Translation:Collection of Slavic Folk Tales/XXV
XXV
THE TWO BROTHERS
(SLOVAK TALE)
Once upon a time, there was a poor peasant: he had two sons, Jozka and Janko. Janko worked in the house; he was naive and clumsy: so they called him the Cinderlad. Jozka was an apprentice shoemaker; the time came for him to go on his journeyman's travels. He set off one fine morning; his mother had given him cakes she had baked, his father his blessing.
Off he went; he walked straight ahead, crossed a dark mountain, and arrived in a meadow. There, he took out his cakes and began to eat. A group of ants arrived and asked for food; he refused them even the crumbs and, worse still, trampled the ants underfoot. The ants shouted:
"Wait a bit: we won't come to your aid when you're in trouble."
Jozka paid little attention to this threat; he finished his meal and set off again: he reached the bank of a river. A fish had jumped out of the water onto the shore; it struggled in vain to get back. It asked Jozka for help; but the traveler had no pity for the poor fish, and, passing by, he kicked it.
"Wicked man!" cried the fish, "we won't help you."
He didn't even turn around and paid no attention to the fish's words.
He reached a crossroads: there, devils were arguing and fighting. Jozka watched them calmly and did nothing to separate them.
The devils shouted: "Wait a bit; you'll see, nothing will succeed for you in this world!"
"Why bother traveling? What do I need to see the world for?" Jozka said to himself.
He sat on the grass, finished his cakes, and returned home.
His younger brother Janko reproached him for failing at everything in the world.
"Well! Go out into the world yourself!" said his father. "We'll see what you bring back and if you can travel better than your brother."
He took him into his room, gave him, for his journey, water that healed all diseases, blessed him, and sent him to roam the world. His mother had baked him a loaf for the journey.
Janko Cinderlad set off and walked straight ahead, wherever his eyes led him. He reached the meadow where his brother Jozka had eaten the cakes. He sat down, and the same ants came around him. Janko took the bread from his sack, ate, and fed the ants. They thanked him, saying:
"Good Janko, we'll come to your aid."
Janko continued his journey. He reached a lake. There he saw a carp struggling on the shore. He threw it back into the water, saying: "Poor creature! Why should you suffer on land when you're made to live in water?"
"We'll come to your aid!" cried the carp.
Janko reached a crossroads; there, devils were quarreling and fighting.
Janko joined in, struck left and right, separated them, and restored peace among them.
"We'll come to your aid!" shouted the devils.
Janko noted this in his memory and continued his way.
He arrived at a town. He found everyone in mourning: the king's daughter was very ill, and no doctor knew how to cure her. Janko went to the inn and asked the innkeeper:
"What's the news?"
"Princess Julienne is dying. Whoever restores her health will marry her."
Janko remembered the marvelous water his father had given him.
"Announce me to the king," he said to the innkeeper, "and tell him I'm the greatest doctor in the world. I'll cure his daughter."
The innkeeper ran to the king.
"We have here," he said, "the greatest doctor in the world. He's staying at my inn."
The king, delighted, ordered Janko the Cinderlad to be brought.
Janko came and gave the princess a glass of the marvelous water, and she felt better at once. A few days later, she was cured.
But she had no desire to marry Doctor Janko. Her parents pressed her to keep the royal promise given to the greatest doctor in the world. The princess resisted.
"Fine," said Julienne, "I'll marry him, but only if he accomplishes three things I'll tell him."
"Good," replied Janko; "if these things are possible and God helps me, I'll do them."
The princess filled two sacks with tiny poppy seeds and two sacks with ashes. She mixed the poppy and ashes and said:
"Janko, by tomorrow morning, separate the poppy from the ashes, and I'm yours."
Janko was very worried. At home, he could barely shell beans, and now such a task! What to do?
He went to the meadow and began to cry like a child, praying to God for help.
Suddenly, thousands of ants swarmed around him:
"Don't despair, Janko; you helped us once; we'll help you today; by tomorrow morning, we'll have separated the poppy from the ashes."
Indeed, the ants set to work, and by the next morning, it was done.
The princess was astonished and even upset. She still didn't want to marry Janko and said to her parents who urged her:
"Fine, fine; we'll go to the wedding, but only when Janko brings me the most precious pearl from the bottom of the sea."
Janko resolved to satisfy her again; he went to the lake and wept bitterly. Suddenly, a fish jumped out of the water and said:
"Janko, why are you crying?"
"How could I not cry?" replied Janko, "when Princess Julienne puts me through such harsh trials and refuses me her hand unless I bring her the finest pearl?"
"Calm down, Janko; you know we'll help you."
And the fish brought him the desired pearl. It greatly pleased the princess; but she needed a third trial.
"I'll marry Janko," she said; "but he must bring me a rose from hell."
At the word "hell," Janko remembered the devils he had separated and reconciled. He ran to the place where he had met them and found the path to hell.
He knocked at the gate; the devils recognized him; he obtained what he desired: a beautiful rose from Lucifer's garden.
His face was blackened by hell's fire. He brought the rose to Julienne; the rose pleased her greatly, but Janko, black as a devil, didn't appeal to her much. Yet she had promised, she had to keep her word, and in time, she wasn't unhappy, for Janko was good.
The beautiful Julienne put on her finest clothes. On her bridal crown sparkled Janko's pearl and rose. Janko the Cinderlad, Janko the peasant's son, the man with a face blackened by hell's fire, also received splendid clothes, those of the king himself. He took Julienne's hand, and they went to the wedding. It was a wedding like few others: his parents and brother Jozka were invited. I was invited too, so I could testify everywhere that Janko the Cinderlad had finally found a wife, and what a wife! the princess Julienne.