When the sun rose the ogress awoke the young man, and called to him to choose any three things out of her house.
“I choose,” answered he, “the chest which stands at the foot of your bed; whatever lies on the top of the bed, and whatever is under the side of the cave.”
“You did not choose those things by yourself, my friend,” said the ogress; “but what I have promised, that will I do.”
And then she gave him his reward.
“The thing which lay on the top of the bed” turned out to be the lost princess. “The chest which stood at the foot of the bed” proved full of gold and precious stones; and “what was under the side of the cave” he found to be a great ship, with oars and sails that went of itself as well on land as in the water. “You are the luckiest man that ever was born,” said the ogress as she went out of the cave as usual.
With much difficulty the youth put the heavy chest on his shoulders and carried it on board the ship, the princess walking by his side. Then he took the helm and steered the vessel back to her father’s kingdom. The king’s joy at receiving back his lost daughter was so great that he almost fainted, but when he recovered himself he made the young man tell him how everything had really happened. “You have found her, and you shall marry her,” said the king; and so it was done. And this is the end of the story.
[From Ungarische Mährchen.]
The Three Robes
Long, long ago, a king and queen reigned over a large and powerful country. What their names were nobody knows, but their son was called Sigurd, and their daughter Lineik, and these young people were famed throughout the whole kingdom for their wisdom and beauty.
There was only a year between them, and they loved each other so much that they could do nothing apart. When they began to grow up the king gave them a house of their own to live in, with servants and carriages, and everything they could possibly want.