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He immediately
annulled the marriage and offered Ludmila's hand to anyone who
could find her and bring her home.
Without delay,
Ruslan, Rogday, Farlaf, and Ratmir mounted their spirited horses
to search for the kidnapped maiden. For a while, the four rode
together, but eventually they separated.
Rogday was
rather high-strung and could be heard muttering under his
breath, "I'll murder the kidnapper. I'll kill him!" Once he
thought he had found the guilty man and pursued him as he fled
on horseback. In no time at all he chased him down and threw him
into a ditch. To his disappointment, he discovered that it was
his rival Farlaf whom he had caught. He left the scene without
saying a word.
Farlaf, the
most cowardly of the four knights, was counting his blessings in
the ditch when he was met by a wicked old witch named Naina. She
told him to let one of the others rescue Ludmila. Then, when
they were returning home, Farlaf could snatch her from the
rival.
Ratmir,
meanwhile, was taking a southern route in his search and one
evening came across a castle inhabited by beautiful, attentive
maidens. He was never heard from again!
Ruslan was
making the most progress in the quest to find the beautiful
Ludmila. Early in his search he found a cave where he met an old
wizard who said that he had become a wizard to win the love of a
beautiful girl he knew when he was a youth in his native country
of Finland. With the aid of magic, he finally won her heart many
years later, but by then she was evil, decrepit, and
hunchbacked. (In fact, this old woman was none other than the
wicked witch Naina.) Since that time, the Finn had lived in
solitude.
The wizard said
that the wicked sorcerer Chernomor was the one who stole
Ruslan's bride, but he gave Ruslan his assurance that everything
would work out in the end.
Encouraged by
this, Ruslan took to the road again. Soon he ran into his
jealous rival Rogday and was forced into a battle with him. On
horseback, the two fought each other tooth-and-nail for some
time. Finally, Ruslan managed to throw Rogday off his horse and
to his death into the raging waters of the Dneper
River.
A short while
later, Ruslan found a giant head in his path! With mad laughter,
the head would blow at Ruslan, creating a powerful gust of wind
that almost toppled both Ruslan and his horse. But the mighty
knight managed to thrust a spear into the head's tongue, taking
away its powerful breath, and then knocked it on its side with
his heavy glove. Ruslan was ready to deliver the final blow with
a shining sword he found underneath his foe, when the head
surrendered completely and promised to be obedient to Ruslan.
It happened
that the head knew Ludmila's abductor, Chernomor, very well - he
was his brother. The sorcerer had cut off his head in a dispute
over the shining sword that Ruslan had just found. The head told
the knight that all of Chernomor's power was contained in his
beard. Cut off Chernomor's beard and his power would be gone as
well. Ruslan went on his way again, leaving the head in peace.
Where was
Ludmila all this time? Indeed, she had been abducted by the evil
Chernomor, who wanted her for himself. He took her to his castle
where she could live comfortably. Outside her room, she could
walk freely in an enchanted garden amid fantastic trees and
fairy birds. But she missed Ruslan and could never be happy
there.
At one point,
Ludmila repelled Chernomor's amorous advances and, in the
process, took his hat, which she discovered made her invisible
when she wore it backwards. Naturally, she kept wearing the
magic hat so that Chernomor didn't know where she was! But the
evil sorcerer was relentless in his pursuit of the beautiful
maiden and changed his form to disguise himself as Ruslan. When
Ludmila saw him, she took off the hat and rushed into his arms.
Realizing she had been tricked, she fell to the ground,
unconscious.
An instant
later, the real Ruslan arrived and the showdown began. Chernomor
put the hat back on Ludmila so that she would be invisible and
Ruslan could not find her. Then for two days Ruslan and
Chernomor battled. Chernomor used the magical powers of his
beard to force the fight hundreds of feet in the air. But Ruslan
hung on and finally sliced off the sorcerer's beard with the
shining sword. The two descended back to earth since Chernomor
had lost all his powers with his beard gone. He was now no match
for the mighty Ruslan.
After subduing
Chernomor, Ruslan frantically searched the grounds for his young
bride. Suddenly, a chance swing of his sword dislodged Ludmila's
hat, exposing the pretty maiden, who was still unconscious. In
his head Ruslan heard the voice of the old Finn wizard who said
that Ludmila would awaken once they were back in Kiev.
On the journey
back, they met the giant head, now near death from the wounds
suffered in his earlier struggle with Ruslan. After seeing that
Ruslan had emerged victorious over his brother, the head took
one last breath in peace, content that justice had been done.
Leaving the
head and drawing closer to Kiev, Ruslan and the others set up
camp for the night. While they were sleeping, the cowardly and
evil Farlaf, aided by the ugly witch Naina, plunged a sword
three times into Ruslan, leaving our hero there to die. If only
the old Finn wizard was there to do his magic now...
Farlaf then carried Ludmila back to
Kiev himself and was greeted with much jubilation by the people
there. Ludmila, however, remained unconscious. Not only that,
the city of Kiev itself was besieged by enemy nomads.
But as the
battle for Kiev raged on, a powerful warrior was seen in the
distance cutting down everyone in his path. It was Ruslan! The
wizard had discovered him earlier at death's door and magically
brought him back to life using special "life and death" waters.
In no time at all, Ruslan practically single handedly managed to
defeat the enemy attackers and save the city.
It was now time
for him to see about his lovely but still unconscious Ludmila.
Ruslan went to her room and tried to wake her with a magical
ring given to him by the wizard. After a few anxious moments,
Ludmila finally opened her eyes, and marveled at the long night.
Suddenly she beheld the sight of
her knight. Ruslan she faced and
passionately her hero she embraced.
Ruslan and Ludmila were together again and lived happily for the
rest of their lives.
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