The next day the giants again prepared to go out hunting, but before leaving him they ordered him on no account to enter the second room.
Almost as soon as the giants had gone away he became so very curious to see what might be in the second room, that he could not resist going to the door. He stood there a little, thinking within himself, “Well, I am already more dead than alive, much worse cannot happen to me!” and so he opened the door and looked in. There he was surprised to see a very beautiful girl, dressed all in gold and silver, who sat combing her hair, and setting in every tress a large diamond. He stood admiring her a little while, and was just going to shut the door again, when she spoke, “Wait a minute, young man. Come and take this key, and mind you keep it safely. It will serve you some time, if you only know how to use it.” So he went in and took the key from the girl, and then, going out, fastened the door and went and sat down in the same place he had sat before.
He had not remained there very long before the giants came home from hunting. The moment they entered the house they took up their large sticks to beat him, asking, at the same time, whether he had been in the second room. Shaking all over with fear, he answered them, “No, I have not!”
“But we know you have been,” shouted the giants in great anger, and they then beat him worse than on the first day.
The Third Room
The next morning, as the giants went out as usual to hunt, they said to him: “Do not go into the third room, for anything in the world; for if you do go in we shall not forgive you as we did yesterday, and the day before! We shall kill you outright!” No sooner, however, had the giants gone out of sight, than the young man began to say to himself, “Most likely they will kill me, whether I go into the room or not. Besides, if they do not kill me, they have beaten me so badly already that I am sure I cannot live long, so, anyhow, I will go and see what is in the third room.” Then he got up and went and opened the door.
He was quite shocked, however, when he saw that the room was full of human heads! These heads belonged to young men who had come, like himself, to learn the trade that no one knows, and who, having obeyed faithfully and strictly the orders of the giants, had been killed by them.
The young man was turning quickly to go away when one of the heads called out: “Don’t be afraid, but come in!” Thereupon he went into the room. Then the head gave him an iron chain, and said: “Take care of this chain, for it will serve you some time if you know how to use it!” So he took the chain, and going out fastened the door.
He went and sat down in the usual place to wait for the coming home of the giants, and, as he waited, he grew quite frightened, for he fully expected that they would really kill him this time.
The instant the giants came home they took up their thick sticks and began to beat him without stopping to ask anything. They beat him so terribly that he was all but dead; then they threw him out of the house, saying to him: “Go away now, since you have learnt the trade that no one knows!” When he had lain a long time on the ground where they had thrown him, feeling very sore and miserable, at length he tried to move away, saying to himself: “Well, if they really have taught me the trade that no one knows for the sake of the king’s daughter I can suffer gladly all this pain, if I can only win her.”