When Dapplegrim was newly shod, Boots mounted upon his back and rode away toward the ridge of rock, and the King and all his court came out to watch what he would do.
Dapplegrim rode up to the top of the rocky ridge, and then he stamped with his great iron-shod feet, and he was so heavy that at once the ridge sank down fifteen ells into the earth.
Then Boots rode up and down, and every time Dapplegrim stamped the ridge sank down under him, until at last it was as level with the earth as the palm of your hand.
“And now may I have the Princess for my wife?” asked Boots.
Of course, of course! The King had never intended anything else, but before she could go to church with Boots she must have a horse as great and fine as Dapplegrim to ride upon. Boots might have three days to find such a horse for his bride, but at the end of that time, if he had not found it, his head would be cut from his shoulders.
Well, that seemed a hard thing to Boots. That had never been in the bargain at all. Besides, he doubted if there was such another horse as Dapplegrim in all the world beside.
Out he went to Dapplegrim’s stall, and if he had been down in the mouth before he was ten times more so now.
“Well, Master, what is it this time?” asked the great grey horse. “Are you not to have the Princess for your wife?”
Yes, Boots was to have her, but not before he should do this and that, and he told the whole story to Dapplegrim.
“This is a harder task than either of the others,” said the great horse. “There is only one other horse in the whole world that is my match in size and strength. Whether or not we can get him I do not know, for he is very wild and fierce. But before we start out on this adventure I must be new shod with fifteen pounds of iron and fifteen pounds of steel. Besides this, you must ask the King to give you a barrel of tar, twelve sacks of grain, and the carcasses of twelve oxen, and twelve hides of bullocks set all over with sharp spikes. Have these loaded upon me, and then we will set out, and what is to happen will happen.”