Once there was a king who had a
beautiful queen as his wife. On the first night after their wedding, nothing was
written on their bed when they came to it, but when they arose the next morning,
they read there writ on the sheets that they would not have children. The king
was sorrowful about this, and the queen all the more so. She found it almost
unbearable that there would be no
heir to their kingdom.
One day, while pondering, deep in
thought, she wandered to a far off point. Here she met an old lady who asked why
she should be so sorrowful. The queen said, "Telling you will do no good. You
cannot help me."
"And yet it may be that I can," said
the old lady. She bade the queen to tell her the full story. And this she did -
the queen told how on the wedding night a message was wrote on the bed, telling
them that they would have no offspring. The old lady advised the queen that she
knew of a way that she could help her to have children, and said that upon that
evening at the setting of the sun, the queen should put a platter downside up in
the North-western corner of the royal garden. The following morn, at the rising
of the sun, she should remove this. Beneath the platter the queen would find a
pair of roses, one red and one white.
"Eat the red rose and you shall have a son. Eat the white rose and you
shall have a daughter. Yet do not eat them both." instructed the wise old
lady.
So the queen went home, and sure
enough she did as the old lady had advised her. On the following morn, just as
the sun was rising, the queen went out into the royal garden and there she
lifted up the platter. Sure enough, she found two roses, one red and one white.
The queen was at a loss as she did not know which of the roses to eat; If she
ate the red one, she would have a son, but being a prince he might go to the
wars and thus be slain, and if this happened again she would have no child. And
thus the queen thought it best to eat the white rose; then she would bear a
daughter who could stay at home with her mother, and one day wed and thus in
turn become a queen in another kingdom. So the queen chose the white rose and
ate it up. And if there she had stopped this would be a different story. But as
things happened the white rose
tasted so good to the queen that she took up the red rose also and ate it
as well as the first.
As is the way of things, it came to
pass that at this time the king went away to war. When the queen found she was
with child she wrote to him to tell him the news, and sure enough he was
overjoyed. When the time for the baby to be born came around, things did not go
as expected; the queen gave birth to a lindorm.
As soon as it had been born into the
world, it slithered under the bed in the royal bedchamber, and there it stayed.
A message came from the king telling that he soon would come home from the wars.
When he arrived back at the castle, the queen went out to meet him. And the
lindorm came out as well and wanted to greet the king. The lindorm leapt up into
the king's carriage and cried out "Greetings to you Father!"
"What?," said the astonished king.
"Can it be that I am your father?"
"Yes" said the lindorm, "and if you
will acknowledge me as your son and heir, I shall destroy you and this kingdom
both."
The king felt he had no choice in
this matter but to acknowledge the lindorm as his son. In the castle, the queen
poured out the tale of what had happened since her meeting with the old lady. A
meeting of the council and all the important people in the kingdom was called
some days hence, and they assembled to welcome the king and celebrate his
victories. The lindorm came as to the meeting as well and here he declared,
"Father, it is time for me to be
wed."
"What do you mean 'wed'?" said the
king, "What is on your mind? Who would have you as a husband? Who would marry a
lindorm"
"Find me a wife, be she young or be she old, be she tall or be
she short, be she wealthy or be she poor. If you do not do this, I shall destroy
you and this kingdom both." Said the lindorm.
And so feeling he had little choice
in this matter, the king sent word to all the nearby kingdoms, asking if a wife
could be found to wed his son. A beautiful princess agreed to marry the king's
son, and yet it seemed to her most strange that she would not be permitted to
see her future husband until she entered the hall for the wedding. And then, as
she did, the lindorm appeared to take his place at her side. As such things do,
the day of the wedding came to a close and it was time for the couple of
newlyweds to go to their bed. Hardly had the door closed on the bedchamber when
the lindorm turned to his bride and devoured her whole.
Time passed as it is wont to do
and the birthday of the king came
around again. The royal couple were seated at the feasting table when the
lindorm appeared , and he said
"Father, it is time for me to be
wed."
"What do you mean 'wed'?" said the
king, "What is on your mind? Who would have you as a husband? Who would marry a
lindorm"
"Find me a wife, whoever she might
be. If you do not do this, I shall destroy you and this kingdom both." Said the
lindorm.
And so again feeling he had little
choice in this matter, the king once more sent word to all the nearby kingdoms,
asking if a wife could be found to wed his son. Another beautiful princess
agreed to marry the king's son, and to this girl also it seemed most strange
that she would not be permitted to see her future husband until she entered the
hall for the wedding. As she did so, the lindorm appeared to take his place at
her side. The day of the wedding came to a close and it was time for the couple
of newlyweds to go to their bed. Once more, hardly had the door closed on the
bedchamber when the lindorm turned to his bride and swallowed
her.
Time passed. On the queen's
birthday, all were seated at the feasting table when the lindorm appeared and
once again said,
"Father, it is time for me to be
wed."
"It is not in my power to find
another wife for you" said the king. "The fathers of the two princesses you have
already married are at war with me because of you - what can I do
now?"
"Let these kings come against you if
they will. Let them come for as long as I am with you they cannot hope to
prevail against us, even should there be ten such kings. But find me a wife,
whoever she might be. If you do not do this, I shall destroy you and this
kingdom both." Said the lindorm.
The king was forced to agree to his
son's demands, but he was troubled greatly by all this. Now it happened that
that an old man who one of the king's shepherds lived with his daughter in a
little house in the woods. The king went to the old shepherd and asked if he
would persuade his daughter to marry the lindorm.
"I cannot so that" replied the old
shepherd, "I have only the one daughter to look after me in my old age, besides
which, if your son cares not for the daughters of kings he will hardly treat the
child of a shepherd any better and to allow this would be a great shame upon
me". Yet the king insisted on having his will and the shepherd had no choice but
to agree to this.
So the old shepherd explained
everything to his daughter and she became very distraught. Not knowing how to
ease her troubled mind, she went away into the woods. Here in the woods she met
an old lady wearing a red skirt and a blue coat, picking fruit, apples and
berries. The old lady asked why the young woman was so
sorrowful
"I have good reason to be full of
sadness" replied the girl, "yet telling you will do no good. You cannot help
me."
"And yet it may be that I can," said
the old lady, and she bade the girl to tell her tale.
"I am forced into marriage with the
king's son" said the girl, "and this monster of a prince is a lindorm. Already
he has eaten two princesses who became his wives; the same fate surely awaits
me".
"Heed my advice and it will help
you" said the old lady. And sure enough the girl was keen to hear what she had
to say on this matter. "After the wedding ceremony, when you go to the
bedchamber, you must be wearing ten bed-shirts. If you don't have that many
night garments, you must be sure to borrow some from somewhere. You must ask for
a pail of lye water, and a pail of sweet milk, and also an armful of switches.
And each and all of these things
must be placed in the bedchamber. When the lindorm enters the bedchamber he will
say to you, 'Pretty maid, take off your bed-shirt' And to this you must answer
'King Lindorm, take off your skin!' Each of you will say this to the other until
you have shed nine bed-shirts and he has nine times shed his skin. And when this
is done you will still have one more bed-shirt but he will have no more skin;
and then you must grasp him firm and he will be no more than a lump of bloody
flesh. Now you must wet the switches with the lye water and thrash him with
these until here nearly breaks into pieces. And then you must was his wounds
with the sweet milk, and swathe him in the nine bed-shirts, and cradle him in
your arms. You will fall into a slumber, but not for
long."
The girl thanked the old lady most
kindly for all her good advice but still she was in fear for this was a most
perilous endeavour to undertake with such a beast.
The day of the wedding came as it
was bound to do. A carriage brought two women to take the girl and prepare her
for the marriage, and she was then taken into the castle and led to the ceremony
and into the hall. The lindorm appeared, and found his place beside her, and
thus they were wed. When the night came and it was proper for them to go to the
bedchamber, the bride-girl said she wished for a pail of lye water, a pail of
sweet milk, and an armful's worth of switches. All the men mocked her saying
that she listened to folklore too much and was daft to believe in superstitions.
Yet the king said that she should have whatever she wished and so it was given
to her. And before she entered the bedchamber she made certain to don nine more
bed-shirts on top of her own.
Once both groom and bride had
entered the bedchamber, the lindorm turned to his wife and said, "Pretty maid,
take off your bed-shirt"
She answered, "King Lindorm, take
off your skin!"
And sure enough all happened as the
old lady had said; they shed their clothes and skins until she had shed nine
nightshirts and he had shed nine skins. Now she felt more bold for the lindorm
lay weak on the floor, shedding blood now there were no more skins left to him
to shed. So she picked up the switches, wet them with the lye water, and
thrashed him as harshly as she could until there was barely a twig left in the
bundle. And now she bathed him with the sweet milk and cradled him in her arms.
Thus the girl fell into a sleep and when she awoke she found in her arms a
handsome prince.
Upon the following morn none in the
castle wished to enter the bedchamber for they felt sure that the same grisly
fate had befallen this bride as the others. At last the king could stand it no
more and went to find out how things lay. He opened the door to the bedchamber
and his daughter-in-law greeted him, bade him enter and told him all was well.
The king, filled with joy, fetched the queen and the royal household and
together they celebrated like never before. The young royal couple dressed
themselves in another room as the bed-chamber was filled with lindorm-skin and
blood. And so the wedding of the young king and his bride was a joyful thing
with much feasting and merry-making. The old king and queen could not praise
their new daughter highly enough for she had brought them a son who was no
longer a lindorm.
And as time passed the new princess
became with child. War came to the land, and the old king and his son, the king
lindorm, went away to do battle. The time for the birth came along as it had to,
and she gave birth to a pair of sons.
During this time the Red Knight was
at the royal castle and so they bade him take tidings of the birth to King
Lindorm and his father. So off rode the Red Knight, but when he was away from
the castle he opened the letter and changed the message within to say that the
princess had given birth to a pair of hounds. The king was full of sorrow when
he read the letter and it much amazed him, although he could have believed that
the princess might have given birth to another lindorm he found it strange that
she had produced a pair of hounds. So he replied with a letter saying the
offspring should be kept until he had seen them on his return, if such things
could be kept alive at all. Again the Red Knight was sent to take this message,
and again once out of sight he opened the letter and changed the words, so now
they read that the princess and her children were to be burned
alive.
The old queen did not know what to
do and was deeply sad at heart, she loved her new daughter very much but also
did not wish to anger her husband. Another message arrived heralding the king's
return and the queen knew she must now act but knew not what to do. She could
not find it in herself to have her family burnt so she sent the two boys away to
live with a wet-nurse, hoping the king might see reason once she had spoken to
him. She sent the princess away into the forest with food and money so that she
might escape.
The girl wandered in the woods for
two days and by this time was in a sorrowful and needy state. Coming to a high
mountain, she climbed up to the top without once pausing to rest. On the summit
she found three chairs. So she sat herself down on the middle chair and
expressed the milk from her breasts for she was in much pain from the swelling
with no children to feed. Now two great birds, a swan and a crane, came and
landed beside her. They sat on the chairs to her left and her right, and she
suckled them, pressing their beaks to her breasts. And as she sat there, the two
birds became two handsome princes and the mountain became a glorious royal
estate, filled with treasure and servants and healthy farm animals. All of these
had been under an enchantment, and the only way to break the bindings of this
spell was for the swan and the crane to drink the milk from the breasts of a
princess who had given birth to two sons. And so she stayed with King Swan and
King Crane. Each one wished to wed her for she had saved them both from the
bonds of the spell.
King Lindorm had come home and asked
about his wife - his mother had some things to say to him about this "You ask me
to tell you about her! You who she saved from the curse of being a lindorm, and
you who condemned her and your two sons to be burnt to
death!"
"No, this cannot be!" replied King
Lindorm. "You wrote to me that she had given birth to two hounds. I replied that
the beasts should be kept alive until I could see them with my own
eyes!"
And so this matter was tossed back
and forth between them in discussion until they saw that the Red Knight had
betrayed them with both messages; the Red Knight was captured, and he was forced
to admit his guilt in this. As a punishment he was sealed him in a barrel
studded full of sharp nails, which was then fastened to four horses, and they
and pulled along rolling over both mountains and through
dales.
The king was full of sorrow not
knowing the fate of his wife and the two sons he had never seen. His mother
reassured him that his sons were well looked after by a wet-nurse not far away,
but said she knew nothing of what had befallen his wife since she was given food
and money and had fled into the forest.
So King Lindorm ordered his sons
brought back to the royal castle. And then he took some food and some money and
off he went into the forest to look for his missing wife. He wandered,
searching, for one day, two, then three, and still he could not find her. But at
last he found a castle in the woods. He asked the people of the castle if they
knew of his wife, but they said they had not. Still he wanted to enter the
castle and see inside, and so he did. As he came into the castle, he and his
wife saw each other at once, but she feared he had come to burn her and so she
fled.
The two princes that had been
released from enchantment returned to the castle, and meeting King Lindorm they
exchanged greetings, talked, feasted and they all became fast friends. King Lindorm mentioned the beautiful
woman he had seen at the castle and asked them to tell him about her. And so
they told him what had come to pass. King Lindorm said he desired the woman and
wished to reach an arrangement concerning her. His plan was thus; that at the
feasting table her food should be covered with salt. Whosoever that she asked to
drink a toast to her and share a cup should then become her husband. The men who
had been birds agreed to this plan, thinking one of them would be chosen to make
the toast as they did not believe a stranger would be the one she picked to
drink to her.
And all happened as King Lindorm
planned. At the feast-table, the woman declared :
"The food has to much salt for
tongue
King Swan sits beside
me
King Crane is kind to
me,
King Lindorm drinks with
me."
And King Lindorm grabbed a goblet of
silver and drank to her health. The other Kings drank to their own health, but
then they drank to her health as well, although they were not pleased with the
outcome of this. King Lindorm now told how them all how she had broken the magic
upon him before she had broken that upon them. He thus explained how he was the
closest one to her. When they had heard the tale, the Swan King and the Crane
King declared that had he told them sooner they would have given her to him. But
King Lindorm said that had this been so he could never have been sure he would
have been the one she chose of her own will.
King Lindorm returned home with his
queen. There they met their children, and became a family again. King Swan ruled
the castle in the woods and in time wed a princess from another kingdom. King
Crane travelled to another country and here he wed also. So each had something
and all were satisfied. King Lindorm and his queen were regarded with honour all
their lives. Both were most happy and they had many more children. When last I
visited them, they fed me well.
Source: Sven
Grundtvig, Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (Copenhagen, 1854-1861), v.
1, no. 216. Retold here
by Shaun D. L. Brassfield-Thorpe
Notes : A lindorm or lindworm is a
mythic creature akin to a giant
serpent or generally wingless dragon; it is equivalent in most respects to the
old English term "wyrm"; Mythological examples of this genus would probably
include the Midgardsorm (Jormungand), Niddhogg and various folklore monsters
such as the Stoorworm of Orkney and Shetland and the many "Worms" of English
tradition.