(31) From the Icelandic.
There were once a King and a Queen, and they had a son called Sigurd,
who was very strong and active, and good-looking. When the King came
to be bowed down with the weight of years he spoke to his son, and
said that now it was time for him to look out for a fitting match for
himself, for he did not know how long he might last now, and he would
like to see him married before he died.
Sigurd was not averse to this, and asked his father where he thought
it best to look for a wife. The King answered that in a certain country
there was a King who had a beautiful daughter, and he thought it would
be most desirable if Sigurd could get her. So the two parted, and Sigurd
prepared for the journey, and went to where his father had directed him.
He came to the King and asked his daughter’s hand, which he readily
granted him, but only on the condition that he should remain there as
long as he could, for the King himself was not strong and not very able
to govern his kingdom. Sigurd accepted this condition, but added that
he would have to get leave to go home again to his own country when
he heard news of his father’s death. After that Sigurd married the
Princess, and helped his father-in-law to govern the kingdom. He and the
Princess loved each other dearly, and after a year a son came to them,
who was two years old when word came to Sigurd that his father was dead.
Sigurd now prepared to return home with his wife and child, and went on
board ship to go by sea.
They had sailed for several days, when the breeze suddenly fell, and
there came a dead calm, at a time when they needed only one day’s voyage
to reach home. Sigurd and his Queen were one day on deck, when most of
the others on the ship had fallen asleep. There they sat and talked for
a while, and had their little son along with them. After a time Sigurd
became so heavy with sleep that he could no longer keep awake, so he
went below and lay down, leaving the Queen alone on the deck, playing
with her son.
A good while after Sigurd had gone below the Queen saw something black
on the sea, which seemed to be coming nearer. As it approached she
could make out that it was a boat, and could see the figure of some one
sitting in it and rowing it. At last the boat came alongside the ship,
and now the Queen saw that it was a stone boat, out of which there
came up on board the ship a fearfully ugly Witch. The Queen was more
frightened than words can describe, and could neither speak a word nor
move from the place so as to awaken the King or the sailors. The Witch
came right up to the Queen, took the child from her and laid it on the
deck; then she took the Queen, and stripped her of all her fine clothes,
which she proceeded to put on herself, and looked then like a human
being. Last of all she took the Queen, put her into the boat, and said--
‘This spell I lay upon you, that you slacken not your course until you
come to my brother in the Underworld.’
The Queen sat stunned and motionless, but the boat at once shot away
from the ship with her, and before long she was out of sight.
When the boat could no longer be seen the child began to cry, and though
the Witch tried to quiet it she could not manage it; so she went below
to where the King was sleeping with the child on her arm, and awakened
him, scolding him for leaving them alone on deck, while he and all the
crew were asleep. It was great carelessness of him, she said, to leave
no one to watch the ship with her.
Sigurd was greatly surprised to hear his Queen scold him so much, for
she had never said an angry word to him before; but he thought it was
quite excusable in this case, and tried to quiet the child along with
her, but it was no use. Then he went and wakened the sailors, and
bade them hoist the sails, for a breeze had sprung up and was blowing
straight towards the harbour.
They soon reached the land which Sigurd was to rule over, and found all
the people sorrowful for the old King’s death, but they became glad when
they got Sigurd back to the Court, and made him King over them.
The King’s son, however, hardly ever stopped crying from the time he
had been taken from his mother on the deck of the ship, although he had
always been such a good child before, so that at last the King had to
get a nurse for him--one of the maids of the Court. As soon as the child
got into her charge he stopped crying, and behaved well as before.
After the sea-voyage it seemed to the King that the Queen had altered
very much in many ways, and not for the better. He thought her much more
haughty and stubborn and difficult to deal with than she used to be.
Before long others began to notice this as well as the King. In the
Court there were two young fellows, one of eighteen years old, the other
of nineteen, who were very fond of playing chess, and often sat long
inside playing at it. Their room was next the Queen’s, and often during
the day they heard the Queen talking.
One day they paid more attention than usual when they heard her talk,
and put their ears close to a crack in the wall between the rooms, and
heard the Queen say quite plainly, ‘When I yawn a little, then I am a
nice little maiden; when I yawn half-way, then I am half a troll; and
when I yawn fully, then I am a troll altogether.’
As she said this she yawned tremendously, and in a moment had put on
the appearance of a fearfully ugly troll. Then there came up through the
floor of the room a three-headed Giant with a trough full of meat, who
saluted her as his sister and set down the trough before her. She began
to eat out of it, and never stopped till she had finished it. The young
fellows saw all this going on, but did not hear the two of them say
anything to each other. They were astonished though at how greedily the
Queen devoured the meat, and how much she ate of it, and were no longer
surprised that she took so little when she sat at table with the King.
As soon as she had finished it the Giant disappeared with the trough by
the same way as he had come, and the Queen returned to her human shape.
Now we must go back to the King’s son after he had been put in charge of
the nurse. One evening, after she had lit a candle and was holding the
child, several planks sprang up in the floor of the room, and out at the
opening came a beautiful woman dressed in white, with an iron belt round
her waist, to which was fastened an iron chain that went down into the
ground. The woman came up to the nurse, took the child from her,
and pressed it to her breast; then she gave it back to the nurse and
returned by the same way as she had come, and the floor closed over her
again. Although the woman had not spoken a single word to her, the nurse
was very much frightened, but told no one about it.
Next evening the same thing happened again, just as before, but as the
woman was going away she said in a sad tone, ‘Two are gone, and one
only is left,’ and then disappeared as before. The nurse was still more
frightened when she heard the woman say this, and thought that perhaps
some danger was hanging over the child, though she had no ill-opinion of
the unknown woman, who, indeed, had behaved towards the child as if it
were her own. The most mysterious thing was the woman saying ‘and only
one is left;’ but the nurse guessed that this must mean that only one
day was left, since she had come for two days already.
At last the nurse made up her mind to go to the King, and told him the
whole story, and asked him to be present in person next day about the
time when the woman usually came. The King promised to do so, and came
to the nurse’s room a little before the time, and sat down on a chair
with his drawn sword in his hand. Soon after the planks in the floor
sprang up as before, and the woman came up, dressed in white, with the
iron belt and chain. The King saw at once that it was his own Queen, and
immediately hewed asunder the iron chain that was fastened to the belt.
This was followed by such noises and crashings down in the earth that
all the King’s Palace shook, so that no one expected anything else than
to see every bit of it shaken to pieces. At last, however, the noises
and shaking stopped, and they began to come to themselves again.
The King and Queen embraced each other, and she told him the whole
story--how the Witch came to the ship when they were all asleep and sent
her off in the boat. After she had gone so far that she could not see
the ship, she sailed on through darkness until she landed beside a
three-headed Giant. The Giant wished her to marry him, but she refused;
whereupon he shut her up by herself, and told her she would never get
free until she consented. After a time she began to plan how to get her
freedom, and at last told him that she would consent if he would allow
her to visit her son on earth three days on end. This he agreed to, but
put on her this iron belt and chain, the other end of which he fastened
round his own waist, and the great noises that were heard when the King
cut the chain must have been caused by the Giant’s falling down the
underground passage when the chain gave way so suddenly. The Giant’s
dwelling, indeed, was right under the Palace, and the terrible shakings
must have been caused by him in his death-throes.
The King now understood how the Queen he had had for some time past had
been so ill-tempered. He at once had a sack drawn over her head and made
her be stoned to death, and after that torn in pieces by untamed horses.
The two young fellows also told now what they had heard and seen in the
Queen’s room, for before this they had been afraid to say anything about
it, on account of the Queen’s power.
The real Queen was now restored to all her dignity, and was beloved by
all. The nurse was married to a nobleman, and the King and Queen gave
her splendid presents.