Ossetian fairy tales in English

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.