THERE were ance twa widows
that lived on a small bit o' ground, which they rented from a farmer. Ane
of them had twa sons, and the other had ane; and by-and-by it was time for
the wife that had twa sons to send them away to seeke their fortune. So she
told her eldest son ae day to take a can and bring her water from the well,
that she might bake a cake for him; and however much or however little water
he might bring, the cake would be great or sma' accordingly; and that cake
was to be a' that she could gie him when he went on his travels.
The lad gaed away wi'
the can to the well, and filled it wi' water, and then came away hame again;
but the can being broken the maist part of the water had run out before he
got back. So his cake was very sma'; yet sma' as it was, his mother asked
if he was willing to take the half of it with her blessing, telling him that,
if he chose rather to have the hale, he would only get it wi' her curse. The
young man, thinking he might hae to travel a far way, and not knowing when
or how he might get other provisions, said he would like to hae the hale cake,
com of his mother's malison what like; so she gave him the hale cake, and
her malison alang wi't. Then he took his brither aside, and gave him a knife
to keep till he should come back, desiring him to look at it every morning,
and as lang as it continued to be clear, then he might be sure that the owner
of it was well; but if it grew dim and rusty, then for certain some ill had
befallen him.
So the young man set
out to seek his fortune. And he gaed a' that day, and a' the next day; and
on the third day, in the afternoon, he came up to where a shepherd was sitting
with a flock o' sheep. And he gaed up to the shepherd and asked him wha the
sheep belanged to; and the man answered:
"The Red Etin of Ireland
Ance lived in
Bellygan,
And stole King Malcolm's
daughter,
The King of fair
Scotland.
He beats her, he binds
her,
He lays her on
a band;
And every day he dings
her
With a bright
silver wand
Like Julian the Roman
He's one that fears no
man.
It's said there's ane
predestinate
To be his mortal
foe;
But that man is yet unborn
And lang may it
be so."
The young man then went
on his journey; and he had not gone far when he espied an old man with white
locks herding a flock of swine; and he gaed up to him and asked whose swine
these were, when the man answered:
"The Red Etin of Ireland"--
(Repeat the verses above.)
Then the young man gaed
on a bit farther, and came to another very old man herding goats; and when
he asked whose goats they were, the answer was:
(Repeat the verses again.)
This old man also told
him to beware of the next beasts that he should meet, for they were of a very
different kind from any he had yet seen.
away, but he was afraid
of the beasts on the outside of the castle; so he beseeched the old woman
to conceal him as well as she could, and not to tell the Etin that he was
there. He thought, if he could put over the night, he might get away in the
morning without meeting wi' the beasts, and so escape. But he had not been
long in his hidy-hole before the awful Etin came in; and nae sooner was he
in than he was heard crying:
I find the smell
of an earthly man;
Be he living,
or be he dead,
His heart this
night shall kitchen[1] my bread.
On the morning after
this happened the younger brither took out the knife to look at it, and he
was grieved to find it a' brown wi' rust. He told his mother that the time
was now come for him to go away upon his travels also; so she requested him
to take the can to the well for water, that she might bake a cake for him.
The can being broken, he brought hame as little water as the other had done,
and the cake was as little. She asked whether he would have the hale cake
wi' her malison, or the half wi' her blessing; and, like his brither, he thought
it best to have the hale cake, come o' the malison what might. So he gaed
away; and everything happened to him that had happened to his brother!
So he gaed away on his
journey; and after he had traveled a far way he met wi' an auld woman, that
asked him if he would give her a bit of his bannock. And he said he would
gladly do that, and so he gave her a piece of the bannock; and for that she
gied him a magical wand, that she said might yet be of service to him if he
took care to use it rightly. Then the auld woman, who was a fairy, told him
a great deal that whould happen to him, and what he ought to do in a' circumstances;
and after that she vanished in an instant out o' his sight. He gaed on a great
way farther, and then he came up to the old man herding the sheep; and when
he asked whose sheep these were, the answer was:
"The Red Etin of Ireland
Ance lived in
Bellygan,
And stole King Malcolm's
daughter,
The King of fair
Scotland.
He beats her, he binds
her,
He lays her on
a band;
And every day he dings
her
With a bright
silver wand.
Like Julian the Roman,
He's one that fears no
man,
But now I fear his end
is near,
And destiny at
hand;
And you're to be, I plainly
see,
The heir of all
his land."
(Repeat the same
inquiries to the man attending the swine and
the man attending the
goats, with the same answer in each case.)
When he came to the place
where the monstrous beasts were standing, he did not stop nor run away, but
went boldly through among them. One came up roaring with open mouth to devour
him, when he struck it with his wand, and laid it in an instant dead at his
feet. He soon came to the Etin's castle, where he knocked, and was admitted.
The auld woman that sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Etin, and what
had been the fate of the twa brithers; but he was not to be daunted. The monster
soon came in, saying:
"Snouk but and
snouk ben,
I find the smell
of an earthly man;
Be he living,
or be he dead,
His heart shall
be kitchen to my bread."
He quickly espied the
young man, and bade him come forth on the floor. And then he put the three
questions to him, but the young man had been told everything by the good fairy,
so he was able to answer all the questions. When the Etin found this he knew
that his power was gone. The young man then took up the axe and hewed off
the monster's three heads. He next asked the old woman to show him where the
King's daughters lay; and the old woman took him upstairs and opened a great
many doors, and out of every door came a beautiful lady who had been imprisoned
there by the Etin; and ane o' the ladies was the King's daughter. She also
took him down into a low room, and there stood two stone pillars that he had
only to touch wi' his wand, when his two friends and neighbors started into
life. And the hale o' the prisoners were overjoyed at their deliverance, which
they all acknowledged to be owing to the prudent young man. Next day they
a' set out for the King's Court, and a gallant company they made. And the
King married his daughter to the young man that had delivered her, and gave
a noble's daughter to ilk ane o' the other young men; and so they a' lived
happily a' the rest o' their days.
Source : Chambers, Popular
Traditions of Scotland.
Notes : The word "Etin",
usually translated as "Giant", is directly equivalent to the Old Norse "Jotun",
the "Giants" who were the sometimes enemies, sometimes friends, of the gods
of Nordic Myth.