There lived three brothers. Two were strong and dexterous, and the third was weak and sick, good for nothing. The older brothers got married, but their daughters-in-law did not get along together, and the brothers began to divide. They divided everything equally, in two, and left the youngest with nothing.
The younger brother also asks to give him a share, and the brothers say: “What do you need?” All the same, you are good for nothing, you will work for us, now at one place, then at another, and we will feed you.
What should a younger brother do? He knows that he cannot take anything from his brothers by force; fell silent, turned around and left them completely. The only thing the poor man took with him was his father’s saber.
Whether he walked a lot or a little, he only found one rich man and hired him as a farm laborer. He worked for him for three months, took the money he earned, used this money to order a sheath for five of his sabers, and ordered the words “Conqueror of the Strongest” to be burned on the blade. He hung this saber to his belt and went, he doesn’t know where he is going. He walks like this from place to place, from one village to another, dragging this saber behind him. Passers-by look at him, laugh, and the children run after him, teasing him. The poor man got tired of this, he turned off the road, walked through the forest, got tired and lay down under a tree to breathe. Two people came out of the thicket, covered from head to toe with guns and daggers, saw him and went to him. Our poor man pretended to be asleep.
They came up, looked at him, laughed at him; They took the saber from the sleeping man, took it out of the scabbard, and what they see is that the saber shines, and “Conqueror of the Strongest” is burned on it.
They stopped laughing, they even got scared. They think this is not the kind of person to mock him, they put the saber back in the sheath and say: “This Winner is apparently a very strong and dexterous guy, let’s ask him if he would like to be our friend.” They talked and began to quietly wake him up.
Our Victor hears all this, he grew bolder and decided to wake up; looked at him, rubbed his eyes as if he were fast asleep, stood up and greeted them. “Bless you!” - they say too.
We started talking. Our good-for-nothing Conqueror told them all sorts of lies and said: “I’m tired of shedding blood, I decided to go to the king and ask for service.” These fellows were very surprised by his stories, and then they began to praise themselves. “We,” they say, “are only two here, and we have six more comrades in the forest.” If you don’t get angry, we ask you, come to us, be our ninth comrade and friend.
They turned out to be robbers, they live far away, somewhere in a dense, impenetrable forest. They took our Victor with them and led him into this forest.
They came and told their comrades all the inventions of their new friend, once again inflated by five. The ataman still did not believe the heroism of this Winner, he decided to test him in action and said: “Tonight you will go boar hunting and take this newcomer with you.” Our Victor heard this, almost died of fear, but still did not show it and seemed to be very happy - in an instant he got ready for the road. He himself thinks about how to escape from them on the way! His comrades give him a gun, and he laughs: “What do I need my saber for?”
He himself has never held a gun in his hands, he doesn’t know how to shoot from it. And the wild boars went into that forest for acorns.
Our Victor noticed the tracks of a boar on the ground. “Oh,” say the robbers, “this, apparently, is the same boar that is as tall as a buffalo.” His skin is so thick that even a bullet can’t take it; This boar tears out entire trees with roots from the ground with just one tusk.
They left the winner there to guard the boar, and they themselves went away and hid behind the trees. The poor winner was completely scared. And you can’t escape anywhere from this forest, and you can’t think of anything.” “Well,” he decided, “it’s obvious that the light gave birth to me for this boar, there’s nothing you can do about it.” He stood there for a while, thinking. So I didn’t come up with anything, I only climbed one oak tree and hid there in the branches. “If this boar drags itself here, I’ll throw something on top of it, maybe it’ll get scared and run away.” At least they won’t suspect me of cowardice, and that’s good.
Suddenly the Winner hears something rumble; I looked and the boar’s eyes were sparkling below. Our Victor’s heart skipped a beat, his arms and legs trembled, the poor man fell from the tree, flew down and crashed right on the back of this terrible boar.
The boar spun around in place, and the poor thing grabbed the boar’s bristles with all his might and lay neither alive nor dead.
His comrades saw this, rushed forward like lions and started hitting the boar on the head with guns and everything that was at hand; They felled the boar and killed it.
Our Victor woke up and saw: the job was done. He decided to cheat here too and let’s shout at his comrades: “Oh, you so-and-so, I caught a boar, I wanted to take it alive, but you killed it in my hands. The comrades took pity, but what can we do?”
They dragged this boar to the chieftain. They learned everything about the heroism of their new comrade, they are surprised and happy.
They cut off the boar’s head, sent it to the king and said: “We’ve got a new friend, and he caught this boar with one hand.” Stop catching us, otherwise you will regret it. We have learned everything about our Victor, and that’s all they talk about everywhere. Some say: “This man is a deva.” Others: “He even catches bullets on the fly.”
Everyone has his name on their tongue. But the king and all his troops were frightened and forgot to think about how to catch those robbers. Time has passed. Another king challenges this king to war. And this is their agreement: The kings must send one warrior at a time to a duel; whose warrior wins, the defeated one will give up so many villages with all the people and all their property to that king.
This war has begun. Only every time the other king wins everything. The war has been going on for five years now, this defeated king is completely ruined. That king has such a good guy, such a hero, that whoever gets close to him will immediately tear his head off. Who can count how many innocents this damned one has killed in this way? The enemy finally intimidated the king. How not to be frightened: there were stronger and stronger people, the enemy killed them all, but what can a king do without people? He can't do anything!
The king gathered his advisers and asked them to teach him what to do. They thought and consulted for a long time. Then the senior adviser took the floor and said: “And we have such a hero, that “Winner of the Strongest,” who took the boar with one hand.” Let's ask him to help us. If it helps, that’s good, but if it doesn’t, that’s the end of our kingdom.
Everyone liked this word, they persuaded the king and decided to send a man to that Victor and ask him to help. “And if you beat our enemy, the king will give you his only daughter as a wife and will bequeath his throne to you and forgive all your fellow robbers and give everyone rich gifts.” The messengers of this king went, found this Victor and his comrades and told them everything. The robbers rejoiced.
It came down to our good-for-nothing Winner. He thought and thought, and he himself barely breathed from fear. What is breathing? I almost lost my tongue. He thought, thought and decided: “Well, have I lived my days well or badly, but now, apparently, my end has come.” How can we be here? To refuse is to disgrace yourself for the rest of your life. No, it’s better to die with honor at the hands of such a hero than to live your whole life as a coward. It’s also good that I’ll spare my comrades from execution.
He finally said to the messengers: “Okay, I agree, I’ll go out to fight.” I’m only ashamed to go against one person, even if they put up at least three, or something.
When they heard this, everyone rejoiced, shouted, clapped their hands and, cheerful and happy, went to accompany the hero to the royal palace. This news spread all over the world. Some say: “The Winner calls not one, but three at a time.” Others: “He doesn’t have a sword, he wants to tear his head off with his bare hands.” Still others boast: “Why, with his bare hands, he’s not a human, he upends entire trees with their roots.” And what haven’t they told you about our good-for-nothing Victor! All this also reached the enemy.
That poor fellow’s heart almost sank with fear: “Here,” he thinks, “my end has come, my days are over.”
The day of the duel has arrived. The field doesn’t hold enough people – so many people came to watch this fight. They are waiting for our Victor, they are waiting. We finally saw him - What is this? Such a little man? Yes, apparently he’s very dexterous, they say. Let this good-for-nothing Victor of ours and that giant go at each other. The poor Winner in front of him is like your finch, but still doesn’t give up. “Well, I’ll die and die,” he says to himself, “nothing else will happen.”
This giant looked at him and grinned: “I can destroy this little man with one blow,” he thinks. “No, apparently he knows some witchcraft tricks, I’ll wait, watch, find out what he will do, and then I’ll quickly deal with him.” They held their breath, waiting.
They gave a sign to the opponents, and they attacked each other. Still, the heart of our Victor could not stand it: a man sees that death is coming, and so it approaches him. He forgot to take his saber out of its scabbard. He closed his eyes, stretched out his neck and walked forward, thinking to himself - if only he had hit him sooner, this torment would have ended. The giant saw this poor fellow with his neck stretched out, and was frightened. “He’s preparing something evil for me, apparently some kind of cunning technique,” he thinks. He stretched out his neck, closed his eyes, stood rooted to the spot.
And our poor man walks and waits every minute: “Now he’ll cut off my head, now he’ll destroy me.” They just don’t chop off his head. Our Winner quietly opened his left eye. He looks at it: his opponent is standing in the middle of the field, craning his neck like a turkey before death, closing his eyes and waiting. It was then that the Winner thought that his time had come: “Don’t be afraid, strike, and that’s all!” He grabbed his saber, swung it, and only then did he come to his senses, as the head of this giant rolled in one direction, and his entire huge body in the other.
Everyone here screamed and made a noise. They grabbed our hero and dragged him to the king. The king was delighted, immediately married the Victor to his daughter and handed over his entire kingdom to them. Our poor man became king.
He appointed all his comrades as advisers and called his brothers to him, and they all lived happily together. This was the fate of our good-for-nothing Victor.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru