Hereupon she was
overjoyed, and said that he was the one who had delivered her. On this
they went together to the old King, and fetched him to the hut, and she
led him into her room, and told him that the huntsman was the man who
had really set her free from the giants. And when the aged King saw all
the proofs of this, he could no longer doubt, and said that he was very
glad he knew how everything had happened, and that the huntsman should
have her to wife, on which the maiden was glad at heart. Then she
dressed the huntsman as if he were a foreign lord, and the King ordered
a feast to be prepared. When they went to table, the captain sat on the
left side of the King’s daughter, but the huntsman was on the right,
and the captain thought he was a foreign lord who had come on a visit. When they had eaten and drunk, the old King said to the captain that he
would set before him something which he must guess. “Supposing any one
said that he had killed the three giants and he were asked where the
giants’ tongues were, and he were forced to go and look, and there were
none in their heads, how could that happen?” The captain said, “Then
they cannot have had any.” “Not so,” said the King. “Every animal has a
tongue,” and then he likewise asked what any one would deserve who made
such an answer? The captain replied, “He ought to be torn in pieces.”
Then the King said he had pronounced his own sentence, and the captain
was put in prison and then torn in four pieces; but the King’s daughter
was married to the huntsman. After this he brought his father and
mother, and they lived with their son in happiness, and after the death
of the old King he received the kingdom. 112 The Flail From Heaven

A countryman was once going out to plough with a pair of oxen. When he
got to the field, both the animals’ horns began to grow, and went on
growing, and when he wanted to go home they were so big that the oxen
could not get through the gateway for them. By good luck a butcher came
by just then, and he delivered them over to him, and made the bargain
in this way, that he should take the butcher a measure of turnip-seed,
and then the butcher was to count him out a Brabant thaler for every
seed. I call that well sold! The peasant now went home, and carried the
measure of turnip-seed to him on his back. On the way, however, he lost
one seed out of the bag. The butcher paid him justly as agreed on, and
if the peasant had not lost the seed, he would have had one thaler the
more. In the meantime, when he went on his way back, the seed had grown
into a tree which reached up to the sky. Then thought the peasant, “As
thou hast the chance, thou must just see what the angels are doing up
there above, and for once have them before thine eyes.” So he climbed
up, and saw that the angels above were threshing oats, and he looked
on. While he was thus watching them, he observed that the tree on which
he was standing, was beginning to totter; he peeped down, and saw that
someone was just going to cut it down. “If I were to fall down from
hence it would be a bad thing,” thought he, and in his necessity he did
not know how to save himself better than by taking the chaff of the
oats which lay there in heaps, and twisting a rope of it. He likewise
snatched a hoe and a flail which were lying about in heaven, and let
himself down by the rope. But he came down on the earth exactly in the
middle of a deep, deep hole. So it was a real piece of luck that he had
brought the hoe, for he hoed himself a flight of steps with it, and
mounted up, and took the flail with him as a token of his truth, so
that no one could have any doubt of his story. 113 The Two Kings’ Children

There was once on a time a King who had a little boy of whom it had
been foretold that he should be killed by a stag when he was sixteen
years of age, and when he had reached that age the huntsmen once went
hunting with him. In the forest, the King’s son was separated from the
others, and all at once he saw a great stag which he wanted to shoot,
but could not hit. At length he chased the stag so far that they were
quite out of the forest, and then suddenly a great tall man was
standing there instead of the stag, and said, “It is well that I have
thee. I have already ruined six pairs of glass skates with running
after thee, and have not been able to get thee.” Then he took the
King’s son with him, and dragged him through a great lake to a great
palace, and then he had to sit down to table with him and eat
something. When they had eaten something together the King said, “I
have three daughters, thou must keep watch over the eldest for one
night, from nine in the evening till six in the morning, and every time
the clock strikes, I will come myself and call, and if thou then givest
me no answer, to-morrow morning thou shall be put to death, but if thou
always givest me an answer, thou shalt have her to wife.”

When the young folks went to the bed-room there stood a stone image of
St. Christopher, and the King’s daughter said to it, “My father will
come at nine o’clock, and every hour till it strikes three; when he
calls, give him an answer instead of the King’s son.” Then the stone
image of St. Christopher nodded its head quite quickly, and then more
and more slowly till at last it stood still. The next morning the King
said to him, “Thou hast done the business well, but I cannot give my
daughter away. Thou must now watch a night by my second daughter, and
then I will consider with myself, whether thou canst have my eldest
daughter to wife, but I shall come every hour myself, and when I call
thee, answer me, and if I call thee and thou dost not reply, thy blood
shall flow.” Then they both went into the sleeping-room, and there
stood a still larger stone image of St. Christopher, and the King’s
daughter said to it, “If my father calls, do you answer him.” Then the
great stone image of St. Christopher again nodded its head quite
quickly and then more and more slowly, until at last it stood still
again. And the King’s son lay down on the threshold, put his hand under
his head and slept. The next morning the King said to him, “Thou hast
done the business really well, but I cannot give my daughter away; thou
must now watch a night by the youngest princess, and then I will
consider with myself whether thou canst have my second daughter to
wife, but I shall come every hour myself, and when I call thee answer
me, and if I call thee and thou answerest not, thy blood shall flow for
me.”

Then they once more went to the sleeping-room together, and there was a
much greater and much taller image of St. Christopher than the two
first had been. The King’s daughter said to it, “When my father calls,
do thou answer.” Then the great tall stone image of St. Christopher
nodded quite half an hour with its head, until at length the head stood
still again. And the King’s son laid himself down on the threshold of
the door and slept.