"Once on a time there was a farmer's son who dreamt that he was to marry
a princess far, far out in the world. She was as red and white as milk
and blood, and so rich there was no end to her riches. When he awoke he
seemed to see her still standing bright and living before him, and he
thought her so sweet and lovely that his life was not worth having
unless he had her too. So he sold all he had, and set off into the world
to find her out. Well, he went far, and farther than far, and about
winter he came to a land where all the high-roads lay right straight on
end; there wasn't a bend in any of them. When he had wandered on and on
for a quarter of a year he came to a town, and outside the church-door
lay a big block of ice, in which there stood a dead body, and the whole
parish spat on it as they passed by to church. The lad wondered at this,
and when the priest came out of church he asked him what it all meant.
"'It is a great wrong-doer,' said the priest. 'He has been executed for
his ungodliness, and set up there to be mocked and spat upon.'
"'But what was his wrong-doing?' asked the lad.
"'When he was alive here he was a vintner,' said the priest, 'and he
mixed water with his wine.'
"The lad thought that no such dreadful sin.
"'Well,' he said, 'after he had atoned for it with his life, you might
as well have let him have Christian burial and peace after death.'
"But the priest said that could not be in any wise, for there must be
folk to break him out of the ice, and money to buy a grave from the
church; then the grave-digger must be paid for digging the grave, and
the sexton for tolling the bell, and the clerk for singing the hymns,
and the priest for sprinkling dust over him.
"'Do you think now there would be any one who would be willing to pay
all this for an executed sinner?'
"'Yes,' said the lad. 'If he could only get him buried in Christian
earth, he would be sure to pay for his funeral ale out of his scanty
means.'
"Even after that the priest hemmed and hawed; but when the lad came with
two witnesses, and asked him right out in their hearing if he could
refuse to sprinkle dust over the corpse, he was forced to answer that he
could not.
"So they broke the vintner out of the block of ice, and laid him in
Christian earth, and they tolled the bell and sang hymns over him, and
the priest sprinkled dust over him, and they drank his funeral ale till
they wept and laughed by turns; but when the lad had paid for the ale he
hadn't many pence left in his pocket.
"He set off on his way again, but he hadn't got far ere a man overtook
him who asked if he did not think it dull work walking on all alone.
"No; the lad did not think it dull. 'I have always something to think
about,' he said.
"Then the man asked if he wouldn't like to have a servant.
"'No,' said the lad; 'I am wont to be my own servant, therefore I have
need of none; and even if I wanted one ever so much, I have no means to
get one, for I have no money to pay for his food and wages.'
"'You do need a servant, that I know better than you,' said the man,
'and you have need of one whom you can trust in life and death. If you
won't have me as a servant, you may take me as your companion; I give
you my word I will stand you in good stead, and it shan't cost you a
penny. I will pay my own fare, and as for food and clothing, you shall
have no trouble about them.'
"Well, on those terms he was willing enough to have him as his
companion; so after that they travelled together, and the man for the
most part went on ahead and showed the lad the way.
"So after they had travelled on and on from land to land, over hill and
wood, they came to a crossfell that stopped the way. There the companion
went up and knocked, and bade them open the door; and the rock opened
sure enough, and when they got inside the hill up came an old witch with
a chair, and asked them, 'Be so good as to sit down. No doubt ye are
weary.'
"'Sit on it yourself,' said the man. So she was forced to take her seat,
and as soon as she sat down she stuck fast, for the chair was such that
it let no one loose that came near it. Meanwhile they went about inside
the hill, and the companion looked round till he saw a sword hanging
over the door. That he would have, and if he got it he gave his word to
the old witch that he would let her loose out of the chair.
"'Nay, nay,' she screeched out; 'ask me anything else. Anything else you
may have, but not that, for it is my Three-Sister Sword; we are three
sisters who own it together.'
"Very well; then you may sit there till the end of the world,' said the
man. But when she heard that, she said he might have it if he would set
her free.
"So he took the sword and went off with it, and left her still sitting
there.
"When they had gone far, far away over naked fells and wide wastes, they
came to another crossfell. There, too, the companion knocked and bade
them open the door, and the same thing happened as happened before; the
rock opened, and when they had got a good way into the hill another old
witch came up to them with a chair and begged them to sit down. 'Ye may
well be weary,' she said.
"'Sit down yourself,' said the companion. And so she fared as her sister
had fared, she did not dare to say nay, and as soon as she came on the
chair she stuck fast. Meanwhile the lad and his companion went about in
the hill, and the man broke open all the chests and drawers till he
found what he sought, and that was a golden ball of yarn. That he set
his heart on, and he promised the old witch to set her free if she would
give him the golden ball. She said he might take all she had, but that
she could not part with; it was her Three-Sister Ball. But when she
heard that she should sit there till Doomsday unless he got it, she said
he might take it all the same if he would only set her free. So the
companion took the golden ball, but he left her sitting where she sat.
"So on they went for many days, over waste and wood, till they came to a
third crossfell. There all went as it had gone twice before. The
companion knocked, the rock opened, and inside the hill an old witch
came up, and asked them to sit on her chair, they must be tired. But the
companion said again, 'Sit on it yourself,' and there she sat. They had
not gone through many rooms before they saw an old hat which hung on a
peg behind the door. That the companion must and would have; but the old
witch couldn't part with it. It was her Three-Sister Hat, and if she
gave it away, all her luck would be lost. But when she heard that she
would have to sit there till the end of the world unless he got it, she
said he might take it if he would only let her loose. When the companion
had got well hold of the hat, he went off, and bade her sit there still,
like the rest of her sisters.
"After a long, long time, they came to a Sound; then the companion took
the ball of yarn, and threw it so hard against the rock on the other
side of the stream that it bounded back, and after he had thrown it
backwards and forwards a few times it became a bridge. On that bridge
they went over the Sound, and when they reached the other side, the man
bade the lad to be quick and wind up the yarn again as soon as he could,
for, said he:--
"'If we don't wind it up quick, all those witches will come after us,
and tear us to bits.'
"So the lad wound and wound with all his might and main, and when there
was no more to wind than the very last thread, up came the old witches
on the wings of the wind. They flew to the water, so that the spray rose
before them, and snatched at the end of the thread; but they could not
quite get hold of it, and so they were drowned in the Sound.
"When they had gone on a few days further, the companion said, 'Now we
are soon coming to the castle where she is, the princess of whom you
dreamt, and when we get there, you must go in and tell the king what you
dreamt, and what it is you are seeking.'
"So when they reached it he did what the man told him, and was very
heartily welcomed. He had a room for himself, and another for his
companion, which they were to live in, and when dinner-time drew near,
he was bidden to dine at the king's own board. As soon as ever he set
eyes on the princess he knew her at once, and saw it was she of whom he
had dreamt as his bride. Then he told her his business, and she answered
that she liked him well enough, and would gladly have him; but first he
must undergo three trials. So when they had dined she gave him a pair of
golden scissors, and said,--
"'The first proof is that you must take these scissors and keep them,
and give them to me at mid-day to-morrow. It is not so very great a
trial, I fancy,' she said, and made a face; 'but if you can't stand it,
you lose your life; it is the law, and so you will be drawn and
quartered, and your body will be stuck on stakes, and your head over the
gate, just like those lovers of mine, whose skulls and skeletons you see
outside the king's castle.'
"'That is no such great art,' thought the lad.
"But the princess was so merry and mad, and flirted so much with him,
that he forgot all about the scissors and himself, and so while they
played and sported, she stole the scissors away from him without his
knowing it. When he went up to his room at night, and told how he had
fared, and what she had said to him, and about the scissors she gave him
to keep, the companion said,--
"'Of course you have the scissors safe and sure.'
"Then he searched in all his pockets; but there were no scissors, and
the lad was in a sad way when he found them wanting.
"'Well! well!' said the companion; 'I'll see if I can't get you them
again.'
"With that he went down into the stable, and there stood a big, fat
Billygoat, which belonged to the princess, and it was of that breed that
it could fly many times faster through the air than it could run on
land. So he took the Three-Sister Sword, and gave it a stroke between
the horns, and said,--
"'When rides the princess to see her lover to-night?'
"The Billygoat baaed, and said it dared not say, but when it had another
stroke, it said the princess was coming at eleven o'clock. Then the
companion put on the Three-Sister Hat, and all at once he became
invisible, and so he waited for her. When she came, she took and rubbed
the Billygoat with an ointment which she had in a great horn, and
said,--
"'Away, away, o'er roof tree and steeple, o'er land, o'er sea, o'er
hill, o'er dale, to my true love who awaits me in fell this night.'
"At the very moment that the goat set off, the companion threw himself
on behind, and away they went like a blast through the air. They were
not long on the way, and in a trice they came to a crossfell. There she
knocked, and so the goat passed through the fell to the Troll, who was
her lover.
"'Now, my dear,' she said, 'a new lover is come, whose heart is set on
having me. He is young and handsome but I will have no other than you,'
and so she coaxed and petted the Troll.
"'So I set him a trial, and here are the scissors he was to watch and
keep; now do you keep them,' she said.
"So the two laughed heartily, just as though they had the lad already on
wheel and stake.
"'Yes! yes!' said the Troll; 'I'll keep them safe enough.
And I shall sleep on the bride's white arm,
While ravens round his skeleton swarm.'
"And so he laid the scissors in an iron chest with three locks; but just
as he dropped them into the chest, the companion snapped them up.
Neither of them could see him, for he had on the Three-Sister Hat; and
so the Troll locked up the chest for naught, and he hid the keys he had
in the hollow eye-tooth in which he had the toothache. There it would be
hard work for any one to find them, the Troll thought.
"So when midnight was passed she set off home again. The companion got
up behind the goat, and they lost no time on the way back.
"Next day, about noon, the lad was asked down to the king's board; but
then the princess gave herself such airs, and was so high and mighty,
she would scarce look towards the side where the lad sat. After they had
dined, she dressed her face in holiday garb, and said, as if butter
wouldn't melt in her mouth,--
"'May be you have those scissors which I begged you to keep, yesterday?'
"'Oh, yes, I have;' said the lad, 'and here they are,' and with that he
pulled them out, and drove them into the board, till it jumped again.
The princess could not have been more vexed had he driven the scissors
into her face; but for all that she made herself soft and gentle, and
said,--
"'Since you have kept the scissors so well, it won't be any trouble to
you to keep my golden ball of yarn, and take care you give it me
to-morrow at noon; but if you have lost it, you shall lose your life on
the scaffold. It is the law.'
"The lad thought that an easy thing, so he took and put the golden ball
into his pocket. But she fell a-playing and flirting with him again, so
that he forgot both himself and the golden ball, and while they were at
the height of their games and pranks, she stole it from him, and sent
him off to bed.
"Then when he came up to his bedroom, and told what they had said and
done, his companion asked,--
"'Of course you have the golden ball she gave you?'
"'Yes! yes!' said the lad, and felt in his pocket where he had put it;
but no, there was no ball to be found, and he fell again into such an
ill mood, and knew not which way to turn.
"'Well! well! bear up a bit,' said the companion. 'I'll see if I can't
lay hands on it;' and with that he took the sword and hat and strode off
to a smith, and got twelve pounds of iron welded on to the back of the
sword-blade. Then he went down to the stable, and gave the Billygoat a
stroke between his horns, so that the brute went head over heels, and he
asked,--
"'When rides the princess to see her lover to-night?'
"'At twelve o'clock,' baaed the Billygoat.
"So the companion put on the Three-Sister Hat again, and waited till she
came, tearing along with her horn of ointment, and greased the
Billygoat. Then she said, as she had said the first time,--
"'Away, away, o'er roof-tree and steeple, o'er land, o'er sea, o'er
hill, o'er dale, to my true love who awaits me in the fell this night.'
"In a trice they were off, and the companion threw himself on behind the
Billygoat, and away they went like a blast through the air. In the
twinkling of an eye they came to the Troll's hill; and, when she had
knocked three times, they passed through the rock to the Troll, who was
her lover.
"'Where was it you hid the golden scissors I gave you yesterday, my
darling?' cried out the princess. 'My wooer had it and gave it back to
me.'
"'That was quite impossible,' said the Troll; 'for he had locked it up
in a chest with three locks and hidden the keys in the hollow of his
eye-tooth;' but, when they unlocked the chest, and looked for it, the
Troll had no scissors in his chest.
"So the princess told him how she had given her suitor her golden ball.
"'And here it is,' she said; 'for I took it from him again without his
knowing it. But what shall we hit upon now, since he is master of such
craft!'
"Well, the Troll hardly knew; but, after they had thought a bit, they
made up their minds to light a large fire and burn the golden ball; and
so they would be cocksure that he could not get at it. But, just as she
tossed it into the fire, the companion stood ready and caught it; and
neither of them saw him, for he had on the Three-Sister Hat.
"When the princess had been with the Troll a little while, and it began
to grow towards dawn, she set off home again, and the companion got up
behind her on the goat, and they got back fast and safe.
"Next day, when the lad was bidden down to dinner, the companion gave
him the ball. The princess was even more high and haughty than the day
before, and, after they had dined, she perked up her mouth, and said, in
a dainty voice,--
"'Perhaps it is too much to look for that you should give me back my
golden ball, which I gave you to keep yesterday?'
"'Is it?' said the lad. 'You shall soon have it. Here it is, safe
enough;' and, as he said that, he threw it down on the board so hard,
that it shook again; and, as for the king, he gave a jump high up into
the air.
"The princess got as pale as a corpse, but she soon came to herself
again, and said, in a sweet, small voice,--
"'Well done, well done!' Now he had only one more trial left, and it was
this:
"'If you are so clever as to bring me what I am now thinking of by
dinner-time to-morrow, you shall win me, and have me to wife.'
"That was what she said.
"The lad felt like one doomed to death, for he thought it quite
impossible to know what she was thinking about, and still harder to
bring it to her; and so, when he went up to his bedroom, it was hard
work to comfort him at all. His companion told him to be easy, he would
see if he could not get the right end of the stick this time too, as he
had done twice before. So the lad at last took heart, and lay down to
sleep.
"Meanwhile, the companion went to the smith and got twenty-four pounds
of iron welded on to his sword; and, when that was done, he went down to
the stable and let fly at the Billygoat between the horns with such a
blow, that he went right head over heels against the wall.
"'When rides the princess to her lover to-night?' he asked.
"'At one o'clock,' baaed the Billygoat.
"So, when the hour drew near, the companion stood in the stable with his
Three-Sister Hat on; and, when she had greased the goat, and uttered the
same words that they were to fly through the air to her true love, who
was waiting for her in the fell, off they went again, on the wings of
the wind; and, all the while, the companion sat behind.
"But he was not light-handed this time; for, every now and then, he gave
the princess a slap, so that he almost beat the breath out of her body.
"And when they came to the wall of rock, she knocked at the door, and it
opened, and they passed on into the fell to her lover.
"As soon as she got there, she fell to bewailing, and was very cross,
and said she never knew the air could deal such buffets; she almost
thought, indeed, that some one sat behind, who beat both the Billygoat
and herself; she was sure she was black and blue all over her body, such
a hard flight had she had through the air.
"Then she went on to tell how her lover had brought her the golden ball
too; how it happened, neither she nor the Troll could tell.
"'But now do you know what I have hit upon?'
"No; the Troll did not.
"'Well,' she went on; 'I have told him to bring me what I was then
thinking of by dinner-time to-morrow, and what I thought of was your
head. Do you think he can get that, my darling?' said the princess, and
began to fondle the Troll.
"'No, I don't think he can,' said the Troll. 'He would take his oath he
couldn't;' and then the Troll burst out laughing, and scunnered worse
than any ghost, and both the princess and the Troll thought the lad
would be drawn and quartered, and that the crows would peck out his
eyes, before he could get the Troll's head.
"So when it turned towards dawn, she had to set off home again; but she
was afraid, she said, for she thought there was some one behind her, and
so she was afraid to ride home alone. The Troll must go with her on the
way. Yes; the Troll would go with her, and he led out his Billygoat (for
he had one that matched the princess's), and he smeared it and greased
it between the horns. And when the Troll got up, the companion crept on
behind, and so off they set through the air to the king's grange. But
all the way the companion thrashed the Troll and his Billygoat, and gave
them cut and thrust and thrust and cut with his sword, till they got
weaker and weaker, and at last were well on the way to sink down into
the sea over which they passed. Now the Troll thought the weather was so
wild, he went right home with the princess up to the king's grange, and
stood outside to see that she got home safe and well. But just as she
shut the door behind her, the companion struck off the Troll's head and
ran up with it to the lad's bedroom.
"'Here is what the princess thought of,' said he.
"Well, they were merry and joyful, one may think, and when the lad was
bidden down to dinner, and they had dined, the princess was as lively as
a lark.
"'No doubt you have got what I thought of?' said she.
"'Aye; aye; I have it,' said the lad, and he tore it out from under his
coat, and threw it down on the board with such a thump that the board,
trestles and all, was upset. As for the princess, she was as though she
had been dead and buried; but she could not say that this was not what
she was thinking of, and so now he was to have her to wife as she had
given her word. So they made a bridal feast, and there was drinking and
gladness all over the kingdom.
"But the companion took the lad on one side, and told him that he might
just shut his eyes and sham sleep on the bridal night; but if he held
his life dear, and would listen to him, he wouldn't let a wink come over
them till he had stripped her of her troll-skin, which had been thrown
over her, but he must flog it off her with a rod made of nine new birch
twigs, and he must tear it off her in three tubs of milk: first he was
to scrub her in a tub of year-old whey, and then he was to scour her in
the tub of buttermilk, and lastly, he was to rub her in a tub of new
milk. The birch twigs lay under the bed, and the tubs he had set in the
corner of the room. Everything was ready to his hand. Yes; the lad gave
his word to do as he was bid and to listen to him. So when they got into
the bridal bed at even, the lad shammed as though he had given himself
up to sleep. Then the princess raised herself up on her elbow and looked
at him to see if he slept, and tickled him under the nose; but the lad
slept on still. Then she tugged his hair and his beard; but he lay like
a log, as she thought. After that she drew out a big butcher's knife
from under the bolster, and was just going to hack off his head; but the
lad jumped up, dashed the knife out of her hand, and caught her by the
hair. Then he flogged her with the birchrods, and wore them out upon her
till there was not a twig left. When that was over he tumbled her into
the tub of whey, and then he got to see what sort of beast she was: she
was black as a raven all over her body; but when he scrubbed her well in
the whey, and scoured her with buttermilk, and rubbed her well in new
milk, her troll-skin dropped off her, and she was fair and lovely and
gentle; so lovely she had never looked before.
"Next day the companion said they must set off home. Yes; the lad was
ready enough, and the princess too, for her dower had been long waiting.
In the night the companion fetched to the king's grange all the gold and
silver and precious things which the Troll had left behind him in the
Fell, and when they were ready to start in the morning the whole grange
was so full of silver, and gold, and jewels, there was no walking
without treading on them. That dower was worth more than all the king's
land and realm, and they were at their wits' end to know how to carry it
with them. But the companion knew a way out of every strait. The Troll
left behind him six billygoats, who could all fly through the air. Those
he so laded with silver and gold that they were forced to walk along the
ground, and had no strength to mount aloft and fly, and what the
billygoats could not carry had to stay behind in the king's grange. So
they travelled far, and farther than far, but at last the billygoats got
so footsore and tired they could not go another step. The lad and the
princess knew not what to do; but when the companion saw they could not
get on, he took the whole dower on his back, and the billygoats a-top of
it, and bore it all so far on that there was only half a mile left to
the lad's home.
"Then the companion said: 'Now we must part. I can't stay with you any
longer.'
"But the lad would not part from him, he would not lose him for much or
little. Well, he went with them a quarter of a mile more; but farther he
could not go and when the lad begged and prayed him to go home and stay
with him altogether, or at least as long as they had drunk his
home-coming ale in his father's house, the companion said, 'No. That
could not be. Now he must part, for he heard heaven's bells ringing for
him.' He was the vintner who had stood in the block of ice outside the
church door, whom all spat upon; and he had been his companion and
helped him because he had given all he had to get him peace and rest in
Christian earth.
"'I had leave,' he said, 'to follow you a year, and now the year is
out.'
"When he was gone the lad laid together all his wealth in a safe place,
and went home without any baggage. Then they drank his home-coming ale,
till the news spread far and wide, over seven kingdoms, and when they
had got to the end of the feast, they had carting and carrying all the
winter both with the billygoats and the twelve horses which his father
had before they got all that gold and silver safely carted home."