Then the dragon said to her, ‘What will you do, to get rid of your son, that we may be left to ourselves? Make yourself ill,[10] and say you have seen a dream, that he must bring you a porker of the sow in the other world; that, if he does not [[26]]bring it you, you will die; but that, if he brings it you, you will recover.’
Then she went into the house, and tied up her head, and made herself ill. And when the lad came home and saw her head tied up, he asked her, ‘What’s the matter, mother?’
She said, ‘I am ill, darling. I shall die. But I have seen a dream, to eat a porker of the sow in the other world.’
Then the lad began to weep, for his mother will die. And he took[11] and departed. Then he went to his sweetheart, and told her. ‘Maiden, my mother will die. And she has seen a dream, that I must bring her a porker from the other world.’
The maiden said, ‘Go, and be prudent; and come to me as you return. Take my horse with the twelve wings, and mind the sow does not seize you, else she’ll eat both you and the horse.’
So the lad took the horse and departed. He came there, and when the sun was midway in his course he went to the little pigs, and took one, and fled. Then the sow heard him, and hurried after him to devour him. And at the very brink (of the other world), just as he was leaping out, the sow bit off half of the horse’s tail. So the lad went to the maiden. And the maiden came out, and took the little pig, and hid it, and put another in its stead. Then he went home to his mother, and gave her that little pig, and she dressed it and ate, and said that she was well.
Three or four days later she made herself ill again, as the dragon had shown her.
When the lad came, he asked her, ‘What’s the matter now, mother?’
‘I am ill again, darling, and I have seen a dream that you must bring me an apple from the golden apple-tree in the other world.’
So the lad took and departed to the maiden; and when the maiden saw him so troubled, she asked him, ‘What’s the matter, lad?’