The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (e novels for free .txt) 📖

>down there and amuse myself a little with the other children.’

 

So this time also she said that he should have leave to go, but

he must first promise that he would be back by the time the joint

was turned and that he would bring a great armful of wood with

him.

 

No sooner had Minnikin got down to the strand than the Troll

came rushing along with a great whistling and whirring, and he

was twice as big as the first Troll, and he had ten heads.

 

`Fire!’ shrieked the Troll.

 

`Fire yourself!’ said Minnikin.

 

`Can you fight?’ roared the Troll.

 

`If not, I can learn,’ said Minnikin.

 

So the Troll struck at him with his iron club—which was still

bigger than that which the first Troll had had—so that the earth

flew ten yards up in the air.

 

`Fie!’ said Minnikin. `That was not much of a blow. Now

you shall see one of my blows.’

 

Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his

ten heads danced away over the sands.

 

And again the King’s daughter said to him, `Sleep a while on my

lap,’ and while Minnikin lay there she drew some silver raiment

over him.

 

As soon as Ritter Red saw that there was no longer any danger

afoot, he crept down from the tree and threatened the Princess,

until at last she was again forced to promise to say that it was he

who had rescued her; after which he took the tongue and the lungs

of the Troll and put them in his pocket-handkerchief, and then

he conducted the Princess back to the palace. There was joy

and gladness in the palace, as may be imagined, and the King

did not know how to show enough honour and respect to Ritter Red.

 

Minnikin, however, took home with him an armful of gold and

silver hoops from the Troll’s ship. When he came back to the

King’s palace the kitchen-maid clapped her hands and wondered

where he could have got all that gold and silver; but Minnikin

answered that he had been home for a short time, and that it was

only the hoops which had fallen off some pails, and that he had

brought them away for the kitchen-maid.

 

When the third Thursday evening came, everything happened

exactly as it had happened on the two former occasions. Everything

in the King’s palace was hung with black, and everyone was

sorrowful and distressed; but Ritter Red said that he did not think

that they had much reason to be afraid—he had delivered the

King’s daughter from two Trolls, so he could easily deliver her

from the third as well.

 

He led her down to the strand, but when the time drew near for

the Troll to come, he climbed up into the tree again and hid himself.

 

The Princess wept and entreated him to stay, but all to no

purpose. He stuck to his old speech, `It is better that one life should

be lost than two.’

 

This evening also, Minnikin begged for leave to go down to the

seashore.

 

`Oh, what can you do there?’ answered the kitchen-maid.

 

However, he begged until at last he got leave to go, but he was

forced to promise that he would be back again in the kitchen when

the roast had to be turned.

 

Almost immediately after he had got down to the seashore the

Troll came with a great whizzing and whirring, and he was much,

much bigger than either of the two former ones, and he had fifteen

heads.

 

`Fire!’ roared the Troll.

 

`Fire yourself!’ said Minnikin.

 

`Can you fight?’ screamed the Troll.

 

`If not, I can learn,’ said Minnikin.

 

`I will teach you,’ yelled the Troll, and struck at him with his

iron club so that the earth flew up fifteen yards high into the air.

 

`Fie!’ said Minnikin. `That was not much of a blow. Now I

will let you see one of my blows.’

 

So saying he grasped his sword, and cut at the Troll in such a

way that all his fifteen heads danced away over the sands.

 

Then the Princess was delivered, and she thanked Minnikin

and blessed him for saving her.

 

`Sleep a while now on my lap,’ said she, and while he lay there

she put a garment of brass upon him.

 

`But now, how shall we have it made known that it was you

who saved me?’ said the King’s daughter.

 

`That I will tell you,’ answered Minnikin. `When Ritter Red

has taken you home again, and given out that it was he who

rescued you, he will, as you know, have you to wife, and half the

kingdom. But when they ask you on your wedding-day whom

you will have to be your cup-bearer, you must say, “I will have the

ragged boy who is in the kitchen, and carries wood and water for

the kitchen-maid;” and when I am filling your cups for you, I will

spill a drop upon his plate but none upon yours, and then he will

be angry and strike me, and this will take place thrice. But the

third time you must say, “Shame on you thus to smite the beloved

of mine heart. It is he who delivered me from the Troll, and he is

the one whom I will have.” ‘

 

Then Minnikin ran back to the King’s palace as he had done

before, but first he went on board the Troll’s ship and took a great

quantity of gold and silver and other precious things, and out of

these he once more gave to the kitchen-maid a whole armful of gold

and silver hoops.

 

No sooner did Ritter Red see that all danger was over than he

crept down from the tree, and threatened the King’s daughter till

he made her promise to say that he had rescued her. Then he

conducted her back to the King’s palace, and if honour enough had

not been done him before it was certainly done now, for the King

had no other thought than how to make much of the man who had

saved his daughter from the three Trolls; and it was settled then

that Ritter Red should marry her, and receive half the kingdom.

 

On the wedding-day, however, the Princess begged that she might

have the little boy who was in the kitchen, and carried wood and

water for the kitchen-maid, to fill the wine-cups at the wedding feast.

 

`Oh, what can you want with that dirty, ragged boy, in here?’

said Ritter Red, but the Princess said that she insisted on having

him as cup-bearer and would have no one else; and at last she got

leave, and then everything was done as had been agreed on between

the Princess and Minnikin. He spilt a drop on Ritter Red’s plate

but none upon hers, and each time that he did it Ritter Red fell

into a rage and struck him. At the first blow all the ragged

garments which he had worn in the kitchen fell from off Minnikin,

at the second blow the brass garments fell off, and at the third

the silver raiment, and there he stood in the golden raiment, which

was so bright and splendid that light flashed from it.

 

Then the King’s daughter said: `Shame on you thus to smite

the beloved of my heart. It is he who delivered me from the Troll,

and he is the one whom I will have.’

 

Ritter Red swore that he was the man who had saved her, but

the King said: `He who delivered my daughter must have some

token in proof of it.’

 

So Ritter Red ran off at once for his handkerchief with the lungs

and tongue, and Minnikin went and brought all the gold and silver

and precious things which he had taken out of the Trolls’ ships;

and they each of them laid these tokens before the King.

 

`He who has such precious things in gold and silver and

diamonds,’ said the King, `must be the one who killed the Troll,

for such things are not to be had anywhere else.’ So Ritter Red

was thrown into the snake-pit, and Minnikin was to have the

Princess, and half the kingdom.

 

One day the King went out walking with Minnikin, and

Minnikin asked him if he had never had any other children.

 

`Yes,’ said the King, `I had another daughter, but the Troll

carried her away because there was no one who could deliver her.

You are going to have one daughter of mine, but if you can set free

the other, who has been taken by the Troll, you shall willingly

have her too, and the other half of the kingdom as well.’

 

`I may as well make the attempt,’ said Minnikin, `but I must

have an iron rope which is five hundred ells long, and then I must

have five hundred men with me, and provisions for five weeks, for

I have a long voyage before me.’

 

So the King said he should have these things, but the King was

afraid that he had no ship large enough to carry them all.

 

`But I have a ship of my own,’ said Minnikin, and he took

the one which the old woman had given him out of his pocket.

The King laughed at him and thought that it was only one of his

jokes, but Minnikin begged him just to give him what he had

asked for, and then he should see something. Then all that

Minnikin had asked for was brought; and first he ordered them to

lay the cable in the ship, but there was no one who was able to

lift it, and there was only room for one or two men at a time in

the little bit of a ship. Then Minnikin himself took hold of the

cable, and laid one or two links of it into the ship, and as he threw

the links into it the ship grew bigger and bigger, and at last it was so

large that the cable, and the five hundred men, and provisions, and

Minnikin himself, had room enough.

 

`Now go over fresh water and salt water, over hill and dale,

and do not stop until thou comest to where the King’s daughter

is,’ said Minnikin to the ship, and off it went in a moment

over land and water till the wind whistled and moaned all round

about it.

 

When they had sailed thus a long, long way, the ship stopped

short in the middle of the sea.

 

`Ah, now we have got there,’ said Minnikin, `but how we

are to get back again is a very different thing.’

 

Then he took the cable and tied one end of it round his body.

`Now I must go to the bottom,’ he said, `but when I give a good

jerk to the cable and want to come up again, you must all pull

like one man, or there will be an end of all life both for you and

for me.’ So saying he sprang into the water, and yellow bubbles

rose up all around him. He sank lower and lower, and at last he

came to the bottom. There he saw a large hill with a door in it,

and in he went. When he had got inside he found the other

Princess sitting sewing, but when she saw Minnikin she clapped

her hands.

 

`Ah, heaven be praised!’ she cried, `I have not seen a

Christian man since I came here.’

 

`I have come for you,’ said Minnikin.

 

`Alas! you