Mezőszárnyasi

What I’m going to tell you now happened a long time ago, over the seventy-seven countries, and over the endless ocean, where the sky touched the earth, and even the swallows had to kneel down, drinking from the cold water of the meadows. There was a kingdom, and in this kingdom there reigned a king. The king and the queen had three beautiful daughters. They were so beautiful, that the sun stopped every day in the sky for two hours to take pleasure in gazing upon them.

Once the king held a large ball in the courtyard. There came princes, earls, barons, younger and older noblemen. And they danced, and danced with the princesses, clanking their beautiful, freshly-cobbled and polished boots. They moved around, swirling. Oh what a dance it was. And as they danced, oh, Good Lord, what happened! Suddenly they see that the world is getting darker. A huge black cloud appeared in the sky, it was coming closer and closer, growing and growing, finally covering the whole sky, and there came a storm, lightning was scraping the ground, and from the middle of that big black cloud, a dragon’s tail appeared, it swooped down, and grabbed the princesses. Everyone’s jaws dropped as the girls all disappeared into thin air, as if they had never been there at all. The people were looking at each other – how did all this happen? – there was great wailing and crying. But, alas, as if this was not enough, something else went foul. That dragon didn’t only kidnap the three princesses, but stole the Sun, the Moon and the stars from the sky. Pitch-black darkness descended upon the courtyard, indeed upon the entire city, upon the entire kingdom.

Tears rolled down the queen’s face, and the king proclaimed to all in the land that whoever could bring back their daughters could choose one of them as their bride, as well as receive half of the kingdom.

Indeed, as you can imagine, there came princes and earls, counts, and a selection of noblemen and poor lads, oh they were queuing at the palace gate, full of hope. But none could bring them back, for they did not know where to search for them. Oh, how the king and the queen grieved and wailed, not knowing where to go, what to do.

There lived an old woman near the castle, and she had three sons. One day this old woman went to the king and said to him:

“Your Majesty! I have three sons; they can bring the princesses back.”

“Woman, send your sons here immediately! I want to speak to them!”

The old woman went home and told her sons to prepare to set off for the palace. But, you know, these boys had an old nanny, and before they left, she went up to the youngest one, and whispered to him:

“Whatever the king says, do not do it! He will offer you splendid garments, golden and silver, and shiny swords. But tell him: ‘Your Majesty, I only want the ones in which you got married, those old garments.’ And when he tells you to tie a new sword on your side, say that ‘I only want that rusty sword with which you won your battles.’ When he offers you his best stallions from his stable, don’t go in there. Behind the stable there is a heap of dung, and there in the middle of the dung you will find a lame, scrawny, three-legged horse, a little colt actually. Get that out of the dung, for that will be your horse!”

So the three sons set off and went up to the king. And he said to them:

“I heard you are skilful lads, and you could bring back my daughters. I will give you everything you need. Go to the treasury, choose from the most beautiful garments, there are gold and silver garbs, shiny swords, everything you need, then go to the stable. There you will find my strongest, most beautiful stallions, and choose from among them.”

The two older brothers, dressed in golden corded garbs, tied a bright sword on their sides and went to the stable, and chose two beautiful stallions, but the youngest lad bowed to the king:

“Your Majesty, I only want the garments in which you got married!”

“Oh, my boy, well, if you really want those, you must go out to the yard. You will find them, somewhere, behind the henhouse, probably covered with turkey dung. But if that’s what you want, go and find it!” And the boy went on:

“Your majesty, I don’t need any shiny swords, either. I only want the rusty one with which you won your battles.”

“Oh, my boy, you’ll find it there as well, probably near those garments.”

So, the boy went out. He found the garments and the king’s sword behind the hen house. He cleaned off the turkey dung, put on the garments and tied the rusty old sword to his waist.

Then he didn’t go to the stable, like his brothers, but went behind the stall. There in the middle of the dung he found that scrawny, three-legged, ill little colt. He grabbed it and tried to get the horse on its feet, but it was so thin and weak that it fell back to the ground. It was trembling. He pulled it up, but it fell down again.

At this moment, his brothers came out from the stable. When they caught sight of him, they started laughing and mocking him. “Hey, you! Who do you think you are? Look at yourself, you look ridiculous, we won’t go with you. Everyone will just laugh at us!” They even spat on him!

But the boy didn’t listen to them. He somehow managed to get the horse on its feet and dragged him out to the gate. And behold what happened?! You have not seen or heard anything like this. For as soon as they reached the gate, this scrawny little colt shook itself and turned into a bright, golden beautiful táltos horse. A beautiful magic stallion. And it was so bright and shiny that they had to cover their eyes with their arms so as not to become blinded by the sudden brightness. And you know, it even grew two beautiful wings, and a fourth leg. And in that same minute, the rusty sword turned into a silver sword, and his garb started shining like the sun.

His two brothers stared, their souls were filled with awe, for they had never ever seen anything like this before. At this, the youngest boy quickly jumped up onto the back of his táltos horse, and they started to gallop, and gallop, and then to fly. Yes, they flew up and up and up into the sky, until they reached the blacksmith of the sky. He was just hammering a horseshoe so big, that you could not see from one end of it to the other, and the blacksmith’s hand was so huge that the boy could easily fit inside it. Sooty sweat streamed down from blacksmith’s neck, like a giant overflowing river.

He greeted the blacksmith:

“Good day, and God bless you, master blacksmith!”

“God be with you, my son. Why did you come here?”

“I came to you, master blacksmith, so you would forge a ton-heavy metal ball for me. Put it in the furnace and make it red hot.”

“What is your name, my dear boy?”

“Well, call me whatever you want, master blacksmith!” said the lad.

“Well, then from now on your name will be Mezőszárnyasi, which means ‘wing of the meadows’.”

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

“Fine, you can call me whatever you want!” And with this, he galloped down from the sky.

He caught up with his brothers. They rode and rode, for seven days and seven nights and seven blinks of an eye, until they reached the edge of the kingdom, where they were facing the land of the dragons. But ay, there, a sulphurous steam hit their noses with an unbearable stench! And as they went more and more into the dragon-land, their hearts were more and more filled with fear. They saw such huge trees growing there, that they could have covered themselves with their leaves, just like with a blanket. They were quivering from fear so much that if they hadn’t been riding, you could have seen how their knees trembled. To strengthen their hearts, they started to pray and reminded themselves that they set off to bring back the princesses.

They were surrounded by such ancient forests that had never been cut, never been cleared, and it was getting darker and darker. Finally, they reached a copper bridge.

Here the brothers turned to each other:

“Well, this looks like a good place to rest. Let’s sleep here! But one of us needs to be on watch. Lest someone may want to steal our horses or do something to us.”

The oldest lad said:

“I’ll be on watch, the rest of you can lie down!”

Mezőszárnyasi and his other brothers lay down, but Mezőszárnyasi only pretended to sleep.

And he was right in doing so, because the brother who was supposed to be on guard soon dropped his eyes, and was soon sleeping like a log.

Then Mezőszárnyasi got up, took his silver sword and hid under the bridge. There he stuck his sword up through a crack in between the decks of the bridge, so that the tip of the sword was sticking out, and he waited.

When the bells of dragon-land sounded nine o’clock, he suddenly heard singing from afar, singing in seven different languages.

“Oh, my Lord!”, he thought, “My Creator! Seven of them are coming for me. Two or three I could handle, but seven will surround me, and they will put an end to my life!” Then he heard this strange sound, this thumping, coming closer and closer. Suddenly, from the thick of the forest a colossal dragon came forth on horseback. Oh, the boy’s heartbeat almost stopped. For indeed it was a seven-headed dragon, spitting fire like a volcano. All of the sudden. with a great thump, he reached the bridge with his horse. And when they arrived at the middle of the bridge, the horse stumbled in the sword sticking through the planks. The dragon gave out a roar.

“Just you wait, you dog, come out at once Mezőszárnyasi! You weren’t even born when I already knew you would be trouble and I would have to fight you! Come and let me tear you into pieces!” The boy jumped out from under the bridge, pulled out his sword and shouted:

“My sweet little sword: Get him! Cut off all seven heads, cut him into tiny little bits, bring the pieces and pile them up here in front of me!” And the sword started cutting away all the heads, and it was running and spinning around so quickly that he could hardly hold on to it. But finally, all the seven heads were cut off. The dragon was in front of him in a pile. Mezőszárnyasi cut off and collected the dragon’s fingernails, and put them into his pouch.

That’s when the brothers began to wake up. They saw the slaughtered dragon, they did not even dare ask what happened. They mounted their horses and crossed the bridge. And at the other side of the copper bridge, what do they see? There was a copper meadow in front of them. Next to the copper meadow, there was a copper castle. And in the copper castle, they found the eldest princess in a copper dress. When she saw them, she shouted: “Oh, Good Lord, how did you get here, to this place in the middle of nowhere? Didn’t you know that my husband is the seven-headed dragon? When he comes home and finds you here, he will slice you to shreds! He will come home soon, please go away!”

“My Dear Princess, do not worry about the dragon! Just look out the window, you’ll see its pieces in a pile. Stay here, I say, we’ll go fetch your two sisters – just wait for us here.”

And that is what happened. The three boys set off, they rode for seven days and seven nights and seven blinks of an eye until they reached a silver bridge. Well, there the two older ones again said: “We’ve come a long way, we’re tired. Let’s rest here, let’s sleep.” And they agreed that the middle one will be on watch during the night. But as you may have already guessed, it didn’t take long for the middle brother to fall asleep. He tilted over like a sack, his eyes dropping. But Mezőszárnyasi did not fall asleep, he was on guard all night. He took that beautiful shiny silver sword, hid under the bridge, and stuck the tip of the sword through the crack in the bridge and waited. When the great bell of dragon-land struck nine, he heard singing from afar, in fourteen different languages. Now, he clasped his hands and looked up to the sky:

“Oh, this time my life is surely at an end. How on earth will I defeat this one?”

But there wasn’t much time to think or grieve. He said another prayer, and not long after, the dragon appeared from the trees of the forest, coming on the back of his horse. It was even bigger than the first one. It had fourteen heads, and was shooting flames everywhere like a furnace. When he reached the middle of the bridge, his horse stumbled and the dragon roared:

“Oh, you dog, come out! You weren’t even born, Mezőszárnyasi, when I already knew that I would have to fight you, come out, and let me slaughter you!”

The boy jumped out from under the bridge.

“Sweet little sword, out of the sheath! Cut off all the fourteen heads, and the tips of the nails and bring them here to me. Cut him into small pieces, and put them in a pile in front of me.” The sword began its work so quickly, he could barely hold on to it. It didn’t take long, and the fourteen heads were cut off. And the dragon was laying in front of him in a pile. So, he cut off its fingernails and put them in his pouch.

That is when his brothers began to wake. They dared not even ask a question, instead just jumped on their horses and together they crossed over the silver bridge, to find a silver meadow, and a silver castle next to it. They crossed the silver meadow and went inside the silver castle. There they found the middle princess in a silver dress. When she saw them, she cried out:

“How on earth did you come here, where not even a bird flies? Didn’t you know that my husband is the fourteen-headed dragon? You’re all finished. When he comes home, he will slice you to pieces!”

“Oh, dear princess, you don’t have to worry about him any more. Look out of the window. He’s lying there, slaughtered. We won’t have to deal with him any more.” And indeed, as she looked out, she saw the dragon lying there, just a pile of meat. Mezőszárnyasi turned to her:

“I say, stay here, dear princess, wait for us here. We’re leaving for your youngest sister and will bring her back.”

So they jumped on their horses, and rode for seven days, seven nights and seven blinks of an eye, until they reached a golden bridge, but this time they chose Mezőszárnyasi to be on watch. And sure enough, the two older brothers fell asleep. Mezőszárnyasi took his sword, hid under the golden bridge, put out the tip of his sword, and waited. But he was already shaking, his knees trembling, while he prayed. Because when the great bell of dragon-land struck nine, he could hear the singing, coming closer and closer, in twenty-four, yes, twenty-four different languages. He thought to himself:

“Now I’m really done for. I don’t know what could possibly help me. Now comes the twenty-four-headed dragon and it will surely tear me into tiny pieces.”

He didn’t have to wait for long. Out of the trees of the forest, a dragon appeared, so huge that Mezőszárnyasi could hardly breathe. This was the eldest, the strongest, the most powerful of all the brothers. It commanded the other two as well. It scorched everything. It was pure fire. When it reached the middle of the bridge, his horse stumbled, and the dragon roared:

“Oh, you weren’t even as big as a thousandth of a millet in your mother’s womb, but I already knew then that I would have to fight you. Come out, Mezőszárnyasi, let me tear you to pieces.”

The boy jumped out, facing the dragon.

“My sweet little sword, out of the sheath, cut him into small pieces, cut off all twenty-four heads.” And the sword began its work, and it continued on and on, so quickly that the boy could hardly hold onto it. And they fought, and fought, but for how long? If the sun had been up in the sky, it would have risen and fallen three times, but they were still struggling, for they couldn’t best one another. The heads were rolling down nice enough. The dragon was tired, Mezőszárnyasi was tired. And this great struggle went on until that dragon had only one head left. And with that one head, it began to plead:

“Mezőszárnyasi, leave me this one head, I am begging you! I don’t mind that you cut off all the others, but leave me this one, leave me my life. I’ll give you anything you ask for. I’ll give back the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. I will give you as much treasure as you want. And I will show you the way to your father’s land!”

Hearing this Mezőszárnyasi raised his sword and shouted:

“Of course I will leave it!” And, with one swing, he immediately cut off that last head. And then the pitch-black darkness started to slowly disappear. There was brightness everywhere. The Sun, the Moon and the stars rose in the sky. Well, in this great brightness, they jumped on their horses and crossed to the other side of the golden bridge. There the golden meadow lay, next to it the golden trees, with golden birds singing on their branches. On the other side of the golden meadow, in a golden castle, there was the youngest princess, dressed in gold. When Mezőszárnyasi saw the princess, he could barely speak. He thought to himself: “She is the most beautiful, she is noblest, she is the dearest. Either she will be my wife or no one else.” But the princess, too, was looking at Mezőszárnyasi, unable to take her eyes off him. She said to him:

“Mezőszárnyasi, did you come for me? You know, when you were born, then I was born. When your star ascended to the sky, so did mine. They are there in the sky next to each other. Were I buried in the land of the seventh kingdom, you would still have come for me and you still would have saved me. But now, let’s go to my father’s land. In sickness and in health, may we never part.”

They hugged and kissed each other. And the golden birds on the golden trees began singing even more beautifully. He planted her on the stallion and they were off. First, they rode back to the silver castle, then, of course, to the copper castle. They collected the princesses, and headed for home, nearing more and more to the edge of dragon-land.

Everything would have been all right, the brightness shined, but these dragons, oh, they had an old mother. And when she found out what Mezőszárnyasi had done to her sons, she started forging their flesh back together. One by one, she was putting all three of her sons back together. And since she had magical powers, she would have been able to breathe their soul back into them. The only trouble was that she needed all the pieces. But the nails were missing. So, the old witch set off and went after them. And as they are on their way on their horse, Mezőszárnyasi said:

“My sweet táltos horse, the spine of my neck is burning so!”

“Then, my sweet master, just turn around! What can you see?”

Mezőszárnyasi turned around and looked back. The forest roared, the fields roared, and he saw the old witch coming forth – she was blowing heat, and blowing cold with her mouth.

“Now what, my sweet horse?!”

“Do not worry for a second, my sweet master, now we will go up to the blacksmith of the sky!” And this is what they did. They galloped and then flew up and up into the high sky, until they reached the blacksmith. Once up there, Mezőszárnyasi shouted:

“Master blacksmith, do you still have that ton-heavy metal ball? Is it red hot now? “

“Yes, my boy!”

“Then look down! What can you see?”

“I see a woman with a strong mouth. She is blowing hot, she is blowing cold. Her mouth is so big that even a cart could turn around in it. “

“Well, take that ton-heavy metal ball, and throw it right into the mouth of that witch!”

The blacksmith took the ball out of the fire – because it was still there in the furnace, hot and red – and when the old woman opened her mouth, to blow hot and cold, he threw the ball right into her mouth. And she burned away immediately.

 Now, they rode on, finally leaving dragon-land behind. They rode for seven days and seven nights and seven blinks of an eye, until they reached the king’s castle.

The king and the queen had almost cried their eyes out, they were so filled with sorrow. But when they saw the lads with the princesses, they were so happy, they did not know whether to kiss the girls or hug the lads first. They were beyond themselves with joy. They immediately married off the three daughters to the three lads. The lads brought their mother to the palace, and they had a big wedding. Oh what a wedding it was! They danced for seven days and seven nights, and even the cats were drinking coffee with cream, and the dogs were lapping red wine. For sure, they all rejoiced. I was also there. And I danced too. You know, there was a big sack at the wall, and the water of river Tisza and the Danube was kept in it. As I was dancing and swirling, I accidentally tore that sack with the heel of my boot. And the Tisza river and the Danube started to flow out from the sack. As it was flowing, the water grabbed me up and brought me here. And that is why I could tell you how all this happened.