“THEY AT LAST REACHED THE LAKE.”
—Page 108
When the king’s youngest son had put an end to the giant in this way, he rode back on his wolf to the giant’s home; and there stood his six brothers as much alive as ever they had been, together with, their brides. Then the prince went into the hill to get his own bride, and they all rode home together. And great was the joy of the old king when his seven sons all returned, each with his bride. “But the bride of my youngest is the most beautiful, after all, and he shall sit with her at the head of the table!” said the king. And then they had a feast that lasted for weeks, and if they have not stopped, they are feasting to this very day.
NOTE
The fairy-tale, “The Giant Who Did Not Have His Heart About Him” (Asbjörnsen and Moe, N.F.E., p. 171, No. 36), is founded on the very ancient belief of the corporealization of the soul, and its existence without the body. It is a belief widely current among primitive peoples, and Koschei the Deathless of Russian fairy-tale resembles our giant, though in his case the egg which holds his soul is shattered on the ground, whereupon he dies at once.
XVII
THE THREE PRINCESSES IN WHITELAND
Once upon a time there was a fisherman, who lived near the king’s castle, and caught fish for the king’s table. One day when he had gone fishing, he could not catch a thing. Try as he might, no matter how he baited or flung, not the tiniest fish would bite; but when this had gone on for a while, a head rose from the water and said: “If you will give me the first new thing that has come into your house, you shall catch fish a-plenty!” Then the man agreed quickly, for he could think of no new thing that might have come into the house. So he caught fish all day long, and as many as he could wish for, as may well be imagined. But when he got home, he found that heaven had sent him a little son, the first new thing to come into the house since he had made his promise. And when he told his wife about it, she began to weep and wail, and pray to God because of the vow her husband had made. And the woman’s grief was reported at the castle, and when it came to the king’s ears, and he learned the reason, he promised to take the boy and see if he could not save him. And so the king took him and brought him up as though he were his own son, until he was grown. Then one day the boy asked whether he might not go out fishing with his father, he wanted to so very much, said he. The king would not hear of it; but at last he was given permission, so he went to his father, and everything went well all day long, until they came home in the evening. Then the son found he had forgotten his handkerchief, and went down to the boat to get it. But no sooner was he in the boat than it moved off with a rush, and no matter how hard the youth worked against it with the oars, it was all in vain. The boat drove on and on, all night long, and at last he came to a white strand, far, far away. He stepped ashore, and after he had gone a while he met an old man with a great, white beard. “What is this country called?” asked the youth. “Whiteland,” was the man’s answer, and he asked the youth where he came from, and what he wanted, and the latter told him. “If you keep right on along the shore,” said the man, “you will come to three princesses, buried in the earth so that only their heads show. Then the first will call you—and she is the oldest—and beg you very hard to come to her and help her; and the next will do the same; but you must go to neither of them; walk quickly past them, and act as though you neither saw nor heard them. But go up to the third, and do what she asks of you, for then you will make your fortune.”
When the youth came to the first princess, she called out to him, and begged him most earnestly to come to her; but he went on as though he had not seen her. And he passed the next one in the same manner; but went over to the third. “If you will do what I tell you to, you shall have whichever one of us you want,” said she. Yes, he would do what she wanted. So she told him that three trolls had wished them into the earth where they were; but that formerly they had dwelt in the castle he saw on the edge of the forest.