Boots stood there among them, and he was the hero of it all. “And now, when am I to marry the Princess?” he asked.
At that the King began to hum and haw. It had been all very well to promise her to Boots as long as she was sitting in the troll’s house at the top of the hill, but now that she was back in the castle again it was a different matter.
“Listen,” said the King; “you shall have her as a bride, of course. I have never said anything different, but first you must level down the ridge of rock there in front of the castle, for it is so high and black that never a ray of sunlight comes in at the windows from one year’s end to the other.”
Well, that was not in the bargain at all, and Boots did not know how he was to level down a whole mountain of rock. But the King would not listen to him. Not till the ridge was levelled down could he marry the Princess, and moreover, if he failed in doing it, his head should be cut from his shoulders.
Then Boots went out to Dapplegrim’s stall, and his mouth was down at the corners, as you may well believe.
“Well, Master, and what is the matter now?” asked Dapplegrim.
Then Boots told him all about it, and what he had said, and what the King had said, and how he feared he was to lose his head after all.
“Oh, well, this is not such an easy task,” said the great grey steed, “but, after all, we may be able to do it. But first do you ask the King for twelve pounds of iron and fifteen pounds of steel, and have new shoes put upon my feet, for we will need them.”
That is just what Boots did. He asked the King for twelve pounds of iron and fifteen pounds of steel, and the King did not refuse him. And this time it took eight blacksmiths to shoe the great grey horse.