Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
So he did as he was bidden and went with her into the pocket of
Svyatogór. Svyatogór arose from a sound sleep, saddled his horse, and
went to the Holy Mountains. Then his horse began to sink fast into the
earth, until the knight dug his spurs into his horse’s fat haunches.
Then the horse spoke with a human voice: “I have carried you Svyatogór
the knight and your young wife, but I cannot carry two knights and your
young wife as well.”
So then Svyatogór put his hand into the depths of his pocket, took his
young wife out, and discovered Ilyá Múromets.
“How did you get into the depths of my pocket?”
“Your young wife forced me in there; she threatened my life.” And Ilyá
Múromets told Svyatogór the knight how he had fallen into the depths of
the pocket.
So Svyatogór took his young wife, cut off her unruly head, broke up her
white body into four parts, and scattered them on the bare fields.
Then Ilyá and Svyatogór made themselves sworn brothers, and they set out
to the Holy Mountains. They came to a deep tomb, and the tomb was decked
with red-gold. Svyatogór the knight lay down in that tomb as if it had
been built for him.
“Cover me over with boards, my sworn brother,” he said. And, as Ilyá
covered him over with boards, the boards by Divine grace grew as they
were required. “Uncover me, my sworn brother!”
But Ilyá Múromets had not the strength to uncover him; so he began to
break the boards with his sword, and wherever he brandished his sword,
hoops arose in his way.
“Take my sword, my sworn brother!”
And Ilyá took the sword, but had not the strength to lift it up.
“Come, my sworn brother, I will give you strength.”
Ilyá then went into the pit and Svyatogór breathed on him with his
knightly breath. Then Ilyá took that sword, and wherever he made a
stroke, iron hoops arose around.
“Come to me a second time, my sworn brother; I will give you more
strength.”
Ilyá Múromets said at once: “If I come down to you again, then our
mother the grey earth will not be able to bear it: I have enough
strength.”
But Svyatogór answered: “If you had come down again I should have
breathed on you with a fatal breath, and you would have lain down to
sleep beside me.”
So there Svyatogór the knight remains to this day.
THE SMITH AND THE DEVIL
Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a sturdy
and sensible lad. One day the old man was going into the church, and
stood in front of a picture of the Last Judgment. And he saw there was a
devil painted there so terrible, so black, with horns and tail! “What a
fine devil!” he thought. “I will go and paint such a devil for myself in
the smithy.” So he sent for a painter and told him to paint on the doors
of the smithy a devil who should be exactly the same as the one he had
seen in the church. This was done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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