“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
is an egg, and in that egg there lies my heart,—you darling!”
In the morning early, while it was still gray dawn, the Giant strode off
to the wood.
“Yes! now 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, and when he got
out of the Giant’s door, there stood the Wolf waiting for him. So 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. So the Wolf
bade him jump on his back, he’d soon find the way; and away they went
till the wind whistled after them, over hedge and field, over hill and
dale. After they had travelled many, many days, they came at last to the
lake. Then the Prince did not know how to get over it, but the Wolf bade
him only not be afraid, but stick on, and so he jumped into the lake
with the Prince on his back, and swam over to the island. So 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 must call on the Raven,” said the Wolf.
So the Prince called on the Raven, and immediately the Raven came, and
flew up and fetched the keys, and so the Prince got into the church. But
when he came to the well, there lay the duck, and swam about backwards
and forwards, just as the Giant had said. So the Prince stood and coaxed
it and coaxed it, till it came to him, and he grasped it in his hand;
but just as he lifted it up from the water the duck dropped the egg into
the well, and then Boots was beside himself to know how to get it out
again.
“Well, now you must call on the Salmon, to be sure,” said the Wolf; and
the king’s son called on the Salmon, and the Salmon came and fetched up
the egg from the bottom of the well.
Then the Wolf told him to squeeze the egg, and as soon as ever he
squeezed it the Giant screamed out.
“Squeeze it again,” said the Wolf; and when the Prince did so, the Giant
screamed still more piteously, and begged and prayed so prettily to be
spared, saying he would do all that the Prince wished if he would only
not squeeze his heart in two.
“Tell him, if he will restore to life again your six brothers and their
brides, whom he has turned to stone, you will spare his life,” said the
Wolf.
Yes, the Giant was ready to do that, and 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. So Boots squeezed the egg
to pieces, and the Giant burst at once.
Now, when 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, and so they all set off home again to their father’s house.
And 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 of all was
the bride of Boots after all,” said the king, “and he shall sit
uppermost at the table, with her by his side.”
So he sent out, and called a great wedding-feast, and the mirth was both
loud and long, and if they have not done feasting, why they are still at
it.
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