Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
Iván ran away, and he found Vertogór, who had only one mountain left. So
Iván Tsarévich took his brush, and threw it into the open field. And
suddenly mountains grew up everywhere, and their summits and peaks
pierced into the skies, and there were so many of them that no man could
count them. Vertogór was then very happy and set about work gaily.
Iván Tsarévich met Vertodúb once more, and there were only three oaks
left. So he threw the comb into the field, and then there rustled out of
the earth a thick oak forest, every tree thicker than the other. And
Vertodúb was then very joyous and set to work gaily.
And at last, after a journey long or short, Iván Tsarévich reached the
old women, and he gave each of them an apple. They ate them, and they
once more became young, and gave him a little handkerchief, which he
need only shake, and a big lake would appear.
When Iván Tsarévich came home, his sister ran to him and caressed him.
“Sit down, brother mine; play on the harp whilst I go and prepare
dinner.”
Iván Tsarévich sat down and began to finger the strings when a mouselet
crept out of the corner and spoke with a human voice: “Run away,
Tsarévich, as fast as you can. Your sister is now whetting her teeth.”
Iván Tsarévich then left the room, sat on his horse, and went all the
way back to the Sun. The mouselet ran up and down on the strings of the
harp, and the sister never noticed that the brother had gone away. When
she had sharpened her teeth, she ran into the room, but there was not a
single soul to be seen there, even the mouselet had crept back into its
hole. And the witch became furious, gnashed her teeth and made ready to
pursue Iván Tsarévich. Iván Tsarévich heard a noise behind him, looked,
and saw his sister had almost caught him up, so he waved his
handkerchief, and a deep lake rose behind him. Whilst the witch was
swimming through the lake Iván Tsarévich flew a vast way, and she was
swifter than he, and again came near.
Vertodúb guessed Iván was fleeing from his sister, and piled oaks on the
way, whirled a vast mass of them in her path and she could not get
through; she had at first to clear the road. So she gnawed and gnawed
away, and at last made herself a path. But Iván Tsarévich in the
meantime had gained ground. So she followed him farther, and she had
almost caught him up.
When Vertogór saw what was happening, he seized hold of the highest
mountain, piled it up on the road and stuck another on top of it. And
the witch was very furious, and began climbing up, and in the meantime
Iván Tsarévich got far and far away. But the witch soon got up and cried
out: “This time you shall not escape me.”
He had got into the palace of the Sister of the Sun, and cried out,
“Sun, Sun! open your big windows.” The Sun opened his window and Iván
Tsarévich leaped in on his horse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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