Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 08 (29 page)

When Niels came to the gate of the castle, he found that there was
a large door and a small one, so he opened the latter.

'Can't you open the big door?' said the giants; 'we shall hardly be
able to get in at this one.'

'The bars are too heavy for me to draw,' said Niels; 'if you stoop a
little you can quite well come in here.' The first giant accordingly
bent down and entered in a stooping posture, but before he had
time to straighten his back again Niels made a sweep with the
sword, and oft went the giant's head. To push the body aside as it
fell was quite easy for Niels, so strong had the wine made him, and
the second giant as he entered met the same reception. The third
was slower in coming, so Niels called out to him: 'Be quick,' he
said, 'you are surely the oldest of the three, since you are so slow in
your movements, but I can't wait here long; I must get back to my
own people as soon as possible.' So the third also came in, and was
served in the same way. It appears from the story that giants were
not given fair play!

By this time day was beginning to break, and Niels thought that his
folks might already be searching for him, so, instead of waiting to
see what took place at the castle, he ran off to the forest as fast as
he could, taking the sword with him. He found the others still
asleep, so he woke them up, and they again set out on their journey.
Of the night's adventures he said not a word, and when they asked
where he got the sword, he only pointed in the direction of the
castle, and said, 'Over that way.' They thought he had found it, and
asked no more questions.

When Niels left the castle, he shut the door behind him, and it
closed with such a bang that the porter woke up. He could scarcely
believe his eyes when he saw the three headless giants lying in a
heap in the courtyard, and could not imagine what had taken place.
The whole castle was soon aroused, and then everybody wondered
at the affair: it was soon seen that the bodies were those of the
king's great enemies, but how they came to be there and in that
condition was a perfect mystery. Then it was noticed that the
drinking-horn was empty and the sword gone, while the princess
reported that half of her handkerchief and one of her slippers had
been taken away. How the giants had been killed seemed a little
clearer now, but who had done it was as great a puzzle as before.
The old knight who had charge of the castle said that in his opinion
it must have been some young knight, who had immediately set off
to the king to claim the hand of the princess. This sounded likely,
but the messenger who was sent to the Court returned with the
news that no one there knew anything about the matter.

'We must find him, however,' said the princess; 'for if he is willing
to marry me I cannot in honour refuse him, after what my father put
on the horn.' She took council with her father's wisest men as to
what ought to be done, and among other things they advised her to
build a house beside the highway, and put over the door this
inscription:—'Whoever will tell the story of his life, may stay here
three nights for nothing.' This was done, and many strange tales
were told to the princess, but none of the travellers said a word
about the three giants.

In the meantime Niels and the others tramped on towards Rome.
Autumn passed, and winter was just beginning when they came to
the foot of a great range of mountains, towering up to the sky.
'Must we go over these?' said they. 'We shall be frozen to death or
buried in the snow.'

'Here comes a man,' said Niels; 'let us ask him the way to Rome.'
They did so, and were told that there was no other way.

'And is it far yet?' said the old people, who were beginning to be
worn out by the long journey. The man held up his foot so that
they could see the sole of his shoe; it was worn as thin as paper,
and there was a hole in the middle of it.

'These shoes were quite new when I left Rome,' he said, 'and look
at them now; that will tell you whether you are far from it or not.'

This discouraged the old people so much that they gave up all
thought of finishing the journey, and only wished to get back to
Denmark as quickly as they could. What with the winter and bad
roads they took longer to return than they had taken to go, but in
the end they found themselves in sight of the forest where they had
slept before.

'What's this?' said Rasmus. 'Here's a big house built since we
passed this way before.'

'So it is,' said Peter; 'let's stay all night in it.'

'No, we can't afford that,' said the old people; 'it will be too dear for
the like of us.'

However, when they saw what was written above the door, they
were all well pleased to get a night's lodging for nothing. They
were well received, and had so much attention given to them, that
the old people were quite put out by it. After they had got time to
rest themselves, the princess's steward came to hear their story.

'You saw what was written above the door,' he said to the father.
'Tell me who you are and what your history has been.'

'Dear me, I have nothing of any importance to tell you,' said the old
man, 'and I am sure we should never have made so bold as to
trouble you at all if it hadn't been for the youngest of our two sons
here.'

'Never mind that,' said the steward; ' you are very welcome if you
will only tell me the story of your life.'

'Well, well, I will,' said he, 'but there is nothing to tell about it. I
and my wife have lived all our days on a moor in North Jutland,
until this last year, when she took a fancy to go to Rome. We set
out with our two sons but turned back long before we got there,
and are now on our way home again. That's all my own story, and
our two sons have lived with us all their days, so there is nothing
more to be told about them either.'

'Yes there is,' said Rasmus; 'when we were on our way south, we
slept in the wood near here one night, and I shot a stag.'

The steward was so much accustomed to hearing stories of no
importance that he thought there was no use going further with
this, but reported to the princess that the newcomers had nothing to
tell.

'Did you question them all?' she said.

'Well, no; not directly,' said he; 'but the father said that none of
them could tell me any more than he had done.'

'You are getting careless,' said the princess; 'I shall go and talk to
them myself.'

Niels knew the princess again as soon as she entered the room, and
was greatly alarmed, for he immediately supposed that all this was a
device to discover the person who had run away with the sword,
the slipper and the half of the handkerchief, and that it would fare
badly with him if he were discovered. So he told his story much the
same as the others did (Niels was not very particular), and thought
he had escaped all further trouble, when Rasmus put in his word.
'You've forgotten something, Niels,' he said; 'you remember you
found a sword near here that night I shot the stag.'

'Where is the sword?' said the princess.

'I know,' said the steward, 'I saw where he laid it down when they
came in;' and off he went to fetch it, while Niels wondered whether
he could make his escape in the meantime. Before he had made up
his mind, however, the steward was back with the sword, which the
princess recognised at once.

'Where did you get this?' she said to Niels.

Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a
poor sheep-farmer's son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a
princess and carry off things from her bed-room.

'See what else he has about him,' said the princess to the steward,
and Niels had to submit to be searched: out of one pocket came a
gold-embroidered slipper, and out of another the half of a
gold-hemmed handkerchief.

'That is enough,' said the princess; 'now we needn't ask any more
questions. Send for my father the king at once.'

'Please let me go,' said Niels; 'I did you as much good as harm, at
any rate.'

'Why, who said anything about doing harm?' said the princess.
'You must stay here till my father comes.'

The way in which the princess smiled when she said this gave Niels
some hope that things might not be bad for him after all, and he was
yet more encouraged when he thought of the words engraver on the
horn, though the last line still seemed too good to be true.
However, the arrival of the king soon settled the matter: the
princess was willing and so was Niels, and in a few days the
wedding bells were ringing. Niels was made an earl by that time,
and looked as handsome as any of them when dressed in all his
robes. Before long the old king died, and Niels reigned after him;
but whether his father and mother stayed with him, or went back to
the moor in Jutland, or were sent to Rome in a carriage and four, is
something that all the historians of his reign have forgotten to
mention.

Once upon a time a shepherd was taking his flock out to pasture,
when he found a little baby lying in a meadow, left there by some
wicked person, who thought it was too much trouble to look after
it. The shepherd was fond of children, so he took the baby home
with him and gave it plenty of milk, and by the time the boy was
fourteen he could tear up oaks as if they were weeds. Then Paul, as
the shepherd had called him, grew tired of living at home, and went
out into the world to try his luck.

He walked on for many miles, seeing nothing that surprised him,
but in an open space of the wood he was astonished at finding a
man combing trees as another man would comb flax.

'Good morning, friend,' said Paul; 'upon my word, you must be a
strong man!'

The man stopped his work and laughed. 'I am Tree Comber,' he
answered proudly; 'and the greatest wish of my life is to wrestle
with Shepherd Paul.'

'May all your wishes be fulfilled as easily, for I am Shepherd Paul,
and can wrestle with you at once,' replied the lad; and he seized
Tree Comber and flung him with such force to the ground that he
sank up to his knees in the earth. However, in a moment he was up
again, and catching hold of Paul, threw him so that he sank up to
his waist; but then it was Paul's turn again, and this time the man
was buried up to his neck. 'That is enough,' cried he; 'I see you are
a smart fellow, let us become friends.'

'Very good,' answered Paul, and they continued their journey
together.

By-and-by they reached a man who was grinding stones to powder
in his hands, as if they had been nuts.

'Good morning,' said Paul politely; 'upon my word, you must be a
strong fellow!'

'I am Stone Crusher,' answered the man, and the greatest wish of
my life is to wrestle with Shepherd Paul.'

'May all your wishes be as easily fulfilled, for I am Shepherd Paul,
and will wrestle with you at once,' and the sport began. After a
short time the man declared himself beaten, and begged leave to go
with them; so they all three travelled together.

A little further on they came upon a man who was kneading iron as
if it had been dough. 'Good morning,' said Paul, 'you must be a
strong fellow.'

'I am Iron Kneader, and should like to fight Shepherd Paul,'
answered he.

'Let us begin at once then,' replied Paul; and on this occasion also,
Paul got the better of his foe, and they all four continued their
journey.

At midday they entered a forest, and Paul stopped suddenly. 'We
three will go and look for game,' he said, 'and you, Tree Comber,
will stay behind and prepare a good supper for us.' So Tree
Comber set to work to boil and roast, and when dinner was nearly
ready, a little dwarf with a pointed beard strolled up to the place.
'What are you cooking?' asked he, 'give me some of it.'

'I'll give you some on your back, if you like,' answered Tree
Comber rudely. The dwarf took no notice, but waited patiently till
the dinner was cooked, then suddenly throwing Tree Comber on
the ground, he ate up the contents of the saucepan and vanished.
Tree Comber felt rather ashamed of himself, and set about boiling
some more vegetables, but they were still very hard when the
hunters returned, and though they complained of his bad cooking,
he did not tell them about the dwarf.

Next day Stone Crusher was left behind, and after him Iron
Kneader, and each time the dwarf appeared, and they fared no
better than Tree Comber had done. The fourth day Paul said to
them: 'My friends, there must be some reason why your cooking
has always been so bad, now you shall go and hunt and I will stay
behind.' So they went off, amusing themselves by thinking what
was in store for Paul.

He set to work at once, and had just got all his vegetables
simmering in the pot when the dwarf appeared as before, and asked
to have some of the stew. 'Be off,' cried Paul, snatching up the
saucepan as he spoke. The dwarf tried to get hold of his collar, but
Paul seized him by the beard, and tied him to a big tree so that he
could not stir, and went on quietly with his cooking. The hunters
came back early, longing to see how Paul had got on, and, to their
surprise, dinner was quite ready for them.

'You are great useless creatures,' said he, 'who couldn't even outwit
that little dwarf. When we have finished supper I will show you
what I have done with him!' But when they reached the place
where Paul had left the dwarf, neither he nor the tree was to be
seen, for the little fellow had pulled it up by the roots and run away,
dragging it after him. The four friends followed the track of the
tree and found that it ended in a deep hole. 'He must have gone
down here,' said Paul, 'and I will go after him. See! there is a
basket that will do for me to sit in, and a cord to lower me with.
But when I pull the cord again, lose no time in drawing the basket
up.'

And he stepped into the basket, which was lowered by his friends.