Sun, Moon and Raven Voronovich

Once there lived an old man and an old woman, and they had three daughters. The old man went to the barn for some groats. He took the groats and carried them…

Once there lived an old man and an old woman, and they had three daughters. The old man went to the barn for some groats. He took the groats and carried them home, but there was a hole in the sack, and the groats kept spilling out. He reached home, and the old woman asked:

“Where are the groats?” But they had all spilled out.

The old man went back to gather them and said:

“If only Sun would warm me, if only Moon would light my way, if only Raven Voronovich would help me gather the groats! I would give my eldest daughter in marriage to Sun, my middle daughter to Moon, and my youngest to Raven Voronovich!”

The old man began gathering the groats. Sun warmed him, Moon gave him light, and Raven Voronovich helped him gather them. The old man came home and said to his eldest daughter:

“Dress yourself nicely and step out onto the porch.”

She dressed and stepped onto the porch, and Sun carried her off. He told his middle daughter, too, to dress nicely and go out onto the porch. She dressed and went out; Moon seized her and carried the second daughter off. Then he said to his youngest:

“Dress yourself nicely and step out onto the porch.”

She dressed and stepped onto the porch; Raven Voronovich seized her and carried her away.

Then the old man said:

“Perhaps I should go and visit my son-in-law.”

He set off to see Sun and arrived at his home. Sun asked:

“What can I offer you to eat?”

“I don’t want anything.”

Sun told his wife to make some little pancakes, and she prepared them. Sun sat down in the middle of the floor, his wife put the frying pan on him, and the pancakes cooked. They fed the old man. When he came home, he told the old woman to prepare some pancakes, sat down on the floor and ordered her to put the pan of pancakes on him.

“How could they cook on you?” the old woman said.

“Never mind,” he said. “Put them on. They’ll cook.”

So she put them on him. However long the pancakes sat there, they did not cook at all; they only went sour. There was nothing for it: the old woman put the pan in the oven. The pancakes cooked, and the old man ate his fill.

The next day the old man went to visit his other son-in-law, Moon. He arrived, and Moon asked:

“What can I offer you to eat?”

“I don’t want anything,” the old man answered.

Moon heated the bathhouse for him. The old man said:

“It’ll be dark in the bathhouse, I expect!”

But Moon replied:

“No, it will be light. Go on.”

The old man went into the bathhouse, and Moon pushed his little finger through a small hole, making the bathhouse bright as could be. The old man had his steam bath, went home and told the old woman to heat their bathhouse at night. She heated it, and he sent her in to bathe. The old woman said:

“It’s too dark to bathe!”

“Go on. It will be light!”

The old woman went in. The old man had seen how Moon had given him light and wanted to do the same: he cut a hole in the bathhouse and stuck his finger through it. But there was no light in the bathhouse at all! The old woman kept calling to him:

“It’s dark!”

There was nothing for it: she went and fetched some burning wood splints and had her steam bath.

On the third day the old man went to Raven Voronovich and arrived at his home.

“What can I offer you to eat?” Raven Voronovich asked.

“I don’t want anything,” the old man said.

“Well, let’s at least go and sleep on the perches.”

Raven put up a ladder and climbed it with the old man. Raven Voronovich settled him under his wing. As soon as the old man fell asleep, they both fell down and died.