A BEGGAR woman and her son were walking along through the country, and they came to a crossroad, and there, right in the dust of the road, lay a handsome belt of blue leather.
The lad asked his mother’s leave to pick it up and wear it.
“Let it alone,” said the woman crossly. “For all we know, there may be some magic about it. Indeed, I am almost sure there is, for I don’t like the looks of it.”
The lad begged and pleaded to be allowed to pick it up, but the old woman would not hear to it, and so in the end he was obliged to go on without it. But all the same, as they trudged along, he kept thinking and thinking about the belt, and the farther they went the more he wished he had it.
After a while they came to where the road led through a forest, and the lad made some excuse to step aside for a moment. He slipped along from one tree to another until he was out of his mother’s sight; and then he ran back to where the blue belt was lying. He picked it up and buckled it around him under his shirt where it could not be seen.
No sooner had he done this, than he felt as though the strength of ten men had passed into him. It seemed to him as though he could tear up trees by the roots if he chose, or carry a mountain on his shoulders and think nothing of it.
When he came back, his mother was in a fine rage. “I ought to beat you for keeping me waiting all this time,” she cried, “and I would do it, too, if I were not so tired. Wherever we’re to sleep I’m sure I don’t know, for it’s too late now to get on to the next village.”
The boy answered nothing, but he trudged along at his mother’s side, and all the while he was feeling stronger and stronger.
After a while the old woman said she was tired, and she would have to sit down and rest a bit.
The lad asked leave to go to the top of a cliff close by, so as to look about and see whether he could not see a house somewhere near.
“Go if you choose,” said his mother, “but if you stay away as you did before, I’ll give you a good beating when you get back, however tired I am.”
The lad ran quickly to the top of the cliff and looked about him, and there, sure enough, off toward the North, he saw the light of a house, and it was not so very far away, either.
He ran down and told his mother what he had seen. “Mother, let us go there and ask for a bite to eat, for if we don’t, we’ll have to go hungry till to-morrow,” he cried. “And maybe the people who live there will let us spend the night there, too.”
The mother began to groan and lament. “Never in the world could I climb up that cliff and over,” said she. “I’m so tired I can scarce put one foot before the other, and that’s the truth of the matter.”
“Never bemoan yourself about that,” cried the lad, “for I’ll carry you over”; and so saying, he caught her up as though she weighed no more than a feather, and ran up the cliff and over, and down on the other side with her; and when he put her down he was not even breathing fast from carrying her.
“You’ve grown to be a strong, stout lad, and there’s no doubt about that,” said his mother.
After that they went along again until they came to the house with the light in it, and when they got up close to it, the mother began to shake and tremble.
“Come away! Come away!” said she. “This is a Troll’s house, and it would be a bad thing for us if he were to get hold of us.”
But the lad was not one whit afraid. He knocked at the door, and then, before any one could answer the knock, he opened the door and stepped inside, dragging his mother with him.
There, on a great settle by the fire, sat a man at least twenty feet high, and it was easy enough to tell by the look of him that he was a Troll.
The mother almost fainted with terror, but the lad spoke up as bold as bold could be, for he felt the strength inside of him and feared nobody. He told the Troll that he and his mother were footsore and weary, and he asked whether they might come in and rest a bit.
The Troll told him he and his mother were welcome, and then he made the lad sit down and they talked of one thing and another, but the woman was so frightened she just crept into a corner and groaned every time the Troll looked at her.
After a while the lad asked the Troll whether he could not give him and his mother a bite of supper, for they were hungry as well as weary.
Yes, the Troll could do that, too.
He went outside and came back with a whole load of wood in his arms, as much as two horses could haul. This he threw upon the fire and stirred it up into a blaze.
And now the woman began to shake and shiver as though she would fall to pieces, for she thought for sure the Troll was making ready to cook her and her son for supper; but instead he brought in a whole ox and put it over the fire to roast. When it was done, he took out a great silver platter from the cupboard, and the platter was so large that when he put the ox on it, not any part of the ox hung over the edge. He also set out on the table knives and forks, each six feet long, and a great hogshead for a drinking cup.
When all this was done, he said to the lad, “Draw up and eat and drink as you are able.”
The lad bade his mother come, too, but she would not, so he took up the knife and fork with no trouble at all to himself and cut a slice from the ox and carried it to her. After she had eaten, he lifted the hogshead down from the table, and then he carried her over to it and lowered her down into it so she could drink.
He himself, after he had eaten, climbed to the edge of the hogshead and hung himself over into it head downward, and drank till he was satisfied. After a while the Troll said he might as well have a bite of supper himself. So he went to the table and ate all that was left of the ox—the meat and the bones and the horns and hoofs of it—and drained off all that was in the hogshead at one draught.
Not long afterward it was time to go to bed, and the Troll did not know how to manage that.
“There’s only the bed I sleep in, and a cradle,” said the Troll.
But when the lad came to look at the cradle, it was as long and wide as any bed he had ever seen.
“This will do for me,” said he.
So it was settled that he should sleep in the cradle and his mother in the bed, though it was so enormous that she shook and shivered at the very thought of getting into it, and if she had had her choice, she would have stayed all night in the corner.
After they were all settled, the lad thought to himself, “I’d best stay awake and listen how things go on through the night, for there’s no knowing what this Troll may intend to do to us before morning.” But he lay there very quiet and kept his eyes shut, and now and then he snored a bit, so the Troll thought he was asleep.
Presently the Troll began to talk to the woman. “Do you think that lad of yours is asleep?” he asked of her.
“He must be from the way he’s snoring,” she answered.
“Then, listen,” said the Troll. “It has come into my head that you and I could live here very happily together if we could only get rid of him, for to tell you the truth I have no liking for the way he goes about things.”
“I’m sure I don’t know how you can do anything with him,” said the woman, “for he seems to have grown very strong all of a sudden.”
Oh, the Troll had a plan that would do for the lad. The next morning he would ask the woman and her son to stay there with him for a day or so, and she was to agree. Then sometime in the morning he would take the lad out to the quarry with him to get out some cornerstones, and once there, it would be easy enough in one way or another to send him down to the bottom of the quarry, and then roll a rock down on him and crush him.
To this plan the woman consented, and all the while they talked the boy lay there and listened, though he breathed with his mouth open as though he were still sleeping.
The next day the woman got up early and cooked breakfast for them, and after they had all eaten, the Troll said, wouldn’t she stay there and keep house for him for a day or so.
“There’s nothing to take me elsewhere,” answered the woman.
Not long after, the Troll took up a crowbar that he kept over in a corner.
“I’ll just go over to the quarry and get out a few cornerstones while you are cooking the dinner,” said he. He then asked the lad whether he would go along with him.
“Yes, and gladly,” answered the lad; so the two set out together.
They worked for awhile at the top of the quarry, and then the Troll told the lad to go down to the bottom of it and see whether there were any loose stones lying around down there.
The lad was willing to do that, too. He went on down toward the bottom of the quarry. No sooner was he gone than the Troll set to work with his crowbar. He worked so hard that he groaned and sweated, and presently he loosened a whole crag and sent it rolling down on the boy.
But the lad saw it coming and was ready for it. He put out his hands and stopped it until he could get out of the way, and then he let it roll on to the bottom. After that he went back to where the Troll was.
“I couldn’t find any loose rocks down there so now do you go down and look for some,” he said.
The Troll was frightened when he saw the lad had come back to the top of the quarry unharmed. He thought he would certainly have been crushed under the crag that had rolled down on him. Neither did the Troll want to go down there below, but he had to.
Then the lad took up the crowbar and pried out another crag, and it rolled down on the Troll and hurt him so that he could not move, but lay where he was groaning. The boy had to go down and roll the crag off him and pick him up and carry him back to the house, and all the while the Troll kept on groaning most terribly. When they got home, the lad put the Troll to bed and he was hurt so badly he had to lie there.
That night the lad stayed awake again and listened, and presently the Troll and the woman began to talk things over again.
“I tell you he’s a dangerous one,” said the woman, “and I’m sure I don’t see how you’re ever to get rid of him.”
“I have a brother,” said the Troll, “and he has a walled-in garden, and in the garden are twelve fierce lions. If we could find some excuse for getting the lad there, they would very quickly tear him to pieces.”
“Then I will find the excuse,” said the woman. “To-morrow I will say that I am very poorly, and that nothing in the world will cure me except a few drops of lions’ milk. Then you must tell about the lions in your brother’s garden, and I’ll beg and entreat him until he’ll agree to go off there to get some for me.”
This plan pleased the Troll, and it was settled between them that as she said so they would do.
The next morning the woman did not get up to cook the breakfast, but lay in bed, moaning.
“What ails you, mother?” asked the lad.
“Oh I’m ill. I’m very ill,” replied the woman.
“I’m sorry for that,” said her son, “but I’m sure I don’t know what would make you better.”
“If I had but a few drops of lions’ milk, that would cure me,” groaned the woman.
“That’s a hard thing to get,” replied the lad; “and if that’s the only thing to cure you, I fear you’ll be ailing a long time.”
Then the Troll spoke up and said he knew where such milk was to be had. “But it takes a brave heart and a strong arm to get it, and that’s the truth,” said the Troll. He then told about his brother’s walled-in garden and the lions that were in it, and he said that if any one had the courage to go for it, ’twas there the milk was to be had.
The woman at once began to beg and entreat the lad to go and get it for her. He did not say no. “Though,” said he, “I think it is but little good the milk will do you, and that’s the truth.”
The Troll told him exactly where the garden was, and he gave him a key to the gate of it, so he would have no trouble in getting in. The lad took the key and a milking pail, and off he set. The Troll and the woman had no other thought than that was the end of him.
On and on he went, one foot before the other, and after a while he came to the garden, and then he took out the key and unlocked the door and stepped inside.
No sooner had he done this than he saw twelve great lions, each one fiercer and larger than the other, and they came at him ramping and roaring so that he was almost deafened by the noise of it, and their teeth were terrible to see.
But the lad was no whit frightened. He caught hold of the foremost lion, and tore it in two, and scattered it in pieces all about him.
When the other lions saw that, all the fierceness went out of them, and they crawled to his feet, and fawned on him, and became as tame as dogs.
The lad patted them, and then he milked a few drops into the milk pail and started for home with it, but the lions would not be left behind. They followed after him close at his heels, as dogs follow their master.
After a while he came within sight of the Troll’s house, and at that very moment the woman happened to be looking out of the window, and there she saw him coming along, with the eleven lions following after him. Then she was terribly frightened, and she called to the Troll, and together they barred all the doors and windows, so the lions could not get in at them.
The lad came to the door and tried to open it, and when he found it was fastened, he called to them to let him in, but they would not until he made the lions lie down outside, and promised they should stay there.
When he went in, there stood his mother shaking and trembling.
“Well, mother, here is the lions’ milk,” he said, “and I’m sure I hope it may make you well again.”
The woman was obliged to drink the milk, though she did not want it.
That night the Troll and she began talking together after they thought the lad was sleeping. But he was wide awake and heard all they said between them, though they spoke in whispers.
“This son of yours is so strong I don’t see how we’re ever to get rid of him,” said the Troll.
“Well, if you don’t know, I’m sure I don’t,” replied the woman.
“There’s one other plan we might try,” said the Troll. “I have two more brothers who live not so very far away from here in a castle, and they are very strong and terrible. Round about the castle is an orchard that bears apples all the year round, and any one who so much as tastes of those apples at once falls into a deep sleep, and nothing can waken him till he has had his sleep out, and the sleep lasts for three days and three nights. If we could but send the lad there after the apples, he would be sure to eat of them, and fall asleep, and then my brothers would find him there and tear him to pieces for they come out every day to walk in the garden and so would be sure to find him.”
“If that is the way of it, we’ve no need to worry,” said the woman, “for I’ll find a way to send him there.”
The next day the woman said she still was not able to get up. She lay there in the bed, moaning and groaning.
“I’m sorry to see you so ailing, mother, but I’m sure I don’t know what to do about it.”
“If I but had some apples from the orchard that belongs to the Troll’s brothers, I’d be well enough,” said the woman, “and if you were but the good son you pretend to be, I know you’d fetch them for me.”
“I’ll fetch you the apples soon enough,” replied her son. “No trouble about that. Though to tell you the truth, I doubt whether they’ll cure you.”
The lad made no more ado about it, but off he set for the orchard, and the eleven lions followed close at his heels.
When he came to where the apple trees were, he climbed up into the one that bore the finest fruit, and ate and ate until he could eat no more. Then he came down and stretched himself out on the soft grass and fell into a deep sleep.
The eleven lions gathered about him and guarded him while he slept.
Now not long after this, the Troll’s two brothers came out into the orchard for a stroll, and there, the first thing they saw, was the lad lying under the finest of the apple trees fast asleep, with the apples lying all about him and one in his hand.
At that sight they flew into a fine rage, and they turned themselves into fierce man-eating steeds, and rushed at him to destroy him.
But before they had a chance even so much as to touch him, the eleven lions rose up and rushed at the two steeds and fought them, and tore them into small pieces and scattered them around like dung.
At the end of three days and three nights, the lad awoke and looked about him, and there were the lions still guarding him, but the ground was all dug up as though a battle had been fought there, and there were deep hoof marks, and pieces of the steeds were scattered all about the orchard. The lad looked and wondered, and he could not think what had been happening, but he was not a bit afraid, and he thought as long as he was there, he might as well go and have a look at the castle.
When he drew near to it, he saw a most beautiful maiden looking out from one of the windows, and at sight of her the lad’s heart melted within him for love of her, she was so beautiful.
“It is lucky for you that you had your lions with you just now,” said the maiden.
“Why is that?” asked the lad.
Then the maiden told him how the Trolls had gone out into the orchard a bit ago, when he was asleep under the apple tree, and how they had changed themselves into man-eating steeds and come at him to destroy him, and how the lions had then risen up and torn the Trolls to pieces.
The lad listened to her until she had made an end of the story, and then he said, “That is as it should be, and it was to guard me that I brought them hither.” Then he asked the maiden whether he might come in, and at first she would not let him, because she was afraid of the lions, but when he promised they should not harm her, but would lie down at the threshold as quiet as house cats, she opened the door to him.
The lad looked about him, and it seemed to him the castle was but a rough place for such a beauty to live in.
“I wonder,” said he, “that such a one as you should be living here with no better company than those two Trolls were.”
“It is not of my own will I am living here,” replied the maiden. Then she told him she was the daughter of the King of Arabia, and that she had been walking in her father’s garden one day, and the Trolls had appeared out of a forest near by, and carried her away with them, and she had been well-nigh scared out of her wits by it. But they had done her no harm, though they had kept her a prisoner here, and they intended that after a while one or other of them should take her as a wife. Then she asked the lad who he was, and where he had come from, and he told her all about it.
“You may be the son of a beggar, but all the same it seems to me you are something of a hero,” said the Princess, “and now we will see whether I am right about it.”
Then she led him into another room and showed him where two great swords were hanging on the wall.
“Those are the Trolls’ swords,” said the Princess, “and they are very heavy to handle. Now try whether you can lift one of them down from the wall, though I doubt whether you are strong enough.”
“That is an easy task you are setting me,” said the lad. He took a chair and set it on a table, and another chair on top of that; and then he climbed up on them, for the swords were so high on the wall that only in that way could he reach the place where they were hanging. Then he reached out and set one finger under the point of one of the swords, and tossed it up in the air and caught it, and he leaped down and flourished the sword about him, so that it whistled.
“Yes, I can see that you are indeed a hero,” said the Princess; “so now tell me: shall I go home to my father, the King of Arabia, or shall I stay here and be your wife?”
It did not take the lad long to make his choice in that matter.
“You shall stay here and be my wife,” said he, “for indeed I love you so dearly that if I cannot marry you, then I shall never marry any one.”
So the Princess stayed on in the castle, and she and the lad were very happy together.
But after some time had passed, the Princess said she ought to go back and see her father, for he did not know what had become of her, and no doubt he had grieved bitterly, thinking she was dead.
This reminded the lad that he had promised to take back the apples to his mother, and it was agreed between them that she should go back to Arabia, and that he should take the apples to his mother, and that then he should come after her to her father’s kingdom and claim her.
So the next day they set out, and the Princess went to the nearest seaport, and hired a vessel with some of the jewels she wore, and sailed back to Arabia. But the lad set out for the Troll’s house with the bosom of his shirt full of apples, and the lions following close at his heels.
When he came near the Troll’s house, his mother was looking out of the window, and no sooner did she see him than she began to shake and shiver.
“There is my son back again,” said she, “and indeed I feel terribly frightened.”
“He’s a strong one, and that’s the truth,” said the Troll, “and I wish we could find out what makes him so, for it’s not in nature for any one to be as strong as he is.”
“Perhaps there is indeed some secret about it,” said the woman, “and if there is, I may be able in some way to wheedle it out of him. At least I can do no better then try.”
So she made haste to open the door and welcome the lad back to his home again, but the lions had to stay outside, because both she and the Troll were afraid of them.
“And did you get the apples?” she asked of him.
Yes, he had the apples. “And I hope they’ll cure you, mother,” said he, “though I think you have little need of them, for I never saw you looking better.”
“Oh I’m still very ailing,” said she, “and I’ll eat the apples after a bit; but first do you sit down and have a bite of the good supper I’ve cooked for you.”
So the lad sat down, and the mother gave him his supper, and while he ate it, she sat beside him and talked to him.
“You’re a strong one,” said she, “and there’s no doubt about that.”
“Strong enough,” replied her son, still eating.
“And how did it all come about?” asked the woman. “For only a while ago you were a weakling, and it was I who had to help you over the rough places.”
“Now I’ll tell you,” said the lad, for he was sleepy from eating so much supper and scarce knew what he was saying. “It’s all because of that blue belt that we saw at the crossroads and that I wanted to pick up, and you forbade me.”
Then he told his mother the whole story, and the woman sat and listened, and the Troll listened, too, only he was hidden behind a door and the lad did not see him.
“And that’s the way the strength came to me,” said the lad, when he had made an end of the telling.
“And have you the belt on you now?” asked the woman.
“Yes, I have,” said the lad, and he opened his shirt and showed it to her.
Then, before he could stop her, the woman caught hold of the belt and tore it from him, and at once all his strength went out of him, so that he was helpless before her.
Then the Troll came from behind the door, and he and the woman made merry together because the lad was so helpless, and they talked together about what they should do with the lad to get rid of him. The woman was for taking him out to a high cliff and throwing him over, but the Troll said no, that was not bad enough for him. In the end the Troll put out the lad’s eyes, and set him adrift in a boat on the sea, and he and the woman thought that was the end of him.
But it was not, for the lions were faithful, and they had followed after, and when they saw the boat drifting away, they swam after it and caught the edge of the boat with their teeth, and brought it ashore on an island.
There they and the lad lived, and the lions took care of him, for the lad was helpless because he was blind. The lions found a cave for him to live in and caught birds and wild animals for him to eat, and the lad picked the feathers off the birds, and took the skins of the animals, and made a soft bed for himself, and always, while some of the lions were out hunting, others stayed with him to guard him and see that no harm came to him.
One day the oldest lion went out hunting, and he went a long way before he found anything. Then, after a while, he started up a hare, and it was blind. The lion chased the hare, and it went leaping along, and presently, because it was blind, it fell into a pool of water. As soon as the water touched its eyes, it could see again, and it scrambled out from the pool and escaped the lion.
The lion went back to where the lad was sitting in his cave, and took hold of his clothes, and began to pull at them. The lad did not know what the lion wanted of him, but he got up and allowed the lion to lead him. It led him on and on, until they came to the edge of the pool, and then the lion loosed his clothing and gave the lad such a push that he fell head over heels into the water. No sooner did the water touch his eyes than the blindness was all gone, and he could see again even better than before.
Then the lad rejoiced greatly, and he got into the boat and went back to the place where the Troll lived, and the lions swam after.
After he landed, he crept up toward the house very carefully, so that no one saw him, and peeped in at the door. The woman was busy at the dough-trough making up bread, and her back was toward him, and there was the blue belt hanging from a nail in the wall.
The lad crept in and seized it and put it around him, and then he began to shout and stamp about, and call to the woman and the Troll to come and catch hold of him.
The woman turned about, and when she saw the lad was there and the belt gone from the wall, she knew what had happened. She was terribly frightened, and began to coax and cajole him, and beg him to let her have the belt again.
But the lad would not listen to her. He threw open the door and called in the lions, and they soon made an end of her. Then they ran out and found the Troll, too, and tore him to pieces in spite of all his cries and prayers for mercy.
That was the end of them, and after that the lad was ready to set out for Arabia to claim the Princess as his wife, but he would not let the lions go with him for there was no need for them in that business.
The lad journeyed on and on, and after a while he came to Arabia, and there he heard a story of how the daughter of the King of that country had been stolen away by Trolls, and kept a prisoner for a long time but now she was home, and the King was so glad to have her back he said he would never let her leave him again. He had hidden her away, no one knew where, and when any one came to ask her hand in marriage the King said no one might have her but he who could find her, and if any one tried to find her and failed, he should have his head cut off.
Many kings and princes had lost their lives in this manner.
The lad listened and listened to everything that was said, and he thought to himself that he would be the next to have a try at finding the Princess, but he said nothing about it to any one.
One day the lad met a man who was selling white bearskins, and the lad stopped him and began talking to him. “I will tell you what we will do,” said he. “I will put on one of those bearskins, and then do you fasten a collar around my neck and lead me through the town by a chain, and I will dance and perform tricks.”
This plan pleased the man, and he readily agreed to it; so the lad put on the bearskin, and the man led him about by a chain, and everywhere the lad danced and performed in such a wonderful way that the people were amazed.
After a while it came to the King’s ears that such a beast was in the town, and that not only could it dance and perform tricks, but it could understand everything that was said to it.
The King became very curious to see the animal, and he sent word for the man to come to the palace and bring the bear with him.
The man at once set out for the palace, and on the way he said to the lad, “Now you must do your best, for if you can succeed in pleasing the King, he will be sure to pay us well.”
“Yes,” said the lad, “but when we come to the palace, you must warn everybody that they are not to laugh at me, for if the people there laugh at me, I may become so enraged that I will tear them to pieces before I know what I am doing.”
So as soon as the man came to the palace, he said that no one was to laugh at the bear, whatever happened, and the King promised that no one should.
Then the lad began to perform his tricks, but in the very midst of things one of the maids began to laugh, and at once the pretended bear flew at her and tore her to pieces before any one could stop him.
The man was terrified, but the King said, “It does not matter; she was only a maid, after all.”
After that the King said the man and the bear must spend the night at the castle. The man might sleep in the kitchen, but the bear should stay in the little room that opened out fro