Tretí princ (1983)

Prince Jindrich of the Land of the Lion leaves his parents and does not return. The king and queen are left grieving. A Gypsy girl tells the grieving queen that she will be happy again in a year and that her son will return in three years. The prophecy comes true: a year later, the queen gives birth to twin sons. The twin brothers, Jaromír and Jaroslav, grow at an astonishing rate: after one year they are like seven-year-olds, after two like fourteen-year-olds, and after three they are grown men. When the twins are young men, their father demands that one of them leave, since only one person can rule the Land of the Lion. Jaromír discovers a portrait of a black-haired beauty. The king explains that this girl was responsible for Prince Jindrich’s death and died with him. Only then do the twins learn that they had an older brother. Jaromír learns from the Gypsy girl that the princess in the portrait is still alive, and sets off to find her. Before Jaromír leaves, the twins exchange swords, since the swords rust when their owners are in danger. This way, they can also tell from afar how the other is doing. At last, Jaromír finds the girl from the portrait. She is Princess Milena, who initially turns him away. She warns him that her hand will not come cheap and that he must complete three tasks. Jaromír accepts. In a chest in his bedroom, Jaromír finds a doublet decorated with a coat of arms, belonging to a prince from the Land of the Lion. The next morning, Milena takes Jaromír to her flock of sheep. The first task is to tend a flock of one thousand sheep. Jaromír keeps the sheep together until evening. But suddenly a black-haired princess who looks exactly like Milena appears and gallops through the flock on a white horse. One sheep is startled and runs into the rocks. Jaromír wants to stop the princess, follows the little sheep into the rocks, and catches it—but then he spots glittering stones. He sets the sheep down and searches for diamonds. He enters a ravine, and the rocks turn him to stone. Only Jaroslav’s shining sword remains visible where Jaromír met his misfortune. Prince Jaroslav realizes that his brother needs help. He sets out for the Diamond Rocks. There he, too, encounters the black-haired woman. He follows her and enters the ravine; he also rushes to help the sheep on the rocks. As he tosses the glittering stones aside, he finds Jaromír’s jacket and falls from the rocks. When he regains consciousness, the beautiful Milena wakes him. Having searched desperately for Jaromír, she is now overjoyed, believing she has found him. The sheep is there, too. Jaroslav has completed the first task: all 1,000 sheep are in the sheepfold. Exhausted from the fall, he collapses. Milena does not want to let Jaroslav—who she believes is Jaromír—leave. She nurses him back to health and locks him up. Jaroslav is pleased that Milena loves his brother, but he must be careful not to give himself away as Jaroslav. The beautiful Týna gives him the key and his freedom in exchange for a kiss, and he can now complete the second task: he successfully tends one hundred horses. Jaroslav gives Týna a rose—Milena is jealous and confused. The most dangerous third task still lies ahead: Jaroslav must ride through the rocks with Princess Milena. As Milena and Jaroslav take their places at the start of the race, he reveals that he is Jaroslav and puts a ring from Jaromír on Milena’s finger so he can tell her apart from her sister. They ride through the rocks; Jaroslav wins, and the rocks must give back what does not belong to them. Jaromír is released from the rocks and falls into Milena’s arms, and Jindrich and the enchanted twin sister are freed from the rocks’ curse as well. In the end, two weddings are celebrated: Jaromír and Milena, and Prince Jindrich and the twin sister of the princess of the rocks. Jaroslav sets off to find a bride of his own.