Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
The trade folk of the city met him on his way and asked him: “Man, why
art thou naked?” And he said to them: “Robbers have stolen my garments.”
And they gave him a poor and tattered dress. He took it and bowed down
to them, and he went unto his city, and arrived in his town, and he
asked a widow if he might stay there the night, and he questioned her,
saying: “Say, my mistress, who is the Tsar here?” And she replied to
him: “Art thou not a man of our country?” And she said: “Our Tsar is
Tsar Angéy.” He asked: “For how many years has he been Tsar?” And she
said: “For years five and thirty.”
He then wrote a letter with his own hand to the Tsarítsa, that he had
secret things and thoughts to speak of with her; and he bade a woman
take this letter to the queen. The Tsarítsa received the letter and had
it read to her. He signed it as her husband, Tsar Angéy. And a great
fear fell upon her, and in her fear she began to speak: “How can this
poor man name me his wife? I must inform the Tsar and have him
punished.” And she bade him be beaten with whips mercilessly, without
informing the Tsar. He was pitilessly beaten, and was scarcely left
alive, and could hardly leave the town. He wept and sobbed, and
remembered the words of the Gospel: _He hath put down the mighty from
their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek_. And he spoke to a
pope of this, how he had profaned the Sacred Book, and had sent the
priest into the dark dungeon, and had gone a long, long way.
And the Tsarítsa spoke to the angel who was taking the shape of the
Tsar: “Thou, my dear lord, for one year hast not slept with me. How can
I, then, be thine?” And the Tsar spake to her: “I have made a covenant
with God that for three years I will not sleep with thee nor share thy
bed.” And he left her and went into the Tsar’s palace.
Angéy the Tsar arrived in an unknown town and engaged himself with a
peasant to reap the harvest; and he did not know how to do a peasant’s
work; and the peasant discharged him, and he began to weep and sob, and
went on his way from that city. And poor men met him on the road. He
said to them: “Will ye take me up with ye? I am now a poor man, and do
not know how to work, and I am ashamed to beg. What ye bid of me I will
do. I will work for you.” And they accepted him and gave him a burden to
carry. And they went to lie at night, and they bade him heat the bath,
carry water, and lay the bed. And Tsar Angéy wept bitterly: “Woe to me!
What have I done! I was wroth with the Sovereign, and He has deprived me
of my kingdom and has brought me to ruin, and I have suffered all this
through the word of the Gospel.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account