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Popular Tales from the Norse

S >> Sir George Webbe Dasent >> Popular Tales from the Norse




'Oh, God bless your royal highness; do let me off! The beggar made me
do it', she said, and wept bitterly.

'Well', said Hacon, 'you ought to smart for it; but for the beggar's
sake you shall be forgiven.'

When she was gone, he changed his clothes again, ran by the short
cut, and when she reached the cabin, there he was before her. Then
she told him the whole story, and swore, through thick and thin, it
should be the last time he got her to do such a thing.

Now, it fell out a little time after, when the man came back from the
palace, he said:

'Our Prince is going to be married, but the bride is sick, so the
tailor can't measure her for her wedding gown. And the Prince's will
is, that you should go up to the palace and be measured instead of
the bride; for he says you are just the same height and shape. But
after you have been measured, mind you don't go away; you can stand
about, you know, and when the tailor cuts out the gown, you can snap
up the largest pieces, and bring them home for a waistcoat for me.'

'Nay, but I can't steal', she said; 'besides, you know how it went
last time.'

'You can learn then', said Hacon, 'and you may have better luck,
perhaps.'

She thought it bad, but still she went and did as she was told. She
stood by while the tailor was cutting out the gown, and she swept
down all the biggest scraps, and stuffed them into her pockets; and
when she was going away, the Prince said:

'We may as well see if this old girl has not been long-fingered this
time too.'

So he began to feel and search her pockets, and when he found the
pieces he was in a rage, and began to stamp and scold at a great
rate, while she wept and said:

'Ah, pray forgive me; the beggar bade me do it, and I couldn't help
it.'

'Well, you ought to smart for it', said Hacon; 'but for the beggar's
sake it shall be forgiven you.'

So it went now just as it had gone before, and when she got back to
the cabin, the beggar was there before her.

'Oh, Heaven help me', she said; 'you will be the death of me at last,
by making me nothing but what is wicked. The Prince was in such a
towering rage that he threatened me both with the constable and
cage.'

Sometime after, Hacon came home to the cabin at even and said:

'Now, the Prince's will is, that you should go up to the palace and
stand for the bride, old lass! for the bride is still sick, and keeps
her bed; but he won't put off the wedding; and he says, you are so
like her, that no one could tell one from the other; so to-morrow you
must get ready to go to the palace.'

'I think you've lost your wits, both the Prince and you', said she.
'Do you think I look fit to stand in the bride's place? look at me!
Can any beggar's trull look worse than I?'

'Well, the Prince said you were to go, and so go you must', said
Hacon Grizzlebeard.

There was no help for it, go she must; and when she reached the
palace, they dressed her out so finely that no princess ever looked
so smart.

The bridal train went to church, where she stood for the bride, and
when they came back, there was dancing and merriment in the palace.
But just as she was in the midst of dancing with the Prince, she saw
a gleam of light through the window, and lo! the cabin by the wood-
side was all one bright flame.

'Oh! the beggar, and the babe, and the cabin', she screamed out, and
was just going to swoon away.

'Here is the beggar, and there is the babe, and so let the cabin burn
away', said Hacon Grizzlebeard.

Then she knew him again, and after that the mirth and merriment began
in right earnest; but since that I have never heard tell anything
more about them.




BOOTS, WHO MADE THE PRINCESS SAY, 'THAT'S A STORY'

Once on a time there was a king who had a daughter, and she was such
a dreadful story-teller that the like of her was not to be found far
or near. So the king gave out, that if any one could tell such a
string of lies, as would get her to say, 'That's a story', he should
have her to wife, and half the kingdom besides. Well, many came, as
you may fancy, to try their luck, for every one would have been very
glad to have the Princess, to say nothing of the kingdom; but they
all cut a sorry figure, for the Princess was so given to story-
telling, that all their lies went in at one ear and out of the other.
Among the rest came three brothers to try their luck, and the two
elder went first, but they fared no better than those who had gone
before them. Last of all the third, Boots, set off and found the
Princess in the farm-yard.

'Good-morning', he said, 'and thank you for nothing.'

'Good-morning', said she, 'and the same to you.'

Then she went on:

'You haven't such a fine farm-yard as ours, I'll be bound; for when
two shepherds stand, one at each end of it, and blow their ram's
horns, the one can't hear the other.'

'Haven't we though!' answered Boots; 'ours is far bigger; for when a
cow begins to go with calf at one end of it, she doesn't get to the
other end before the time to drop her calf is come.'

'I dare say!' said the Princess. 'Well, but you haven't such a big
ox, after all, as ours yonder; for when two men sit one on each horn,
they can't touch each other with a twenty-foot rule.'

'Stuff!' said Boots; 'is that all? why, we have an ox who is so big,
that when two men sit, one on each horn, and each blows his great
mountain-trumpet, they can't hear one another.'

'I dare say!' said the Princess; 'but you haven't so much milk as we,
I'll be bound; for we milk our kine into great pails, and carry them
in-doors, and empty them into great tubs, and so we make great, great
cheeses.'

'Oh! you do, do you?' said Boots. 'Well, we milk ours into great
tubs, and then we put them in carts and drive them in-doors, and then
we turn them out into great brewing vats, and so we make cheeses as
big as a great house. We had, too a dun mare to tread the cheese well
together when it was making; but once she tumbled down into the
cheese, and we lost her; and after we had eaten at this cheese seven
years, we came upon a great dun mare, alive and kicking. Well, once
after that I was going to drive this mare to the mill, and her back-
bone snapped in two; but I wasn't put out, not I, for I took a spruce
sapling, and put it into her for a back-bone, and she had no other
back-bone all the while we had her. But the sapling grew up into such
a tall tree, that I climbed right up to heaven by it, and when I got
there, I saw the Virgin Mary sitting and spinning the foam of the sea
into pig's-bristle ropes; but just then the spruce-fir broke short
off, and I couldn't get down again; so the Virgin Mary let me down by
one of the ropes, and down I slipped straight into a fox's hole, and
who should sit there but my mother and your father cobbling shoes;
and just as I stepped in, my mother gave your father such a box on
the ear, that it made his whiskers curl.'

'That's a story!' said the Princess; 'my father never did any such
thing in all his born days!'

So Boots got the Princess to wife, and half the kingdom besides.




THE TWELVE WILD DUCKS

Once on a time there was a Queen who was out driving, when there had
been a new fall of snow in the winter; but when she had gone a little
way, she began to bleed at the nose, and had to get out of her
sledge. And so, as she stood there, leaning against the fence, and
saw the red blood on the white snow, she fell a-thinking how she had
twelve sons and no daughter, and she said to herself:

'If I only had a daughter as white as snow and as red as blood, I
shouldn't care what became of all my sons.'

But the words were scarce out of her mouth before an old witch of the
Trolls came up to her.

'A daughter you shall have', she said, 'and she shall be as white as
snow, and as red as blood; and your sons shall be mine, but you may
keep them till the babe is christened.'

So when the time came the Queen had a daughter, and she was as white
as snow, and as red as blood, just as the Troll had promised, and so
they called her 'Snow-white and Rosy-red.' Well, there was great joy
at the King's court, and the Queen was as glad as glad could be; but
when what she had promised to the old witch came into her mind, she
sent for a silversmith, and bade him make twelve silver spoons, one
for each prince, and after that she bade him make one more, and that
she gave to Snow-white and Rosy-red. But as soon as ever the Princess
was christened, the Princes were turned into twelve wild ducks, and
flew away. They never saw them again--away they went, and away they
stayed.

So the Princess grew up, and she was both tall and fair, but she was
often so strange and sorrowful, and no one could understand what it
was that failed her. But one evening the Queen was also sorrowful,
for she had many strange thoughts when she thought of her sons. She
said to Snow-white and Rosy-red,

'Why are you so sorrowful, my daughter? Is there anything you want?
if so, only say the word, and you shall have it.'

'Oh, it seems so dull and lonely here', said Snow-white and Rosy-red;
'every one else has brothers and sisters, but I am all alone; I have
none; and that's why I'm so sorrowful.'

'But you _had_ brothers, my daughter', said the Queen; 'I had
twelve sons who were your brothers, but I gave them all away to get
you'; and so she told her the whole story.

So when the Princess heard that, she had no rest; for, in spite of
all the Queen could say or do, and all she wept and prayed, the
lassie would set off to seek her brothers, for she thought it was all
her fault; and at last she got leave to go away from the palace. On
and on she walked into the wide world, so far, you would never have
thought a young lady could have strength to walk so far.

So, once, when she was walking through a great, great wood, one day
she felt tired, and sat down on a mossy tuft and fell asleep. Then
she dreamt that she went deeper and deeper into the wood, till she
came to a little wooden hut, and there she found her brothers; just
then she woke, and straight before her she saw a worn path in the
green moss, and this path went deeper into the wood; so she followed
it, and after a long time she came to just such a little wooden house
as that she had seen in her dream.

Now, when she went into the room there was no one at home, but there
stood twelve beds, and twelve chairs, and twelve spoons--a dozen of
everything, in short. So when she saw that she was so glad, she
hadn't been so glad for many a long year, for she could guess at once
that her brothers lived here, and that they owned the beds, and
chairs, and spoons. So she began to make up the fire, and sweep the
room, and make the beds, and cook the dinner, and to make the house
as tidy as she could; and when she had done all the cooking and work,
she ate her own dinner, and crept under her youngest brother's bed,
and lay down there, but she forgot her spoon upon the table.

So she had scarcely laid herself down before she heard something
flapping and whirring in the air, and so all the twelve wild ducks
came sweeping in; but as soon as ever they crossed the threshold they
became Princes.

'Oh, how nice and warm it is in here', they said. 'Heaven bless him
who made up the fire, and cooked such a good dinner for us.'

And so each took up his silver spoon and was going to eat. But when
each had taken his own, there was one still left lying on the table,
and it was so like the rest that they couldn't tell it from them.

'This is our sister's spoon', they said; 'and if her spoon be here,
she can't be very far off herself.'

'If this be our sister's spoon, and she be here', said the eldest,
'she shall be killed, for she is to blame for all the ill we suffer.'

And this she lay under the bed and listened to.

'No', said the youngest, ''twere a shame to kill her for that. She
has nothing to do with our suffering ill; for if any one's to blame,
it's our own mother.'

So they set to work hunting for her both high and low, and at last
they looked under all the beds, and so when they came to the youngest
Prince's bed, they found her, and dragged her out. Then the eldest
Prince wished again to have her killed, but she begged and prayed so
prettily for herself.

'Oh! gracious goodness! don't kill me, for I've gone about seeking
you these three years, and if I could only set you free, I'd
willingly lose my life.'

'Well!' said they, 'if you will set us free, you may keep your life;
for you can if you choose.'

'Yes; only tell me', said the Princess, 'how it can be done, and I'll
do it, whatever it be.'

'You must pick thistle-down', said the Princes, 'and you must card
it, and spin it, and weave it; and after you have done that, you must
cut out and make twelve coats, and twelve shirts, and twelve
neckerchiefs, one for each of us, and while you do that, you must
neither talk, nor laugh, nor weep. If you can do that, we are free.'

'But where shall I ever get thistle-down enough for so many
neckerchiefs, and shirts, and coats?' asked Snow-white and Rosy-red.

'We'll soon show you', said the Princes; and so they took her with
them to a great wide moor, where there stood such a crop of thistles,
all nodding and nodding in the breeze, and the down all floating and
glistening like gossamers through the air in the sunbeams. The
Princess had never seen such a quantity of thistledown in her life,
and she began to pluck and gather it as fast and as well as she
could; and when she got home at night she set to work carding and
spinning yarn from the down. So she went on a long long time,
picking, and carding, and spinning, and all the while keeping the
Princes' house, cooking, and making their beds. At evening home they
came, flapping and whirring like wild ducks, and all night they were
Princes, but in the morning off they flew again, and were wild ducks
the whole day.

But now it happened once, when she was out on the moor to pick
thistle-down--and if I don't mistake, it was the very last time she
was to go thither--it happened that the young King who ruled that
land was out hunting, and came riding across the moor, and saw her.
So he stopped there and wondered who the lovely lady could be that
walked along the moor picking thistle-down, and he asked her her
name, and when he could get no answer, he was still more astonished;
and at last he liked her so much, that nothing would do but he must
take her home to his castle and marry her. So he ordered his servants
to take her and put her up on his horse. Snow-white and Rosy-red, she
wrung her hands, and made signs to them, and pointed to the bags in
which her work was, and when the King saw she wished to have them
with her, he told his men to take up the bags behind them. When they
had done that the Princess came to herself, little by little, for the
King was both a wise man and a handsome man too, and he was as soft
and kind to her as a doctor. But when they got home to the palace,
and the old Queen, who was his stepmother, set eyes on Snow-white and
Rosy-red, she got so cross and jealous of her because she was so
lovely, that she said to the king:

'Can't you see now, that this thing whom you have picked up, and whom
you are going to marry, is a witch. Why? she can't either talk, or
laugh, or weep!'

But the King didn't care a pin for what she said, but held on with
the wedding, and married Snow-white and Rosy-red and they lived in
great joy and glory; but she didn't forget to go on sewing at her
shirts.

So when the year was almost out, Snow-white and Rosy-red brought a
Prince into the world; and then the old Queen was more spiteful and
jealous than ever, and at dead of night, she stole in to Snow-white
and Rosy-red, while she slept, and took away her babe, and threw it
into a pitful of snakes. After that she cut Snow-white and Rosy-red
in her finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth, and went
straight to the King.

'Now come and see', she said, 'what sort of a thing you have taken
for your Queen; here she has eaten up her own babe.'

Then the King was so downcast, he almost burst into tears, and said:

'Yes, it must be true, since I see it with my own eyes; but she'll
not do it again, I'm sure, and so this time I'll spare her life.'

So before the next year was out she had another son, and the same
thing happened. The King's stepmother got more and more jealous and
spiteful. She stole into the young Queen at night while she slept,
took away the babe, and threw it into a pit full of snakes, cut the
young Queen's finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth, and then
went and told the King she had eaten up her own child. Then the King
was so sorrowful, you can't think how sorry he was, and he said:

'Yes, it must be true, since I see it with my own eyes; but she'll
not do it again, I'm sure, and so this time too I'll spare her life.'

Well, before the next year was out, Snow-white and Rosy-red brought a
daughter into the world, and her, too, the old Queen took and threw
into the pit full of snakes, while the young Queen slept. Then she
cut her finger, smeared the blood over her mouth, and went again to
the King and said,

'Now you may come and see if it isn't as I say; she's a wicked,
wicked witch, for here she has gone and eaten up her third babe,
too.'

Then the King was so sad, there was no end to it, for now he couldn't
spare her any longer, but had to order her to be burnt alive on a
pile of wood. But just when the pile was all a-blaze, and they were
going to put her on it, she made signs to them to take twelve boards
and lay them round the pile, and on these she laid the neckerchiefs,
and the shirts, and the coats for her brothers, but the youngest
brother's shirt wanted its left arm, for she hadn't had time to
finish it. And as soon as ever she had done that, they heard such a
flapping and whirring in the air, and down came twelve wild ducks
flying over the forest, and each of them snapped up his clothes in
his bill and flew off with them.

'See now!' said the old Queen to the King, 'wasn't I right when I
told you she was a witch, but make haste and burn her before the pile
burns low.'

'Oh!' said the King, 'we've wood enough and to spare, and so I'll
wait a bit, for I have a mind to see what the end of all this will
be.'

As he spoke, up came the twelve princes riding along, as handsome
well-grown lads as you'd wish to see; but the youngest prince had a
wild duck's wing instead of his left arm.

'What's all this about?' asked the Princes.

'My Queen is to be burnt,' said the King, 'because she's a witch, and
because she has eaten up her own babes.'

'She hasn't eaten them at all', said the Princes. 'Speak now, sister;
you have set us free and saved us, now save yourself.'

Then Snow-white and Rosy-red spoke, and told the whole story; how
every time she was brought to bed, the old Queen, the King's
stepmother, had stolen into her at night, had taken her babes away,
and cut her little finger, and smeared the blood over her mouth; and
then the Princes took the King, and shewed him the snake-pit where
three babes lay playing with adders and toads, and lovelier children
you never saw.

So the King had them taken out at once, and went to his stepmother,
and asked her what punishment she thought that woman deserved who
could find it in her heart to betray a guiltless Queen and three such
blessed little babes.

'She deserves to be fast bound between twelve unbroken steeds, so
that each may take his share of her', said the old Queen.

'You have spoken your own doom', said the King, 'and you shall suffer
it at once.'

So the wicked old Queen was fast bound between twelve unbroken
steeds, and each got his share of her. But the King took Snow-white
and Rosy-red, and their three children, and the twelve Princes; and
so they all went home to their father and mother, and told all that
had befallen them, and there was joy and gladness over the whole
kingdom, because the Princess was saved and set free, and because she
had set free her twelve brothers.




THE GIANT WHO HAD NO HEART IN HIS BODY

Once on a time there was a king who had seven sons, and he loved them
so much that he could never bear to be without them all at once, but
one must always be with him. Now, when they were grown up, six were
to set off to woo, but as for the youngest, his father kept him at
home, and the others were to bring back a princess for him to the
palace. So the king gave the six the finest clothes you ever set eyes
on, so fine that the light gleamed from them a long way off, and each
had his horse, which cost many, many hundred dollars, and so they set
off. Now, when they had been to many palaces, and seen many
princesses, at last they came to a king who had six daughters; such
lovely king's daughters they had never seen, and so they fell to
wooing them, each one, and when they had got them for sweethearts,
they set off home again, but they quite forgot that they were to
bring back with them a sweetheart for Boots, their brother, who
stayed at home, for they were over head and ears in love with their
own sweethearts.

But when they had gone a good bit on their way, they passed close by
a steep hill-side, like a wall, where the giant's house was, and
there the giant came out, and set his eyes upon them, and turned them
all into stone, princes and princesses and all. Now the king waited
and waited for his six sons, but the more he waited, the longer they
stayed away; so he fell into great trouble, and said he should never
know what it was to be glad again.

'And if I had not you left', he said to Boots, 'I would live no
longer, so full of sorrow am I for the loss of your brothers.'

'Well, but now I've been thinking to ask your leave to set out and
find them again; that's what I'm thinking of', said Boots.

'Nay, nay!' said his father; 'that leave you shall never get, for
then you would stay away too.'

But Boots had set his heart upon it; go he would; and he begged and
prayed so long that the king was forced to let him go. Now, you must
know the king had no other horse to give Boots but an old broken-down
jade, for his six other sons and their train had carried off all his
horses; but Boots did not care a pin for that, he sprang up on his
sorry-old-steed.

'Farewell, father', said he; 'I'll come back, never fear, and like
enough I shall bring my six brothers back with me'; and with that he
rode off.

So, when he had ridden a while, he came to a Raven, which lay in the
road and flapped its wings, and was not able to get out of the way,
it was so starved.

'Oh, dear friend', said the Raven, 'give me a little food, and I'll
help you again at your utmost need.'

'I haven't much food', said the Prince, 'and I don't see how you'll
ever be able to help me much; but still I can spare you a little. I
see you want it.'

So he gave the raven some of the food he had brought with him.

Now, when he had gone a bit further, he came to a brook, and in the
brook lay a great Salmon, which had got upon a dry place and dashed
itself about, and could not get into the water again.

'Oh, dear friend', said the Salmon to the Prince; 'shove me out into
the water again, and I'll help you again at your utmost need.'

'Well!' said the Prince, 'the help you'll give me will not be great,
I daresay, but it's a pity you should lie there and choke'; and with
that he shot the fish out into the stream again.

After that he went a long, long way, and there met him a Wolf, which
was so famished that it lay and crawled along the road on its belly.

'Dear friend, do let me have your horse', said the Wolf; 'I'm so
hungry the wind whistles through my ribs; I've had nothing to eat
these two years.'

'No', said Boots, 'this will never do; 'first I came to a raven, and
I was forced to give him my food; next I came to a salmon, and him I
had to help into the water again; and now you will have my horse. It
can't be done, that it can't, for then I should have nothing to ride
on.'

'Nay, dear friend, but you can help me', said Graylegs the wolf; 'you
can ride upon my back, and I'll help you again in your utmost need.'

'Well! the help I shall get from you will not be great, I'll be
bound', said the Prince; 'but you may take my horse, since you are in
such need.'

So when the wolf had eaten the horse, Boots took the bit and put it
into the wolf's jaw, and laid the saddle on his back; and now the
wolf was so strong, after what he had got inside, that he set off
with the Prince like nothing. So fast he had never ridden before.

'When we have gone a bit farther', said Graylegs; 'I'll show you the
Giant's house.'

So after a while they came to it.

'See, here is the Giant's house', said the Wolf; 'and see, here are
your six brothers, whom the Giant has turned into stone; and see here
are their six brides, and away yonder is the door, and in at that
door you must go.'

'Nay, but I daren't go in', said the Prince; 'he'll take my life.'

'No! no!' said the Wolf; 'when you get in you'll find a Princess, and
she'll tell you what to do to make an end of the Giant. Only mind and
do as she bids you.'

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