In a moment he saw them, far away, driving the biggest ox the youth had
ever seen. When they drew near, Tritill killed it, Litill took out its
heart for the young man to cook, and both began quickly to turn the
horns into drinking cups. The work went merrily on, and they talked
gaily, and the young man told his friends of the payment promised him
by the ogress if he had done her bidding. The old men warned him that
he must ask her for the chest which stood at the foot of her bed, for
whatever lay on the top of the bed, and for what lay under the side of
the cave. The young man thanked them for their counsel, and Tritill and
Litill then took leave of him, saying that for the present he would
need them no more.
Scarcely had they disappeared when the ogress came back, and found
everything ready just as she had ordered. Before she sat down to eat
the bullock’s heart she turned to the young man, and said: “You did not
do that all alone, my friend; but, nevertheless, I will keep my word,
and to-morrow you shall go your way.” So they went to bed and slept
till dawn.
When the sun rose the ogress awoke the young man, and called to him to
choose any three things out of her house.
“I choose,” answered he, “the chest which stands at the foot of your
bed; whatever lies on the top of the bed, and whatever is under the
side of the cave.”
“You did not choose those things by yourself, my friend,” said the
ogress; “but what I have promised, that will I do.”
And then she gave him his reward.
“The thing which lay on the top of the bed” turned out to be the lost
princess. “The chest which stood at the foot of the bed” proved full of
gold and precious stones; and “what was under the side of the cave” he
found to be a great ship, with oars and sails that went of itself as
well on land as in the water. “You are the luckiest man that ever was
born,” said the ogress as she went out of the cave as usual.
With much difficulty the youth put the heavy chest on his shoulders and
carried it on board the ship, the princess walking by his side. Then he
took the helm and steered the vessel back to her father’s kingdom. The
king’s joy at receiving back his lost daughter was so great that he
almost fainted, but when he recovered himself he made the young man
tell him how everything had really happened. “You have found her, and
you shall marry her,” said the king; and so it was done. And this is
the end of the story.
[From Ungarische Mährchen.]
The Three Robes
Long, long ago, a king and queen reigned over a large and powerful
country. What their names were nobody knows, but their son was called
Sigurd, and their daughter Lineik, and these young people were famed
throughout the whole kingdom for their wisdom and beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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