Irmis (Belonging to the Deer)

Once upon a time, or maybe not, there lived an old man and an old woman. In their old age, a boy was born to them. Soon after, the old man died, leaving the old woman alone. Life became difficult for her. She took her son to the forest to a lame deer and asked it to feed him with its milk.

Time passed. The boy grew up and ran through the forest with the deer. One day, a young prince was hunting in that forest. He saw the lame deer with the boy and was so amazed that he abandoned the hunt. He ordered his servants to catch the boy and bring him to him, but no one could catch him. The boy wouldn’t let anyone near him.

The prince returned to the palace and asked his father to forge a chain weighing seventy poods and to give him one hundred and forty servants.

The king fulfilled his son’s wish.

The prince went to the forest to lasso the boy. The servants tracked down the boy and the deer, swung the chain, and threw it over him. But the boy jerked free and tore the chain like a thread. The ends of the chain whipped the servants, knocking them off their feet.

The boy ran away and disappeared from sight.

The prince returned home and asked his father to forge a chain twice as strong and long. The servants tracked the boy down a second time, threw the chain over him, but he tore it again. The prince was upset but didn’t give up. He wanted to capture the forest boy. The third time, he asked his father to forge a chain three times stronger and longer than the first!

This time, they managed to lasso the boy with the chain, and he couldn’t break free.

The prince seated him on his horse and brought him to the palace.

The boy was named Irmisa. Irmisa couldn’t speak and was shy. But over time, he learned to speak and eat what people ate.

Irmisa and the prince became friends and started going hunting together. However, Irmisa never killed animals—he felt sorry for them. And Irmisa was strong—no one in the entire kingdom could match his strength!

One day, Irmisa and the prince wandered into a dense forest and lost their way. They wandered through remote gorges for a long time until they found a path. The path led them to the seashore.

The shore was empty. There was only one house and an apple tree growing in front of it. The prince bent down, picked up a fallen apple, and began to eat it.

“Why are you eating a wormy apple?” Irmisa asked in surprise.

He punched the tree trunk, and apples rained down from the branches, covering the ground in a golden-red color.

Irmisa and the prince sat under the tree, eating apples. As the day turned to evening, a demon emerged from the sea.

“What are you doing here? What kind of creatures are you?” he shouted at the intruders.

“Come closer, and you’ll find out,” Irmisa replied.

Before the demon could take a step, Irmisa pounced on him, knocked him down, and pinned him with his knee. A second demon emerged from the sea and attacked Irmisa, but he knocked the second demon down on top of the first and pinned him too. A third demon jumped out of the sea, saw that Irmisa had overpowered his brothers, and shouted:

“You little runt! You want to kill my brothers? I’ll grind you to dust!”

The demon waved his fists and approached Irmisa.

Irmisa grabbed his arm and threw him onto the first two demons.

“Should I kill you or not?” Irmisa asked.

“Don’t kill us,” the demons pleaded. “We’ll be your brothers!”

Irmisa released the demons, and they led the visitors to feast in the house. The hosts went to the marani (a wine storage room) to fetch seven-year-old wine.

“Don’t drink the wine,” Irmisa warned the prince. “The wine will knock us out, and the demons will eat us!”

The demons brought a large wineskin of wine. They offered a horn of wine to Irmisa, but he turned to the window and asked:

“Where does that path lead?”

While the demons were looking out the window, Irmisa poured the wine under the table.

They offered a horn of wine to the prince. The prince turned to another window and asked the demons about another path. While the demons were looking out the other window, the prince also poured the wine under the table.

When they finished eating, Irmisa and the prince thanked their hosts and went to sleep. As soon as the demons fell asleep, Irmisa and the prince got up and went to find their way further.

After walking for some time, they reached a large house at the foot of a mountain. Irmisa shot an arrow into the door, thinking the owner would come out. But no one came. Then the young men went into the vineyard near the house, picked some grapes, and lay down in the shade. They ate grapes and enjoyed the coolness.

By evening, seven demons appeared. They brought seven deer carcasses and threw them into the yard. They went to fetch a cauldron, but they couldn’t enter the house—the arrow had nailed the door to the frame, and it wouldn’t open!

All seven of them grabbed the arrow, but they couldn’t pull it out! Irmisa watched them and laughed.

The demons looked around, not understanding who was mocking them or who had dared to enter their domain without permission. They saw the men in the vineyard and shouted:

“Hey, you! How dare you enter our garden and eat our grapes?”

“You’re stingy with your grapes, but we’ll stay for dinner too! We’re hungry and thirsty from the road,” Irmisa replied fearlessly.

“If he weren’t strong, he wouldn’t speak to us so boldly! And he must have shot the arrow into the door,” the demons thought and quieted down.

“Fine, go pull out the arrow and bring the cauldron from the house, set it on the tripod,” they said to Irmisa.

The demons cooked the venison, and they all had dinner by the hearth. When they finished eating, the guests thanked their hosts and asked how to get back home and how long it would take.

“The long road takes forty days, the short one takes ten, but it passes by the house of the hundred-headed demon. He won’t let you pass, and you’ll perish,” the demons replied.

“We’ll see who perishes!” Irmisa said. The friends bid farewell to the demons and took the short road.

After some time, they reached the house of the hundred-headed demon. The demon was sleeping on the terrace, and a captive girl was shooing flies away from him.

“Leave while you’re still alive. If the demon wakes up, he’ll eat you,” she whispered to the young men.

“Don’t worry about us. Come down to the yard and tell us how you ended up here,” Irmisa said to her.

“I can’t. If the flies bite the demon, I’ll be in trouble.”
Irmis convinced her, and the girl descended into the courtyard. As soon as she stepped away, the deva's flies bit her. He woke up and roared:

"Who took my captive? Where has she gone?"

Then he noticed the newcomers and, enraged, rushed into the courtyard. He grabbed a hundred-pound weight from under the terrace and hurled it at Irmis. The young man dodged. The weight struck an oak tree, and the tree fell.

The hundred-headed deva lunged at Irmis. They fought for a long time, sometimes one gaining the upper hand, sometimes the other. The deva seized Irmis and drove him into the ground up to his knees. Irmis broke free, lifted the deva, and drove him into the ground up to his waist. Then he drew his sword, raised it over the deva, and asked:

"Speak, foul creature, life or death?"

"Life," pleaded the hundred-headed deva. "Grant me life, and I will give you all my wealth!"

"Keep your wealth! You will give the prince all your strength."

Irmis pulled the deva out of the ground, but the treacherous deva attacked him again. Irmis lifted the deva and drove him into the ground up to his shoulders. Then the hundred-headed deva swore by the sky above and the earth below that he would give the prince all his strength.

Irmis pulled the deva out of the ground, left him with the prince, and went off to hunt. He returned by evening and saw the prince lying on a pile of ashes, barely alive. The hundred-headed deva had drained his strength. Furious, Irmis attacked the deva and pinned him to the ground.

"Why did you break your word, you wretch?! I'll drive you into the ground up to your neck, and you'll obey me!"

The deva trembled with fear and immediately restored the prince's strength, even giving him his own.

Irmis and the prince took the captive girl with them and continued on their way.

They had not gone far from the hundred-headed deva's home when a hurricane-like wind swept over them. Devkazhiani (Devkazhiani—the Flint Dev) swooped down, snatched the girl, and soared back into the sky.

The friends returned to the hundred-headed deva and asked how to find the way to Devkazhiani. The deva pointed out the path and said:

"You may reach his dwelling, but you will not enter. You cannot catch Devkazhiani, nor defeat him. Even devas cannot handle him; he will hurl black clouds at you!"

"Our arrows will pierce the clouds, and our swords will pierce Devkazhiani!" replied Irmis.

"Neither sword nor arrow can harm Devkazhiani, for his soul is not within him. The soul of Devkazhiani lies within a nine-headed deva, beyond nine mountains on the Black Mountain, guarded by the Immortal Deer."

The friends set off to find Devkazhiani. They walked and walked until they finally reached a round mountain where the invincible deva lived.

Inside the mountain, everything rumbled, and flames erupted from the peak—this was Devkazhiani breathing. Irmis and the prince circled the mountain but found no entrance; there was no way in!

They then set out to find the nine-headed deva. The young men crossed nine mountains, and beyond the ninth lay an endless field, and beyond the field—the Black Mountain. In the field, three hundred mowers were cutting grass and stacking it into three haystacks. Irmis approached them and greeted them.

"Why do you need so much grass?" he asked.

"To feed the Immortal Deer. He descends from the Black Mountain once a day and eats three haystacks in three minutes. If we don't cut enough, he will trample us all," replied the mowers.

"Enough mowing! Gather the grass in armfuls and go back beyond the nine mountains!" ordered Irmis.

The mowers refused to leave, fearing the Immortal Deer. Irmis and the prince took their sickles and threw them beyond the Black Mountain. They drove the mowers from the field and forced them to carry away the cut grass. Then they hid themselves in the tall grass and waited for the deer.

The Immortal Deer descended from the Black Mountain and chased after the mowers. As soon as the deer disappeared from sight, the young men jumped up and raced to the Black Mountain. They climbed to the summit but could not take another step—they were blinded by the bright light of the nine-headed deva! The deva hung from a tree, glowing with a blinding light.

Irmis somehow managed to approach the deva, cut the rope with his sword, and the monstrous creature crashed to the ground. As soon as it fell, the light ceased. Irmis cleaved the deva in two, thus destroying the soul of Devkazhiani.

Irmis and the prince returned to the round mountain and saw that flames no longer erupted from the peak, and the rumbling from within had ceased.

Irmis descended through an opening into the mountain and brought out the captive girl.

The three of them set off again.

They walked from morning till evening. Night fell, and the travelers lay down to sleep under a plane tree. Irmis lay awake, not closing his eyes, fearing the girl might be kidnapped again.

At midnight, evil kajis (Kajis—evil humanoid creatures) perched on the plane tree. They saw the people and cursed them:

"May the prince stumble and die near his home," said one.

"May the girl break her leg when she puts on golden shoes," said another.

"May a gvelveshapi (Gvelveshapi—a winged serpent-dragon) swoop down on the palace at night and swallow them all," added the third. "And whoever hears us and speaks of it shall turn into a shadow-stone."

Irmis heard it all. In the morning, he said nothing to the prince or the girl. He feared turning into a shadow-stone.

After a long journey, the friends reached home. As soon as they stepped onto the royal courtyard, the prince stumbled, but Irmis caught him and prevented his fall.

The king was overjoyed to see his son safe and sound. He took a liking to the beautiful girl and immediately decided to marry her to the prince. He ordered his servants to bring her golden shoes.

The girl took the golden shoes and was about to put them on, but Irmis snatched them from her and stomped them into the ground. The girl was offended and stopped speaking to Irmis.

Night fell. Everyone went to sleep. Irmis stayed awake, guarding the palace.

Suddenly, the air buzzed and whistled, and the ground trembled—a gvelveshapi was flying toward the palace! Irmis swung his sword and with a single stroke cleaved the monster in two—like two mountains crashing to the ground.

In the morning, the prince began to question how Irmis had known about the gvelveshapi. Irmis said nothing.

The prince was offended and also stopped speaking to his friend.

Irmis could not bear it and told them what he had heard from the evil kajis. As he spoke the last word, he turned into a shadow-stone.

The girl saw this and wept bitterly. Her tear fell on the shadow-stone, and Irmis came back to life, to the great joy of the girl and the prince.

↑ To the top

Irmis (Belonging to the Deer)

More fairy tales