Translation:Collection of Slavic Folk Tales/VII
THE SHEPHERD AND THE DRAGON
(SLOVAK TALE[1])
I
There was once a shepherd who, while tending his flock, played the flute; or else, lying on the ground, he gazed at the clouds, the mountains, the sheep, or the meadow.
One day, it was in autumn, at the time when snakes go to sleep in the earth, the good shepherd was lying on the ground, his head resting on his hand: he was dreaming.
Suddenly, oh wonder! here came masses of snakes from all directions, heading toward a rock that stood in front of the shepherd; each snake, upon reaching the rock, took a certain herb on its tongue and applied it to the rock. The rock opened, and the snakes disappeared one after another into its sides.
The shepherd stood up; he instructed his dog Dounaï to lead the flock home and walked toward the rock. — I must, he thought, see what this herb is and where these snakes are going.
He plucked a sprig of the herb and touched the rock, which opened.
He entered and found himself in a cave whose walls sparkled with gold and silver. In the middle of the cave was a golden throne; on this throne sat, coiled in a circle, a large snake: it was asleep. Around the table were gathered thousands of snakes: they too were asleep; not one stirred when the shepherd entered the cave.
This place pleased the shepherd at first; he walked around it several times, then he began to grow bored, remembered his sheep, and wanted to leave.
"I've seen," he said to himself, "what I wanted to see. Let's go."
It was easy to say: "Let's go." But how? The rock had closed behind the shepherd after he entered. He didn't know what to do or say to open it; he had to stay in the cave.
"So be it," he said, "let's sleep."
And he wrapped himself in his cloak, lay down, and fell asleep.
He had been dozing for a short time, or so it seemed to him, when a certain noise woke him. He looked around: he saw above him, around him, the sparkling walls, the golden throne, on the throne the old snake, around the throne the snakes licking the throne.
Suddenly the snakes asked:
"Is it time?"
The old snake let them speak, then slowly raised its head and said:
"It is time."
At these words, it stretched out from head to tail like a pole, descended from the throne to the ground, and headed toward the cave's entrance. The others followed.
The shepherd likewise stretched out at his ease, yawned, stood up, and followed the snakes.
"Where they go, I'll go too," he thought.
It was easy to say: "I'll go too." But how?
The old snake touched the rock, which opened, and went out with its companions. When the last one was outside, the shepherd tried to follow them; but the rock closed on his nose, and the old snake hissed at him:
"My friend, you must stay here."
"And what will I do? Your household is poorly run; I can't always sleep. Let me out. I have my flock at pasture, and at home a shrewish wife; she'd give me a fine dressing-down if I don't return on time!"
"You won't leave until you've sworn three times not to reveal to anyone where you've been or how you got in here."
What could he do? The shepherd swore three times to be allowed to leave.
"If you don't keep your oath, woe to you!" hissed the snake as it let him go.
There was our shepherd, free at last. But what a change! It was autumn, and now it was spring. His legs trembled with fear!
"Fool, fool that I am! I slept through the whole winter. What will my wife say?"
Thus reasoned our shepherd as he made his way back to his cottage.
He spotted his wife from afar; she seemed busy. Not yet ready for her reproaches, he hid in the sheepfold. While he was there, a fine gentleman approached his wife and asked where her husband was.
The wife began to cry and recounted how, last autumn, her husband had taken the sheep to the mountain and never returned. Perhaps wolves had devoured him; perhaps witches had torn him to pieces.
"Don't cry," shouted Master Shepherd, "I'm alive; the wolves didn't eat me, nor did the witches tear me to pieces. I spent the winter sleeping in the sheepfold."
But he had reckoned without his host.
As soon as she recognized her husband's voice, the shepherdess stopped crying and began to shout:
"May a thousand thunders crush you, fool! Some fine shepherd, by my faith! Abandoning his sheep to the mercy of God, lying in the fold, and sleeping like the snakes all winter!"
The shepherd admitted to himself that his wife was right; but, as he couldn't tell what had happened to him, he kept silent and didn't say a word.
But the fine gentleman told his wife that he hadn't slept in the fold, that he must have gone elsewhere, and that if he would say where he had been, he would give him a lot of money.
The shepherdess flew into a great rage against her husband and insisted on knowing where he had been. The fine gentleman sent her back to the house and promised her money to keep her quiet. He took it upon himself to extract the truth from the shepherd.
II
When the shepherdess had left, the fine gentleman resumed his true form and revealed what he really was, a mountain magician. The shepherd recognized him because magicians have three eyes. This magician was a very cunning man; he could take any form he wished. Woe to anyone who dared resist him!
The shepherd was very afraid of the magician; but he was even more afraid of his wife. The magician asked him where he had been, what he had seen. The shepherd was terrified by these questions. What could he say? He was afraid of the old snake and of breaking his oath. He was three times more afraid of the magician.
However, when the magician repeated his question three times, when he saw him rise and grow before him, he forgot his oath.
He recounted where he had been and how he had entered the rock.
"Good," said the magician. "Come with me. Show me the herb and the rock."
The shepherd followed him.
When they reached the rock, the shepherd plucked a sprig of the herb and touched the rock, which opened. But the magician didn't want the shepherd to enter; he himself didn't go in; he pulled a book from his pocket and began to read. The shepherd was white with fear.
Suddenly the earth trembled; hissing sounds came from the rock, and a dreadful dragon emerged from the cave. It was the old snake, which had just transformed itself thus. Its mouth spewed flames; its head was terrifying; it lashed its tail to the right and left. The tail broke the trees it touched.
"Throw this halter around its neck!" cried the magician to the shepherd.
And he gave him a kind of rope, without taking his eyes off his book. The shepherd took the rope but didn't dare approach the dragon. However, when the magician repeated the order two and three times, he resolved to obey. Poor shepherd! The dragon wrapped him in its coils, and before he had time to think, there he was, sitting on the monster's back and flying with it through the air.
At that moment, a deep darkness fell; but the fire from the dragon's eyes lit the aerial journey. The earth trembled, stones rolled through the air. The furious dragon lashed its tail from right to left; the trees it touched, it broke like twigs; it spewed water onto the earth like a torrent. It was the abomination of desolation. The shepherd was half-dead. Gradually, however, the monster's anger calmed. It stopped lashing its tail, pouring water on the earth, and shooting flames from its eyes. The shepherd came to himself; he hoped the dragon would descend. But his adventures were not over. The dragon still wanted to punish him. It rose higher and higher, ever higher; the mountains appeared to the shepherd like anthills… and the dragon kept climbing… The shepherd saw only the sun, the stars, and the clouds, and the dragon remained suspended in the air.
"My God! What will become of me? I'm suspended in the air; if I jump, I'll kill myself; I can't fly off into the sky."
Thus wailed the poor shepherd, and he began to weep bitterly.
The dragon didn't answer him.
"Dragon, Lord Dragon! Have pity on me," murmured the shepherd. "Let's go down; until my last day, I promise not to anger you."
A rock would have softened at these pleas. The dragon, however, said neither yes nor no; it didn't budge from its place.
Suddenly the shepherd heard the voice of a lark; it brought him great joy. The lark approached him. When it was very close, he cried to it:
"Lark, bird dear to God, I beg you, go to the Heavenly Father; tell him my plight. Tell him I wish him good day and that I beg him to help me."
The lark flew off and carried out the errand. The Eternal Father took pity on the shepherd; he wrote something in golden letters on a birch leaf, placed the leaf in the lark's beak, and ordered it to drop it on the dragon's head.
The lark flew off, dropped the letter written in golden letters on the dragon's head; at that very moment, the dragon and the shepherd fell to the ground.
When the shepherd came to himself, he saw that he was near his hut; he saw his dog Dounaï bringing his sheep back… To tell the whole truth, he saw that he had slept and had a dream. The tale is finished.
- ↑ The Slovaks are the Slavic people of northern Hungary, whose language is close to the Bohemian or Czech language.