Once upon a time there lived an old king, and he had a daughter who was proud and capricious. And the king wanted to marry off his daughter, so as not to die without heirs. And she doesn’t even want to hear about it, she makes fun of the young courtiers, just know she’s having fun. The father is angry, but he has no idea what to do with her. And then one day he called her to him and said:
“I decided, my daughter, to organize a tournament. At this tournament you must choose your groom. Come what may, I will marry you off: I am old and want to look at my grandson before I die.
The princess answers:
- Okay, father, so be it. I will get married, but with one condition: the one who asks for my hand must eat a pomegranate in the saddle at full gallop and not drop a single grain on the ground. Whoever drops even one will not receive my hand. And whoever does not drop one will be my husband.
The king says:
- I agree. But I'm tired of your whims. If you don’t keep your word, you’ll marry the first person you meet, just know that.
That's what they decided on. They organized a tournament, and all the court knights gathered for it, on horses and with trusty spears. The queen sat on the throne, the princess next to her. A knight will appear, and she will immediately come up with an offensive nickname for him and laugh.
Among them there was one stately knight who loved the princess with all his soul. But she made fun of his upturned beard and aquiline nose. The ladies tell her:
- Look, princess, how good he is!
And she told them:
- Yes, he looks like a raven. So I will call him: Prince Raven.
And they laughed.
But this prince stood in the saddle like no one else and was very rich, richer than the king himself. The tournament has begun. The horsemen at full gallop try to eat the pomegranate, the grains fall to the ground, and the princess makes sarcastic remarks and mocks. And only the Raven Prince, when his turn came, managed to eat the whole pomegranate. He dropped only the last grain, but it got entangled in his black curly beard. He approached the princess to ask for her hand, and she laughed and said that he had a grain in his beard. Here the king intervened:
- Well, not on earth, your condition is fulfilled.
- My condition? - the princess answers. - So that I marry this Raven Prince?
And everyone laughed. Then the king says:
- Damn you, how much arrogance you have! So, I swear before all my courtiers that I will marry you to the first beggar who enters the palace.
The princess took this as a joke, but soon the maid appears and says:
“Your Majesty, a beggar has come and asks you to keep your word.”
And a beggar entered, ragged, dirty, with a bag of scraps of bread over his shoulders. The king ordered him to come up and said to his daughter:
- Take off your dress, take off your shoes. Hey, whoever is there, bring the beggar’s rags and shoes and put them on the princess.
The queen began to cry, and the princess asked:
- Mother, what will happen to me?
- My daughter, obey your father’s will. The father's word is the last word.
They dressed her as a beggar, called a priest, and he immediately married the princess to the beggar. When it's all over, the king says:
- You got yours. Take the bag - you can’t blame it all on your husband! - and follow him.
The princess cried:
- Father, forgive me!
- No, follow him and be damned!
And she and her husband left the palace. They walk and walk and see: in the meadow there are sheep, cows, goats, and all the choicest ones. And what herds! The princess asks:
- What beautiful herds! Whose cows are these?
- These? The Raven Prince.
Looking the other way:
- And these sheep?
- These? The Raven Prince.
They look: farmsteads, one more beautiful than the other. And above them is a palace, a miracle, and that’s all.
- Whose palace is this?
- This? The Raven Prince.
“Apparently this Raven Prince is rich.”
- Richer than the king himself. Everything around, all these villages belong to the Raven Prince.
The poor thing thinks: “If it weren’t for my arrogance, I would be his wife.” Meanwhile, they reached the hut, the husband said:
- Light a fire. Can you do it?
- What is this?
- Oh, come on! Fire is a thing that is started on the floor; you need wood chips and a match. Take a match, like this. Make some pork stew, we don't have anything else. Take some bacon, chop it and fry it.
The poor thing replied:
- I'll try.
She began to chop wood chips and injured herself.
- Oh, I hurt my hand! Oh my hand!
- Good job! Well, I got a wife! Move away, you stupid one!
He collected wood chips and lit a fire.
- Let's see how you can cook stew.
And she doesn’t know how to do that either. He took the frying pan from her and said:
- Leave it, I’ll do it myself. Sit down, you worthless one, you are completely worthless.
She cried and cried and cried. Her husband:
- Here's your bed. If you're tired, lie down.
- No, no, I don’t want to sleep.
And that bed was a mattress stuffed with straw and a blanket to cover.
- Well, then I’ll go to bed. There's a lot to do in the morning. And if you don’t want to sleep, sit here.
The next morning he tells her:
- Here's a basket of eggs for you. Sell them and bring me the money, we can live on it.
The princess went to sell eggs. And the path from the hut to the village was about a kilometer. She came and saw: some were selling greens, some were selling garlic, some were selling potatoes, some were selling something else. As soon as she put the basket on the ground, a woman approaches her:
- How much are eggs?
- Real thing.
- Give me two.
The princess gave. She broke one, and in it was a five duro coin. I broke the other one and there was a coin there. And says:
- Here's two coins for the whole basket.
The princess returned to the hut and told her husband everything. And he told her:
- Eh, you stupid, stupid! Why didn’t you bring all the eggs home if you saw that there were coins in them, after all, they were yours? Where is your head? You're no good for anything!
The poor thing started crying again, crying and crying.
- Well, we were unlucky with the eggs. Here, take these clay bowls with jugs and go sell them.
The poor thing laid out the dishes. He hears: hooves clattering - tra-ta-ta! And there is noise all around:
- Prince Raven! Prince Raven!
She sees: a horse is flying, black and black, and in the saddle a knight with a feather on a red hat and at full gallop rushed through her dishes, only shards remained. But he didn’t even look at her. The poor thing cried:
- Just think! After all, I could be his wife!
She returned to the hut and told her husband everything.
- You are stupid, stupid! You're good for nothing! Well, faithful people told me that the palace of Prince Raven needed a scullery maid. You'll go tomorrow.
The next morning he took the princess to the palace. The prince was preparing for the wedding, there weren’t enough hands in the kitchen, and they took her dishes to wash.
She began to go to work every day and returned to the hut, collapsing with fatigue. One day she says to her husband:
-Have you heard that the Raven Prince will soon marry the princess?
- Of course. The food must be royal. What are you doing there?
- Now I'm a cook in the kitchen.
- So don’t forget about me, when it comes to delicacies, hide a piece or two from the chicken, ham and sweets. I should also have to suffer something, after all, I taught you to live, I took care of you. Take this tin, hide it under your apron and put a little of everything in there, I’ll taste it in the evening.
She took the tin, went to the kitchen and said to another maid:
- How impatient I am to see the wedding!
- And me. The bride, they say, is a real beauty, and there will be dancing and much more. Do you see a big curtain in the living room? We will all hide behind it and watch from there as the king and queen and all the people come out.
The poor thing thought that she would see her father and mother, and began to cry. So the maids dined themselves first, and the princess put what was tastier in a tin. Then they moved into the living room and hid behind the curtain. The retinue entered, the prince approached his lady, and they began to dance. They spin and spin, and now they are already in front of the curtain, and the prince - once! - when he pulled it, the curtain fell, and the maids found themselves in plain sight. The prince approached the poor thing, grabbed her hand and led her to the middle of the hall. But he pulled so sharply that the tin rolled onto the floor, pieces fell out of it, and everyone burst into laughter. The poor thing burst into flames and fell unconscious.
The prince picked her up, carried her into the room and laid her on the bed. She woke up and saw: the entire royal court was looking at her and her father was standing on the right, and her mother on the left.
- Where am I? What happened to me?
“You are in the palace of the Raven Prince, my daughter.”
-Where is the prince?
Everyone is silent. Then the door opens and a beggar enters. She goes to the bed, takes off her mask, and the Raven Prince stands in front of her. But since they were husband and wife, they didn’t get married a second time; they sat down to feast and forgot to invite me.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru