ONCE on a time there was a fisherman who lived close by a palace, and
fished for the king’s table. One day when he was out fishing he just
caught nothing. Do what he would—however he tried with bait and
angle—there was never a sprat on his hook. But when the day was far
spent a head bobbed up out of the water, and said,—
“If I may have what your wife bears under her girdle, you shall catch
fish enough.”
So the man answered boldly, “Yes;” for he did not know that his wife was
going to have a child. After that, as was like enough, he caught plenty
of fish of all kinds. But when he got home at night, and told his story,
how he had got all that fish, his wife fell a weeping and moaning, and
was beside herself for the promise which her husband had made, for she
said, “I bear a babe under my girdle.”
[Illustration:
THE THREE PRINCESSES OF WHITELAND
]
Well the story soon spread, and came up to the castle; and when the king
heard the woman’s grief and its cause, he sent down to say he would take
care of the child, and see if he couldn’t save it.
So the months went on and on, and when her time came the fisher’s wife
had a boy; so the king took it at once, and brought it up as his own
son, until the lad grew up. Then he begged leave one day to go out
fishing with his father; he had such a mind to go, he said. At first the
king wouldn’t hear of it, but at last the lad had his way, and went. So
he and his father were out the whole day, and all went right and well
till they landed at night. Then the lad remembered he had left his
handkerchief, and went to look for it; but as soon as ever he got into
the boat, it began to move off with him at such speed that the water
roared under the bow, and all the lad could do in rowing against it with
the oars was no use; so he went and went the whole night, and at last he
came to a white strand, far, far away.
There he went ashore, and when he had walked about a bit, an old, old
man met him, with a long white beard.
“What’s the name of this land?” asked the lad.
“Whiteland,” said the man, who went on to ask the lad whence he came,
and what he was going to do. So the lad told him all.
“Ay, ay!” said the man; “now when you have walked a little farther along
the strand here, you’ll come to three Princesses, whom you will see
standing in the earth up to their necks, with only their heads out. Then
the first—she is the eldest—will call out and beg you so prettily to
come and help her; and the second will do the same; to neither of these
shall you go; make haste past them, as if you neither saw nor heard
anything. But the third you shall go to, and do what she asks. If you do
this you’ll have good luck—that’s all.”
When the lad came to the first Princess, she called out to him, and
begged him so prettily to come to her, but he passed on as though he saw
her not. In the same way he passed by the second; but to the third he
went straight up.
“If you’ll do what I bid you,” she said, “you may have which of us you
please.”
“Yes;” he was willing enough; so she told him how three Trolls had set
them down in the earth there; but before they had lived in the castle up
among the trees.
“Now,” she said, “you must go into that castle, and let the Trolls whip
you each one night for each of us. If you can bear that you’ll set us
free.”
Well, the lad said he was ready to try.
“When you go in,” the Princess went on to say, “you’ll see two lions
standing at the gate; but if you’ll only go right in the middle between
them they’ll do you no harm. Then go straight on into a little dark
room, and make your bed. Then the Troll will come to whip you; but if
you take the flask which hangs on the wall, and rub yourself with the
ointment that’s in it wherever his lash falls, you’ll be as sound as
ever. Then grasp the sword that hangs by the side of the flask and
strike the Troll dead.”
Yes, he did as the Princess told him; he passed in the midst between the
lions, as if he hadn’t seen them, and went straight into the little
room, and there he lay down to sleep. The first night there came a Troll
with three heads and three rods, and whipped the lad soundly; but he
stood it till the Troll was done; then he took the flask and rubbed
himself, and grasped the sword and slew the Troll.
So, when he went out next morning, the Princesses stood out of the earth
up to their waists.
The next night ’twas the same story over again, only this time the Troll
had six heads and six rods, and he whipped him far worse than the first;
but when he went out next morning, the Princesses stood out of the earth
as far as the knee.
The third night there came a Troll that had nine heads and nine rods,
and he whipped and flogged the lad so long that he fainted away; then
the Troll took him up and dashed him against the wall; but the shock
brought down the flask, which fell on the lad, burst, and spilled the
ointment all over him, and so he became as strong and sound as ever
again. Then he wasn’t slow; he grasped the sword and slew the Troll; and
next morning when he went out of the castle the Princesses stood before
him with all their bodies out of the earth. So he took the youngest for
his Queen, and lived well and happily with her for some time.
At last he began to long to go home for a little to see his parents. His
Queen did not like this: but at last his heart was so set on it, and he
longed and longed so much, there was no holding him back, so she said,—
“One thing you must promise me. This.—Only to do what your father begs
you to do, and not what your mother wishes;” and that he promised.
Then she gave him a ring, which was of that kind that any one who wore
it might wish two wishes. So he wished himself home, and when he got
home his parents could not wonder enough what a grand man their son had
become.
Now, when he had been at home some days, his mother wished him to go up
to the palace and shew the king what a fine fellow he had come to be.
But his father said,—
“No! don’t let him do that; if he does, we shan’t have any more joy of
him this time.”
But it was no good, the mother begged and prayed so long, that at last
he went. So when he got up to the palace, he was far braver, both in
clothes and array, than the other king, who didn’t quite like this, and
at last he said,—
“All very fine; but here you can see my queen, what like she is, but I
can’t see yours, that I can’t. Do you know, I scarce think she’s so
good-looking as mine.”
“Would to Heaven,” said the young king, “she were standing here, then
you’d see what she was like.” And that instant there she stood before
them.