Ukrainian Folk Tale
Read by: Honored Artist of Ukraine Mykhailo Voichuk
Once upon a time, there lived a man and a woman with two sons and a daughter.
One day, the father sent his sons to plow the field.
“Who’ll bring us lunch?” they asked.
“Your sister,” said their father.
“But I don’t know the way,” said the girl.
“When you reach the hill,” her brothers told her, “you’ll see three roads. Follow the one with wood shavings on it — that’s ours.”
But a Serpent saw the brothers shaving sticks as they went. He gathered up the shavings and scattered them along the road that led straight to his cave.
The mother cooked lunch and sent the girl off with it. The girl climbed the hill and followed the road with the shavings. She came to the cave, and the Serpent grabbed her and dragged her inside.
The brothers waited and waited for lunch. Then they unyoked the oxen, let them graze, and went home.
“Where’s our lunch, Mother?” they asked.
“I sent it with your sister long ago,” she said.
They waited for her all evening, but she never returned.
The next morning, they said, “That cursed Serpent must have taken her!”
So they dressed and set out to find her.
They walked and walked until they met a herdsman tending his cattle.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To the Serpent’s cave — to rescue our sister.”
“If you want to defeat the Serpent,” said the herdsman, “eat my biggest ox.”
But they refused and went on.
Soon they met a shepherd with his flock.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Serpent — to rescue our sister.”
“Then eat my biggest ram, and you’ll succeed.”
They refused and went on.
Then they met a swineherd tending his pigs.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Serpent — to rescue our sister.”
“Then eat my biggest boar, and you’ll succeed.”
They refused and went on.
At last they came to the Serpent’s house.
“Well, well,” said the Serpent, “what brings you here?”
“We’ve come for our sister.”
“If you want her back,” said the Serpent, “eat twelve oxen, twelve rams, and twelve boars.”
They each ate a tiny bit and couldn’t eat more. So the Serpent threw them into an underground pit and rolled a great stone over them.
Their mother wept bitterly — she had neither sons nor daughter. One day she went to draw water. As she poured it into a barrel, the barrel rolled away into the garden without her noticing. When she came home, the barrel was gone, and in the bucket she found a single pea. She ate it — and from that pea, a son was born. She named him Pokotyhoroshko, “Little Rolling Pea.”
He grew not by the day, but by the minute.
One evening at supper he asked,
“Mother, did you have other children?”
“I had two sons and a daughter.”
“Where are they?”
“The Serpent took my daughter, and my sons went after her — but none returned.”
After supper, Pokotyhoroshko stood up.
“Then I’ll go find them.”
He went to the blacksmith.
“Make me a mighty mace,” he said.
The blacksmith forged one. Pokotyhoroshko paid him and set out.
He met the herdsman.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Serpent — to rescue my sister.”
“Then eat my biggest ox, and you’ll succeed!”
Pokotyhoroshko ate it all, thanked him, and went on.
He met the shepherd.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Serpent — to rescue my sister.”
“Then eat my biggest ram, and you’ll succeed.”
He ate it all, thanked him, and went on.
He met the swineherd.
“Where are you going?”
“To the Serpent — to rescue my sister.”
“Then eat my biggest boar, and you’ll succeed.”
He ate it all, thanked him, and went on.
At last he reached the Serpent’s house. His sister was drawing water from a well.
“Hello, sister!” he said.
“What kind of brother are you to me?” she asked.
“You’ll soon see!” he replied.
Then the Serpent came out.
“Hello there!”
“Hello,” said Pokotyhoroshko.
“Why have you come?”
“For my sister and my brothers.”
“Then eat twelve oxen, twelve rams, and twelve boars.”
Pokotyhoroshko ate them all.
“Well done!” said the Serpent. “Shall we fight or make peace?”
“We’ll fight,” said Pokotyhoroshko. “I want no peace with you.”
“Then blow first,” said the Serpent.
“You blow first,” said Pokotyhoroshko. “It’s your home, not mine.”
The Serpent blew, and his threshing floor turned to iron. Pokotyhoroshko blew, and his turned to copper. Then Pokotyhoroshko struck the Serpent with his mace — the Serpent sank knee-deep into the earth. He struck again and killed him.
Pokotyhoroshko chopped the Serpent into pieces, scattered his ashes, freed his brothers from beneath the stone, and took them and his sister home.
Their father and mother rejoiced.
