Once upon a time there lived a king. He had three sons who were old enough to marry. The youngest of them called Ivan was loved by the king most of all other sons of his. One day prince Ivan fell in love with a peasant girl. Her name was Olga and she lived alone in a village of the neighbouring kingdom. Her parents were not rich and it would be rather problematic for the prince to let his father know that his bride had not been of royal origin, but just a peasant's daughter. They always tried to date secretly for avoiding some dirty talking about them. There grew a mighty oak at the place where they met and beside that old tree spreading out green, lovely top of foliage to the skies our young couple of sweethearts had been spending together for their short, but sweet hours filled with tight hugs being accompanied by hot kisses, vows and gentle words of love. But nothing could be hidden from a human eye and ear for the long time on the Earth as you know. So it happened that the end of their happiness had been nearing and bitter departure was not far. There is nothing eternal in this world! The king, Ivan's father, had fallen deadly ill, poisoned by an unknown evil hand of his enemies, and the king's untimely death became the starting point of our lovers' grieving. It had been prescribed by law that the time had come for the youngest prince to have a wife as well. So there was sent a messenger to the princess from the lands of Far North named Olga the Beautiful with the aim of telling the young and rich heiress about that sorrowful news in order her to come for following the Uncle's coffin on his royal funeral, as Olga's father had no other kids but her and himself had been the last male in the line of late king's relatives who would have inherited the right of being the single ruler of the both kingdoms reunited after his brother's death according to the laws of that time. As for his own daughter left after the first marriage it was necessary for her to marry the youngest among the late king's sons which would be a condition according to the ancient code of laws relating that their kingdoms' next lawful ruler should certainly have Olga the Beautiful as his wife in case of her father's, the current ruler of the united lands, death. Having heard about that prince Ivan grieved a lot and just didn't want to live longer. He drowned himself in the river on the day following his dad's funeral as for Olga the peasant's daughter - nobody knows how cruel her fate appeared to be. But there exists a tale among the local folks that once, long time ago, the peasant girl had been lost and supposedly perished a few weeks later after the unhappy prince's end. Old people say either Olga or her wooden statue had been found in the clearing so strongly attached with her body to that oak's trunk, evidently, having starved by the tree till her death, that it wouldn't have been possible to take her away without cutting the whole tree as if the girl's figure had been carved there upon the oak trunk to remember us the legends and old tales about trees, which can be the natural alive monuments to human loving.
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