Читать книгу The story of Baba Yaga and Koschei the Immortal, their birth and life. You haven’t heard this story yet - - Страница 2

It was a long time ago. My grandmother told me this story, and her grandmother told her grandmother, and so it was passed down from generation to generation in our family. No one outside of our family has ever heard this version of the story, and it has never been written down anywhere.

No one has ever known what really happened, or how their lives began. Everyone knows that there was a woman named Baba Yaga, and a man named Koschei the Immortal. But no one knows where they came from, or what their childhood was like, or how they became the people they are today. Grandmother has been gone for a long time, but I want to share my knowledge now. It’s time to uncover the secrets of Yaga and Koschei and tell you their story.

In those days, when miracles and magic were commonplace and no one doubted their existence, when illnesses could be cured with potions and magic, when you could meet kind and strange creatures in the forest during the day and evil spirits at night, when you could embark on a journey in search of a firebird’s feather to provide endless light for your home or a fern to grant your deepest wish, when dragons flew through the sky and talking animals were a daily occurrence, the Earth was divided into territories inhabited by humans, evil spirits, and the magical world.

The magical world was closed from prying eyes, there was no way a person could get there on their own. And the inhabitants of the magical world could leave this place and come back again as soon as they pleased. The world of evil spirits, on the contrary, was open to everyone. As its inhabitants said: “We are not afraid of anyone or anything!” – that’s why the gates have always been open for both entry and exit, even for people, even for evil spirits, even for magical creatures. But no one of the human race was willing to visit this place, even out of necessity, let alone out of curiosity. And it was not customary for magical creatures to visit the world of the unclean.

In order to trade with people, the evil spirits came out to the people themselves, and in exchange for human goods, they gave people knowledge and magical attributes. However, the angry and unhappy people asked the evil spirits for potions for love spells, which made their object of love and their surroundings unhappy. People also bought attributes for revenge, which brought grief and sadness to entire homes and families, and they took knowledge to use it for their own evil purposes. As a result, the people decided that those who trade with the evil spirits and take knowledge from them should be isolated from society. In some countries, they even decided to take extreme measures and burn at the stake those who had connections with evil spirits and could take revenge and cause harm from afar.

This is how the fear of those who practice magic came about. And those who practiced magic had the fear of being caught in the act. Magic gradually became a forbidden fruit.

But there were also people who practiced magic only for good deeds, but secretly. There were also good people who obtained knowledge for good purposes. These people practiced healing for a certain fee. Everything has a price. And the price of this secret business is, first and foremost, the risk of your own life, and then the price of your time, effort, ingredients, equipment, and expenses for your food and livelihood.

But the evil and envious people saw only one side of the medicine-man’s activities – they saw large, spacious houses, bought and equipped with the proceeds from healing, they saw horses in the stables. They also saw a large number of patients near the medicine-man’s house, and in their thoughts they already counted how much money the sorcerer received for a day, a week, a year. But they didn’t think about the fact that large houses are needed to accommodate the sick and infirm for constant care, and horses are needed to transport the sick to the hospital when necessary and to bring medicine from the market for their treatment. Additionally, horses are used to explore the forest in search of specific medicinal herbs, and due to the large number of sick people at home, there is no time to enjoy the profits.

These jealous people couldn’t sleep or eat until they revealed the healer’s name and location to the royal guard and witnessed his execution by burning at the stake for practicing magic. Only then could they rest peacefully until they discovered a new target for their envy and hatred.

Over time, magic began to be confused with sorcery, as sorcery could be used for good purposes, but it was forbidden. Therefore, good magic was also considered similar to sorcery, making it risky to engage with. As the years and centuries passed, this confusion persisted. And the magical world stopped letting its inhabitants out, for their own safety. People began to catch and try to exterminate creatures from the world of evil, who had come out of it. At the same time, evil creatures learned to hide from human eyes, and some even began to take revenge not only on the guards and informants, but also on the entire human race, for the death of their blood or spirit relatives.

The knowledge from the world of evil spirits was still being passed on, and they were still trading with humans, but they were doing so more cautiously. The teachings were being kept secret from generation to generation, and they were only shared with relatives or the most trusted students of the human bearers. The knowledge from the evil spirits was rarely shared with those who sought it. It was necessary to prove one’s loyalty, worthiness, and security to the evil spirits before learning anything. Not all knowledge was shared; some people were shown one piece of the secret, while others were shown another. You can’t give one bearer everything at once. Because he could turn all his power against the teacher. So the teacher must always be stronger to withstand possible betrayal.