There was once a peasant boy who dreamed he was to wed a king's daughter in a far-off land; and she was as red and as white as mild and blood, and so rich that there could never be an end to her riches. When he awoke, it seemed to him that she was still standing before him in the flesh, and he thought her so fine and pretty that he could not live if he did not marry her. So he sold all he owned, and set out into the world to seek her. He walked far, and farther than far, and in the winter h e came to a land where all the highways lay end-to-end in a straight line, and made no turning. When he had wandered straight ahead a three-month's time, he came to a city; and outside the church door stood a big block of ice with a body inside it, and the whole congregation spat on it as they went past. The boy wondered about this, and when the parson came out of the church, he asked him what it was all about. "That is a grievous evildoer," said the parson. "He has been put to death for the sake of his ungodliness, and set up there to be scoffed and scorned" "What did he do, then?" asked the boy. "In this life he was a wine-tapper, " said the parson, "and he mixed the whine with water!" That didn't seem to the boy to be such an evil deed, and as long as he had paid for it with his life, they might just as well let him have a Christian burial, and rest in peace after death. No, said the parson, that could never be, not in any shape or form, for folk were needed to break him out of the ice, money was needed to buy consecrated ground from the church, the gravedigger had to be paid for the grave, the sexton for the hymns, and the parson for the commitment. "Do you think anyone would pay all that for an executed sinner?" he asked. "Yes, said the boy, once he got him into the ground, he certainly would pay for the burial out of the little he had. So they broke the wine-tapper out of the block of ice, and laid him in consecrated ground; they rang and sang over him, and the parson scattered on the earth, and they caroused so at the burial feast that they laughed and cried by turns.
But when the boy had paid for the burial feast, he hadn't many shilling lefts in his pocket. He set out on his way again, but he hadn't gone far before a man caught up with him, and asked if he didn't think it was dreary to walk alone.
No, the boy didn't think so, for he always had something to think about, he said. But maybe he might need a servant all the same, asked the man. "No," said the boy. "I'm used to being my own servant, and even if I wanted to ever so much. « I'm used to being my own servant, and even if I wanted too ever so much. I couldn't afford one, for I haven't money for board and wages." "You need a servant - I know that better than you," said the man, "and you need a servant you can rely on in life and death. If you won't have me for a servant, you can take me as a companion. I promise that you will benefit by me, and it shan't cost you a shilling. I shall transport myself, and there won't be any need for food and clothing." Well, on these conditions he'd be glad to have him as a companion. From then on they traveled together, and most of the time the Companion went ahead and showed the way. When they had traveled a long way through many a land, over hill and dale, they came to a mountain spur. Here the Companion knocked, and bade whoever was inside to open up. An opening appeared in the rock, and when they had gone a long way inside the mountain, a Troll-hag came forth with a chair and bade them, "Pray sit down, you must be tired," she said. "Sit down yourself!" said the man. So she had to sit down, and when she was seated, she remained sitting there, for the chair was such that it did not let go whatever came near it. In the meantime they walked about inside the mountain, and the Companion looked around until he caught sight of a sword hanging over the door. He insisted on having it, and in return he promised the Troll-hag that he would let her out of the chair. "Nay!" she shrieked. "Ask for anything else! You can have anything else, but not that, for that's my three-sister-sword!" There were three sisters who owned it together. "Then you can sit there until the end of the world," said the man But when she heard that, she said he could have the sword if only he would let her go. So he took the sword and left it, but he left her sitting there just the same. When they had gone a long way, over bare mountain and broad moors, they came to another mountain spur- There the Companion knocked, and bade whoever was inside to open up. The same thing happened as before; an opening appeared, and when they had gone a long way inside the mountain, a Troll-hag came forth with a chair and bade them sit down: they must be tired, she said. "Sit down yourself!" said the Companion, and then she fared just as her sister. She dared not do otherwise, and when she sat down in the chair, she remained sitting there. In the meantime the boy and the Companion walked about inside the mountain, and the Companion opened all the cupboards and drawers until he found what he were looking for a ball of golden yarn. He insisted on having it, and he promised the Troll-hag that, if she would give it to him, he would let her out of the chair. She said he could have anything else she owned, but that she didn't want to loose, for it was her three-sister-ball. But when she heard she would be sitting there until Doomsday if he didn't get it, she said he'd better take it all the same, if only he would let her go. The companion took it, but he left her sitting where she was.
Then they walked for many days, over moors and through forests, until they came to another mountain spur. There the same thing happened as before; the Companion knocked, an opening appeared, and inside the mountain a Troll-hag came up with a chair and bade them sit down. But the Companion said," Sit down yourself," and there she sat. They hadn't gone through many of the rooms before he caught sight of an old hat hanging on a peg behind the door. The Companion wanted to have it, but the hag wouldn't part with it, for it was her three-sister-hat, and if she gave that away she would be downright unhappy. But when she heard that she would have to remain sitting until the end of the world if he didn't get it, she said he could take it, if only he would let her go. When the Companion had safely got hold of the hat, he left her sitting where she was, just like her sisters.
At long last they came to a fjord. There the Companion took the ball of golden yarn, and threw it so hard against the cliffs on the other side of the water, that it came back again; and when he had thrown it a few times it became a bridge. They wen t over the fjord on it, and when they were on the other side, the man bade the boy wind up the yard again as fast as he could," or if we don't get it up quickly, the three Troll-hags will come and tear us to bits!" he said. The boy started winding as fast as he could, and when no more than the last thread was left, the Troll-hags came rushing up. They plunged down into the water so the spray rose before them, and made a grab at the end but they couldn't get hold of it, and so they were drowned in the fjord.
When they had walked some days more, the Companion said: "Now we shall soon come to the castle where she lives - the king's daughter that you've dreamed of. And when we got there, you must go in and tell the king what you've dreamed, and what you're searching for."
When they arrived, the boy did just as he had been told, and he was quite well received; he was given a room to himself, and one for his servant, which they were to stay in, and when it was getting on towards dinner time, he was invited to sit at the king's own table.
When he set eyes on the king's daughter, he recognized her right away, and said that she was the one he had dreamed he was to marry. He told her his errand, and she replied that she liked him well, and would as soon take him. But first, she said, he must undergo three trials. When they had eaten, she gave him a pair of golden scissors, and then she said," The first trial is that you must take these scissors and hide them; and give them back to me again tomorrow at midday. That's not a difficult trial, I hardly think," she said, making a face. "But if you fail, you'll lose your life, that's the law; and then you'll be executed and broken on the wheel, and your head placed on a stake, just like those suitors whose skulls you see outside the windows!" Men's skulls were hanging around the king's manor like crows sitting on the fence pickets in the fall.
That was easy enough, thought the boy. But the king's daughter was so frolicsome and wild, and rollicked with him so that he forgot both the scissors and himself; and while they were romping and disporting themselves, she stole the scissors from him when he wasn't looking. When he came up to his chamber in the evening, and related what had happened, and what she had said about the scissors she had given him to hide, the Companion said, "You do have the scissors she gave you?" He felt about in his pockets, but no scissors were there, and the boy was more than beside himself when he realized they were gone.
"Well, well, have patience. I'll have to try to get them back for you again," said the Companion, and went down to the stable. There stood a great big ram that belongs to the king's daughter and it could fly many times faster through the air than walk on the ground. So he took the three-sister-sword and struck it between its horns and said: "When does the king's daughter ride to her lover tonight?" The ram bleated and said it dared not say, but when it was struck one more blow, it said that the king's daughter would come at eleven o'clock. The companion put on the three-sister-hat, which made him invisible, and waited until she came. She smeared the ram with a salve, which she had in a great horn, and then she said. "Aloft! Aloft! Over rooftree and church spire, over land, over water, over hill, over dale, to my lover who waits for me in the mountain tonight!" At the same moment as the ram set off, the Companion flung himself onto its back, and off they went like the wind through the air. They weren't long on the way. All at once they came to a mountain spur. There she knocked, and they passed inside the mountain to the Troll who was her lover.
"Now a new suitor has come to woo me, my friend," said the king's daughter. "He's young and handsome, but I won't have anyone else but you," she said. Making herself pleasing to the Mountain Troll. "So I put him to a test, and here are the scissors he was to hide and look after. You take care of them now," she said. Then they both laughed heartily, as though the boy was already being broken on the wheel.
"Yes, I'll hide them, and I'll take care of them! And I'll be sleeping in the arms of the bride, when the raven pecks at the boy's inside!" said the Troll, and put the scissors in an iron casket which had three locks. But at the same moment as he dropped the scissors into the casket, the Companion took them. Neither of them could see him, for he was wearing the three-sister-hat, and so the Troll locked the casket for nothing, and he hid the keys in the hollow tooth where he had a toothache. The boy would have a hard time finding in there, he thought. When it was getting on past midnight, the princess went home again. The Companion sat on the ram behind her, and they weren't long on the homeward journey. At dinnertime the boy was invited to dine at the king's table, but now the king's daughter made such bored grimaces, and she sat so stiff and straight that she would hardly look in the direction where the boy was sitting.
When they had eaten, she put on her most angelic expression, made herself as sweet as butter, and said, "Perhaps you have the scissors I asked you to hide yesterday?" "Yes, I have. There they are," said the boy, and he pulled them out and drove them into the table so that plates and dishes jumped. The king's daughter couldn't have been more uncomfortable if he'd hurled the scissors in her face. But she made herself nice and sweet all the same, and said:" Since you've taken such good care of the scissors, it won't be difficult for you to hide my ball of golden yarn, and take care of it so that you can give it back to me by midday tomorrow. But if you haven't got it, then you'll lose your life and be put to death; for that's the law," she said. That was an easy matter, thought the boy, and put the ball in his pocket. But she started joking and rollicking with him again, so he forgot both himself and the ball; and while they were romping and disporting themselves to their heart's content, she stole it from him and let him go. When he came up to his chamber, and told the Companion what they had said and done, he asked: " Do you have the ball of golden yarn, which she gave you?" "Yes, I have it," said the boy and grabbed at the pocket where he had put it. But no, he hadn't any golden ball, and now he was so beside himself again that he didn't know what to do. "All right, have patience," said the Companion. "I'll have to try to get hold of it," he said, and taking the sword and the hat, he strode off to a blacksmith and had twelve iron crowbars put on his sword. When he came into the stall, he gave the ram a blow between the horns with the sword, so that the sparks flew, and then he asked." When does the king's daughter ride to her lover tonight?" "Twelve o'clock," bleated the ram. The Companion put on the three-sister-hat again, and waited until she came rushing in with the horn, and smeared the ram. Then she said, like the first time," Aloft! Aloft! Over rooftree and church spire, over land, over water, over hill, over dale, to my lover who waits for me in the mountain tonight!"
Just as they set off, the Companion jumped up onto the ram's back, and they went like the wind through the air. All at once they came back to the Trollmountain, and when she had knocked three times, they flew in to the Troll who was her lover. "How did you hide the golden scissors I gave you yesterday, my friend?" asked the king's daughter. "My suitor had them and gave them back to me again," she said. That was downright impossible, said the Troll, for he had locked them in a casket with three locks, and hidden the keys in his hollow tooth. But when they opened it up to look for them, the Troll had no scissors in the casket. Then the king's daughter told him that she had given the suitor her ball of golden thread. "Here it is," she said, "for I took it from him when he wasn't looking. But what shall we thing of now, since he knows such tricks?" Well, the Troll didn't quite know. But when they had thought about it a bit, they decided to make a big fire and burn the golden ball. Then they'd be certain that he couldn't get hold of it. But at the same moment as she threw the yarn onto the fire, the Companion was ready and grabbed it, and neither of them saw him take it, for he was searing the three-sister-hat!
When the king's daughter had been with the Troll a while and it was getting morning, she went home again. The Companion sat on the ram behind her, and they traveled both fast and well. When the boy was invited to dinner, the Companion gave him the ball. The King's daughter was then more stiff and staid than the last time, and when they had eaten she pursed her lips and said, "I don't suppose it's likely that I'll get back my ball of golden yarn which I gave you yesterday to hide?" "Why, yes, " said the boy. « You shall have it. Here it is! And he threw it down of the table, so that the table jumped and the king hopped high in the air.
The king's daughter turned as pale as a corpse. But she soon made herself cheerful again, and said that it was well done. Now she had only one more little trial. "If you're clever enough to fetch me what I'm thinking about by midday tomorrow, then I'm yours to have and to hold," she said. The boy felt as though he had been sentenced to death, for he thoughts there was no way of knowing what she was thinking about, let alone getting it for her; and when he went up to his chamber, it was almost impossible to calm him. But the Companion told him not to worry. He would take care of the matter just as he had done on the other two occasions. And at last the boy calmed down and went to sleep.
In the meantime, the Companion rushed off to the blacksmith and had twenty-four iron crowbars put on his sword. And when that was done, he went to the stall and gave the ram such a blow between the horns that the sound rang around the walls.
"When does the king's daughter go to her lover tonight?" he said. "One o'clock," bleated the ram. At the hour approached, the Companion waited in the stall with the three-sister-hat on. And when the princess had smeared the ram and said what she usually said, that they were to fly through the air to her lover who was waiting for her in the mountain, they were off through wind and weather again, with the Companion sitting behind. But this time he wasn't gentle, for all at once he gave the king's daughter a squeeze here and a squeeze there, so hard that he almost crippled her for life. When they came to the mountain spur, she knocked on the gate until it opened, and they flew in through the mountain to her lover. When she hot there, she wailed and carried on, and said that she didn't know the weather could be so rough. But she thought there must have been someone along beating both her and the ram; and indeed she was both black and blue all over her body, so badly had she fared on the way. And then she said that the suitor had found the ball of golden yarn too, how that had happened neither she nor the Troll could understand. "But do you know what I've hit upon now?" she asked No the Troll couldn't know that. "Well", she replied, "I've told him to get me what I'm thinking about by midday tomorrow, and that was your head. Do you think he can get that, my friend?" she said and hugged the Troll. "I hardly think so!" said the Troll, and he swore to that, and then he laughed and roared, worse than a spirit in torment. And both the king's daughter and the Troll though that before the boy could get the Troll's head, he would be broken on the wheel, and the ravens would peck out his eyes.
As it was getting on towards morning, she had to get home again. But she was afraid, she said, for she thought there was someone behind her, and she dared not go home alone. The Troll would have to see her home. Yes, he'd go with her, and he got out his ram, for he had one like the king's daughter, and smeared it well between the horns, too. When the Troll had seated himself, the Companion mounted behind him and off they went through the air, back to the king's manor. But on the way the Companion struck the Troll and the ram, and dealt them blow with his sword so that they sank lower and lower, and at last they were almost realized he was so far out of the way, he followed the king's daughter straight back to the king's manor, and waited outside to see that she got home safe and sound. But at the very moment she closed the door behind her, the Companion cut off the Troll's head and strode up to the boy's chamber. "This is what the king's daughter is thinking about!" she said. Now, that was both well and good, you might know, and when the boy was invited down to dinner, and had eaten, the king's daughter was as happy as a lark. "Perhaps you have what I was thinking about?" she said. "Indeed I have!" said the boy. He pulled it out from under the flap of his robe, and threw it on the table, so that the table and all the things on it were overturned. The king's daughter was as pale as if she had lain in the ground, but she couldn't deny that is was what she had been thinking about, and now he was to have her, as she had promised. So the wedding was celebrated, and there was great joy throughout the whole kingdom.
But the Companion took the boy aside and told him that he could close his eyes and pretend he was asleep on the wedding night, but had rid her of the Troll-hide, which she was wearing. He was to beat it off her with the twigs of nine birch brooms, and then rub it off her in three tubs of milk; first he was to scrub her in a tub of last year's whey, and then he was to rub her in sour milk, and then he was to rinse her in a tub of sweet milk. The brooms lay under the bed, and he had put the tubs in the corner. It was al ready. Well, the boy promised he would heed him and do as he said.
When they went to the marriage bed in the evening, the boy pretended to go to sleep. The king's daughter raised herself on her elbows to see if he were asleep, and tickled him under the nose. The boy went on sleeping just as soundly as before. Then she pulled his hair and beard, but he still slept like a log, she thought. Then she took out A big butcher's knife from under the pillow, and was going to hack off his head, but the boy jumped up, knocked the knife out of her hand and grabbed her by the hair. Then he beat her with the broom twigs, and went on trashing her until there wasn't a stick left. When that was done, he threw her in the tub of whey, and then he saw what kind of animal she was; she was as black as a raven all over her body. But when he'd scrubbed her in whey, and rubbed her in sour milk, and rinsed her in sweet milk, the Troll-hide was gone, and she was sweet and pretty as she had never been before.
Next day the Companion told him that they had to leave. Well, the boy was ready to travel, and the king's daughter too, for the dowry had long since been ready. During the night, the Companion had carried all the gold and silver and precious things the Troll had left in the mountain to the king's manor, and, when they were about to leave in the morning, the yard was so full that they could hardly get out. The dowry was worth more than the king's land and kingdom itself, and they didn't know how they were to carry it with them. But the Companion knew a way out of all difficulties. There were six of the Troll's rams left, which could fly through the air. These they loaded with so much gold and silver that they had to walk ion the ground, and weren't able to raise themselves and fly with it. And what the rams couldn't carry had to remain at the king's court. So they journeyed far, and farther than far, but at last the rams became so tired that they weren't able to go another step. The boy and the king's daughter didn't know what to do, but when the Companion saw that they couldn't move, he put the whole load on his back, placed the rams on the top, and carried it so far that there wasn't much more than half a mile left to where the boy had his home.
Then the Companion said: "Now I must leave you. I cannot stay with you any longer." But the boy didn't want to be parted from him. He didn't want to lose him at any cost. So the Companion stayed with him half a mile more, but he wouldn't come any farther, and although the boy begged and pleaded with him to come home and stay with him, or at least come inside and celebrate the homecoming with his father, the Companion said; "No," he couldn't do that. Then the boy asked what he wanted for having helped him. If it was to be anything, it must be half of what he bred in five years, said the Companion Yes, he would get that. When he was gone, the boy left all his riches behind and went home empty-handed. Then they celebrated the homecoming until it was both heard of and talked about in seven kingdoms, and when they had finished, it took them about the whole winter, using the rams as well as the twelve horses, which his father had, to cart all the gold and silver home. At the end of five years, the Companion came back for his share. Then the boy had devided everything into two equal parts. "But there's one thing you haven't divided," said the Companion. "What's that?" said the boy. "I thought I had divided everything." "You have bred a child,» said the Companion. « You must also divide it into two parts." Yes, that was so. The boy took the sword, but just as he raised it to cleave the child, the Companion hold of the sword so that he could not strike. "Weren't you glad that you weren't allowed to strike?" he said. "Yes, happier than I've ever been," said the boy. "Well, I was as happy when you released me from that block of ice, for I am a wandering spirit," he said.
He was the wine-tapper, who had been frozen fast in the block of ice, on which everyone spat outside the chuch door. And he had been the boy's Companion and helped him, because he had spent all he had to give him peace and lay him in consecrated ground. He had received permission to serve the boy for a year, and his time had been up when they parted the last time. Then he had been allowed to see him again. But now they must part forever, for the heavenly chimes were calling for him.