and your master have been dealing, is a witch, and she turned me into a
lizard, and my brother and sister into a dog and cat." The youth thought
this a remarkable tale. "Yes, indeed," said the prince. "She was
actually on the way to throw us into the sea and drown us; but if any
one were to appear and want to buy us, she had to sell us for four
shillings apiece, that had been agreed upon. And now you shall go home
with me to my father, and be rewarded for your good deed." "Your home
must be a good way off," said the youth. "O, it is not so far," declared
the prince, "there it is!" And he pointed to a high hill in the
distance.
They marched along as fast as they could, but still it was farther away
than it seemed. So it was late at night before they reached their goal.
The prince knocked. "Who is knocking at my door, and disturbing my
sleep?" came a voice within the hill. And the voice was so powerful that
the earth trembled. "Open, father, your son has come home!" cried the
prince. Then the father was glad to open the door quickly. "I thought
you were already lying at the bottom of the sea," said the old man.
"But you are not alone?" "This is the chap who delivered me," said the
prince, "and I asked him to come with me so that you could reward him."
That he would attend to, said the old man. "Now you must come right in,"
said he, "for here you may rest in safety." They went in and sat down,
and the old man laid an armful of wood and a couple of big logs on the
fire, until every corner was as bright as day, and wherever they looked
everything was indescribably splendid. The youth had never seen anything
like it, and such fine things to eat and drink as the old man served up
to him, he had never yet tasted. And the bowls and dishes, and goblets
and plates, were all of pure silver and shining gold.
There was no need to urge the young folk. They ate and drank and enjoyed
themselves, and then slept far into the next day. The youth was still
asleep when the old man came and offered him a morning draft in a golden
goblet. And when he had put on his rags and breakfasted, he was allowed
to pick out what he wanted, as a reward for delivering the prince. There
was much to see and still more to take, as you may believe. "Well, what
do you want?" asked the king. "You may take what you will; for as you
see there is enough from which to choose." The youth said he would have
to think it over a bit, and speak to the prince. And that he was allowed
to do. "Well, I suppose you have seen all sorts of beautiful things?"
asked the prince. "That is a fact," said the youth. "But tell me, what
ought I to choose among all these magnificent things? Your father said I
might pick out whatever I wished." "You must choose none among all the
things you have seen," answered the prince, "but my father wears a ring
on his little finger, and you must ask him for that." This the youth
did, and begged the king for the ring on his finger. "It is dearer to
me than anything else I have," said the king, "but my son is just as
dear to me, and therefore I will give you the ring. Do you know what
powers it has?" No, that the youth did not know. "While you wear it on
your finger, you can get everything that you want to have," said the
king. The youth thanked him most kindly, and the king and the prince
wished him all manner of luck on his journey, and charged him to take
the best care of the ring.
He had not been long underway before it occurred to him to test what the
ring could do. So he wished to be dressed in new clothes from head to
toe, and no more had he uttered the wish than there he was in them. And
he looked as handsome and bright as a new nickel. Then he thought to
himself it would be pleasant to play a trick on his father. "He was none
too friendly to me while I was still at home." And so the youth wished
he were standing before his father's door, just as ragged as he had been
before. And that very minute there he stood.
"Good-day, father, and many thanks for the last time!" said the youth.
But when his father saw he had come home far more tattered and torn than
when he had gone away, he grew angry and began to scold: "There is
nothing to be made of you, if during all the long years of your service
you have not even been able to earn a suit of clothes to your back."
"Now do not be so angry, father," said the youth. "You need not take for
granted that a fellow is a vagabond because he goes about in rags. Now
I want you to go to the king as my proxy, and ask his daughter's hand
for me." "Come, come, why, that is utter folly and nonsense!" cried his
father. But the youth insisted that it was gospel truth, and took a
birch bough, and drove his father to the king's castle-gate. And the
latter came stumbling right in to the king, and wept so that the tears
just tumbled out.
"Well, what has happened to you, my dear fellow?" asked the king. "If a
wrong has been done you, I will see that you get your rights." No, no
wrong had been done him, said the man, but he had a son who gave him a
great deal of trouble: it was impossible to make a man of him, and now
he had evidently lost what few senses he did possess. "Because he has
just chased me to the castle-gate with a birch bough, and threatened me,
if I do not get him the king's daughter for a bride," said the man. "Set
your mind at rest, my good fellow," said the king, "and send your son to
me. Then we will see whether we can come to an understanding."
The youth came rushing in to the king, so that his rags fairly
fluttered. "Do I get your daughter?" he cried. "Well, that is just what
we are going to discuss," said the king, "perhaps she would not answer
for you, and perhaps you would not answer for her," said he. That might
be the case, said the youth.
Now a great ship from abroad had shortly before come into port, and one
could see it from the castle window. "Now we'll see," said the king. "If
you can build a ship that is the exact counterpart of the one outside,
and just as handsome, in the space of an hour or two, then, perhaps, you
may get my daughter," said the king.
"If it be no more than that ..." said the youth. Then he went down to
the shore and sat on a sand-pile, and when he had sat there long enough,
he wished that a ship might lie out in the fjord, completely equipped
with masts and sails and all that goes with them, and that it might
resemble the ship already lying there in every particular. And that very
minute there lay the ship, and when the king saw that there were two
ships at anchor instead of one, he came down to the shore himself to
look more closely into the matter. And then he saw the youth. He was
standing in a boat, with a broom in one hand, as though he meant to give
the ship a final cleaning; but when he saw the king coming, he threw
away the broom and cried: "Now the ship is finished. Do I get your
daughter now?"
"That is all very fine," said the king, "but you must stand yet another
test. If you can build a castle that is just like mine in every
particular within an hour or so, then we will go further into the
matter."
"No more than that?" cried the youth. After he had strolled around for a
long while, and the time set was nearly over, he wished that a castle
might stand there that resembled the king's castle in every particular.
And before long there it stood, as you may believe. And it did not
take long, either, before the king, together with the queen and the
princess, came to look at the new castle. The youth stood there with his
broom again, and swept and cleaned. "Now the castle is in apple-pie
order. Do I get her now?" he cried.
"That's all very fine," declared the king, "just come in and we'll talk
it over," said he, for he had noticed that the youth knew a thing or
two, and he was thinking over how he might get rid of him. The king went
on ahead, and after him the queen, and then went the princess, just in
advance of the youth. Then he at once wished to be the handsomest man in
the world, and so he was, that very minute. When the princess saw what
a splendid figure he suddenly cut, she nudged the queen, who in turn
nudged the king, and after they had stared at him long enough, they at
last realized that the youth was more than he had at first appeared to
be, in his rags. So they decided that the princess was to treat him
nicely, in order to find out how matters really stood, and the princess
was as sweet and amiable as sugar-bread, and flattered the youth, and
said that she could not do without him, night or day. And when it came
toward the end of the first evening, she said: "Since you and I are to
be married in any case, I am sure you will have no secrets from me, and
you will not want to hide from me how you managed to do all these fine
things."
"O, yes," said the youth. "You shall know about it, but first of all let
us be married; before that nothing counts!"
The following evening the princess pretended to be quite unhappy. She
was well aware, said she, that he did not attach much importance to her
love, when he would not even tell her what she wanted so much to know.
If he could not even oblige her in such a small matter, his love could
not amount to a great deal. Then the youth fell into despair, and to
make up with her again, he told her everything. She lost no time, and
let the king and queen know all about it. Thereupon they agreed as to
how they would go about getting the youth's ring away from him, and
then, thought they, it would not really be hard to get rid of him.
In the evening the princess came with a sleeping potion, and said she
wanted to give her lover a drink that would increase his love for her,
since it was plain he did not love her enough. The youth suspected
nothing, and drank, and at once fell so fast asleep that they could have
pulled down the house over his head. Then the princess drew the ring
from his finger, put it on herself, and wished the youth might be lying
on the garbage-pile in the street, just as tattered and torn as he had
come to them, and in his place she wanted the handsomest prince in the
world. And that very minute everything happened just as she wished.
After a time the youth woke up, out on the garbage-pile, and at
first thought he was dreaming: but when he saw the ring was gone, he
understood how it all had happened, and fell into such despair that he
got up and wanted to jump right into the sea.
But then he met the cat his master had bought for him. "Where are you
going?" she asked. "To throw myself into the sea and drown," was the
youth's reply.
"Do not do so on any account," said the cat. "You will get your ring
again."
"Yes, if that were so, then ..." said the youth.
The cat ran away. Suddenly a rat crossed her path. "Now I will pounce on
you!" said the cat. "O do not do that," said the rat, "you shall have
the ring again!"
"Well, if that is so, then ..." said the cat.
When the folk at the castle had gone to bed, the rat crept around, and
sniffed and spied out the room of the prince and princess; and at last
he found a little hole through which he crawled. Then he heard the
prince and princess talking to each other, and saw that the prince was
wearing the ring on his finger. Before she went, the princess said:
"Good night. And see that you take good care of the ring, my dearest!"
"Pooh! no one will come in through the walls for the sake of a ring,"
said the prince, "but if you think it is not safe enough on my hand,
why, I can put it in my mouth."
After a time he lay down on his back, and prepared to go to sleep. But
just then the ring slipped down his throat, and he had to cough, so
that the ring flew out and rolled along the ground. Swish!--the rat had
caught it, and crept out with it to the cat, who was waiting at the
rat-hole. But in the meantime the king had caught the youth, and had had
him put in a great tower and condemned to death, because he had made a
mock of his daughter--so the king said. And the youth was to sit in the
tower until he was beheaded. But the cat kept prowling around the tower
all the time, trying to sneak in with the ring. And then an eagle came
along, caught her up in his claws and flew across the sea with her. And
suddenly a hawk appeared, and flung himself on the eagle, and the eagle
let the cat fall into the sea. When she felt the water, she grew afraid,
let the ring fall, and swam to land. No sooner had she shaken the water
from her fur than she met the dog whom the youth's master had bought for
him.
"Well, what am I to do now?" said the cat, and wept and lamented. "The
ring is gone, and they want to murder the youth." "That I do not know,"
said the dog, "but what I do know is that I have the very worst kind of
an ache in my stomach," said he.
"There you have it. You have surely over-eaten," said the cat.
"I never eat more than I need," said the dog, "and just now I have eaten
nothing at all, save a dead fish that was left here by the ebb-tide."
"Could the fish have swallowed the ring?" asked the cat. "And must you,
also, lose your life, because you cannot digest gold?"
"That may well be the case," said the dog. "But then it would be best
if I died at once, for then the youth might still be saved."
"O, that is not necessary!" said the rat--who was there, too--"I do not
need a very large opening through which to crawl, and if the ring is
really there, I am sure I can find it." So the rat slipped down into the
dog, and before very long he came out again with the ring. And then the
cat made her way to the tower, and clawed her way up till she found a
hole through which she could thrust her paw, and thus brought back the
ring to the youth.
No sooner was it on his finger than he wished that the tower might break
down, and that very moment he was standing just before the tower-gate,
and reviling the king and the queen and the king's daughter as though
they were the lowest of the low. The king hastily called together his
army, and told it to surround the tower, and take the youth prisoner,
dead or alive. But the youth only wished the whole army might be
sticking up to their necks in the big swamp in the hills, and there they
had trouble enough getting out--those among them who did not stick fast.
Then he went right on reviling where he had stopped, and finally, when
he had told them all just what he thought of them, he wished that the
king, the queen and the king's daughter might sit for the rest of their
lives in the tower into which they had thrust him. And when they were
sitting there, he took possession of the king's land and country on his
own account. Then the dog changed into a prince, and the cat into a
princess, and he made the latter his wife, and they were married and
celebrated their wedding long and profusely.
NOTE
In "The Youth Who Was to Serve Three Years Without Pay"
(Asbjoernsen, N.F.E., No. 63, p. 8. From Gudbrandsdal) we have the
tale of a magic ring, whose possessor is robbed of it by a
faithless woman, and which is brought back to him by faithful
animals, after various vicissitudes.
XXXIV
THE YOUTH WHO WANTED TO WIN THE DAUGHTER OF THE MOTHER IN THE CORNER
Once upon a time there was a woman who had a son, and he was so lazy and
slow that there was not a single blessed useful thing he would do. But
he liked to sing and to dance, and that is what he did all day long, and
far into the night as well. The longer this went on, the worse off his
mother was. The youth was growing, and he wanted so much to eat that it
was barely possible to find it, and more and more went for his clothes
the older he grew, since his clothes did not last long, as you may
imagine, because the youth skipped and dance about without stopping,
through forest and field.
At length it was too much for his mother, so one day she told the young
fellow that he ought at last to get to work, and really do something, or
both of them would have to starve to death. But the youth had no mind to
do so, he said, and would rather try to win the daughter of the mother
in the corner, for if he got her, then he would live happily ever after,
and could sing and dance, and would not have to plague himself with
work.
When the mother heard that she thought it might not be such a bad idea
after all, and she dressed up the youth as well as she could, so that
he would make a good showing when he came to the mother in the corner,
and then he set forth.
When he stepped out the sun was shining bright and warm; but it had
rained during the night, and the ground was soft and full of water
puddles. The youth took the shortest path to the mother in the corner,
and sang and danced, as he always did. But suddenly, as he was hopping
and skipping along, he came to a swamp, and there were only some logs
laid down to cross it; and from the one log he had to jump over a puddle
to a clump of grass, unless he wanted to dirty his shoes. And then he
went kerflop! The very moment he set foot on the clump of grass, he went
down and down until he was standing in a dark, ugly hole. At first he
could see nothing at all, but when he had been there a little while, he
saw that there was a rat, who was wiggling and waggling around, and had
a bunch of keys hanging from her tail.
"Have you come, my boy?" said the rat. "I must thank you for coming to
visit me: I have been expecting you for a long time. I am sure you have
come to win me, and I can well imagine that you are in a great hurry.
But you must have a little patience. I am to receive a large dower, and
am not yet ready for the wedding; but I will do my best to see that we
are married soon."
When she had said this, she produced a couple of egg-shells, with all
sorts of eatables such as rats eat, and set them down before the youth,
and said: "Now you must sit down and help yourself, for I am sure you
are tired and hungry."
The youth had no great appetite for this food. "If I were only away and
up above again," thought he, but he said nothing.
"Now I think you must surely want to get home again," said the rat. "I
am well aware that you are waiting impatiently for the wedding, and I
will hurry all I can. Take this linen thread along, and when you get up
above, you must not turn around, but must go straight home, and as you
go you must keep repeating: 'Short before and long behind!'" and with
that she laid a linen thread in his hand.
"Heaven be praised!" said the youth when he was up above once more.
"I'll not go down there again in a hurry." But he held the thread in his
hand, and danced and sang as usual. And although he no longer had the
rat-hole in mind, he began to hum:
"Short before and long behind!
Short before and long behind!"
When he stood before the door at home, he turned around; and there lay
many, many hundred yards of the finest linen, finer than the most
skillful weaver could have spun.
"Mother, come out, come out!" called and cried the youth. His mother
came darting out, and asked what was the matter. And when she saw the
linen, stretching as far as she could see, and then a bit, she could
not believe her eyes, until the youth told her how it all happened. But
when she had heard that, and had tested the linen between her fingers,
she was so pleased that she, too, began to sing and dance.
Then she took the linen, cut it, and sewed shirts from it for her son
and herself, and the remainder she took to town and sold for a good
price. Then for a time they lived in all joy and comfort. But when that
was over the woman had not a bite to eat in the house, and so she told
her son that it was the highest time for him to take service, and really
do something, or else both of them would have to starve to death.
But the youth preferred to go to the mother in the corner, and try to
win her daughter. His mother did not think this such a bad idea, for now
the youth was handsomely dressed, and made a good showing.
So she brushed him, and furbished him up as well as she could, and he
himself took a pair of new shoes, and polished them till they shone like
a mirror, and when he had done so, off he went. Everything happened as
before. When he stepped out, the sun was shining bright and warm; but it
had rained during the night, and the road was soft and muddy, and every
puddle was full of water. The youth took the shortest way to the mother
in the corner, and sang and danced and danced and sang, as he always
did. He followed another road, not the one he had taken before; but as
he was hopping and skipping along, he suddenly came to the log across
the swamp, and from the log he had to jump over a puddle to a clump of
grass, unless he wanted to dirty his shoes. And then he went kerflop.
And he sank down and could not stop, until he reached a horrible, dark,
ugly hole. At first he could see nothing; but after he had stood there a
while, he discovered a rat with a bunch of keys at the end of her tail,
which she was wiggling and waggling in front of him.
"Have you come, my boy?" said the rat. "You are welcome among us! It was
kind of you to come and visit me again so soon; no doubt you are very
impatient, I can well imagine it. But you must really be patient a
little while longer; for my trousseau is not quite complete, but by the
time you come again all shall be ready." When she had said this she
offered him egg-shells containing all sorts of food such as rats like.
But it looked to the youth like food that had been eaten, and he said
that he had no appetite. "If I were only safely away, and up above
again," thought he, but he said nothing. After a time the rat said: "Now
I think you must surely want to get up above again. I will hurry on the
wedding as quickly as I can. And now take this woolen thread along, and
when you get up above, you must not turn around, but go straight home,
and underway you must keep on repeating: 'Short before and long
behind!'" and with that she laid the woolen thread in his hand.
"Thank heaven, I have escaped!" said the youth to himself. "I am sure
I'll never go there again," and then he sang and danced again as usual.
He thought no more of the rat-hole, but fell to humming, and sang
without stopping:
"Short before and long behind!
Short before and long behind!"
When he stood at the door of the house, he happened to look around; and
there lay the finest woolen goods, many hundred yards of it, stretching
for half a mile, and so fine that no city counselor wore a coat of finer
cloth.
"Mother, mother, come out, come out!" cried the youth. His mother came
to the door, clasped her hands together over her head, and nearly
fainted with joy when she saw all the fine goods. And then the youth had
to tell her how it had come to him, and all that had taken place, from
beginning to end. This brought them a small fortune, as you may imagine.
The youth had new clothes, and his mother went to town and sold the
goods, yard by yard, and was handsomely paid for them. And then she
decorated her room, and she herself, in her old days, went about in such
style that she might have been taken for some lady of distinction. So
they lived splendidly and happily, but finally this money, too, came to
an end; and one day the woman had not a bite to eat left in the house,
and told her son that now he had better look for work, and really do
something, or both of them would starve to death.
But the youth thought it would be much better to go to the mother in the
corner and try to win her daughter. This time his mother again agreed
with him, and did not contradict the youth; for now he had fine new
clothes, and looked so distinguished that it seemed out of the question
to her that such a good-looking fellow would be refused. So she
furbished him up and tricked him out in the handsomest way, and he
himself took out his new shoes and polished them so brightly that you
could see yourself in them, and when he had done so he set forth.
This time he did not choose the shortest road; but took a roundabout
way, the longest he could find, for he did not want to go down to the
rat again because he was sick of her eternal wiggling and waggling, and
the talk about marriage. The weather and the road were exactly the same
as when he had gone before. The sun shone, the swamp and the puddles
gleamed, and the youth sang and danced as usual. And in the midst of his
skipping and jumping, before he knew it, there he stood at the same
crossing which led across the swamp. There he had to jump over a puddle
to a clump of grass, unless he wanted to dirty his brightly polished
shoes. "Kerflop!" and down he went, and did not stop until he stood once
more in the same dark, ugly, dirty hole. At first he was pleased because
he could see nothing. But after he had stood there a while, he once more
discovered the ugly rat who was so repulsive to him, with the bunch of
keys hanging from her tail.