Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
At the same time the entire kingdom awoke, and in the streets and in the
houses people bestirred themselves, and in the palace the Tsarévna and
her generals and her suite appeared, and all began to thank the soldier,
and they made him their king.
On the next day he married the fair Princess, and lived with her in love
and joy.
* * * * *
So the soldier, the peasant’s son, became a Tsar, and he still reigns.
He is a very good king over his subjects, and is very generous to other
soldiers.
THE STORY OF TSAR ANGÉY AND HOW HE SUFFERED FOR PRIDE
Once there was in the city of Filuyán[30] a Tsar named Angéy, who was
very famous. And, in course of time, it came upon him to stand in the
church at the Divine Service at the reading of the sacred Gospel by the
priest, when the priest was reading those verses in the Gospel in which
it is said: _He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath
exalted the humble and meek_. And when the Tsar heard this he grew
angry, and the Tsar spoke: “This writing is falsely written; the word of
the Gospel is untrue.” And the Tsar said: “I am very rich and famous.
How shall I be put down from my seat and the humble and meek be
exalted?” And then he was filled with fear. And the Tsar bade the priest
be confined in a dungeon, and he bade that page be torn out of the
Gospel Book. And the Tsar went to his palace and began to eat and drink
and be merry.
When the Tsar saw a deer in the fields, he went up and he took his young
men with him, and he hunted him and almost captured the deer; and the
deer was very beautiful. And the Tsar spoke to his champions: “Do ye
stand here. I will go, and I alone will take the deer alive.” And he
hunted after him, and they swam across the stream. The Tsar tied his
horse to an oak, and tied his garments around him, and swam naked across
the stream. Then the deer became invisible, and an angel of God stood by
the Tsar’s horse in the image of Tsar Angéy and spoke to the youths.
“The deer has swum across the stream.”
And he went with the youths into the Tsar’s city to his palace.
But Tsar Angéy went back for his horse, but he could neither find his
steed nor his apparel, and he remained there naked and began to think.
And Angéy went up to his city, and he saw shepherds feeding oxen, and he
asked them: “Ye lesser brothers, shepherds, where have ye seen my horse
and my garments?” And the shepherds asked him: “Who art thou?” He said
to them: “I am Tsar Angéy.” And the shepherds spake: “Wicked boaster!
how darest thou call thyself the Tsar, for we have seen Tsar Angéy, who
has just ridden into his city with five youths!” And they began to
rebuke him and to beat him with whips and scourges. And the Tsar began
to weep and to sob. The shepherds drove him afar, and he went naked into
his city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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