"Once on a time there was a king who had many hundred sheep, and many
hundred goats and kine; and many hundred horses he had too, and silver
and gold in great heaps. But for all that he was so given to grief, that
he seldom or ever saw folk, and much less say a word to them. Such he
had been ever since his youngest daughter was lost, and if he had never
lost her it would still have been bad enough, for there was a troll who
was for ever making such waste and worry there that folk could hardly
pass to the king's grange in peace. Now the troll let all the horses
loose, and they trampled down mead and corn-field, and ate up the crops;
now he tore the heads off the king's ducks and geese; sometimes he
killed the king's kine in the byre, sometimes he drove the king's sheep
and goats down the rocks and broke their necks, and every time they went
to fish in the mill-dam he had hunted all the fish to land and left them
lying there dead.
"Well! there was a couple of old folk who had three sons, the first was
called Peter, the second Paul, and the third Osborn Boots, for he always
lay and grubbed about in the ashes.
"They were hopeful youths, but Peter, who was the eldest, was said to be
the hopefullest, and so he asked his father if he might have leave to go
out into the world and try his luck.
"'Yes! you shall have it,' said the old fellow. 'Better late than never,
my boy.'
"So he got brandy in a flask, and food in his wallet, and then he threw
his fare on his back and toddled down the hill. And when he had walked a
while, he fell upon an old wife who lay by the road side.
"'Ah! my dear boy, give me a morsel of food to-day,' said the old wife.
"But Peter hardly so much as looked on one side, and then he held his
head straight and went on his way.
"'Ay, ay,' said the old wife, 'go along, and you shall see what you
shall see.'
"So Peter went far and farther than far, till he came at last to the
king's grange. There stood the king in the gallery, feeding the cocks
and hens.
"'Good evening and God bless your majesty," said Peter.
"'Chick-a-biddy! chick-a-biddy!' said the king, and scattered corn both
east and west, and took no heed of Peter.
"'Well!' said Peter to himself, 'you may just stand there and scatter
corn and cackle chicken-tongue till you turn into a bear,' and so he
went into the kitchen and sat down on the bench as though he were a
great man.
"'What sort of a stripling are you,' said the cook, for Peter had not
yet got his beard. That he thought jibes and mocking, and so he fell to
beating and banging the kitchen-maid. But while he was hard at it, in
came the king, and made them cut three red stripes out of his back, and
then they rubbed salt into the wound, and sent him home again the same
way he came.
"Now as soon as Peter was well home, Paul must set off in his turn.
Well! well! he too got brandy in his flask and food in his wallet, and
he threw his fare over his back and toddled down the hill. When he had
got on his way he, too, met the old wife, who begged for food, but he
strode past her and made no answer; and at the king's grange he did not
fare a pin better than Peter. The king called 'chick-a-biddy,' and the
kitchen-maid called him a clumsy boy, and when he was going to bang and
beat her for that, in came the king with a butcher's knife, and cut
three red stripes out of him, and rubbed hot embers in, and sent him
home again with a sore back.
"Then Boots crept out the cinders, and fell to shaking himself. The
first day he shook all the ashes off him, the second he washed and
combed himself, and the third he dressed himself in his Sunday best.
"'Nay! nay! just look at him,' said Peter. 'Now we have got a new sun
shining here. I'll be bound you are off to the king's grange to win his
daughter and half the kingdom. Far better bide in the dusthole and lie
in the ashes, that you had.'
"But Boots was deaf in that ear, and he went in to his father and asked
leave to go out a little into the world.
"'What are you to do out in the world?' said the grey-beard. 'It did not
fare so well either with Peter or Paul, and what do you think will
become of you?'
"But Boots would not give way, and so at last he had leave to go.
"His brothers were not for letting him have a morsel of food with him,
but his mother gave him a cheese rind and a bone with very little meat
on it, and with them he toddled away from the cottage. As he went he
took his time. 'You'll be there soon enough,' he said to himself. 'You
have all the day before you, and afterwards the moon will rise, if you
have any luck.' So he put his best foot foremost, and puffed up the
hills, and all the while looked about him on the road.
"After a long, long way he met the old wife, who lay by the road side.
"'The poor old cripple,' said Boots, 'I'll be bound you are starving.'
"'Yes! she was,' said the old wife.
"'Are you? then I'll go shares with you,' said Osborn Boots, and as he
said that he gave her the rind of cheese.
"'You're freezing too,' he said, as he saw how her teeth chattered. 'You
must take this old jacket of mine. It's not good in the arms, and thin
in the back, but once on a time, when it was new, it was a good wrap.'
"'Bide a bit,' said the old wife, as she fumbled down in her big pocket,
'Here you have an old key, I have nothing better or worse to give you,
but when you look through the ring at the top, you can see whatever you
choose to see.'
"So when he got to the king's grange the cook was hard at work drawing
water, and that was great toil to her.
"'It's too heavy for you,' said Boots, 'but it's just what I am fit to
do.'
"The one that was glad then, you may fancy, was the kitchen-maid, and
from that day she always let Boots scrape the porridge-pot; but it was
not long before he got so many enemies by that, that they told lies of
him to the king, and said he had told them he was man enough to do this
and that.
"So one day the king came and asked Boots if it were true that he was
man enough to keep the fish in the mill-dam, so that the troll could not
harm them, 'for that's what they tell me you have said,' spoke the king.
"'I have not said so,' said Boots, 'but if I had said it I would have
been as good as my word.'
"Well, however it was, whether he had said it or not, he must try, if he
wished to keep a whole skin on his back; that was what the king said.
"'Well, if he must he must,' said Boots, for he said he had no need to
go about with red stripes under his jacket.
"In the evening Boots peeped through his key ring, and then he saw that
the troll was afraid of thyme. So he fell to plucking all the thyme he
could find, and some of it he strewed in the water, and some on land,
and the rest he spread over the brink of the dam.
"So the troll had to leave the fish in peace, but now the sheep had to
pay for it, for the troll was chasing them over all the cliffs and crags
the whole night.
"Then one of the other servants came and said again that Boots knew a
cure for the stock as well, if he only chose, for that he had said he
was man enough to do it, was the very truth.
"Well! the king went out to him and spoke to him as he had spoken the
first time, and threatened that he would cut three broad stripes out of
his back if he did not do what he had said.
"So there was no help for it. Boots thought, I dare say it would be very
fine to go about in the king's livery and a red jacket, but he thought
he would rather be without it, if he himself had to find the cloth for
it out of the skin of his back. That was what he thought and said.
"So he betook himself to his thyme again, but there was no end to his
work, for as soon as he bound thyme on the sheep they ate it off one
another's backs, and as he went on binding they went on eating, and they
ate faster than he could bind. But at last he made an ointment of thyme
and tar, and rubbed it well into them, and then they left off eating it.
Then the kine and the horses got the same ointment, and so they had
peace from the troll.
"But one day when the king was out hunting he trod upon wild grass and
got bewildered, and lost his way in the wood; so he rode round and round
for many days, and had nothing either to eat or drink, and his clothing
fared so ill in the thorns and thickets that at last he had scarce a rag
to his back. So the troll came to him and said if he might have the
first thing the king set eyes on when he got on his own land, he would
let him go home to his grange. Yes! he should have that, for the king
thought it would be sure to be his little dog, which always came
frisking and fawning to meet him. But just as he got near his grange,
that they could see him, out came his eldest daughter at the head of all
the court, to meet the king, and to welcome him back safe and sound.
"So when he saw that she was the first to meet him, he was so cut to the
heart he fell to the ground on the spot, and since that time had been
almost half-witted.
"One evening the troll was to come and fetch the princess, and she was
dressed out in her best, and sat in a field out by the tarn, and wept
and bewailed. There was a man called Glibtongue, who was to go with her,
but he was so afraid he clomb up into a tall spruce fir, and there he
stuck. Just then up came Boots, and sat down on the ground by the side
of the princess. And she was so glad, as you may fancy, when she saw
there were still Christian folk who dared to stay by her after all.
"'Lay your head on my lap,' she said, 'and I'll comb your hair;' so
Osborn Boots did as she bade him, and while she combed his hair he fell
asleep, and she took a gold ring off her finger and knitted it into his
hair. Just then up came the troll puffing and blowing. He was so heavy
footed that all the wood groaned and cracked a whole mile round.
"And when the troll saw Glibtongue sitting up in the tree-top, like a
little black cock, he spat at him.
"'Pish,' he said, that was all, and down toppled Glibtongue and the
spruce fir to the ground, and there he lay sprawling like a fish out of
water.
"'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'are you sitting here combing Christian
folk's hair? Now I'll gobble you up.'
"'Stuff,' said Boots, as soon as he woke up, and then he fell to peering
at the troll through the ring on his key.
"'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'what are you staring at? Hu! hu!'
"And as he said that he hurled his iron club at him, so that it stood
fifteen ells deep in the rock; but Boots was so quick and ready on his
feet that he got on one side of the club, just as the troll hurled it.
"'Stuff! for such old wives' tricks,' said Boots, 'out with your
toothpick, and you shall see something like a throw.'
"Yes! the troll plucked out the club at one pull, and it was as big as
three weaver's beams. Meanwhile Boots stared up at the sky, both south
and north.
"'Hu! hu!' said the troll, 'what are you gazing at now?'
"'I'm looking out for a star at which to throw,' said Boots. 'Do you see
that tiny little one due north, that's the one I choose.'
"'Nay! nay!' said the troll, 'let it bide as it is. You mustn't throw
away my iron club.'
"'Well! well!' said Boots, 'you may have it again then, but perhaps you
wouldn't mind if I tossed you up to the moon just for once.'
"No! the troll would have nothing to say to that either.
"'Oh! but blindman's buff,' said Boots, 'haven't you a mind to play
blindman's buff?'
"Yes, that would be fine fun, the troll thought; 'but you shall be
blindfold first,' said the troll to Boots.
"'Oh, yes, with all my heart,' said the lad, 'but the fairest way is
that we draw lots, and then we shan't have anything to quarrel about.'
"Yes! yes! that was best, and then you may fancy Boots took care the
troll should be the first to have the handkerchief over his eyes, and
was the first 'buff.'
"But that just was a game. My! how they went in and out of the wood, and
how the troll ran and stumbled over the stumps, so that the dust flew
and the wood rang.
"'Haw! haw!' bawled the troll at last, 'the deil take me if I'll be buff
any longer,' for he was in a great rage.
"'Bide a bit,' said Boots, 'and I'll stand still and call till you come
and catch me.'
"Meanwhile he took a hemp-comb and ran round to the other side of the
tarn, which was so deep it had no bottom.
"'Now come, here I stand,' bawled out Boots.
"'I dare say there are logs and stumps in the way,' said the troll.
"'Your ears can tell you there is no wood here,' said Boots, and then he
swore to him there were no stumps or stocks.
"'Now come along.'
"So the troll set off again, but 'squash' it said, and there lay the
troll in the tarn, and Boots hacked at his eyes with the hemp-comb every
time he got his head above water.
"Now the troll begged so prettily for his life, that Boots thought it
was a shame to take it, but first he had to give up the princess, and to
bring back the other whom he had stolen before. And besides he had to
promise that folk and flock should have peace, and then he let the troll
out, and he took himself off home to his hill.
"But now Glibtongue became a man again, and came down out of the
tree-top, and carried off the princess to the grange, as though he had
set her free. And then he stole down and gave his arm to the other also,
when Boots had brought her as far as the garden. And now there was such
joy in the king's grange, that it was heard and talked of over land and
realm, and Glibtongue was to be married to the youngest daughter.
"Well, it was all good and right, but after all it was not so well, for
just as they were to have the feast, if that old troll had not gone down
under earth and stopped all the springs of water.
"'If I can't do them any other harm,' he said, 'they sha'n't have water
to boil their bridal brose.'
"So there was no help for it but to send for Boots again. Then he got
him an iron bar, which was to be fifteen ells long, and six smiths were
to make it red hot. Then he peeped through his key ring, and saw where
the troll was, just as well underground as above it, and then he drove
the bar down through the ground, and into the troll's backbone, and all
I can say was, there was a smell of burnt horn fifteen miles round.
"'Haw! haw!' bellowed out the troll, 'let me out,' and in a trice he
came tearing up through the hole, and all his back was burnt and singed
up to the nape of his neck.
"But Boots was not slow, for he caught the troll and laid him on a stake
that had thyme twisted round it, and there he had to be till he told him
where he had got eyes from after those had been hacked out with the
hemp-comb.
"'If you must know,' said the troll, 'I stole a turnip, and rubbed it
well over with ointment, and then I cut it to the sizes I needed, and
nailed them in tight with ten-penny nails, and better eyes I hope no
Christian man will ever have.'
"Then the king came with the two princesses, and wanted to see the
troll, and Glibtongue walked so bent and bowed, his coat tails were
higher than his neck. But then the king caught sight of something
glistening in the hair of Boots.
"'What have you got there?' he said.
"'Oh!' said Boots, 'nothing but the ring your daughter gave me when I
freed her from the troll.'
"And now it came out how it had all happened. Glibtongue begged and
prayed for himself, but for all his trying and all his crying there was
no help for it, down he had to go into a pit full of snakes, and there
he lay till he burst.
"Then they put an end to the troll, and then they began to be noisy and
merry, and to drink and dance at the bridal of Boots, for now he was
king of that company, and he got the youngest princess and half the
kingdom.
"And here I lay my tale upon a sledge,
And send it thee whose tongue hath sharper edge,
But if thy tongue in wit is not so fine,
Then shame on thee that throwest blame on mine."