Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
Now this king had three daughters: the elder ones were beautiful, but
the younger fairer still. Very soon the son of the King of the Arabs
began asking for the hand of the youngest daughter, and he wrote to the
King with threats such as this, “If you do not give her to me of your
good will, I will take her by force.”
This did not suit the King at all, so he answered the Arab prince in
this wise, “Do you begin the war, and it shall go as God shall will.”
So the Prince assembled a countless multitude and laid siege.
Donotknow shook off his oxhide, took off his bladder, went into the open
fields, burnt one of the hairs, and cried out in a grim voice with a
knightly whistle. From some source or other a wondrous horse appeared in
front of him, and the steed galloped up, and the earth trembled. “Hail,
doughty youth, why do you want me so speedily?”
“Go and prepare for war!”
So Donotknow sat on his good horse, and the horse asked him, “Where
shall I carry you—aloft, under the trees, or over the standing woods?”
“Carry me over the standing woods.”
So the horse raised himself from the earth and flew over the hostile
host. Then Donotknow leapt upon the enemies, seized a warlike sword from
one of them, tore a golden helmet from another of them, and put them on
himself; covered his face with the visor, and set to slaying the Arab
host. Wherever he turned, heads flew: it was like mowing hay. The King
and the Princess looked on in amazement from the city wall: “What a
mighty hero it must be! Whence has he come? Is it Egóri the Brave who
has come to help us?”
But they never imagined that it was Donotknow whom the King had set in
the garden as a scarecrow. Donotknow slew many of that host, and even
more than he slew his horse trampled down, and he left only the Arab
Prince alive and ten men as a suite to see him home. After this great
combat he rode back to the town wall and said, “Your kingly Majesty, has
my service pleased you?” Then the King thanked him and asked him in as a
guest. But Donotknow would not come. He leapt into the open field, sent
away his good horse, turned back home, put on the bladder and the bull’s
hide, and began to walk about in the garden, as before, just like a
scarecrow.
Some time went by, not too much, not too little, and the Arab Prince
again wrote to the King, “If you do not give me your youngest daughter’s
hand I will burn up all your kingdom and will take her prisoner.”
This also did not please the King, and so he wrote in answer that he
would await him with his host. Once again the Arab Prince collected a
countless host, larger than before, and he besieged the King from all
sides, having three mighty knights standing in front.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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