The Tale of the Deev Who Wanted to Destroy the Miller's Son
Once upon a time, or perhaps not—there lived a king who had an only daughter. The king kept his daughter in a tall tower. Every day, he would visit her and weigh her to see if she had gained or lost weight.Not far from the castle lived a peasant miller, who also had an only son.
The miller died, leaving his son an orphan. Soon after, the boy’s mother passed away as well. The young man grew—some grow year by year, but he grew day by day.
The king’s daughter would watch from her castle and saw the young man every day. As she grew older, she fell in love with the miller’s son, but she feared her father, the king.
Eventually, the girl made up her mind and threw a letter to the young man.
The young man thought it over, then found a long rope, tied a stone to one end, and threw it up to her window.
The king’s daughter caught the rope and tied it to the leg of her table. The young man climbed up the rope, and they began living together in the tower. Whenever the king came to visit, the young man would hide.
The king kept weighing his daughter and soon noticed that she had gained a significant amount of weight.
The daughter realized her father was suspicious and told the young man:
“We need to run away.”
They climbed down the rope, and the miller’s son led his wife to his humble hut.
The king was informed that his daughter was no longer in the tower.
The king sent messengers in all directions to find out where she was. His servants discovered that she was living in the hut of the miller’s son.
The king sent seven of his courtiers to retrieve his daughter and the young man and bring them to him.
The courtiers went. The miller’s son was outside, washing himself. When the courtiers saw him, they rushed to seize him.
He dashed into the house, grabbed a saber, and cut down all but one of them.
“Go tell your king not to send anyone else,” he said to the survivor. “She is my wife and will live with me.”
The king was furious and ordered twelve courtiers to arm themselves and capture him.
They arrived and tried to seize him, but it was no use. He drew his saber, killed eleven of them, and left the twelfth alive, saying:
“Go tell your king not to send anyone else.”
His wife then said to him:
“Let’s leave this place. My father will never give us peace.”
He agreed. They gathered their belongings and left.
The young man shot an arrow, deciding that wherever it landed, they would settle. The arrow flew over nine tall mountains and fell near the house of nine demon brothers.
The demons saw the arrow land in their yard and ran to pull it out of the ground, but they couldn’t move it.
The husband and wife arrived. The demons looked at them and said:
“Here’s our dinner.”
The young man pulled the arrow from the ground with ease and bowed to the demons. The demons were amazed—nine of them couldn’t move the arrow, but he had yanked it out with one hand.
They decided:
“Let’s test him to see if he’s really that strong.”
The demons had a cauldron they used for cooking. All nine of them would struggle to lift it onto the fire.
They said to the young man:
“Take that cauldron off the fire.”
He walked over, grabbed the cauldron, and lifted it in an instant.
The demons realized the young man was strong and that they couldn’t defeat him, so they decided to live in peace with him. However, they couldn’t resist arguing with him and started a fight.
The miller’s son killed eight of the demons, but the ninth, a lame demon, hid in a pit and survived.
The husband and wife inherited all the demons’ possessions.
They lived quietly and happily.
Soon, the young man wanted to go hunting and told his wife:
“Listen, don’t open the door unless I knock three times, so no stranger can enter.”
The lame demon overheard this.
When the husband left for the hunt, the demon crawled out of his pit, approached the door, and knocked three times, just as the husband had instructed.
The wife realized it wasn’t her husband and didn’t open the door.
The demon pleaded:
“I love you. If you won’t open the door, at least stick your little finger through the crack so I can kiss it and leave.”
She stuck her little finger through the crack, and the demon bit it. She screamed in pain.
“Open the door,” the demon said, “or I’ll bite your finger off.”
She couldn’t bear it and opened the door.
The demon entered.
When the husband returned that evening, he knocked. She let him in, but the demon had already hidden.
The next morning, the husband went hunting again.
The lame demon and the wife were alone, and the demon said:
“We need to kill him.”
“How?” she asked.
The demon instructed her:
“When he returns, pretend to be sick. If he asks what’s wrong and what will cure you, tell him there’s a wild boar, and only its liver can heal you: ‘If you bring the liver, I’ll recover; if not, I’ll die.’ He’ll go after the boar and perish. We’ll be rid of him.”
The husband returned from the hunt. He entered the house and saw his wife lying there, moaning as if she were dying.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
His wife replied:
“I’ve heard there’s a wild boar. If you bring me its liver, I’ll recover; if not, I’ll die.”
The boar lived in the forest under an oak tree.
The young man went to the forest, climbed the oak, and waited. The boar sensed a human presence and charged toward the tree. It saw the man in the branches.
The boar charged at the tree, slashing the trunk halfway through with its tusks. It charged again, missed in its fury, and drove its tusks into the roots, unable to move.
The young man climbed down to a lower branch, poked the boar with his saber, teasing it, waiting to see if it would free its tusks. The boar struggled but couldn’t pull its tusks from the roots.
The young man then jumped down, swung his saber, and cut off the boar’s head. He split the boar in two, took its liver, and left.
He returned and knocked on the door. His wife and the demon were enjoying themselves, thinking he was already dead.
They heard the knock and jumped up. The demon hid, and the wife opened the door.
The husband cooked the boar’s liver and fed it to his wife, and she recovered.
The next morning, the husband went hunting again. The demon came out and instructed the wife to pretend to be sick once more and tell her husband that only the liver of a wild deer could cure her.
“He’ll go after the deer and meet his death there. We’ll be rid of him.”
The husband returned from the hunt, and again his wife was moaning:
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
---
Let me know if you’d like me to continue!
— Bring me the liver of a wild deer. If you bring it, I will recover; if not, I will die,— says the wife.
So he went hunting for that wild deer.
Whether he walked for a long time or not, he eventually reached a mountain. In front of the mountain was a field, and in the field, twelve mowers were cutting grass without straightening their backs.
The young man shouted:
— Peace be with you!
The mowers did not respond. He shouted a second time:
— Peace be with you!
Only one of them replied:
— What peace is there! If we don’t cut all the grass in the field by evening and stack three haystacks, the deer will come, kill us all, and eat us.
The young man said:
— Come to me, all of you.
They approached him. He sat them down and asked how and from which direction the deer came.
After learning everything, he took a scythe from one of the mowers, cut all the grass, tied three haystacks, and placed one on the side where the deer would come, another in the middle, and the third at the end. He hid himself under the third haystack.
The deer appeared. It swallowed the first haystack, then the second, and approached the third. The young man jumped out, shot an arrow, and brought down the deer.
They skinned the deer and butchered it. The young man took the liver and headed home.
Meanwhile, his wife and a demon were sitting together, rejoicing, thinking he would never return alive.
Suddenly, they heard him knocking.
The demon hid. The wife opened the door, and he entered. He cooked the liver, gave it to his wife, and she recovered.
The young man went hunting again, and the demon said to the wife:
— Pretend to be sick once more. When he asks what’s wrong, tell him only the water of immortality can cure you. He will go for the water, and he will never return. Then we will be alone.
The husband returned home, and his wife was sick again.
— What’s wrong with you? — asked the husband.
— Oh,— said the wife,— if you bring me the water of immortality, I will recover; if not, I will die.
He set off and on his way met a horse. The horse was magical and said to the young man:
— You won’t reach that place without me. Get on, and I’ll take you.
The young man was delighted.
He mounted the horse. They rode and rode until they saw a cliff. The cliff split open and then closed again.
The horse said:
— Strike me three times, hard enough to tear three strips of skin from me.
As the cliff split open, the young man struck the horse three times. The horse leaped and flew through the cliff, losing only its tail.
They rode on. Soon, they saw a huge bonfire blocking their path, impossible to go around.
The horse said:
— Strike me on the other side, hard enough to tear three strips of skin.
The young man struck the horse, and it leaped over the bonfire.
They reached the place where the water of immortality gushed from a spring.
The young man unbridled the horse, let it graze, approached the water, washed his face, drank, lay down to rest, and fell asleep.
Nearby stood a large four-story house. In it lived a sorceress and her seven apprentices.
The sorceress sensed that a young man had arrived and sent one of her apprentices to find out who he was.
The girl came, saw the young man, and was struck by his beauty. She stood there, mesmerized, unable to move.
The sorceress sent a second, then a third, and a fourth girl. None returned.
All seven girls, upon seeing the young man, were spellbound and couldn’t move.
The sorceress went herself.
She sent her apprentices away, woke the young man, and said (being a sorceress, she knew everything):
— Your wife is unfaithful; she loves the demon. They plan to destroy you. Do not return to them.
He didn’t believe her. He filled a jug with the water of immortality, mounted his horse, and rode back. He arrived and knocked.
The demon hid again, and the wife opened the door. She drank the water and recovered.
The next day, after he left for hunting, the demon said to the wife:
— We won’t destroy him unless we learn the source of his strength.
When the husband returned, his wife greeted him warmly, caressing and embracing him, and asked:
— Tell me, where does your strength lie?
He laughed and said:
— My strength is in my fingers.
— Well, wrap them in rope and see if you can break it.
She wrapped his fingers in rope. He moved his fingers and tore the ropes apart.
— Where does your strength lie? — she asked again.
— In my shoulders,— he said.
— Well, sit in this cauldron, move your shoulders, and break it,— said the wife.
He sat in the cauldron (a large one the demons used for porridge), and the demon jumped out, closed the lid with the wife, and nailed it shut. The limping demon carried the cauldron on his back.
He carried it to a cliff and threw it into an abyss so deep the bottom couldn’t be seen, then went home.
At the bottom of the abyss was a river, flowing past the place where the water of immortality was and where the sorceress lived.
The sorceress called her apprentices:
— Go, something is floating in the river. Take a look.
The apprentices went, brought the cauldron ashore, and took it to the sorceress. They opened the lid and found the young man inside, no longer breathing, beaten and broken.
The sorceress cut him into pieces, washed them in the water of immortality, reassembled him, and brought him back to life. The young man woke up and stood; the sorceress rejoiced, embracing and kissing him.
He said:
— I didn’t believe you, but you told me the truth. I will go now, deal with them, return, and we will marry and live together.
He left. Entering his house, he saw the demon and his wife sitting together, rejoicing, glad they had killed him.
He approached, grabbed the demon by the leg, pinned the other leg to the ground, and tore him in two. Then he killed his wife.
He returned to the sorceress and married her.
They celebrated a grand wedding.
And I was at that wedding, drank wine, and won one of the apprentices as my wife.
More fairy tales
- The Lion and the Hare
- The Ungrateful Tsar and the Clever Peasant's Son
- Fox's Tricks
- The Horned King
- Three Brothers and the Bald Trickster
