‘Yes,’ said the King’s daughter, ‘I will take good care not to touch
what you do not wish me to touch.’
But when they got into the wood it was so crowded, and the trees so
close together, that they could scarcely get forward. She was as
careful as she could be, and bent aside to get out of the way of the
branches, and thrust them away from before her with her hands; but
every instant a branch struck against her eyes, and in spite of all her
care, she happened to pull off one leaf.
‘Oh! oh! What have you done now?’ said the Bull. It will now cost us a
battle for life or death, for this Troll has six heads and is twice as
strong as the other, but do be careful to keep the leaf.’
Just as he said this came the Troll. ‘Who is that who is touching my
wood?’ he said.
‘It is just as much mine as yours!’
‘We shall have a tussle for that!’ screamed the Troll.
‘That may be,’ said the Bull, and rushed at the Troll, and gored out
his eyes, and drove his horns right through him so that his entrails
gushed out, but the Troll fought just as well as he did, and it was
three whole days before the Bull got the life out of him. But the Bull
was then so weak and worn out that it was only with pain and effort
that he could move, and so covered with wounds that the blood streamed
from him. So he told the King’s daughter to take the horn of ointment
that was hanging at the Troll’s belt, and anoint him with it. She did
this, and then he came to himself again, but they had to stay there and
rest for a week before the Bull was able to go any farther.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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