Sword Kladenets

Kladenets (Russian: меч-кладенец; also called самосёк [samosyok]) is a fabulous magic sword in some Old Russian fairy tales. In the "Tale about the City of Babylon" the sword is called "Asp The Serpent" (Аспид-змей). In the "Tale about bogatyr Yeruslan Lazarevich" it is mentioned among the fire shield and fire spear. Although the word "kladenets" appears to be derived from the Slavic word for treasure, Max Vasmer theorized that it may have originated as a corrupted pronunciation of Clarent. It also sounds similar to the verb "klast'" ('to put down' in Russian) so it may well correspond to 'slayer' in English. Kladenets means "well" (for water) in the related Slavic language Bulgarian (Bulgarian: кладенец), potentially evocative of torrents of blood.

Note

Modern fairy tales about Sword Kladenets

• "The tale about Ivan Tsarevich and the Sword Kladenets" (in Russian)
• "Ilya Muromets and the Sword Kladenets" (in Russian)