There lived in the North a peasant who used to go to the Vestmannaeyjar Islands to fish every autumn and winter. The peasant had a son named Jon. At that time he was already an adult. Jon was a smart and efficient guy. One day his father took him to the islands to fish. Everything went well, and nothing more is said about their trip.
And the next autumn his father sent Jon to the islands alone, because he himself was no longer young and such work was beyond his strength. But before Jon left, his father strictly ordered him not to stop under any circumstances under a rock rising on the slope of the hill along which the road runs. Jon gave his father his word that neither trouble nor bad weather would force him to stop in this place, and he left. He had three horses with him - two pack horses and one riding horse. He was going to leave them in Landeyasand for the winter, as his father usually did.
Jon's trip went well, and finally he arrived at the hill his father had talked about. It was midday, and Jon hoped that he would have time to pass the rock before evening. But as soon as he caught up with her, the wind blew up and it started to rain. Jon looked around and saw that there was no more convenient place to rest - there was a lot of grass for the horses, and there was somewhere to hide from the rain. He couldn’t understand why he shouldn’t spend the night here. He thought and thought and finally decided to stay. He unsaddled the horses, hobbled them and suddenly saw the entrance to the cave. Jon was delighted, dragged his belongings there and settled down to have dinner. It was dark in the cave. Before Jon had time to start eating, a howl was heard in the depths of the cave. Jon felt terrified, and he called upon all his courage to help. He took a dried cod from a bag of provisions, tore off the skin from it to the very tail, coated the fish with oil, pulled the skin back on, threw the cod into the depths of the cave and shouted:
- Hey, whoever is there, be careful that you don’t get hurt! And if you want, take and eat this fish!
Soon the crying stopped and someone began to tear the fish with their teeth.
Jon had dinner and went to bed. Suddenly the pebbles rustled at the entrance to the cave. He looked closer and saw a terrible skessa, some strange radiance emanated from it. John felt uneasy. Skessa entered the cave.
– I smell the human spirit in my house! - she said, walked into the depths of the cave and threw her burden onto the ground. The vaults of the cave trembled. Then Jon heard muffled voices.
“It’s better to do than not to do, and woe to those who do not pay for good with good,” said the skessa and, with a lamp in her hand, headed towards Jon.
She greeted him, called him by name, thanked him for feeding her children, and invited him to visit her. Youn accepted her invitation, and the skessa, picking up the belt with her little finger that tied his belongings, carried them into the depths of the cave. There Jon saw two beds, two children were lying on one. It was their crying that he heard. In the corner lay a huge bunch of brown trout, which the skessa had caught that evening; it was from this brown trout that the ghostly glow came from, which frightened Jon.
– Whose bed will you lie on, mine or the children’s? – Skessa asked Joun.
Jon said it was for the nursery. Then she laid the children on the floor and laid out clean linen for Jon. He lay down and instantly fell asleep. He woke up when the giantess brought him boiled brown trout. He ate, and she entertained him with conversation and turned out to be courteous and cheerful.
- Are you planning to go to the islands to fish? – she asked.
Jon replied that this is where he was going.
“Have you already hired yourself on some schooner?” – Skessa asked.
“No,” Jon answered.
“Now all the boats and schooners there have already had crews,” said the giantess. “They won’t take anyone else.” Only one poor old fellow will have a free place, who has never caught anything worthwhile in his life. His boat is dilapidated and is about to sink, and the rowers are as useless as the owner himself. Smart people don't go to him. But I advise you to hire this particular ship. The old man won't want to take you, but you stand your ground until he gives in. The time will come when I will thank you for feeding my children, but now take these two fishhooks. Keep one for yourself and give the other to the old man, and hopefully a lot of fish will bite on those hooks. Just remember, you should be the last to go to sea and the first to return. And be careful not to swim behind the rock that rises above the water not far from the shore. When you arrive in Landäyasand, you will see that the last ships to Vestmannaeyjar are about to leave. Ride with them, but hobble the horses and leave them on the shore. Don’t entrust them to anyone, I’ll take care of them myself in the winter. And if things turn out in such a way that during the winter you catch more fish than you can carry on your horses, the rest can be loaded onto my horse - she will be waiting for you along with yours. I'll be happy with dried fish.
Jon promised to follow all her advice and left the cave early in the morning. They parted as friends. Nothing is said about Jón's further journey until he arrived in Landäyasand. The last ships were already ready to sail. Jon jumped from the saddle and hobbled the horses right there on the shore, but did not ask anyone to look after them. People mocked Jon.
- Make sure that by the end of the catch your nags don’t get fat from such food! - they shouted.
But Jon didn’t pay attention to these jokes and pretended not to hear. With the last ship he sailed to the islands. There, in fact, the crews on all the schooners had long been recruited, and John did not find a single free place. Finally he came to the old man about whom the giantess had spoken, and asked to join him. The old man flatly refused to take Jon in with him.
“It won’t do you any good,” he said. “It’s not like I can’t catch a fish’s tail.” My boat is unreliable, my rowers are useless. We only go out to sea when it is calm. It's not good for a strong guy to get involved with such company.
But Jon replied that in case of failure he would only have himself to blame, and persuaded the old man until he agreed to take him. He moved onto the boat with the old man, and people who believed that he was not very lucky with hiring made fun of him even more.
The fishing has begun. One morning the old man and John saw that all the ships had already gone to sea. The weather was calm and windless. The old man said:
“I don’t know whether we should torture our fate now.” I don't think we'll have any luck.
“The test is not a loss,” Jon answered.
They put on fishermen's robes and went out to sea. Not far from the pier, Jon saw the rock that the giantess had told him about, and suggested that the old man not sail further, but try his luck in this place. The old man was amazed:
“This place is empty,” he said, “there’s no point in trying.”
However, Jon asked permission to cast the line for testing, and the old man agreed. Ioun threw it into the line, and the hook immediately caught a fish. Then he gave the old man the second hook, given by skessa, and they began to fish. In short, that day they returned to the shore three times with a boat full of fish. In total they caught sixty fish each, and they were all cod. By the time the rest of the fishermen arrived, most of their catch had already been cleared. The fishermen just opened their mouths. They began to torture the old man, where he caught such a huge amount of fish, and he told them everything as it happened.
The next day, early in the morning, all the fishermen gathered at that rock, but not a single one caught a fish. Then they swam further, and the old man and Jon swam to their place and began to fish as the day before. All winter they fished near the rock and caught twelve hundred fish per person. No one on the islands had such a catch. On the last day, as usual, they went out to sea and threw in the lines, and when they pulled them out, the lines turned out to be empty - the hooks had disappeared somewhere. And the old man and Jon had to return to the shore with nothing.
Now it should be said that Jon returned to Landeyasand on the same ship on which he sailed to the islands in the fall. All the way the sailors made fun of him, remembering how he treated his horses. When the ship landed on the shore, the horses stood in the same place where Jon had left them. Everyone stared at them with curiosity - the horses looked as if they had been fed choice oats all winter. Standing with them was a beautiful black horse under a pack saddle. Ioun's companions were dumbfounded, mistaking him for an omnipotent sorcerer.
And Jon calmly loaded the fish onto the horses and went home. It should be said that he loaded as much on one black as on two of his own. Nothing is known about his trip until he arrived at the cave where the giantess lived. She greeted Jon warmly, he gave her the fish that was loaded on the black one, and stayed with her for several days. Skessa told Jon that her children died in the winter and she buried them at the foot of the cliff, where her husband was already buried. Then she said that she herself untied the hooks on the last day of fishing and then drove his horses to the shore.
-Did you receive any news from home during this time? – she asked.
Jon replied that he had not received any news. Then she told him that his father had died in the winter and now the entire farm would go to him.
“You will live there all your life, and you will have good luck in everything,” said the skessa. “And you’re getting married this summer.”
And under. At the end of the conversation, she turned to Jon with the following request:
“I don’t have long to live,” she said. “As soon as you dream of me, come here and bury me next to my husband and children.”
And she showed him their graves. Then she took Youn to a side cave, where there were two chests with all sorts of jewelry. These chests, together with the black horse, were left to Jona as an inheritance. She promised that before her death she would tie them with a rope and lift them onto the stones. Jon will only have to lead the horse and hook the rope to the hooks of the pack saddle.
“Voronaya will bring them to your house,” said the skessa. “You won’t have to re-saddle her on the way.”
They parted as friends, and Jon returned home safely. Skessa was right: his father was dead. Her predictions about his marriage also came true - at the beginning of the summer he married the daughter of a peasant from his own parish.
Nothing special happened until the haymaking. But then one day Jonah dreamed of a skessa. He immediately remembered her request and jumped out of bed. It was a dark stormy night, the wind was howling and the rain was lashing. Jon ordered the worker to saddle two horses, and he quickly got dressed and got ready for the journey. His wife asked where he was rushing in such bad weather, but he did not explain anything to her, only asked her not to worry if he disappeared for several days. With that he left.
Youn found Skessa in a cave, but she no longer had the strength to talk to him. He waited for her death and buried her where she asked. Then he found a black horse, it turned out to be already saddled. The chests stood in the cave on the rocks, and each chest had a key sticking out. Jon led the horse to the chests, hooked the ropes to the saddle hooks and rode home.
From then on, Jon lived happily ever after in the land of his ancestors, he was very rich and successful, and people revered him. And nothing more is known about him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru