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Popular Tales from the Norse

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




But as the King had set his heart on having these two things done, he
had it given out far and wide, in all the churches of his kingdom,
that he who could fell the big oak in the king's court-yard, and get
him a well that would hold water the whole year round, should have
the Princess and half the kingdom. Well! you may easily know there
was many a man who came to try his luck; but for all their hacking
and hewing, and all their digging and delving, it was no good. The
oak got bigger and stouter at every stroke, and the rock didn't get
softer either. So one day those three brothers thought they'd set off
and try too, and their father hadn't a word against it; for even if
they didn't get the Princess and half the kingdom, it might happen
they might get a place somewhere with a good master; and that was all
he wanted. So when the brothers said they thought of going to the
palace, their father said 'yes' at once. So Peter, Paul, and Jack
went off from their home.

Well! they hadn't gone far before they came to a fir wood, and up
along one side of it rose a steep hill-side, and as they went, they
heard something hewing and hacking away up on-the hill among the
trees.

'I wonder now what it is that is hewing away up yonder?' said Jack.

'You're always so clever with your wonderings', said Peter and Paul
both at once. 'What wonder is it, pray, that a woodcutter should
stand and hack up on a hill-side?'

'Still, I'd like to see what it is, after all', said Jack; and up he
went.

'Oh, if you're such a child, 'twill do you good to go and take a
lesson', bawled out his brothers after him.

But Jack didn't care for what they said; he climbed the steep hill-
side towards where the noise came, and when he reached the place,
what do you think he saw? why, an axe that stood there hacking and
hewing, all of itself, at the trunk of a fir.

'Good day!' said Jack. 'So you stand here all alone and hew, do you?'

'Yes; here I've stood and hewed and hacked a long long time, waiting
for you', said the Axe.

'Well, here I am at last', said Jack, as he took the axe, pulled it
off its haft, and stuffed both head and haft into his wallet.

So when he got down again to his brothers, they began to jeer and
laugh at him.

'And now, what funny thing was it you saw up yonder on the hill-
side?' they said.

'Oh, it was only an axe we heard', said Jack.

So when they had gone a bit farther, they came under a steep spur of
rock, and up there they heard something digging and shovelling.

'I wonder now,' said Jack, 'what it is digging and shovelling up
yonder at the top of the rock.'

'Ah, you're always so clever with your wonderings', said Peter and
Paul again, 'as if you'd never heard a woodpecker hacking and pecking
at a hollow tree.'

'Well, well', said Jack, 'I think it would be a piece of fun just to
see what it really is.'

And so off he set to climb the rock, while the others laughed and
made game of him. But he didn't care a bit for that; up he clomb, and
when he got near the top, what do you think he saw? Why, a spade that
stood there digging and delving.

'Good day!' said Jack. 'So you stand here all alone, and dig and
delve!'

'Yes, that's what I do', said the Spade, 'and that's what I've done
this many a long day, waiting for you.'

'Well, here I am', said Jack again, as he took the spade and knocked
it off its handle, and put it into his wallet, and then down again to
his brothers.

'Well, what was it, so rare and strange', said Peter and Paul, 'that
you saw up there at the top of the rock?'

'Oh,', said Jack, 'nothing more than a spade; that was what we
heard.'

So they went on again a good bit, till they came to a brook. They
were thirsty, all three, after their long walk, and so they lay down
beside the brook to have a drink.

'I wonder now', said Jack, 'where all this water comes from.'

'I wonder if you're right in your head', said Peter and Paul, in one
breath. 'If you're not mad already, you'll go mad very soon, with
your wonderings. Where the brook comes from, indeed! Have you never
heard how water rises from a spring in the earth?'

'Yes! but still I've a great fancy to see where this brook comes
from', said Jack.

So up alongside the brook he went, in spite of all that his brothers
bawled after him. Nothing could stop him. On he went. So, as he went
up and up, the brook got smaller and smaller, and at last, a little
way farther on, what do you think he saw? Why, a great walnut, and
out of that the water trickled.

'Good-day!' said Jack again. 'So you lie here, and trickle and run
down all alone?'

'Yes, I do,' said the Walnut; 'and here have I trickled and run this
many a long day, waiting for you.'

'Well, here I am', said Jack, as he took up a lump of moss and
plugged up the hole, that the water mightn't run out. Then he put the
walnut into his wallet, and ran down to his brothers.

'Well now', said Peter and Paul, 'have you found out where the water
comes from? A rare sight it must have been!'

'Oh, after all, it was only a hole it ran out of', said Jack; and so
the others laughed and made game of him again, but Jack didn't mind
that a bit.

'After all, I had the fun of seeing it', said he. So when they had
gone a bit farther, they came to the king's palace; but as every one
in the kingdom had heard how they might win the Princess and half the
realm, if they could only fell the big oak and dig the king's well,
so many had come to try their luck that the oak was now twice as
stout and big as it had been at first, for two chips grew for every
one they hewed out with their axes, as I daresay you all bear in
mind. So the King had now laid it down as a punishment, that if any
one tried and couldn't fell the oak, he should be put on a barren
island, and both his ears were to be clipped off. But the two
brothers didn't let themselves be scared by that; they were quite
sure they could fell the oak, and Peter, as he was eldest, was to try
his hand first; but it went with him as with all the rest who had
hewn at the oak; for every chip he cut out, two grew in its place. So
the king's men seized him, and clipped off both his ears, and put him
out on the island.

Now Paul, he was to try his luck, but he fared just the same; when he
had hewn two or three strokes, they began to see the oak grow, and so
the king's men seized him too, and clipped his ears, and put him out
on the island; and his ears they clipped closer, because they said he
ought to have taken a lesson from his brother.

So now Jack was to try.

'If you _will_ look like a marked sheep, we're quite ready to
clip your ears at once, and then you'll save yourself some bother',
said the King; for he was angry with him for his brothers' sake.

'Well, I'd like just to try first', said Jack, and so he got leave.
Then he took his axe out of his wallet and fitted it to its haft.

'Hew away!' said he to his axe; and away it hewed, making the chips
fly again, so that it wasn't long before down came the oak.

When that was done, Jack pulled out his spade, and fitted it to its
handle.

'Dig away!' said he to the spade; and so the spade began to dig and
delve till the earth and rock flew out in splinters, and so he had
the well soon dug out, you may think.

And when he had got it as big and deep as he chose, Jack took out his
walnut and laid it in one corner of the well, and pulled the plug of
moss out.

'Trickle and run', said Jack; and so the nut trickled and ran, till
the water gushed out of the hole in a stream, and in a short time the
well was brimfull.

Then Jack had felled the oak which shaded the king's palace, and dug
a well in the palace-yard, and so he got the Princess and half the
kingdom, as the King had said; but it was lucky for Peter and Paul
that they had lost their ears, else they had heard each hour and day,
how every one said, 'Well, after all, Jack wasn't so much out of his
mind when he took to wondering.'




BIG PETER AND LITTLE PETER

Once on a time there were two brothers, both named Peter, and so the
elder was called Big Peter, and the younger Little Peter. When his
father was dead, Big Peter took him a wife with lots of money, but
Little Peter was at home with his mother, and lived on her means till
he grew up. So when he was of age he came into his heritage, and then
Big Peter said he mustn't stay any longer in the old house, and eat
up his mother's substance; 'twere better he should go out into the
world and do something for himself.

Yes; Little Peter thought that no bad plan; so he bought himself a
fine horse and a load of butter and cheese, and set off to the town;
and with the money he got for his goods he bought brandy, and wine,
and beer, and as soon as ever he got home again it was one round of
holiday-keeping and merry-making; he treated all his old friends and
neighbours, and they treated him again; and so he lived in fun and
frolic so long as his money lasted. But when his last shilling was
spent, and Little Peter hadn't a penny in his purse, he went back
home again to his old mother, and brought nothing with him but a
calf. When the spring came he turned out the calf and let it graze on
Big Peter's meadow. Then Big Peter got cross and killed the calf at
one blow; but Little Peter, he flayed the calf, and hung the skin up
in the bath-room till it was thoroughly dry; then he rolled it up,
stuffed it into a sack, and went about the country trying to sell it;
but wherever he came, they only laughed at him, and said they had no
need of smoked calfskin. So when he had walked on a long way, he came
to a farm, and there he turned in and asked for a night's lodging.

'Nay, nay', said the Goody, 'I can't give you lodging, for my husband
is up at the shieling on the hill, and I'm alone in the house. You
must just try to get shelter at our next neighbour's; but still if
they won't take you in, you may come back, for you must have a house
over your head, come what may.'

So as little Peter passed by the parlour window, he saw that there
was a priest in there, with whom the Goody was making merry, and she
was serving him up ale and brandy, and a great bowl of custard. But
just as the priest had sat down to eat and drink, back came the
husband, and as soon as ever the Goody heard him in the passage, she
was not slow; she took the bowl of custard, and put it under the
kitchen grate, and the ale and brandy into the cellar, and as for the
priest, she locked him up in a great chest which stood there. All
this Little Peter stood outside and saw, and as soon as the husband
was well inside Little Peter went up to the door and asked if he
might have a night's lodging.

'Yes, to be sure', said the man, 'we'll take you in'; and so he
begged Little Peter to sit down at the table and eat. Yes, Little
Peter sat down, and took his calfskin with him, and laid it down at
his feet.

So, when they had sat a while, Little Peter began to mutter to his
skin:

'What are you saying now? can't you hold your tongue', said Little
Peter.

'Who is it you're talking with?' asked the man.

'Oh!' answered Little Peter, 'it's only a spae-maiden whom I've got
in my calfskin.'

'And pray what does she spae?' asked the man again.

'Why, she says that no one can say there isn't a bowl of custard
standing under the grate', said Little Peter.

'She may spae as much as she pleases', answered the man, 'but we
haven't had custards in this house for a year and a day.'

But Peter begged him only to look, and he did so; and he found the
custard-bowl. So they began to make merry with it, but just as they
sat and took their ease, Peter muttered something again to the
calfskin.

'Hush!' he said, 'can't you hold your jaw?'

'And pray what does the spae-maiden say now?' asked the man.

'Oh! she says no one can say there isn't brandy and ale standing just
under the trap-door which goes down into the cellar', answered Peter.

'Well! if she never spaed wrong in her life, she spaes wrong now',
said the man. 'Brandy and ale! why, I can't call to mind the day when
we had such things in the house!'

'Just look', said Peter; and the man did so, and there, sure enough,
he found the drink, and you may fancy how merry and jolly he was.

'What did you give for that spae-maiden?' said the man, 'for I must
have her, whatever you ask for her.'

'She was left me by my father', said Peter, 'and so she didn't cost
me much. To tell you the truth, I've no great mind to part with her,
but, all the same, you may have her, if you'll let me have, instead
of her, that old chest that stands in the parlour yonder.'

'The chest's locked and the key lost', screamed the old dame.

'Then I'll take it without the key, that I will', said Peter. And so
he and the man soon struck the bargain. Peter got a rope instead of
the key, and the man helped him to get the chest up on his back, and
then off he stumped with it. So when he had walked a bit he came on
to a bridge, and under the bridge ran a river in such a headlong
stream; it leapt, and foamed, and made such a roar, that the bridge
shook again.

'Ah!' said Peter, 'that brandy-that brandy! Now I can feel I've had a
drop too much. What's the good of my dragging this chest about? If I
hadn't been drunk and mad, I shouldn't have gone and swopped away my
spae-maiden for it. But now this chest shall go out into the river
this very minute.'

And with that he began to untie the rope.

'Au! Au! do for God's sake set me free. The priest's life is at
stake; he it is whom you have got in the chest', screamed out some
one inside.

'This must be the Deil himself', said Peter, 'who wants to make me
believe he has turned priest; but whether he makes himself priest or
clerk, out he goes into the river.' 'Oh no! oh no! 'roared out the
priest. 'The parish priest is at stake. He was on a visit to the
Goody for her soul's health, but her husband is rough and wild, and
so she had to hide me in the chest. Here I have a gold watch and a
silver watch in my fob; you shall have them both, and eight hundred
dollars beside, if you will only let me out.'

'Nay, nay', said Peter; 'is it really your reverence after all'; and
with that he took up a stone, and knocked the lid of the chest to
pieces. Then the priest got out, and off he set home to his parsonage
both fast and light, for he no longer had his watches and money to
weigh him down.

As for Little Peter, he went home again, and said to Big Peter,
'There was a good sale to-day for calfskins at the market.'

'Why, what did you get for your tattered one, now?' asked Big Peter.

'Quite as much as it was worth. I got eight hundred dollars for it,
but bigger and stouter calves-skins fetched twice as much', said
Little Peter, and showed his dollars.

''Twas well you told me this', answered Big Peter, who went and
slaughtered all his kine and calves, and set off on the road to town
with their skins and hides. So when he got to the market, and the
tanners asked what he wanted for his hides, Big Peter said he must
have eight hundred dollars for the small ones, and so on, more and
more for the big ones. But all the folk only laughed and made game of
him, and said he oughtn't to come there; he'd better turn into the
madhouse for a better bargain, and so he soon found out how things
had gone, and that Little Peter had played him a trick. But when he
got home again, he was not very soft-spoken, and he swore and cursed;
so help him, if he wouldn't strike Little Peter dead that very night.
All this Little Peter stood and listened to; and so, when he had gone
to bed with his mother, and the night had worn on a little, he begged
her to change sides with him, for he was well-nigh frozen, he said,
and might be 'twas warmer next the wall. Yes, she did that, and in a
little while came Big Peter with an axe in his hand, and crept up to
the bedside, and at one blow chopped off his mother's head.

Next morning, in went Little Peter into Big Peter's sitting-room.

'Heaven better and help you', he said; 'you who have chopped our
mother's head off. The Sheriff will not be over-pleased to hear that
you pay mother's dower in this way.'

Then Big Peter got so afraid, he begged Little Peter, for God's sake,
to say nothing about what he knew. If he would only do that, he
should have eight hundred dollars.

Well, Little Peter swept up the money; set his mother's head on her
body again; put her on a hand-sledge, and so drew her to market.
There he set her up with an apple-basket on each arm, and an apple in
each hand. By and by came a skipper walking along; he thought she was
an apple-woman, and asked if she had apples to sell, and how many he
might have for a penny. But the old woman made no answer. So the
skipper asked again. No! she hadn't a word to say for herself.

'How many may I have for a penny', he bawled the third time, but the
old dame sat bolt upright, as though she neither saw him, nor heard
what he said. Then the skipper flew into such a rage that he gave her
one under the ear, and so away rolled her head across the market-
place. At that moment, up came Little Peter with a bound; he fell a-
weeping and bewailing, and threatened to make the skipper smart for
it, for having dealt his old mother her death blow.

'Dear friend, only hold your tongue about what you know', said the
skipper, 'and you shall have eight hundred dollars.'

And so they made it up.

When Little Peter got home again, he said to Big Peter:

'Old women fetch a fine price at market to-day. I got eight hundred
dollars for mother; just look', and so he showed him the money.

''Twas well I came to know this', said Big Peter.

Now, you must know he had an old stepmother, so he took and killed
her out of hand, and strode off to sell her. But when they heard how
he went about trying to sell dead bodies, the neighbours were all for
handing him over to the Sheriff, and it was as much as he could do to
get out of the scrape.

When Big Peter got home again, he was so wroth and mad against Little
Peter, he threatened to strike him dead there and then; he needn't
hope for mercy, die he must.

'Well! well!' said Little Peter, 'that's the way we must all trudge,
and betwixt to-day and to-morrow, there's only a night to come. But
if I must set off now, I've only one thing to ask; stuff me into that
sack that hangs yonder, and take and toss me into the river.'

Well! Big Peter had nothing to say against that, he stuffed him into
the sack and set off. But he hadn't gone far on his way, before it
came into his mind that he had forgotten something which he must go
back to fetch; meanwhile, he set the sack down by the road side. Just
then came a man driving a fine fat flock of sheep.

To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.
To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.

roared out Little Peter, who lay inside the sack, and that he kept
bawling and bellowing out.

'Mayn't I get leave to go with you', asked the man who drove the
sheep.

'Of course you may', said Little Peter. 'If you'll only untie the
sack, and creep into it in my stead, you'll soon get there. As for
me, I don't mind biding here till next time, that I don't. But you
must keep on calling out the words I bawled out, else you'll not go
to the right place.'

Then the man untied the sack, and got into it in Little Peter's
place: Peter tied the sack up again and the man began to bawl out:

To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.
To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.

and to that text he stuck.

When Peter had got him well into the sack, he wasn't slow; off he
went with the flock of sheep, and soon put a good bit of the road
behind him. Meantime, back came Big Peter, took the sack on his
shoulders, and bore it across the country to the river, and all the
while he went, the drover sat inside bawling out:

To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.
To Kingdom-come, to Paradise.

'Aye, aye', said Big Peter; 'try now to find the way for yourself';
and with that, he tossed him out into the stream.

So when Big Peter had done that, and was going back home, whom should
he overtake but his brother, who went along driving the flock of
sheep before him. Big Peter could scarce believe his eyes, and asked
how Little Peter had got out of the river, and whence the fine flock
of sheep came.

'Ah!' said Little Peter, 'that just was a good brotherly turn you did
me, when you threw me into the river. I sank right down to the bottom
like a stone, and there I just did see flocks of sheep; you'd scarce
believe now, that they go about down there by thousands, one flock
bigger than the other. And just look here! here are fleeces for you!'

'Well', said Big Peter, 'I'm very glad you told me.'

So off he ran home to his old dame; made her come with him to the
river; crept into a sack, and bade her make haste to tie it up, and
toss him over the bridge.

'I'm going after a flock of sheep', he said, 'but if I stay too long,
and you think I can't get along with the flock by myself, just jump
over and help me; do you hear?'

'Well, don't stay too long', said his wife, 'for my heart is set on
seeing those sheep.'

There she stood and waited a while, but then she thought, perhaps her
husband couldn't keep the flock well together, and so down she jumped
after him.

And so Little Peter was rid of them all, and the farm and fields came
to him as heir, and horses and cattle too; and, besides, he had money
in his pocket to buy milch kine to tether in his byre.




TATTERHOOD

Once on a time there was a king and a queen who had no children, and
that gave the queen much grief; she scarce had one happy hour. She
was always bewailing and bemoaning herself, and saying how dull and
lonesome it was in the palace.

'If we had children there'd be life enough', she said.

Wherever she went in all her realm she found God's blessing in
children, even in the vilest hut; and wherever she came she heard the
Goodies scolding the bairns, and saying how they had done that and
that wrong. All this the queen heard, and thought it would be so nice
to do as other women did. At last the king and queen took into their
palace a stranger lassie to rear up, that they might have her always
with them, to love her if she did well, and scold her if she did
wrong, like their own child.

So one day the little lassie whom they had taken as their own, ran
down into the palace yard, and was playing with a gold apple. Just
then an old beggar wife came by, who had a little girl with her, and
it wasn't long before the little lassie and the beggar's bairn were
great friends, and began to play together, and to toss the gold apple
about between them. When the Queen saw this, as she sat at a window
in the palace, she tapped on the pane for her foster-daughter to come
up. She went at once, but the beggar-girl went up too; and as they
went into the Queen's bower, each held the other by the hand. Then
the Queen began to scold the little lady, and to say:

'You ought to be above running about and playing with a tattered
beggar's brat.'

And so she wanted to drive the lassie downstairs.

'If the Queen only knew my mother's power, she'd not drive me out',
said the little lassie; and when the Queen asked what she meant more
plainly, she told her how her mother could get her children if she
chose. The Queen wouldn't believe it, but the lassie held her own,
and said every word of it was true, and bade the Queen only to try
and make her mother do it. So the Queen sent the lassie down to fetch
up her mother.

'Do you know what your daughter says?' asked the Queen of the old
woman, as soon as ever she came into the room.

No; the beggar wife knew nothing about it.

'Well, she says you can get me children if you will', answered the
Queen.

'Queens shouldn't listen to beggar lassies' silly stories', said the
old wife, and strode out of the room.

Then the Queen got angry, and wanted again to drive out the little
lassie; but she declared it was true every word that she had said.

'Let the Queen only give my mother a drop to drink,' said the lassie;
'when she gets merry she'll soon find out a way to help you.'

The Queen was ready to try this; so the beggar wife was fetched up
again once more, and treated both with wine and mead as much as she
chose; and so it was not long before her tongue began to wag. Then
the Queen came out again with the same question she had asked before.

'One way to help you perhaps I know', said the beggar wife. 'Your
Majesty must make them bring in two pails of water some evening
before you go to bed. In each of them you must wash yourself, and
afterwards throw away the water under the bed. When you look under
the bed next morning, two flowers will have sprung up, one fair and
one ugly. The fair one you must eat, the ugly one you must let stand;
but mind you don't forget the last.'

That was what the beggar wife said.

Yes; the Queen did what the beggar wife advised her to do; she had
the water brought up in two pails, washed herself in them, and
emptied them under the bed; and lo! when she looked under the bed
next morning, there stood two flowers; one was ugly and foul, and had
black leaves; but the other was so bright, and fair, and lovely, she
had never seen its like; so she ate it up at once. But the pretty
flower tasted so sweet, that she couldn't help herself. She ate the
other up too, for, she thought, 'it can't hurt or help one much
either way, I'll be bound'.

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