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16 2 ELENA THE BEAUTIFUL M. M. Korguev So in no certain tsardom, in no certain country, there lived and dwelt a tsar. The tsar had three sons. The oldest was Vasilii, the middle one Fedor, and the youngest, as is always the case in stories, was Ivan. (Without an Ivan a tale rarely exists.) So when these sons were already grown up, the tsar summoned all three and announced this thing: “Now, my young sons, my dear ones, do you know what? Before I become old, I have a desire to marry you off and look upon your little children as my little grandchildren.” The sons answered: “Well, that’s fine, Father, bless us; whom shall we marry?” Their father answered them thusly: “So now then, my sons, you yourselves choose your own brides. You will have to live with them, not I. That is my advice.” “But of course not, Father, we would like to find out who it would be desirable for us to marry.” “Well then, I’ll likely say this to you: Take, make yourselves a selfshooting arrow each and shoot; wherever your arrows land, there you will find the one you are fated to marry. Let it fall into a peasant’s yard or a priest’s, or even into a prince’s—wherever that arrow falls, there will be your fate to marry.” So, the lads thanked their father. They set off, and each made himself a self-shooting arrow. They shot them off, and set off after the arrows to find out where their brides were. The oldest one’s, Vasilii’s, arrow landed in a king’s courtyard. The middle son’s, Fedor’s, landed in a prince’s courtyard. Those two set off after their arrows and got married there. But the youngest one’s, Ivan’s, rose up and flew away, and he himself didn’t know where. He had to go out in its direction, following his arrow. So he walked, and he walked. He went out of the city and headed off in the direction of the Elena the Beautiful 17 forest. And he saw that there was a large swamp in the forest. And in the swamp was a small hut, and he saw his arrow on that hut. So yes, he went up to that hut and got onto the roof, took it down from the roof and was about to return home. As he was about to leave, suddenly an old, really old woman came out and said, “Well, Ivan Tsarevich, since you came here for your little arrow, it means that fate has drawn you to me. You are obliged to marry me according to your father’s benediction.” He looked at her and said, “Can it be that I’ve come to such an old woman? Why, you don’t have a single tooth in your mouth, and you can’t even walk. I don’t need you, I won’t take you.” “Well, don’t take me then, as you wish. But once your father ordained it, you have to take me. And if you won’t take me, nonetheless you won’t get away from me.” And he said, “No, I won’t have you. I’ll go away.” And he set off. But he couldn’t get away; he was stuck in the swamp. So then she came up closer to him and said, “Well, you’ll take me or else you’ll drown; and if you won’t take me, nonetheless you’ll drown. You won’t go anywhere away from me.” And so he thought about it for a little while. “Well, so I’m to perish here, but I’ve a desire to live a while. Oh, the devil take her, I’ll marry her, but I’ll never cohabit with her.” Then he said, “Well, all right, go on, the devil take you, I’ll marry you.” And then immediately he was on firm ground. So they went along, and she said to him along the way, “So, Ivan Tsarevich, although you took me, you don’t know how to keep me.” (Why she said that will be clear later on.) He went on ahead and didn’t even look about, and he thought to himself , “It’s all the same, I won’t live with you.” And then soon they came to the tsardom. He led her into a room, left her, and then...

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