Now the King’s Son had a step-mother, and she was often cross-tempered, and that very morning he and she had vexed each other. So he said, “Let a brown bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, put Caintigern the Queen from her chair in the supper-room to-night.”
“It shall be done,” said the gray old fellow.
Then the King of Ireland’s Son mounted his horse and rode away
His hound at his heel,
His hawk on his wrist;
A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
And the green ground under him,
and he went back to the Castle. That night a brown bear, holding a burning coal in his mouth, came into the supper-room and stood between Caintigern the Queen and the chair that belonged to her. None of the servants could drive it away, and when Maravaun, the King’s Councillor, came he said, “This is an enchanted creature also, and it is best for us to leave it alone.” So the whole company went and left the brown bear in the supper-room seated ‘in the Queen’s chair.
II
The next morning when he wakened the King’s Son said, “That was a wonderful thing that happened last night in the supper-room. I must go off and play a third game with the gray old fellow who sits on a heap of stones at the turn of the road.” So, in the morning early he mounted and rode away
His hound at his heel,
His hawk on his wrist;
A brave steed to carry him whither he list,
And the green ground under him,
and he rode on until he came to the turn in the road. Sure enough the old gray fellow was there. “So you’ve come to me again, King’s Son,” said he. “I have,” said the King of Ireland’s Son, “and I’ll play a last game with you on the same understanding as before.” He tied his horse to the branch and sat down on the heap of stones. They played. The King of Ireland’s Son lost the game. Immediately the gray old fellow threw the cards down on the stones and a wind came up and carried them away. Standing up he was terribly tall.
“King’s Son,” said he, “I am your father’s enemy and I have done him an injury. And to the Queen who is your father’s wife I have done an injury too. You have lost the game and now you must take the penalty I put upon you. You must find out my dwelling-place and take three hairs out of my beard within a year and a day, or else lose your head.”