As for Minnikin, first he went out on the Troll’s ship and took a great
quantity of gold and silver hoops away with him, and then he trotted
back to the King’s palace.
When the kitchen-maid caught sight of all this gold and silver she was
quite amazed, and said: ‘My dear friend Minnikin, where have you got
all that from?’ for she was half afraid that he had not come by it
honestly.
‘Oh,’ answered Minnikin, ‘I have been home a while, and these hoops had
fallen off some of our buckets, so I brought them away with me for
you.’
So when the kitchen-maid heard that they were for her, she asked no
more questions about the matter. She thanked Minnikin, and everything
was right again at once.
Next Thursday evening all went just the same, and everyone was full of
grief and affliction, but Ritter Red said that he had been able to
deliver the King’s daughter from one Troll, so that he could very
easily deliver her from another, and he led her down to the sea-shore.
But he did not do much harm to this Troll either, for when the time
came when the Troll might be expected, he said as he had said before:
‘It is better that one should die than two,’ and then climbed up into
the tree again.
Minnikin once more begged the cook’s leave to go down to the sea-shore
for a short time.
‘Oh, what can you do there?’ said the cook.
‘My dear, do let me go!’ said Minnikin; ‘I should so like to go down
there and amuse myself a little with the other children.’
So this time also she said that he should have leave to go, but he must
first promise that he would be back by the time the joint was turned
and that he would bring a great armful of wood with him.
No sooner had Minnikin got down to the strand than the Troll came
rushing along with a great whistling and whirring, and he was twice as
big as the first Troll, and he had ten heads.
‘Fire!’ shrieked the Troll.
‘Fire yourself!’ said Minnikin.
‘Can you fight?’ roared the Troll.
‘If not, I can learn,’ said Minnikin.
So the Troll struck at him with his iron club—which was still bigger
than that which the first Troll had had—so that the earth flew ten
yards up in the air.
‘Fie!’ said Minnikin. ‘That was not much of a blow. Now you shall see
one of my blows.’
Then he grasped his sword and struck at the Troll, so that all his ten
heads danced away over the sands.
And again the King’s daughter said to him, ‘Sleep a while on my lap,’
and while Minnikin lay there she drew some silver raiment over him.
As soon as Ritter Red saw that there was no longer any danger afoot, he
crept down from the tree and threatened the Princess, until at last she
was again forced to promise to say that it was he who had rescued her;
after which he took the tongue and the lungs of the Troll and put them
in his pocket-handkerchief, and then he conducted the Princess back to
the palace. There was joy and gladness in the palace, as may be
imagined, and the King did not know how to show enough honour and
respect to Ritter Red.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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