Ossetian fairy tales in English

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The deer thought to himself: “How can that hedgehog outrun me?” And so he agreed.

And they lined up and said: “Let's run!” and they started running. The deer rushed forward with all his might, and the hedgehog ducked into the hedgerow and hid there.

When the deer reached the mound, the hedgehog said to him:

– “Where did you disappear? I am already waiting for you!”

The deer was very surprised:

– “Let's run again!” asked he the hedgehog.

– “All right”, – said the hedgehog. “Let's run back to our mound!”

The deer started to run, and the second hedgehog also snuck into the bush and hid. The deer ran as fast as he could, but when he reached the mound, he was surprised to see the hedgehog there.

– “Why are you so late”, – the hedgehog said to him, “I've been here for a long time!”

So the deer lost the bet, and the hedgehogs slaughtered him. They hid the carcass of the deer and went to the forest to look for honey. They found honey in a high hollow tree, took out the honeycomb and sat down in the tree.

Meanwhile, a bear was passing by the area. When he saw the hedgehogs, they had already been eating the honey.

– “Give me some honey too!” – asked the bear.

And they answered him:

– “Get it yourself!”

– “Show me where the honey is!” – said the bear to them.

– “There, you see, in the tree, the bees are flying there.” The bear climbed up the tree, took out some honeycomb and asked the hedgehogs:

– “How do I get them down?”

– “Lie down on your back and put the honeycomb on your chest, so you can bring them down to the ground.”

The bear obeyed the hedgehogs' advice. He lay down on his back, flew down from the top of the tree and crashed to his death.

The hedgehogs slaughtered the bear; they also brought the carcass of a deer. They made ahsarfambals from the deer's lungs, piled the honey on the bear's chest and prayed to the God:

– “O God, we thank Thee! You saved us, and we fulfill our word to you: we give thanks with honey on the bear's chest and ahsarfambals made of reindeer lungs!”

Widow's son

Once upon a time there lived a sorceress and Verahan the beautiful, the daughter of an aldar, a recluse of the tower. She was an unusually slender girl. Word about her spread throughout the world. The aldar did not give her away to anyone, though many people were trying to marry her. He kept her in a tower, and the tower was such that no one could find its doors without destroying its top.

One day the aldar announced:

– “I will only marry my daughter to the man who can destroy her tower.”

And the tower was unusually tall. The aldar gave a deadline of two days:

– “Whoever can destroy the tower will be my son-in-law”, – he said. “Let everyone try his prowess!”

The suitors began to flock from all sides. There were suitors from the Nart people. The sorceress's son showed up too. Everyone wanted to destroy the tower of the aldar daughter, but none of the suitors could think of a way.

The sorceress's son began to go around the people, hoping to find a good man among them. He entered a small house and found a widow with a boy lying in a cradle in front of her.

– “Do you have no one else?” – asked the sorceress's son.

– “There is no one else besides this child and myself”, – the widow answered him.

Then the boy in the cradle tore his bandages and turned to the son of the sorceress:

– “I am ready to fulfill your wishes!”

(And this boy was pointed out to her son by his mother, the sorceress: “There is such a young man born there, check him up!”) The son of the sorceress rejoiced and said to the boy:

– “May God give you years of life! You are the one I need, you will be useful to me.”

The boy made himself dressed and said;

– “I'm going out of the house!”

The sorceress's son took him, and they appeared before the assembled people. And on the way, the sorceress's son made a deal with the boy:

– “We shall do this in such a way: I will load a cannon with you and shoot you at the top of the tower. Maybe you'll be able to destroy it. There is no other means.”

– “All right!” – said the boy. “That's a good idea! I agree; if I get to the top of the tower and hold on there, I will proceed to destroy it with my heels; but if I fall off-anything is possible-then you be sagacious and don't let me touch the ground, or it will be my death.”

And he also added:

– “When you carry me, do not put me to the ground until you have carried me across the seven rivers.”

They loaded a cannon with the boy and shot him at the top of the tower. The boy got there, began to strike his heel from one side or the other and thus destroyed the tower. And the sorceress's son was watching him from below, making sure that he did not fall from there. Then the tower began to shake and the boy fell from it. The sorceress's son put up his hem, caught the boy and began to carry him across the rivers. When the sorceress's son carried him across the second river, Sirdon, the evil man, learned that if the boy was put on the ground, he would die and the girl would not go to the sorceress's son.

So Sirdon decided to deceive him. To prevent the sorceress's son from recognizing him, Sirdon changed his clothes and took on a different appearance.

The sorceress's son had already carried the boy across the second river and across the third. Then Sirdon was ahead of him and said:

– “Good man, where else are you carrying him? He is already dead, and the tower has already been destroyed, and the girl is passing by you into someone else's hands.”

But the sorceress's son did not believe him and carried the boy further. He carried him across another river – the fourth. He kept on his way, carrying the boy who had fallen from the tower.

Meanwhile, Sirdon again took on a different appearance and once again outpaced the sorceress's son:

– “Drop the dead man!” – he said to him. “You'll miss the girl!”

The sorceress's son was doubtful: perhaps it was true. But still he did not leave the boy.

When the sorceress's son was carrying the boy across the sixth river, Sirdon, taking on a different appearance, again overtook him and said:

– “What a madman you are, good man! You keep carrying a dead man! The girl will obviously go to one of the Nart people, and you will be left with nothing!”

This time the sorceress's son believed Sirdon and said to himself:

– “Indeed, if it came to that, where am I carrying this dead man? And I'm also losing a girl!”

He put the dead man on the ground and turned back to the tower.

Then the sorceress's son guessed:

– “It's all Sirdon's fault! And I have ruined the boy and achieved nothing!”

He came back, stood over the dead man and thought: “What else should I do? Take him to his mother? But what shall I tell her?”

Suddenly he remembered:

– “We have a felt whip, let me try it out! He came back and told his mother what had happened.”

– “I've come back for the felt whip”, – he said to his mother. “Will she be able to help the boy or not?”

His mother said to him:

– “You must try it, take it with you!”

The sorceress's son took the felt whip with him and hurried back to the place where he had left the dead man. He arrived there, struck the dead man several times with the felt whip and said:

– “May God turn you into what you were before!”

The boy raised himself up and said:

– “Oof, oof, how long I slept!”

The sorceress's son told him how it was, what had happened to him. The boy said to the sorceress's son:

– “If so, carry me across two more rivers, otherwise my case will be bad.”

The sorceress's son took the boy and carried him across two more rivers.

In the meantime, Sirdon tells the Narts:

– “I made him put the boy on the ground, and now, if it pleases the God, the girl will be ours.”

The Narts rejoiced and were happy.

Then the son of the sorceress appeared with the boy and asked the Narts:

– “What makes you happy, Narts? What are you happy about?”

– “What makes us happy? – replied the Narts. “Now we shall have Verahan!”

– “Well, all right”, – said the sorceress's son. “Let's see who is the bravest among us.”

The evening came and the aldar again informed the people:

– “Whoever still wants to try his luck, let him come tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”

The sorceress's son took the boy not to the place where he was born, but to his home. He told his mother not to worry, her boy would sleep at his place tonight. He left food for the widow to eat and returned home.

After feeding the boy, he began to admonish him:

– “We must think about what we must do tomorrow. We shall load you into the cannon again and shoot you so that you will hit the top of the tower.”

On the second day, when the people were again gathered at the tower, the son of the sorceress brought the boy there and said to him:

– “Don't spare your strength! If we do not succeed this time, it will be more difficult.”

– “Do not doubt me”, – he replied. “Make sure that I get to the top of the tower, and then it will be what God wants.”

The people gathered in great numbers watched the son of the sorceress and the boy; the Narts were afraid that the girl would fall to them.

The sorceress's son loaded a cannon with the boy and fired. The boy found himself on the tower and started throwing it in all directions. People marveled at him, and the aldar himself marveled.

He destroyed the tower as he had to, as it had been agreed. The aldar stood up, took his daughter by the hand, led her out and said:

– “Today I recognize my son-in-law.” And the sorceress's son said:

– “She can't be given away as a boy; after all, everything has been done thanks to me!”

– “I recognize no one but this boy!” – replied the aldar. “My son-in-law is the one who destroyed the tower! Gather on such a day that I may meet my son-in-law!”

The appointed day came. The aldar prepared many kosarts, set tables, and the people sat down to feast. The sorceress's son also sat at the table, but he had not brought the boy with him.

The aldar handed his daughter a glass and said:

– “My daughter herself knows her soulmate. Whoever she hands the glass to will be her husband.”

The aldar's daughter went out with the glass, went around, looked at everyone, but did not hand the glass to anyone, turned back and sadly went to her room. She paid no attention to the son of the sorceress, who was sitting at the table, she did not even look at him.

The aldar gave an order:

– “Gather tomorrow everyone, adults and non-adults, worthy and unworthy – all without distinction!”

Again he set the tables. They gathered all the people they could. And the boy dressed himself in the clothes of a beggar and came to the feast; he tied a ring on his finger with a rag, saying that he had cut his hand.

People sat down at the tables. The girl took out a ladle of beer – a glass of honor – and began to walk around the tables, looking at people intently. But her gaze stopped on no one.