SOME FAIRY TALES
Norwegian children are just as fond of fairy stories as are any
other children, and they are lucky in having a great number, for
that famous story-teller, Hans Christian Andersen, was a Dane, and
as the Danish language is very like the Norwegian, his stories were
probably known in Norway long before they were known in England. But
the Norwegians have plenty of other stories of their own, and they
love to sit by the fire of burning logs or round the stove in the
long winter evenings and listen to them. Of course, they know all
about people like Cinderella and Jack the Giant-Killer, but their
favourite hero is called by the name of Ashpot, who is sometimes a
kind of boy Cinderella and sometimes a Jack the Giant-Killer.
The following are two stories which the little yellow-haired Norse
children gloat over:
Once upon a time there was a man who had been out cutting wood, and
when he came home he found that he had left his coat behind, so he
told his little daughter to go and fetch it. The child started off,
but before she reached the wood darkness came on, and suddenly a
great big hill-giant swooped down upon her.
"Please, Mr. Giant," said she, trembling all over, "don't take me
away to-night, as father wants his coat; but to-morrow night, if you
will come when I go to the _stabbur_ to fetch the bread, I will go
away with you quite quietly."
So the giant agreed, and the next night, when she went to fetch the
bread, he came and carried her off. As soon as it was found that she
was missing, her father sent her eldest brother to look for her, but
he came back without finding her. The second brother was also sent,
but with no better result. At last the father turned to his youngest
son, who was the drudge of the house, and said: "Now, Ashpot, you go
and see if you can find your sister."
So away went Ashpot, and no sooner had he reached the wood than he
met a bear.
"Friend bear," said Ashpot, "will you help me?"
"Willingly," answered the bear. "Get up on my back."
And Ashpot mounted the bear's back and rode off. Presently they met
a wolf.
"Friend wolf," said Ashpot, "will you do some work for me ?"
"Willingly," answered the wolf.
"Then jump up behind," said Ashpot, and the three went on deeper into
the wood.
They next met a fox, and then a hare, both of whom were enlisted into
Ashpot's service, and, mounted on the back of the bear, were swiftly
carried off to the giant's abode.
"Good-day, Mr. Giant!" said they.
"Scratch my back!" roared the giant, who lay stretched in front of
the fire warming himself.
The hare immediately climbed up and began to scratch as desired; but
the giant knocked him over, and down he fell on to the hearth-stone,
breaking off his fore-legs, since which time all hares have had
short fore-legs.
The fox next clambered up to scratch the giant's back, but he was
served like the hare. Then the wolf's turn came, but the giant said
that he was no better at scratching than the others.
"_You_ scratch me!" shouted the giant, turning impatiently to the bear.
"All right," answered Bruin; "I know all about scratching," and he
forthwith dug his claws into the giant's back and ripped it into a
thousand pieces.
Then all the beasts danced on the dead body of the monster, and
Ashpot recovered his sister and took her home, carrying off, at the
same time, all the giant's gold and silver. The bear and the wolf
burst into the cattle-sheds and devoured all the cows and sheep,
the fox feasted in the henroost, while the hare had the free run of
the oatfield. So everyone was satisfied.
The other story is also about Ashpot, whose two elder brothers
still treated him very badly, and eventually turned him out of his
home. Poor Ashpot wandered away up into the mountains, where he met
a huge giant. At first he was terribly afraid, but after a little
while he told the giant what had happened to him, and asked him if
he could find a job for him.
"You are just the very man I want," said the giant. "Come along
with me."
The first work to be done was to make a fire to brew some ale, so they
went off together to the forest to cut firewood. The giant carried a
club in place of an axe, and when they came to a large birch-tree he
asked Ashpot whether he would like to club the tree down or climb up
and hold the top of it. The boy thought that the latter would suit
him best, and he soon got up to the topmost branches and held on to
them. But the giant gave the tree such a blow with his club as to
knock it right out of the ground, sending Ashpot flying across the
meadows into a marsh. Luckily he landed on soft ground, and was none
the worse for his adventure; and they soon managed to get the tree
home, when they set to work to make a fire.
But the wood was green, and would not burn, so the giant began to
blow. At the first puff Ashpot found himself flying up to the ceiling
as if he had been a feather, but he managed to catch hold of a piece of
birch-bark among the rafters, and on reaching the ground again he told
the giant that he had been up to get something to make the fire burn.
The fire was soon burning splendidly, and the giant commenced to brew
the ale, drinking it off as fast as it was made. Ashpot watched him
getting gradually drunk, and heard him mutter to himself, "To-night
I will kill him," so he began to think of a plan to outwit his
master. When he went to bed he placed the giant's cream-whisk between
the sheets as a dummy, while he himself crept under the bedstead.
In the middle of the night, just as he had expected, he heard the
giant come into his room, and then there was a tremendous whack as
the giant brought his club down on to the bed. Next morning the boy
came out of his room as if nothing had happened, and his master was
very much surprised to find him still alive.
"Hullo!" said the giant. "Didn't you feel anything in the night?"
"I did feel something," said Ashpot; "but I thought that it was only
a sausage-peg that had fallen on the bed, so I went to sleep again."
The giant was more astonished than ever, and went off to consult
his sister, who lived in a neighbouring mountain, and was about ten
times his size. At length it was settled that the giantess should
set her cooking-pot on the fire, and that Ashpot should be sent to
see her, when she was to tip him into the caldron and boil him. In
the course of the day the giant sent the boy off with a message to
his sister, and when he reached the giantess's dwelling he found her
busy cooking. But he soon saw through her design, and he took out of
his pocket a nut with a hole in it.
"Look here," he said, showing the nut to the ogress, "you think you
can do everything. I will tell you one thing that you can't do: you
can't make yourself so small as to be able to creep into the hole in
this nut."
"Rubbish!" replied the giantess. "Of course I can!"
And in a moment she became as small as a fly, and crept into the nut,
whereupon Ashpot hurled it into the fire, and that was the end of
the giantess.
The boy was so delighted that he returned to his old tyrant the giant
and told him what had happened to his sister. This set the big man
thinking again as to how he was to rid himself of this sharp-witted
little nuisance. He did not understand boys, and he was afraid of
Ashpot's tricks, so he offered him as much gold and silver as he
could carry if he would go away and never return. Ashpot, however,
replied that the amount he could carry would not be worth having,
and that he could not think of going unless he got as much as the
giant could carry.
The giant, glad to get rid of him at any cost, agreed, and, loading
himself with gold and silver and precious stones, he set out with the
boy towards his home. When they reached the outskirts of the farms
they saw a herd of cattle, and the giant began to tremble.
"What sort of beasts are these?" he asked.
"They are my father's cows," replied Ashpot, "and you had better put
down your burden and run back to your mountain, or they may bite you."
The giant was only too happy to get away, so, depositing his load,
which was as big as a small hill, he made off, and left the boy to
carry his treasure home by himself.
So enormous was the amount of the valuables that it was six years
before Ashpot succeeded in removing everything from the field where
the giant had set it down; but he and all his relations were rich
people for the rest of their lives.