J41D. Throwing up the club, he exposes his forehead.

.14.-.16.27.-.29.31.32.

The strongman orders an iron club (sword, etc.) of monstrous size to be made, but breaks it and demands a new, even heavier one (often he throws it into the air and exposes his forehead, etc. - the club breaks).

Kabyles, Basques, Bretons, Germans (Pomerania), Serbs, Russians (Nizovaya Pechora, Vologda, Tula), Ukrainians (Chernigov, north and southeast of Kyiv, Yekaterinoslav), Belarusians, Slovaks, Kalmyks, Abkhazians, Turks, Latvians, Lutsi, Mordvins.

North Africa. Kabyles [a daughter asks her father to bring her invisible trousers from the market that dance by themselves; he couldn’t get them, the daughter fell ill; he was advised to go to Wuarssen (devas); the dev gives the trousers in exchange for a promise to give her his daughter; the father: come when there is snow, rain, thunder and lightning together; he came in a storm, took the girl; her three brothers went to look for her; a sheepherder: the dev fights with a ram every day, their forces are equal, if you defeat the ram, you will defeat the dev; the ram picks up the brothers with his horns, throws them far; the same with the bull; the rooster refuses to fight such nonentities at all; a black woman: the dev drinks a cup of water, eats the melons floating in it; the brothers can’t; they come to their sister; the dev offers them to eat a lot, the sister throws the food into the cellar; offers to fight, they choose sabres; the dev throws the brothers into a dry well; parents go to look for sons, father looks for water, mother drinks mule's urine, conceives son; they return; M'hammed Asserdun is born, he has a mule's head; incredibly strong; 99 horses broke under him; his father found him a horse born at the same time as him; MA asks his mother for boiling water, tells her to get a coal out of it, puts her hand in boiling water; she has to tell which direction the brothers went; tells her to forge an iron club (he broke the first two); easily kills a ram, a bull, a rooster; drinks water, eats melons; swallows food in the house of a deva; kills him, brings his sister and brothers home; MA leaves again, meets, takes as a companion a man with giant lips; a man with ears in which he wraps himself; with a beard in which there is a flock of rams; they find a house in the forest, stay in turns to cook; Luash comes each time, eats everything; MA fights with him, cuts off his head, hides it in the house under a pot of water; successively sends companions to get water, each gets scared, says that he tripped; MA shows his head, in the morning parts with his companions]: Frobenius 1922a, No. 6: 52-66.

Southern Europe. Basques [a girl was kidnapped by a bear, she gave birth to a son; he moved a rock blocking the entrance to a cave, killed the bear, to a village; too strong; asks to make him a hammer, breaks it; another, heavier one – good; goes wandering; meets, takes as a companion a man who propped up a rock so that it would not fall on a church; who leveled mountains; they see a crack in the ground; one is lowered, he orders to raise it back; then Juan Oso (XO), breaks down the door below, the princess is behind it; she orders to choose a rusty sword, if the devil offers a choice; XO takes the rusty one, cuts off the devil's ear; the companions have left, there is no rope; XO bites the devil's ear, he appears, throws them to the ground; XO forgot his hammer below, the devil brings it; they come to the princess's village; she says that she is cursed, because dropped the icon (? habiendo recibido al Señor y llevado en la boca del portico de la iglesia, lo lancé fuera); XO says that under the stone of the portico there is a toad, in its mouth the thrown thing; the princess got it, married XO]: Barandiaran 1962a, no. 29: 108-112.

Western Europe. Bretons [when a strongman was 10 years old, he tried to pull out an oak tree: the roots trembled; at 15 - almost pulled it out, at 18 - pulled it out like a straw; ordered a huge iron club from a blacksmith; tossed it up and put his knee under it - it broke; he forged a heavier one - the same; even heavier - only it bent; meets, takes as a companion a woodcutter carrying an armful of trees; tosses millstones; began to live in a forest castle, took turns cooking; an old man with a beard 7 times longer than his body comes down from the chimney, throws the cook under a stone slab, pours out the soup; when it is the strongman's turn, he hits the old man with a club, nails him by the beard, goes to call his comrades, but the old man tore off his beard and left; they followed the bloody trail to a cave; only the strongman climbed down on a rope; there is a castle; the strongman threw the guards aside, entered; the old man is in bed, three beautiful daughters of the captured baron are wiping his face; the strongman sends two up, the companions do not lower the rope any further; for a promise not to kill the old man, he gives a key: if you direct it up, you will find yourself on the ground; the strongman rose together with the baron and his youngest daughter; beat up the traitors, married the baron's daughter; the storyteller was at the wedding]: Postic 1998: 185-191; Germans(Pomerania) [a son born to a peasant immediately walks and talks; tells the pastor to name him Sonderbar ("extraordinary", Z.); his parents give him provisions and send him on a journey; carries loaded carts across water; orders a huge iron club from a blacksmith; bends it by hitting it on a rock; orders a new one - even heavier; meets and takes as a companion 1) a man who stacks mountains one on top of another; 2) a man who uproots trees; a man who juggles millstones; gives everyone his club to hold: it is beyond their strength; noticing a light from a tree, the strongmen come to a house; it contains a kitchen and a room; they hunt and take turns staying to cook; a dwarf comes, asks for food, hits the cook and eats everything; Z. pinches the dwarf's beard, splitting the tree and knocking out a wedge; he tore off his beard and left; a bloody trail leads to a hole in the ground; there is also a rope with a basket; the companions cannot, Z. descends; he descended for so long that winter and summer changed; to check the companions, Z. sent a stone up in the basket; they cut the rope, the stone fell and smashed to pieces; the princess is in the castle, there are three bridges leading to it, along them are three-, six-, nine-headed dragons; Z. easily killed the three-headed one and with difficulty - the six-headed one; the princess gave him some strong water to drink, Z. managed to lift the sword that hung over the well; Z. waited until the 9-headed one fell asleep, putting his heads on the princess's lap, threw it away and cut off the heads; dwarf: in order to return to earth, you need to feed the chicks of a huge bird; its flight to the upper world lasts so long that the chicks die of hunger every time; Z. fed the chicks, they hid him and he opened after the father bird promised that he would not eat him; he took Z. and the princess in his claws and flew away; Z. threw him food, a piece was missing, cut off the legs from the calf; this piece is especially tasty; having learned what was going on, the bird regurgitated it and put it back; Z. killed the traitorous companions with a club, brought the princess to her father and married her; they are alive, if not dead]: Jahn 1891, No. 19: 120-128.

Balkans. Serbs (Herzegovina) [a bear stole a woman, she gave birth to a son, ran away; the bear let the youth go wandering after he managed to pull out a beech tree; Medvedovich eats the food brought for many ploughmen, they give him the iron from the ploughs, he orders a blacksmith to forge a club, he hides half of the iron, M. throws the club into the sky, it falls on his back, breaks; he kills the blacksmith, takes the iron he stole, goes to another; the club does not break; M. likes the girl, her father says that she is promised to Usach (Brko); first the mustache appears from behind the mountain, there are 365 birds' nests on it, U. puts his head on the girl's lap, M. hits him three times with the club, it seems to him that insects are biting; U. chases M., a man throws him across the river with a shovel, another hides him in a bag of seeds, tells Usach that M. passed long ago; U. stops chasing; the sower throws M. into his mouth with a handful of seeds, M. hides in the hollow of a tooth, the daughters-in-law use two stakes to dig out what was stuck in the tooth, the sower remembers M.; tells how he ruined the tooth; he and his companions went for salt, they spent the night in a cave, it turned out to be a human skull in a vineyard; the watchman threw it from a sling at the starlings, and that's when the man ruined the tooth; "Here's a whole box of lies for you"]: Karadzic 1853 in Karadzic 1987: 403-407 (=Dmitriev, Volkonsky 1956: 9-15, =Arkhipova 1962: 180-184, =Eschker 1992, no. 2: 14-22).

Central Europe. Russians (Nizovaya Pechora, Sredneye Bugayevo village) [Ivan Medvezhye Ukho is strong; he began to chop down an oak tree, a bear jumped out, killed a cow, I. harnessed him to a cart, and let him out into the cowshed at home; the parents are angry; I. harnessed the bear and rode off; a small hut on chicken legs, with one window; I.: Return to the forest with your eyes, and through the gate to me; the bear drank some wine, I. took one of the sabres; people came running; I. and the bear beat them all up; having taken the money, I. returned home, ordered a sword weighing one hundred and fifty poods to be forged, tossed it in the air, tried to break it, the sword broke; he demanded a sword weighing three hundred poods, tossed it in the air, and was unable to break it; he took the sword and rode off on the bear; having hidden the bear in the bushes, he began to throw bark into the lake: demons do not pay duty, I will dry up the lake; the demon suggests wrestling, I. put up his older brother, a bear; the demon suggests running a race; I. caught and released a hare; the demon is ready to pay; I. dug a hole, there is a hole in his hat, holds it over the hole; having received the money, I. buried it, rode on; settled in the hut where Gorokat and Devetpil live; Baba Yagaba came at night, defeated G.; the next night - D.; on the third night I. beat her with a sword; they reached a hole, there was a girl in it; they twisted a rope, lifted the girl, G. and D. began to argue about her, and left I. in the hole; the bird agreed to carry him to the ground if I. would feed it in flight; there was not enough meat, I. cut off his hamstrings; having found out where the last pieces came from, the bird, having flown to the ground, put them back, I.'s legs became better than they were; I. threw G. and D. into a pit, began to live with the girl]: Onchukov 2008, No. 34: 142-144; Russians (Nizovaya Pechora, Ust-Tsilma, 1929, Vasily Sobol, Nenets, walked all his life as a "leader" of herds of reindeer, i.e. was a shepherd-farm laborer) [The queen cannot give birth to an heir, the king decides to buy a gold-headed fish, goes to the fishermen, in the third tone catches it. The fish is eaten by the queen, the servant and the bull (he gets the scraps), on the same day they have sons: Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan-Deviy and Ivan-Bykovich, they grow by months, do not feel their strength - they cripple other children in games. The parents of the children complain. Three young men are riding into a field, they meet an old man, he says that the path to the right will ruin their horses, to the left - them. They return to the king, ask to give them horses, Ivan Bykovich does not find a horse for himself in the royal stable. He asks the blacksmith to forge a club of one hundred poods, throws it up so that it is barely visible, catches it with ease (his hand did not move), asks to forge a club of two hundred poods, then three hundred poods. He throws the last one up, and it quickly returns, he almost drops it when he catches it. At the crossroads, the young men turn right, pitch a tent near the iron bridge and agree to keep watch in turns. The first two young men fall asleep on guard duty, in their place Ivan Bykovich fights with the three-headed one, and the next night, with the six-headed one, the Pagan Idol. It offers Ivan to blow on an open field, but he gives his turn to Idolishche, it blows, and everything living within three miles of the field burns up . While it admires its work, Ivan chops off heads. In the morning, Ivan Tsarevich and Ivan the Devil say that they did not sleep at night and did not see anyone. When it is Ivan Bykovich's turn, he leaves his comrades a knife, warning that if blood flows from it, they must run to the bridge. The beginning of the fight is repeated, Ivan chops off 8 heads of Idolishche, the last one remains, he asks to allow him to take off his left boot, throws him into the tent, then the right one - the brothers wake up, see that the knife is covered in blood, help fight, go waist-deep into the ground and defeat Idolishche. Three young men come to a large house, Ivan Bykovich turns into a "murashka", overhears how an old woman inside ("nose to the ceiling") advises her daughters-in-law, the wives of three Idolishche, to take revenge on Ivan, to turn into poisoned spring water, berries, a golden bed. Ivan Bykovich saves his brothers from death three times, water, berries and a bed turned into women when they started to chop them up, their heads were cut off. They hear the pursuit, hide in the smithy. The old woman demands that the blacksmith give them up, he asks her to stick her tongue in the door, and hits him with a copper, tin and iron rod, only the tin one does not break. The old woman turns into a horse, Ivan Bykovich saddles her, the old man asks if Ivan will give up his horse if he manages to overtake him, Ivan agrees and loses. The old man hangs the horse on his skate, promises to return it if Ivan gets Elena the Beautiful for him. Ivan Bykovich agrees, and on the way he meets Yaryshek ("a thin leg, a golden cap, a shiny forehead, bulging eyes"), one can carry people across the sea, another can ask for marriage, the third can wash in a bathhouse, the fourth can carry people in space ("from place to place"), the fifth can eat bread, the sixth can drink water, and he meets a woman who can cover 3 miles in 3 hours. He takes everyone with him. He meets three more Yaryshek: one boasts: "I grind a mortar with a pestle", the second can shoot with a flint, the third can catch what falls to the ground. One Yaryshek takes a spoon out of his pocket and carries everyone across the sea. Another carries out the tsar's task - he washes in a very hot bathhouse ("the heat is five sazhens"), the third goes to ask for marriage. The tsar locks the visitors in a barn and sets it on fire, Yaryshek carries them to a safe place. The Tsar forces them to eat all the bread in the city, Yaryshko eats it all. Another drinks all the water in the forty-foot carts in the city shops. The Tsar promises to give his daughter back if the visitors drink all the water in the well, Yaryshko drinks it. Then he orders that a dress be obtained for the princess from a state far away in 3 hours, the old woman is sent away, on the way back she falls asleep, Yaryshko "buzzed with a pestle", she woke up and arrived on time. The Tsar gives away his daughter. The first Yaryshko carried her across the sea, at night the princess flies into the sky, turns into a star. Yaryshko saw an extra star in the sky, another shot a flint, the last caught a falling star and gave it to Ivan Bykovich. The princess does not want to marry the old man, she persuades Ivan to deceive him when he asks to walk on the boards laid over the pit, to let him go first. He does so, loosens one of the boards,the old man falls into a pit onto an “iron fist.” Ivan takes the old man’s property, burns the mare, marries Elena]: Karnaukhova 1934, No. 163: 340-348;Russian: Russian (Vologda: Belozersky Krai, Kirillovsky District) [the bear took the priest's wife away; a son, Medvezhye Ushko, was born; he grew up, they went with his mother, the bear followed, MU tore off his skin; living with the priest, he maims his peers in games; asks for an iron club weighing 30 poods; he threw it up, it broke; 60 poods - the same; he forged one weighing 90 poods, went wandering; meets and takes Gorynya (he rolls mountains) and Dubin as companions; when they meet, both say that they are not heroes, and the hero is MU; they live in a house in the forest, they cook in turns; an old man the size of a fingernail, with a beard the size of an elbow, eats everything, pushes the cook; when MU is left, he pinches his beard in a split stump; all three beat the old man, who leaves, dragging the stump under the stove; there is a hole; IM went down; the girl in the copper house asks to marry her; sends to her sister in the silver (ditto); she to her sister in the golden house; the dwarf is their father; the girl from the golden house sends to the oak: the father sleeps in the hollow; IM beat the old man until only his beard remained; each girl rolled her house into a ball, gave it to MU; the sworn brothers lifted the girls, and MU began to lift and threw them; he went, met a shepherd; he says that people eat snakes, the princess must be brought to him to the sea; MU cut off three heads of the snake; the Nagai bird's nest is by the sea; bad weather, the chicks roared in the nest, MU covered them with his robe; the grateful mother orders to prepare meat, promises to bring it to land; there is not enough meat, MU cuts off his from the calves of his legs; the bird regurgitated the pieces and put them back; MU came to his sworn brothers; his wife was there as a servant; he tore them apart, stepping on one leg and tearing the other; he married their wives; he got married to his own; I drank beer there, it ran down my mustache, but didn’t get into my mouth”]: Sokolov, Sokolov 1981, No. 54: 204-209; Russian(Tula) [an old man advises a childless king to catch a yellow-mouthed pike in his pond and give it to the queen to eat; the servants are pulling in only an empty net; the old man: throw some in for me; they pulled out a pike; the maid fried it, ate it, sent it to the queen, and gave the slops to the mare; the son of the maid is Bur-Khraber, the queen is Ivan Tsarevich, the mare is Dmitry; they grow up, make jokes, tearing off others' legs and heads, and go off to wander; BH could not find a horse to suit himself, so he went on foot; I. ordered a club weighing 3 poods, tossed it up, put his hand under it, the club bent, but he is happy; D. - 5 poods (same); BH - 12 poods, the club broke; ordered 24 poods, it bent, BH took it for himself; they approached a hut, only BH managed to open it, now he is the boss; elder: under the stone there is a horse behind 12 cast-iron doors; only BH moved the stone, beat the horse until he tamed it; I., D. jumped on their horses over the sea, fell into the water, the snake swallowed them; BH jumped over the sea, the snake flies after; BH saddled him, threw three hot bullets into his mouth weighing 3, 6, 12 poods; orders to cough up; then orders to cough up the brothers; orders to take them to living and dead water; he first brought them to a well in which there was dead water; BH threw a twig, it was torn apart; had to bring them to living water; BH revived the brothers, and threw the snake into a well with dead water; they arrived in the kingdom, the queen married I., put her hand on him, he almost suffocated; BH lay down in his clothes, wore out three copper rods, three iron and three tin on the queen; sent Ivan: now she is meek; having learned that BH had beaten her, the princess suggested to destroy him; they gouged out his eyes, and cut off Dmitry's legs; D. sat astride BH, and so they went; they stole the king's daughter to be a housekeeper; the snake torments her; BH again seized the snake, forced him to bring her to the living and dead water, restored his sight, and Dmitry's legs; I. came to the kingdom; his wife forced him to graze pigs; he began to ask for forgiveness; BH dressed in his clothes; the wife was frightened, did not come out; the brothers went home]: Erlenwein 1882: 102-108; Ukrainians(Chernigovskaya, Nezhinsky district) [a widow has two sons and two daughters, a snake kidnapped them; a pea rolls, she swallows it, and that same day gives birth to Katigoroshka; three days later he goes to a blacksmith and orders him to forge a 25-pood mace; he tosses it up, puts his knee under it, and it breaks; the same with a 35-pood mace; a 50-pood mace came close: it fell on his head, but did not break; along the way, shepherds of sheep, pigs, and oxen offer to eat a ram, a pig, and an ox in one sitting; if he can, then let him go to the snake, but if not, then let him return; K. eats it easily; an iron house, on the porch the snake's sister is beating lice; K. onto the porch, the snake runs out with a 40-pood club; [they began to drive each other into the stone; K. drove the snake; K.: where are the brothers? the snake's sister: they are hanging on the poles; K. got them out while they were still alive; on the way back they were preparing food near a huge birch tree; K. fell asleep; the brothers chained him to the birch tree: the snake killed, so it will kill us too; K. woke up, pulled out the birch tree, caught up with the brothers, put the birch on the cart; the brothers: throw it out; he threw it out; the same with the aspen; then the brothers wanted to kill him with a mace, but were unable to lift it]: Malinka 1902, No. 25: 297-300; Ukrainians (north of Kiev, Rodomysl uyezd, M. Khabnoe) [two smart brothers, the third is a fool; they went to plow; along the way they ate turnips, throwing the peelings so that the wife {of one of the older brothers} would know where to take the lunch; the crane carried them to the road to his house; the woman came there and he made her his wife; the fool ordered a mace from the blacksmith; he threw it up, took it with his forehead, the mace crumbled; he ordered a new one, it remained intact; he came with it to the crane, hammered it into the ground, and brought his daughter-in-law home]: Chubinsky 1878, No. 66: 251; Ukrainians(SE Kievskaya, Cherkassky district, village of Mliev) [a peasant and his wife prayed for a son, named them Ivan Bogodavets (IB); he grew up quickly, came to his uncle the blacksmith, asked him to forge a finger from a hundred pounds of iron; threw it up, went to bed, a day later there was thunder, rain, the club fell on his shoulder, broke; another hundred pounds, two days - bent; another hundred, three days - intact; with it he went to fight a cancer named Vir, who lives overseas; another cancer transported him; during the fight Vir drinks strong water, and IB weak, the cancer wins; goes to bed; the other cancer suggested swapping barrels with strong and weak water; IB drove Vir into the ground up to his neck; he asks to spare his life, gives a self-propelled bull, a rolling pea apple and living and dead water; IB took everything, but still killed Vir; the old crayfish carried him across the sea; IB left the magic gifts to his mother: the apple will roll to the place where it was killed, and the water will revive it from the seed; IB sees a mustachioed man who alternately sets 6 windmills in motion on one side and then on the other; then Vernigora (changes valleys and mountains); Vernidub; an inscription at the crossroads: you will be healthy; you will be full, but you will also be beaten; they are walking along the second one; they began to live in a three-story house, they cook in turns; 4 ducks flew in, became girls, took off their dresses, went to the bathhouse; Ustaty propped the door with a windmill; the girls knocked down the door and piled the windmill on Ustaty, and stuffed their mustaches into his mouth; the same with Vernigora and Vernidub; IB propped the door with his club; the girls have to promise that they will become faithful wives; they are the daughters of Kashchei (Kostiy), who has no soul; he sent a fleet; IB sent Usatiy; he turned one mustache, the other - all the ships sank; Kashchei sent an army along the valley, Vyrvygor killed them all; through the forest, Vyrvydub killed them all; along the road; now IB himself is coming; Kashchei killed him, buried him, took his daughters; IB's mother releases a self-propelled bull, an apple and goes with living water; IB came to life, came to Kashchei's daughters, asks to find out where Kashchei's soul is; Kashchei: in freedom; IB: gild the ox's horns; in the drake (they gilded them and pray to him); there is an island by the sea, there is a stone, an oak tree nearby, a nest on the oak, in it a seagull, she has an egg, the egg has a soul; IB goes, spends the night in succession with three old men, each one tells him to pray for him later, directs him to the goal; when he prays, one of the wishes comes true: the sea is frozen, you can go to the island; it got hot, a seagull came down to drink, IB grabbed it, tore it apart, the egg rolled into the sea, but a storm started, the waves threw the egg onto the shore; he remembered the first old man again, the sea froze again, you can cross; he broke the egg, Kashchei died; the brothers-in-arms returned their wives; the narrator was shot from a cannon and he flew here]: Chubinsky 1878, No. 64: 239-250; Ukrainians(Ekaterinoslavskaya, Aleksandrovsky u., Malo-Mikhailovka village) [three brothers, each Kondraty, went to plow, ask their sister Nastya to bring them dinner; they will throw shavings along the road; the snake carried them to the road to his house; the sister opened 12 doors, the snake was behind them: you will be my wife or I will eat you; the brothers went to take them away; the herdsman: if you kill my eldest stallion, you will defeat the snake; they could not; the same with the bull; with the ram; with the turkey; the snake killed them and hung them on hooks; N. rolled a pea to the well and ordered it to fall into her mother's bucket; she swallowed it, Katigoroshek was born; he ordered the blacksmith to forge a mace so that seven people could not lift it; he threw it up, caught it with his little finger, the mace broke; then he ordered one to be forged from an awl - it did not break; On the way he killed a stallion, a bull, a ram, a turkey; he ate each of them and drank a barrel of water; the snake eats lead peas, and K. twice as much; he drove the snake into the ground, ordered his brothers to be resurrected, then killed him; the brothers were jealous, they tied him to an oak tree, but he tore it out; they pushed him into a pit, K. fell into the lower world; he protected the chicks of a bird from the rain; the bird carried him to the ground; he cut off the last piece of meat from his leg, the bird put it back; he killed his brothers at home]: Novitsky 2007, No. 115: 71-73; Ukrainians (Ekaterinoslavskaya, Mariupol district) [the priest's wife with a baby in her arms went into the forest to pick moss; a bear carried her away; the son grew up, they left, the bear chased, the son killed him; they came to a well, and there was a ditch nearby; they climbed into it; a girl came for water; they ask her to go home and bring them clothes; the priest brought his wife and son home; the son plays with his peers, tears off their arms and legs; the son asks the priest to give him a mace, which he will carry on 400 horses; he threw it up, went to bed, tells his mother to break it when the mace starts to fall; he put his finger out, the mace broke; now his name is Bear's Ear (MU); he met Vernigor, then Krutius; K. twisted his mustache, the river parted, the three crossed to the other bank; they live in a hut, they cook in turns; a snake flew in, ate everything, tore the skin off the back of the cook's head; when MU was left, he tied the snake to an oak tree, burned it, came to the snake's hole, poured the ashes there, and climbed in himself; below are three girls, they met a herd, mounted their horses, returned home and played three weddings]: Dragomanov 1876, No. 1: 255-256; Belarusians[a childless grandfather has a dream: to collect bird eggs and hatch them; he collected 31, the woman hatched them, boys were born; they were all baptized, the last one didn’t have a name, they called him Mal-Malyshok; the sons went to mow, M. broke an oak tree, mows with it; every night one haystack disappears; ten brothers keep watch, they don’t notice anyone; M. orders an iron club to be forged, he tosses it up, puts his forehead under it, it splits; the one that weighs 40 poods didn’t split; M. beats a mare with a club, she gives him the foals, M. takes the weakest one for himself; the brothers left; after the death of their parents, M. caught up with them; the first Baba Yaga has 29 daughters, she sends them to her sister, she has 30, she sends them to another, she has 31; The horse tells M. that at night the brothers should quietly put the brides' hats on and tie their scarves on themselves; Baba Yaga cut off her daughters' heads with a self-cutting sword; Baba Yaga catches up on a goat, M. kills him; the brothers hired themselves out to the tsar, M. is the eldest, the brothers persuade the tsar to order M. to bring Baba Yaga's self-cutting sword; M. carried away; the brothers: to get the self-cutting gusli; M. carried away; the brothers: M. can find out why the sun stood in one place for three hours; M. rides to the sun; the fish-whale asks to find out why he is lying on the shore; M. comes to the Moon, who first hides him from his brother-Sun, then M. revealed himself; the Sun: was lost in looking at the maiden-Bagpipes when she was sailing in a golden boat; let the whale spit out 40 swallowed ships; the tsar orders to get the girl-Volynka; M. offered V. wine, she got drunk, he carried her off; V. orders to get the chest with her clothes from the bottom of the sea; M. sends a self-cutting sword to chop fish, the fish-whale asks not to do this, gets the chest; V.: now the keys to the chest from the bottom of the sea; the last crayfish brought the keys; V. to get married, build a church of gold and silver bricks and the same bridge; and so that the resin would boil in the cauldron; V. did everything herself, the tsar fell into the resin, M. became the tsar, married V.]: Vasilenok et al. 1958: 94-109; Belarusians[Vasily Pepelyshka (VP) asks his father to order him an iron club; he throws it up above the clouds, puts his knee under it, the club crumbles into pieces; VP orders a club to be made from his iron, is satisfied; leaves, meets Goryn-bogatyr (scatters mountains with a pitchfork), Dubovik-bogatyr (pulls out oak trees), Valun-bogatyr (throws boulders), takes him as companions; they live in a hut, opposite a bathhouse; 4 doves fly there, throw in girls; each of the heroes in turn tries to prop the door; the girls easily kill each one; VP found the dead in the corner of the bathhouse, blew on them, revived them, beat the girls with a wire whip, they agreed to become wives; their father was born of Tsmok, is immortal; Tsmok sends out an army, the heroes beat him three times, fell asleep; VP fights with Tsmok himself, the severed part grows back, Tsmok killed everyone, took the daughters home in chains; a mare, golden on top, silver on the bottom, revived VP, and he revived his companions; VP came to his wife, ordered to find out what caused her father's death; at first he answers that it was in a goat; in a pig; she decorates and dresses them up; Tsmok confesses that there is a mortar in the mountain, under it a hare, under the hare a duck, under the duck an egg, in it death; VP broke the egg, married that princess]: Vasilenok et al. 1958: 154-162; Belarusians (Mogilev, Gomel uyezd, Staro-Yurovichskaya volost) [someone is poisoning oats at the priest's; the son went, spent the night at the neighbors'; the priest himself - fell asleep; the priest's wife; the bear carried her off and she gave birth to a son, Ivashka-Barashka Bear's Ear (MU); after a year and a half they left; the bear chases: smoke comes out of his ears, ashes pour out of his mouth; MU pulled the bear out of his skin; they began to live with the priest; MU hired himself out to thresh for the master, did everything in a day; asks the priest to stock up on iron; threw up the club, put his knees under it, it crumbled; the next time it only bent; MU leaves, meets, takes as companions Vyarni-Mountain, Vyarni-Stone and Vyarni-Oak; they live, cook in turns; the bearded dwarf beats and outeats the cook each time, tears the belt off his back; when it is MU's turn, he pinches the dwarf's beard in a split stump; he reattached the torn skin; the dwarf tore off his beard, went into a hole; MU went down; there are 4 maidens there; in the bathhouse there are two springs with strong and weak water; MU and the snake are driving each other into the ground; MU killed the snake, sent the girls up; MU goes to meet the snake; promises to deliver it up, let him get her 20 pairs of birds; she took him across the sea; there was not enough meat, he cut off his calves; on the other bank the snake regurgitated them and replanted them; MU came to the companions, killed them with a mace, made their wives servants, and married the best girl]: Shein 1893, No. 54: 110-116; Slovaks[an old woman at 90 gives birth to a son Lomidrevo (=Valibuk; Valigora), breastfeeds him until he is 7 years old, then, at his request, for another three years; he is incredibly strong, easily uproots oak trees, at 17 he goes wandering; meets, defeats, takes as a companion 1) a mountain mover named Valivrych (Kopivrych, Skalilamai; Studnyak - digs wells), Myasizhelezo; they contracted to thresh grain; payment - as much as they could carry; they carried the grain to the bin and carried away the bin; the rich man sent a bull after them, then a boar; L. killed them, carried them with him; he chased with servants in a cart, but L. piled oak trees on the road; ordered M. to make him an iron club; threw him up, put his back under him, the club fell apart; ordered another to be made; The king's three daughters have disappeared, dragons have dragged them into a hole in the ground; the three of them promised to return the princesses; they settled in a hut in the forest, and took turns cooking; a dwarf with a beard as long as his elbow comes out of the chimney, hits the cook, dumps hot porridge on his stomach and eats it; when it was L.'s turn, he pinched the dwarf's beard in a log, beat him with an iron club until he gave up his beard, which was his strength; the dwarf hid in a hole under a stone; L.'s companions envy him; V. and M. try to go down, but are ordered to be lifted back - there are frogs and snakes there; L. promises the dwarf to return his beard, in exchange for which he orders him to show the way to the eldest princess; there is a copper lock on a magpie's leg; L. stamped his feet, and he stopped shaking; the six-headed dragon throws his iron club, L. throws it back; The dragon eats lead bread, calls to the lead threshing floor, offers to drive each other into lead; they drove each other waist-deep; then L. drove the dragon to the neck, cut off the heads with a club; the princess rolled the castle and all the riches into a copper apple, L. sent her to the ground; the same in the silver castle (9-headed dragon, iron bread), in the gold (12-headed, steel bread); before asking to lift himself, L. sent a stone up, the companions cut the rope; L. came to the nest of the Knochta birds (Knofta; a giant mythical bird), killed the snake, which always devoured the chicks; or covered the chicks from the rain, one drop of which always killed them; the chicks told the mother who flew in about L., she did not swallow him, but promised to help; orders to stock up on a hundred rams and a hundred barrels of water; flies with L. to the ground, there was not enough mutton, L. cut off a piece from the thigh; the bird: if it had known that human flesh was so tasty, it would have eaten you; but it regurgitated a piece and put it back; weddings are being prepared in the city, but the princesses demand the same dresses that they had underground; L. hired himself out to a tailor; at night he got copper, silver, and gold apples, took the dresses out of them; let the princesses come for them themselves; L. called the older ones ugly and drove them away, gave the youngest a gold dress, married her; took the locks out of the apples; gave the two older princesses to his companions (forgiving them)]: Dobšinský 1970, no. 10: 50-66

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks [the daughter of an elderly couple is beautiful; she was proposed to by a young man whose lands are where the sky meets the earth; but she decided to elope with a bald orphan shepherd who played the violin well; a bear learned of this; he came at the appointed hour; when the girl left the yurt, he carried her off; she bore a son by the bear; he grew up and moved the stone away; his name is Alvt Khar Bear Son (AH); the bear pursues, AH cuts him down after 7 days of fighting; they come to her parents; he asks to make a steel staff; brought on a cart harnessed by two horses, he broke; bent by four; took it and left; meets, takes as companions the Son of the Mountain, the Son of the Ear (he hears everything, putting his ear to the ground), the Son of Water; they cook in turns; the old woman comes, ties the cook with her hair from the top of his head, takes away the meat; when it is AH's turn, he sends the old woman to fetch water with a leaky bucket; then he fights with her, hangs her by her braid on a branch; the skin is torn, the old woman runs through a hole into the lower world; AH comes down on a belt; comes out to the light; there is a beauty; he says that the soul of the old woman is an almas in the lake by the lake at sunrise; there is a boar in the reeds, in it an iron chest, in the chest three chicks: her eyes and soul; AH came to the lake, hired himself out to the old man as a shepherd; every day he fights with a boar; the old man notices that the shepherd returns tired; he spied, got scared; AH killed the boar, took out the chest, the birds flew out; AH created warmth in his palms, and cold around; the birds came down to warm themselves, he grabbed them; returning, he began to fight with the old woman, then strangled the birds, she died; AH sent the girls up, the first left him her ring; the companions cut the belt; AH fell; he killed the mouse; the other revived it with a leaf; AH ate the leaf and recovered; the yellow snake crawls up the poplar to devour Khan Garudi's chicks; their mother carries AH to the ground; the meat runs out, he cuts off the last piece from the thigh; KH regurgitated it and stuck it back; AH came to the khan, the father of the rescued girl; he wants to marry his daughter to one of the three imaginary saviors; she sees AH, points to him as the savior; wedding and feast]: Khabunova 2017: 21-42; Abkhazians[in winter the princess saw two apples on an apple tree, she and her husband ate one, the other fell into the river, the miller and his wife ate it, the princess and the miller's wife each gave birth to a boy, they cried so much that they both were taken to the forest; seeing each other, the boys stopped crying, the prince raised them, they asked to make balls weighing 60 poods, threw them up, put their knees under them, the balls broke; then 100 poods - the balls bent; the brothers went wandering; at the crossroads the younger Pycha went along the dangerous road to the right, and the elder Pycha along the left; the old woman tells him that the adauy ate everyone, she was left alone; he cut off the head of the adauy, two grew; then three; the old woman sprinkled hot ashes on their necks, he died; P. promised the sister of the adauy to marry her; he came to woo the sister of seven adauy; P. defeated them, promised to marry their sister; after the hunt, he began to roast meat in the forest; an old woman came up, asked to tie up her horse and dog, swallowed them and P.; blood appeared on the end of K.'s saber, he rode in P.'s footsteps; both brides mistake him for P.; his horse and dog pull the old woman in different directions; she has to revive P., his horse and dog, then K. killed her; P. goes to the voice, it is a girl, next to him a Moor chained to an iron gate; P. fights with a saber with the girl for many years, wins, she promises to become his wife; does not order to respond to the Moor's abuse; P. answered, the Moor broke free, they began to fight, the Moor wins; a bird: rip out the iron gates, there is a bird in them, in the bird is a paper with the soul of the Moor; P. did so, the Moor died; the brothers returned, taking all of Pychi's women, gave one to Kucha, who chose the sister of the seven brothers; Pychi's wife suggested calling her 6-year-old brother; he defeated P., went to a hot country, won, brought himself a wife]: Shakryl 1975, No. 30: 153-161; Turks[a woman has a daughter and three sons, the youngest was rolling in the ashes; the elder brothers ask their mother to send their sister to bring them dinner; she went the wrong way and came to a three-legged dev and his three-headed wife; the dev's wife asks the girl to blow on the fire, the dev swallows her; the eldest brother goes to look for the girl; in the bakery he cannot eat all the bread offered, drink all the wine, crosses the river on an iron bridge instead of a wooden one, eats sweet apples instead of sour ones; the same thing happens to him as to the girl; the same thing happens to the middle brother as to the eldest; the youngest ordered a club from the blacksmith, threw it up, caught it with his finger, it broke; ordered a new one; ate everything in the tavern; went along the wooden bridge, ate sour apples; the dev threw the club, the guy put his little finger under it, it broke; he killed the dev with his club; refused to hit a second time; ripped open the belly of the dev, released alive brothers and sister; killed the wife of the dev; the brothers came to the well, began to lower the eldest to get water, he cried out - it's hot; the same with the middle one; they lowered the youngest, there were three beauties and a dev, the guy killed the dev with a club; sent the girls upstairs; the youngest gave a box, in it a flint to call an Arab, he will carry out orders; a white and a black ram will come to the pool; if you sit on the black one, it will carry you down seven layers of earth; the guy accidentally sat on the black one; called an Arab - one lip on the ground, the other in the sky; the guy ordered to bring him a merchant's clothes, hired himself out as an apprentice in the shop; the dev gives water to the city once a year, for this he demands a girl, it's the turn of the padishah's daughter; the guy killed the dev, got the padishah's daughter; ordered to wait for him for 7 years - he will bring another love from above; a snake crawls to the nest, a guy kills the snake with a mace, the birds tell their mother that the sleeping guy saved them; the bird agrees to carry him to the ground, let him prepare meat and water; the bird carries him to the ground, brings him back with the girl; there was not enough meat, the guy cut off a piece from his thigh, the bird put it back; a wedding with two wives]: Dmitriev 1967, No. 2: 39-48.

Baltoscandia. Latvians [an elderly couple had a hairy son in their old age – Bear Jan; he asks his father three times to forge him an iron staff; each time he throws it up into the sky; takes the one that is almost not bent, caught by a finger as it falls; meets and takes as companions a mountain digger (Kalnuracejs) and a fisherman with a rod – a mast tree; they stopped in an empty castle; they cook in turns, each time the old woman beats the cook, takes away the food; when it is MY's turn, an old man approaches, MY drives his beard into a block of wood, hits the old woman with his staff; he guards the bloody river for three nights; kills a three- and six-headed man on a silver, gold horse; when he fights with a 12-headed man on a diamond horse, help is needed; the companions are sleeping, MY wakes them up by throwing his staff into the castle; by this time the water left in the vessel turned red (a sign of danger); killed the 12-headed one; rolled the stone away, orders to lower it into the abyss; there is that old man, MYA killed him; in the silver, gold, diamond cities there are three maidens, sewing clothes from silver, gold, diamonds; each one collects her city into an egg; the companions raised everyone; MYA returned for the devil's hat; the companions began to lift, decided that it was the devil, let go of the rope; MYA fell, breaking through three worlds; in the fourth there is a thunderstorm, he covered the eaglets; the eagle promises to raise to the ground - let MYA kill the monster and feed her with his meat in flight; at first there was not enough meat, they returned; the second time they almost flew, MYA cut out the last piece from the calf of the leg; MYA married a girl from the diamond city, his companions married two others, each began to live in his own city made of an egg]: Niedre 1952: 92-103; Lutsi (west. 1893) [the family has two sons and a daughter; mustababa (must – “black”, Estonian) carried off the girl; the brothers went to search; the shepherds: if you can kill all the sheep at once, free your sister; the brothers: it will take a week to slaughter them all; the same with the shepherds of cows; horses; they say that the sister is married to Big Juda; they came to the sister, BYu hung them on a tree; the sister put a log under her feet; the mother cried, peas grew from her tears, there was only one pea in the pod; she ate it, gave birth 9 months later; the boy is a strong man, grew up quickly; asks if there were any brothers or sisters; ordered a five-pood iron club from a blacksmith, threw it up, a day later it fell, he put his finger under it, the club split; a 10-pood one - bent; a 15-pood one - remained whole, good for nothing; killed all the sheep; cows; horses with it at once; the shepherds of the horses ordered an iron hand to be made, heated up, shoved into the BYU's face; ate and drank more peas than BYU; drove BYU into the ground three times, on copper, silver, gold fields; BYU drove it waist-deep, and it was neck-deep, killed; put BYU's palaces and treasures into a ball, put them in his pocket; freed a captive girl, took him as a wife; began to live again, and are still living]: Annom et al. 2018: 101-105.

Volga - Perm. Mordvins [the tsar has a son, plays with children, cripples them; decides to leave; orders to forge a club weighing 6 poods; tossed it up, put his finger under it, it broke; the same at 8; at 12 only bent; meets, takes a hero as a companion; another one; they build a house near the bridge over a ravine; they must guard it in turns, but the companions fall asleep, every night the prince is near the bridge; in the first he killed a 6-headed snake, in the second - a 9-headed one; on the third he orders the heroes not to sleep: if the water in the glass becomes like blood, pour in clean water; 12-headed snake; the prince threw down his boot, the companions woke up, changed the water, the prince's club became strong again, he knocked off all the heads; they rode on; the prince returned, supposedly for gloves, he himself eavesdrops; The wives of the snakes promise that one will become a spring, the second an apple tree, the third a pillow; the mother of the snake: one lip must be raised to the sky, the other left on the ground; one breast on the ground, the other to the sky; the prince cuts down a spring, an apple tree, a pillow; blood flows; the mother of snakes is on the way; the prince's horse jumped over her, and she swallowed his companions; the prince hid in the forge, teaches what to do; the mother of snakes stuck her tongue in the window, the blacksmiths grabbed him with pincers, chained him to the anvils; the prince beats her, she belched up her companions; released; as soon as the prince thought that he was very strong, his horse disappeared; found him imprisoned in the house of a wizard; the prince gave the grooms a drink, took the horse away; the wizard looks in the mirror, caught up on a three-legged horse, took the prince's horse away; the wizard caught up again, but agreed to give it up if the prince would get him one of the three sisters in a glass palace at the bottom of the sea; the prince meets and takes Obiedala as a companion; lying on a red-hot harrow on a fire and suffering from hunger; opivalu; jumping to the sky; turning into a fish; they came to a glass house; the old woman offers to wash in a red-hot bath (the freezing one cools it down); opievalo and obiedala consume wine and bread; the bride became a fish; a star; the prince's comrades catch her; the prince received the girl; she creates a ditch with red-hot coals, orders him to steal the horse again; the three-legged horse falls into the ditch on the 12th jump; the prince brought the girl for himself; the old man offers to share her; [he cut it in half, cleaned out the snakes and frogs, put them back together, revived them, and gave them to the prince]: Maskaev 1967: 56-66.