ONCE there was a king who had seven sons. He loved them so much that
he could never bear to be without them all at once; one of them always
had to be with him. When they were grown up, six were to set off to woo.
But as for the youngest, his father kept him at home; the others were to
bring back a princess for him to the castle.
The king gave the six the finest clothes you ever set eyes on, so
fine that the light gleamed a long way off. Each had his horse and many,
many hundred dollars, and so they set off.
When they had been to many castles, and seen many princesses, at
last they came to a king who had six daughters. They were such lovely
king's daughters they had never set eyes on. 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 their brother Boots who stayed at home. For they were over
head and ears in love with their own sweethearts.
When they had gone a good bit on their way, they passed close by
a steep hill-side that looked like a wall. Behind it, inside the rocks,
was the house of a giant. Now, all at once the giant came out, set his
eyes on them, and turned them all into stone, princes and princesses and
all.
The old king waited and waited for his six sons, but it was all
good for nothing. He began to feel greatly troubled, and said he should
never know what it was to be glad again.
"If I didn't have you left," he said to Boots, "I wouldn't
live any longer, I'm so full of sorrow 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.
"No, no!" said his father, "then you would stay away
too."
But Boots had set his heart on it; go he would. He begged and
prayed so long that the king had to let him go. However, 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 the others horses he had. But
Boots did not care a bit for that, he sprang up on his old
steed.
"Bye, dad," he said sprightly; "I'll come back, never fear. And
when I do I'll bring my six brothers back with me." With that he rode
off.
When he had ridden a while, he came to a starved raven. It lay in
the road and flapped its wings, and was unable to get out of the way.
It was that starved.
"Hello, you," said the raven, "give me a little food, and I'll
help you again when you need it the most."
"Oh dear, I haven't got much food," said the prince, "and I don't
see how you'll ever be able to help me much. Anyway, I'll spare you a
little. I can see you need it."
So he gave the raven some of the food he had brought with
him.
When he had gone a little further, he came to a brook. In the
brook lay a great salmon that had got on a dry place. Now it dashed
itself about, and couldn't get into the water again.
"Oh, dear," said the salmon to the prince, "shove me out into the
water again, and I'll help you again when you need it the
most."
"Well," said the prince, "I hardly think the help you'll give me
in return will be great, but it's a pity you should lie there and choke."
Saying that he pushed the fish out into the stream again.
After that he went a long, long way. Then he met with a wolf. It
was so famished that it lay and crawled along the road on its
belly.
"Oh dear, let me have your horse," said the wolf. "I'm so hungry
the wind whistles through my stomack and bones. I've had nothing to eat
for two years."
"No," said Boots, "that won't do. First I came to a raven and I
was forced to give him my food; next I came to a salmon and had to
help into the water; and now you want my horse. It can't be done, it
can't, for then I should have nothing to ride on."
"Just help me," said the wolf, "for you can ride on
my back, and I'll help you again when you need it the most."
"Well! the help I'll be getting from you won't be great, I
dare say," said the prince; "but you may take my horse, since you are in
such giant need."
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 look, the wolf
was so strong from what he had eaten that he set off with the prince like
nothing. Boots had never ridden so fast before.
"When we have gone a bit farther," said the wolf, "I'll show you
the giant's house."
After a while they came to that place.
"Look, here is the giant's house," said the wolf, "and look, here
are your six brothers: The giant has turned them into stone. Look, here
are their six brides. Over there is a door; you have to go into it in
order to save them."
"No, I don't dare to go in," said the prince. "He'll kill
me."
"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. Mind that you
do exactly as she bids you."
Boots went in, even though he was very much afraid. When he came
in the giant was away, but in one of the rooms sat the princess, just as
the wolf had said. So lovely a princess Boots had never yet set eyes
on.
She said as she saw him, "Good heavens! Where do you come from?
Coming in here will surely be your death. No one can make an end of the
giant who lives here, for he has no heart at all, not in his
body."
"Well, well!" said Boots; "but now that I am here, I may as well
try what I can do with him. ; and I will see if I can't bring help to my
brothers, who are standing turned to stone out of doors; and you, too, I
will try to save. Yes, I will."
"Well, if you must, you must," said the princess; "Let's see if
we can't hit on a plan. Creep under the bed over there, and listen
carefully to what he and I talk about. But you have to lie as still as a
mouse."
He crept under the bed, and he had hardly got well underneath it,
before the giant came.
"Wow!" roared the giant, "what a smell of Christian blood there
is in the house!"
"Yes, I know there is," said the princess, "for there came a
magpie flying with a man's bone, and let it fall down the chimney. I made
all the haste I could to get it out, but all one can do, the smell
doesn't go off so soon."
The troll is finally found out.
The giant said no more about it. When night came, they went to
bed. After they had lain a while, the princess said,
"There's one thing I'd be awfully glad to ask you about, if I
only dared."
"What is that?" asked the giant.
"Only where you keep your heart, since you carry it about you,"
said the princess.
"Ah, that's a thing you have no business to ask about. But if you
must know, it lies under the door-sill," said the giant.
"Ho, ho," said Boots to himself under the bed, "then we'll soon
see if we can find it."
Next morning the giant got up very early and strode off to the
wood. He was hardly out of the house before Boots and the princess set to
work to look under the door-sill for his heart. But for all they dug, and
looked, they were unable to find it.
"He has blocked us this time," said the princess, " but we'll try
him once more."
Now she picked all the prettiest flowers she could find and
strewed them over the door-sill, which they had laid in its right place
again. Then, when the time came for the giant to come home again Boots
crept under the bed. Just as he was well under, back came the
giant.
"Snuff-snuff," went the giant's nose. "Fee faw fum - my eyes and
limbs, what a smell of Christian blood there is in this," said
he.
"I know," said the princess, "for a magpie came flying with a
man's bone in his bill, and let it fall down the chimney. I threw out the
bone as fast as I could, but I figure that is what you smell."
So the giant held his peace and said no more about it. A little
while later he asked who had strewed flowers about the
door-sill.
"Oh, I, of course," said the princess.
"What's the meaning of that?" said the giant.
"Ah," said the princess, "I'm so fond of you that I couldn't help
strewing them when I knew that your heart lay under there."
"Well, I say," said the giant. "But after all it doesn't lie
there at all."
When they went to bed again in the evening, the princess asked the
giant again where his heart was, for she said she would like to
know.
"Well," said the giant, "if you have to, it lies over there, in
the cupboard against the wall."
"Is that a fact?" thought Boots and the princess. "We'll soon try
to find it."
Next morning the giant was away early and strode off to the wood.
As soon as he was gone Boots and the princess were in the cupboard
hunting for his heart, but didn't find it this time either.
"Well," said the princess, "we'll just try him once
again."
Now she decked out the cupboard with flowers and garlands. When
the time came for the giant to come home, Boots crept under the bed
again.
Then back came the giant.
"Snuff-snuff! Fee faw fum, my eyes and limbs, what a smell of
Christian blood there is in here!"
"I know," said the princess; " for a little while ago a magpie
came flying with a man's bone in his bill and let it fall down the
chimney. I got it out of the house again; but maybe that's what you
smell."
When the giant heard that, he said nothing more about it. A
little while after, he saw how the cupboard was all decked out with
flowers and garlands. This time too he asked who had done it. Who could
it be but the princess?
"And what do you mean by all this tomfoolery? " the giant asked
her.
"You see, I'm so fond of you, I couldn't help doing it when I
knew that your heart lay there," the princess said.
"How can you be so silly as to believe any such thing?" said the
giant.
"Look, how can I help believing it, when you say it?" said the
princess.
"You're a goose," said the giant; "where my heart is, you will
never come."
"Well," said the princess; "but for all that, 'it would be such a
pleasure to know where it really lies!'
Then the poor giant could hold out no longer, but was forced to
say:
"Far, far away in a lake lies an island. On that island stands a
church. In that church is a well. In that well swims a duck. In that duck
there's an egg, And in that egg lies my heart, little darling."
Early in the morning, while it was still pale dawn, the giant
strode off to the wood.
"I must set off too," said Boots; "if I only knew how to find the
way."
He took a long, long farewell of the princess.
When he got out of the giant's door, the wolf stood there waiting
for him. Boots told him all that had happened inside the house and said
now he wished to ride to the well in the church, if he only knew the way.
The wolf bade him jump on his back, he would soon find the way,
assuredly.
Away they went, till the wind whistled after them, over hedge and
field, over hill and valley. After they had travelled many, many days, at
last they came to the lake. Then the prince did not know how to get over
it.
The wolf bade him only not be afraid, but stick on. Then he
jumped into the lake with the prince on his back, and swam over to the
island.
They came to the church; but the church keys hung high, high up
on the top of the tower, and at first the prince did not know how to get
them down.
"You can call on the raven," said the wolf.
The prince called on the raven. In a trice the raven came, and
flew up and fetched the keys.
Now the prince got into the church. When he came to the well and
found the duck there, it was swimming backwards and forwards as the giant
had said. He coaxed and coaxed it till it came to him. Then he grasped it
in his hand. But just as he lifted it up from the water, the duck dropped
the egg into the well. Boots was beside himself to know how to get it out
again.
"Why don't you call on the salmon?" said the wolf, and the king's
son called on the salmon. The salmon came and fetched up the egg from the
bottom of the well. The wolf told him to squeeze the egg, and as soon as
he squeezed it the giant screamed out.
"Squeeze it again," said the wolf; and when the prince did so,
the giant screamed still more. He begged and prayed so prettily to be
spared, saying he egg would do all that the prince wished if he would
only not squeeze his heart in two.
"Ask him to restore to life again your six brothers and their
brides that he turned to stone," said the wolf,
The giant was ready to do that. He turned the six brothers into
king's sons again, and their brides into king's daughters.
"Now, squeeze the egg in two," said the wolf, Boots squeezed the
egg to pieces. The giant burst at once.
Now that he had made an end of the giant, Boots rode back again
on the wolf to the giant's house, and there stood all his six brothers
alive and merry, with their brides. Then Boots went into the hill-side
after his bride. Next they all set off home again to their father's
house.
You may fancy how glad the old king was when he saw all his seven
sons come back, each with his bride. But the loveliest bride was the
bride of Boots, after all," said the king.
So he called a great wedding-feast. The mirth was both loud and
long. If they have not done feasting yet, they could still be at it.
