Celts -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Great Britain; Folklore -- Great Britain; Tales -- Great Britain
On the following morning she walked up to the King's son and said:
"I have the Sword of Light; now will you marry my sister?"
"I will," said he.
The King's son married Smallhead's sister and got the Sword of Light.
Smallhead stayed no longer in the kitchen--the sister didn't care to
have her in kitchen or parlour.
The King's second son came home. He was not long in the castle when
Smallhead said to herself, "Maybe he will marry my second sister."
She saw him one day in the garden, went toward him; he said something,
she answered, then asked: "Is it not time for you to be getting married
like your brother?"
"When my grandfather was dying," said the young man, "he bound my father
not to let his second son marry till he had the Black Book. This book
used to shine and give brighter light than ever the Sword of Light did,
and I suppose it does yet. The old hag beyond the Bridge of Blood has
the book, and no one dares to go near her, for many is the King's son
killed or enchanted by that woman."
"Would you marry my second sister if you were to get the Black Book?"
"I would, indeed; I would marry any woman if I got the Black Book with
her. The Sword of Light and the Black Book were in our family till my
grandfather's time, then they were stolen by that cursed old hag."
"I will have the book," said Smallhead, "or die in the trial to get it."
Knowing that stirabout was the main food of the hag, Smallhead settled
in her mind to play another trick. Taking a bag she scraped the chimney,
gathered about a stone of soot, and took it with her. The night was dark
and rainy. When she reached the hag's house, she climbed up the gable to
the chimney and found that the son was making stirabout for his mother.
She dropped the soot down by degrees till at last the whole stone of
soot was in the pot; then she scraped around the top of the chimney till
a lump of soot fell on the boy's hand.
"Oh, mother," said he, "the night is wet and soft, the soot is falling."
"Cover the pot," said the hag. "Be quick with that stirabout, I am
starving."
The boy took the pot to his mother.
"Bad luck to you," cried the hag the moment she tasted the stirabout,
"this is full of soot; throw it out to the pig."
"If I throw it out there is no water inside to make more, and I'll not
go in the dark and rain to the well."
"You must go!" screamed she.
"I'll not stir a foot out of this unless I get a light," said the boy.
"Is it the book you are thinking of, you fool, to take it and lose it as
you did the sword? Smallhead is watching you."
"How could Smallhead, the creature, be outside all the time? If you have
no use for the water you can do without it."
Sooner than stop fasting till morning, the hag gave her son the book,
saying: "Do not put this down or let it from your hand till you come in,
or I'll have your life."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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