch it to your queen stepmother. There will be no harm from this, and the truth will be revealed.
Child-Wind thanked the sorcerer, took a twig, strengthened the rowan bowsprit on the bow of the ship and at dawn sailed to the west.
But the queen (who, as you know, was a witch!) laid out her amulets in a secluded tower, sifted the moonlight through a sieve and learned that Childe Wind was returning to Bamburgh Castle with thirty chosen warriors.
Then she called the spirits under her control and ordered:
My servants are black,
Submissive to me alone! fly like whirlwinds,
Disturb the sea
Sink the ship
You will destroy the prince!
Black spirits flew, began to blow towards the ship, raising huge waves around it, but the rowan bowsprit dispelled and reflected all the evil spells, so that Child-Winda’s ship, as if nothing had happened, approached the shore.
The spirits returned to the queen and admitted their powerlessness to harm the prince. The queen ground her teeth in anger, but did not calm down. She ordered the army to move to the harbor, meet the ship, attack it and kill every single person who sailed.
Child-Wind approaches the shore and suddenly sees: a huge, terrible snake with a fire-breathing mouth is swimming towards him. It swims close, pushes the ship back, and prevents it from entering the harbor. Again and again the prince's ship turns around and tries to go to the pier, but each time a terrible snake blocks the way. The blows of oars and spears are powerless against its iron scales.
An experienced helmsman says to Child-Wind:
“We’ll go out to sea, and then we’ll turn around and land unnoticed - over there, behind the cape.”
And so they did. But as soon as Child-Wind landed on the shore and took a few steps on the ground, that same snake crawls out of the forest - a disgusting monster with a ringed body and the head of a dragon.
Child-Wind grabbed his sword and got ready... And suddenly, instead of a terrible roar, a gentle girl’s voice was heard from the monster’s mouth:
Oh, hide your sword and throw away your shield,
Don't be afraid of anything!
Kiss me three times -
And witchcraft will disappear.
Child-Wind seems to recognize the voice... What an obsession! Or is evil spirits really fooling him? The prince shuddered in horror, and the monster said:
Don't think about what's in front of you
The vile snake is deceitful,
Kiss me three times
And dispel the witchcraft!
This is the voice of my sister - Margrit! The prince hesitated and was about to step forward, but remembered how insidious evil spirits can be. Child-Wind raised his sword again, and the monster shook his head and said:
Come to me without fear
And kiss three times;
That alone is my salvation.
I pray to you, my brother!
Then the prince threw away his sword and shield, stepped towards the monster and kissed it three times in its terrible fire-breathing mouth.
At the same moment, with a whistle and hiss, the monster recoiled back, and - lo and behold! - His sister Margrit appeared before Child-Wind.
- Thank you, dear brother! - said the princess. “Know that it was our witch stepmother who turned me into a monster and cast a spell so that I would not know deliverance until my brother kissed me three times in this terrible image.” But from now on the spell dissipated and the one who sent it lost all her witchcraft power.
When Child-Wind, hand in hand with his sister and accompanied by his warriors, entered his father’s castle, the evil queen was sitting in her tower and incessantly repeating spells: she really dreamed of conjuring some kind of misfortune for the prince and princess.
She heard Child-Wind's steps and wanted to run away, but the prince touched her with a rowan twig, and right before her eyes the witch began to shrink and shrink, shrink and shrink, until she turned into a disgusting toad, which - chop-slap! chop-slap! - galloped away from the castle into the forest.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru