In a small village, on the banks of a rushing stream, Józio worked as a shepherd on a farm. One day, the farmer came to him and said:
– Listen, Józio, you will no longer work for me. You are already an adult and it is time for you to start your own family. Here is your payment for your twenty years of service. Go out into the world, and my son will take your place!
All right,’ replied Józio, I don’t have much wealth, but I’ll go!
The next day, he set off into the world. He had been walking for several hours, so he sat down behind a bush and ate some cheese and bread, and after resting a little, he continued on his way.
He walked and walked until he saw a vast lake stretching out before him, and a lone fisherman fishing by the shore. The fish were biting so well that he was pulling them out of the water one after another. Seeing this, Józio approached the man and said:
– Hey, man! Sell me your fishing rod, I’ll pay you for it!
– No, I won’t sell it to you!
– Oh, sell it to me! I love fishing so much; I’ll give you all my wealth, which I’ve earned in twenty years of service.
The man looked at him from under his eyebrows, but, tempted by the money, he sold him the rod. Józio immediately put a worm on the hook and began to fish, but the fish seemed to be deliberately refusing to bite. Józio walked around the lake once, then twice, but there were still no fish on the hook. He felt like crying, but he didn’t dare, after all, he was a man! He tried his luck again. So he cast his rod into the water once more and waited and waited. After a moment, he began to pull, but strangely… the rod bent like a bow, and a beautiful girl emerged from the water! Seeing this, Józio was frightened and ran away, but he stopped immediately because the girl commanded in a stern voice:
– Stop, boy, or you will lose yourself and me, and listen to what I have to say. I am a princess, and you must marry me now!
Preoccupied with the conversation, Józio did not notice that there was no trace of the lake left, but in its place stood a fortified castle.
– You see, my boy, if you hadn’t caught me, I would have been enchanted until the end of the world, but now I am saved and we must get married.
– Hmm,’ muttered Józio, ‘if that’s what you want, then… we can!
So the next day, a wedding was held. Oh, what a grand celebration it was – wine flowed by the barrel..
At first, Józio liked this change in his life, but after a while he grew tired of it all and longed for the life he had grown up with. He wanted to be a simple peasant, not a king. When he found out that a stable boy was needed at a nearby manor, he gladly agreed.
When he was hired, the landlord asked him if he needed a cart to bring his belongings, and Józio said:
– Not one, but two hundred, sir!
– You must be mocking me, Józio, because even though I have a manor, I wouldn’t have anything to put on so many carts!
But wanting to have some fun and laugh at him, the next day he gave him the carts he had ordered. Józio’s wife, seeing this, began to cry and complain:
– What are you doing, have you gone mad, what more do you want? You have everything you could possibly want – do you want to ruin us? Oh, I am so unhappy!
– You have no say in the matter, I want to do this, and you must accompany me!
Having said that, he ordered his men to load their belongings onto two hundred carts. When all of them were full, they drove to the manor and continued unloading: into the barn, into the palace… There was so much stuff that it didn’t fit anywhere! The landlord and the steward liked everything, but most of all they liked Józia’s wife. So they began to plot to get rid of Józio and take his property and his wife for themselves. The steward said to the landlord:
– Sir, we need to give Józio a task that is impossible to complete. If he fails to complete the task, we will kill him and then his wife will be mine or yours, sir!
– All right,’ replied the lord. Hmm, how about this: we have a ten-hectare lake, full of fish. Tell him to plough it, and if he doesn’t, we’ll kill him.
The next day, the steward went to Józio and said:
— Listen, Józio, tomorrow you will take the horses and go plough the lake, and remember – if you don’t plough it, we will kill you!
Józio went to his wife, looking very worried, and his wife asked:
— Why are you so sad, Józio?’
— Oh, my dear, you don’t know anything! Those wicked people told me to plough the lake, and if I don’t manage to do it, they’ll kill me. Oh, how unhappy I am!
— You see, Józio! I asked you not to come here because there are bad people here. But I love you, so don’t worry – I’ll help you! Tomorrow, early in the morning, you’ll go and plough around the lake with a plough, and then you’ll let the horses go, and they’ll continue, and you can sleep!
And that’s what Józio did. He ploughed the water along the banks and went to sleep. He didn’t know how long he slept. But when he woke up, the lake was gone and the horses were waiting to go home. Delighted, he eagerly set off for home, where his wife was waiting for him. On the way, he met the steward and told him that he had completed the task and was waiting for the next one. The steward could not believe his ears and eyes – but it was true! Where the lake had once been, there was now rich, black soil. So he hurried to the landlord and exclaimed excitedly:
— My lord, my lord! The lake is gone, we now have a piece of fertile land! What luck, what luck! he repeated.
— Shut up!’ snapped the landlord. – You’re as dumb as Józio! We had a great income from the water, and now look what you’ve done! That rascal has ploughed it up. Tell him to plough it again tomorrow, or I’ll kill him!
— All right, my lord, and we’ll get his wife, right? asked the steward cleverly. Then he went to Józio and said in a commanding tone:
— The lord is very angry. If the lake is not in its place tomorrow, I will kill you, so you better hurry up!
And again, Józio returned home worried, and his wife again reproached him for his stupidity. But because she loved him, she promised to help him.
The next day, Józio did as his wife told him, and it worked again! The steward was very surprised and whispered to himself that some evil force must be helping him. As he shook his head in disbelief, he met the landlord of the manor on the porch:
— My lord, it must be some kind of magic – yesterday the lake was ploughed up, today the water shines like a mirror, so we can’t do anything about it. His wife is also too proud and beautiful. One thing puzzles me: why did she marry such a poor fool! Well, but more about that later. We must think of something to get rid of him, my lord!
— Since we know he’s such a hero, I’ll give him a task now, laughed the landlord. Do you see those two giant stones that adorn my porch, steward?
— Tomorrow, steward, order Józio to carve an open walnut out of those stones, and at the bottom of the shell, a walnut kernel, and if he doesn’t do it, we’ll kill him and take his beautiful wife – if not me, then you!
Rubbing his hands together, the steward went in search of Józio. He soon found him watering the horses. Satisfied, he conveyed the landlord’s order to him.
Hearing this, Józio turned pale and said:
— Sir, I am not a sculptor and I cannot do this!
— Too bad, replied the steward, if you don’t do it, you will say goodbye to your life and your beautiful wife! Now go eat and rest a little, because the sculpture has to be done by tomorrow.
Distraught, Józio, trembling with fear, made his way home.
There, his wife ran up to him and said:
— What’s the matter, my Józio, are you ill or something? Tell me, why don’t you even say hello to me?
But Józio pushed her away gently and said:
— Wait, you can’t help me anyway. I will have to part with you and my young life. Oh! I am so unhappy! he cried, and tears rolled down his cheeks.
For the first time, Józio’s wife was shaken with anger at the way they were tormenting her husband. In a firm voice, she said:
— Don’t be afraid, I will help you in your troubles. And I swear revenge on your exploiters. Now tell me, what did they do to you?
— Well, they told me to carve a walnut out of stone, but I’m not a sculptor, I can’t do something like that!
— Don’t worry, anything is possible! Now eat something and rest. When you go to work, remember to take your chisel with you, and it will do everything for you.
The next morning, when everyone was still asleep, Józio set off for work. Sadly, he put the chisel to the stones, and it… started working by itself! Less than an hour later, two magnificent walnuts adorned the entrance to the manor house.
When the landlord got up in the morning, he couldn’t believe his eyes – there were open walnut shells in front of the stairs, with walnut kernels at the bottom. He liked the carvings very much; the steward couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration:
— Oh my! How beautiful! And then, with a grim expression, he said to his master:
— My lord, we will not get rid of him like that. Either he sold his soul to the devil, or he is Satan incarnate! But surely your father is in hell… Tell him to go and bring his parent back from there, and I will follow him to see if Józio goes there.
— All right,’ replied the landlord, he is so strong in everything, he will surely pull his father out of hell, and I will see where hell is located.
And he ordered Józio to pull his father out of hell.
Meanwhile, Józio’s wife began to comfort him, telling him not to worry, that punishment for the landlord and his servant was near. Then she began to look for something, and finding a spool of thread, she said:
— Here is some thread. Remember! Tie one end around your waist and let the spool fall to the ground. Where the thread ends, you will find hell. There, the landlord’s father walks on all fours, transformed into a horse. The devils will not want to give him back to you because horses come in pairs, but don’t worry – tell them that the steward is hiding behind the tree and will gladly swap places, and then they will hand over the father.
Józio did as his wife advised. He tied a thread around himself, dropped the spool on the ground, and slowly followed it. He also thought he heard a clatter behind him, so he figured the steward must be following him.
Józio did not know how long he had been walking. Suddenly, the thread ran out and he found himself standing in front of the gates of hell. At that moment, the steward hid behind the trees.
Józio knocked on the gate, and a lame devil opened it and asked him what he wanted. Józio replied:
— The landlord’s father!
— We can’t give him to you because we don’t have anyone to replace him. Unless you want to swap places yourself, hehe!
— No, not me, but that man standing behind the tree would be happy to swap places.
— Ah,’ said the devil, ‘that’s good. Take that old fart, he won’t be coming to us for long anyway.
At that moment, two devils flew out of hell and grabbed the steward. He defended himself and struggled, but in vain, because he had done so much evil to people on earth that no one would stand for him. Even the God’s saints abandoned him.
Józio put the old landlord on a horse and they set off for the manor. As soon as the young lord saw him, he had a heart attack and the devils took him, and soon after, the old man too. Józio and his wife gathered their belongings and returned to the castle, where they lived in harmony and kindness for a very long time, raising their children. They distributed the land that belonged to them to the poor. And everyone was very happy!
A fairy tale recorded in 1958 by Feliks Paczkowski from Włocławek, told by his uncle Józef Zimecki.
