Asbjørnsen Peter Christen
Tales from the Fjeld: A Second Series of Popular Tales
"Meanwhile, the companion went to the smith and got twenty-four pounds of iron welded on to his sword; and, when that was done, he went down to the stable and let fly at the Billygoat between the horns with such a blow, that he went right head over heels against the wall.
"'When rides the princess to her lover to-night?' he asked.
"'At one o'clock,' baaed the Billygoat.
"So, when the hour drew near, the companion stood in the stable with his Three-Sister Hat on; and, when she had greased the goat, and uttered the same words that they were to fly through the air to her true love, who was waiting for her in the fell, off they went again, on the wings of the wind; and, all the while, the companion sat behind.
"But he was not light-handed this time; for, every now and then, he gave the princess a slap, so that he almost beat the breath out of her body.
"And when they came to the wall of rock, she knocked at the door, and it opened, and they passed on into the fell to her lover.
"As soon as she got there, she fell to bewailing, and was very cross, and said she never knew the air could deal such buffets; she almost thought, indeed, that some one sat behind, who beat both the Billygoat and herself; she was sure she was black and blue all over her body, such a hard flight had she had through the air.
"Then she went on to tell how her lover had brought her the golden ball too; how it happened, neither she nor the Troll could tell.
"'But now do you know what I have hit upon?'
"No; the Troll did not.
"'Well,' she went on; 'I have told him to bring me what I was then thinking of by dinner-time to-morrow, and what I thought of was your head. Do you think he can get that, my darling?' said the princess, and began to fondle the Troll.
"'No, I don't think he can,' said the Troll. 'He would take his oath he couldn't;' and then the Troll burst out laughing, and scunnered worse than any ghost, and both the princess and the Troll thought the lad would be drawn and quartered, and that the crows would peck out his eyes, before he could get the Troll's head.
"So when it turned towards dawn, she had to set off home again; but she was afraid, she said, for she thought there was some one behind her, and so she was afraid to ride home alone. The Troll must go with her on the way. Yes; the Troll would go with her, and he led out his Billygoat (for he had one that matched the princess's), and he smeared it and greased it between the horns. And when the Troll got up, the companion crept on behind, and so off they set through the air to the king's grange. But all the way the companion thrashed the Troll and his Billygoat, and gave them cut and thrust and thrust and cut with his sword, till they got weaker and weaker, and at last were well on the way to sink down into the sea over which they passed. Now the Troll thought the weather was so wild, he went right home with the princess up to the king's grange, and stood outside to see that she got home safe and well. But just as she shut the door behind her, the companion struck off the Troll's head and ran up with it to the lad's bedroom.
"'Here is what the princess thought of,' said he.
"Well, they were merry and joyful, one may think, and when the lad was bidden down to dinner, and they had dined, the princess was as lively as a lark.
"'No doubt you have got what I thought of?' said she.
"'Aye; aye; I have it,' said the lad, and he tore it out from under his coat, and threw it down on the board with such a thump that the board, trestles and all, was upset. As for the princess, she was as though she had been dead and buried; but she could not say that this was not what she was thinking of, and so now he was to have her to wife as she had given her word. So they made a bridal feast, and there was drinking and gladness all over the kingdom.
"But the companion took the lad on one side, and told him that he might just shut his eyes and sham sleep on the bridal night; but if he held his life dear, and would listen to him, he wouldn't let a wink come over them till he had stripped her of her troll-skin, which had been thrown over her, but he must flog it off her with a rod made of nine new birch twigs, and he must tear it off her in three tubs of milk: first he was to scrub her in a tub of year-old whey, and then he was to scour her in the tub of buttermilk, and lastly, he was to rub her in a tub of new milk. The birch twigs lay under the bed, and the tubs he had set in the corner of the room. Everything was ready to his hand. Yes; the lad gave his word to do as he was bid and to listen to him. So when they got into the bridal bed at even, the lad shammed as though he had given himself up to sleep. Then the princess raised herself up on her elbow and looked at him to see if he slept, and tickled him under the nose; but the lad slept on still. Then she tugged his hair and his beard; but he lay like a log, as she thought. After that she drew out a big butcher's knife from under the bolster, and was just going to hack off his head; but the lad jumped up, dashed the knife out of her hand, and caught her by the hair. Then he flogged her with the birchrods, and wore them out upon her till there was not a twig left. When that was over he tumbled her into the tub of whey, and then he got to see what sort of beast she was: she was black as a raven all over her body; but when he scrubbed her well in the whey, and scoured her with buttermilk, and rubbed her well in new milk, her troll-skin dropped off her, and she was fair and lovely and gentle; so lovely she had never looked before.
"Next day the companion said they must set off home. Yes; the lad was ready enough, and the princess too, for her dower had been long waiting. In the night the companion fetched to the king's grange all the gold and silver and precious things which the Troll had left behind him in the Fell, and when they were ready to start in the morning the whole grange was so full of silver, and gold, and jewels, there was no walking without treading on them. That dower was worth more than all the king's land and realm, and they were at their wits' end to know how to carry it with them. But the companion knew a way out of every strait. The Troll left behind him six billygoats, who could all fly through the air. Those he so laded with silver and gold that they were forced to walk along the ground, and had no strength to mount aloft and fly, and what the billygoats could not carry had to stay behind in the king's grange. So they travelled far, and farther than far, but at last the billygoats got so footsore and tired they could not go another step. The lad and the princess knew not what to do; but when the companion saw they could not get on, he took the whole dower on his back, and the billygoats a-top of it, and bore it all so far on that there was only half a mile left to the lad's home.
"Then the companion said: 'Now we must part. I can't stay with you any longer.'
"But the lad would not part from him, he would not lose him for much or little. Well, he went with them a quarter of a mile more; but farther he could not go and when the lad begged and prayed him to go home and stay with him altogether, or at least as long as they had drunk his home-coming ale in his father's house, the companion said, 'No. That could not be. Now he must part, for he heard heaven's bells ringing for him.' He was the vintner who had stood in the block of ice outside the church door, whom all spat upon; and he had been his companion and helped him because he had given all he had to get him peace and rest in Christian earth.
"'I had leave,' he said, 'to follow you a year, and now the year is out.'
"When he was gone the lad laid together all his wealth in a safe place, and went home without any baggage. Then they drank his home-coming ale, till the news spread far and wide, over seven kingdoms, and when they had got to the end of the feast, they had carting and carrying all the winter both with the billygoats and the twelve horses which his father had before they got all that gold and silver safely carted home."
THE SHOPBOY AND HIS CHEESE, AND PEIK
When Anders had ended The Companion, that strangely wild story, we all admired it, but he too had his call, and, turning to Karin, he said,
"Now do you tell The Shopboy and his Cheese. I know you know it, for I heard you telling it to the children last winter over the stove."
So Karin began
THE SHOPBOY AND HIS CHEESE
"Once on a time there was a shopboy who was so well liked by all who knew him, that they thought him too good to stand behind the counter with a yard measure, and weights and scales. So they made up their minds to send him out with a venture to foreign parts, and they let him choose what he would take out. He chose old cheese, and set off with it to Turkey. There he sold his cheeses very well; but as he was on his way home, he met two who had slain a man, and it was not enough that they had slain him in this life, but they ill-treated his body after he was dead. This the shopboy could not bear to see, how wickedly they behaved; so he bought the body of them and got a grave with his money, and buried it, and then he had spent all he had.
"After a long, long time, he got safe home, and was both illcome and welcome. Some of those who had helped and fitted him out thought he had done a good deed; but others were ill-pleased that he should have so thrown away his money. But for all that they were ready to try if he could not do better another time, so they let him choose his lading again. He chose the same freight, and took the same way, and sold his cheese even better than before. But, as he was on his way home, he met two who had stolen a king's daughter, and they had put harness on her, and had got so far as to drive her; they had stripped off her clothes to the waist, and one went on either side of her and whipped her. The lad's heart melted at this, for she was a lovely lass. So he asked if they would sell her. Yes, if he would pay down her weight in silver he might have her, and there was no long bargaining: he paid all they asked.
"After a long, long time, he got safe home; but those who had fitted him out were one and all so ill-pleased at his dealing, that they banished him the land. So he had to set off to England. There he stayed for four years with his sweetheart, and the way they got their living was by her weaving ribbons, which she wove so well that he sold two shillings' worth a-day.
"One day he met two who were foes, and one wished to thrash the other because he owed him eighteen-pence. That seemed to the lad wrong, and he paid the debt for him. Another day he met two travellers, who began to talk with him, and asked if he had anything to sell. 'Nothing but ribbons,' he said. Well, they would have three shillings' worth, and asked him where he lived, and fixed a day to come and fetch them; and when the day came, they came too, and lo! when they came, if one of them was not the princess's brother, and the other an emperor's son, to whom she was betrothed. So they got the ribbons for which they had bargained, and wanted to take her home with them. But she wouldn't go unless they would let him go with them, and take care of him; for she would not forsake the man who had freed her, so long as she had breath in her body. So they had to give way to her if they were to take her at all. But when they were to go on board ship, the brother and sister went first into the boat, and when the emperor's son was to get into her, he shoved her off, and jumped into her himself, and so the lad was left standing on the shore. The ship lay ready for sea, and they sailed as soon as ever they came on board. But then up came the man for whom the lad had paid eighteen-pence, in a boat and put him on board. Then the princess was so glad, and took a gold ring off her finger and gave it to him, and made him go down into the cabin where she lay.
"Well! they sailed many days, till they came to a desert island, where they landed to look for game, and they settled things so that the brother, and the Norseman who had saved the princess's life, were to go each on his side of the island, and the emperor's son in the middle, and when the lad was well gone, so that they could neither see him, nor he them, they got on board, and he was left to walk about the island alone. Then he saw there was no help for it but to stay there; and there he stayed seven years. He got his food from a fruit-bearing tree which he found, and when the seven years were up, an old, old man came to him and said, —
"'To-day your true-love is to be married. They have not got a kind word out of her these seven years, since you parted; but for all that the emperor's son wants to marry her, for that he knows she is wise and witty, and for that she is so rich.'
"After that, the man asked if he had not a mind to be at the wedding. So he said: well! what he said any one can guess, but he saw no way of getting there. But lo! in a little while there he stood in the palace where the wedding was to be. Then he wanted to know what kind of man that was who had brought him thither. He was no man, he said; but a spirit. He it was whose body he had bought and buried in Turkey.
"After that, he gave him a glass and a bottle, with wine in it, and told him to send some one in with a message to the cook to come out to him.
"'When he comes, you must first pour out a glass and drink it yourself; and then another, and give it to the cook; and then you must pour out a third, and send it to the bride; but first of all you must take the ring off your finger, and put it into the glass which you send her.'
"So when the cook came in with the glass, they all cried out, 'She mustn't drink.' But the cook said, 'First he drank, and then I drank, so she may very safely drink the wine.'
"And when she drank the glass out, she saw the ring that lay at the bottom, and ran out, and as soon as she got outside she knew him again, and fell on his neck and kissed him, all shaggy as he was, for you may fancy, he had neither lather nor razor on his beard for seven years.
"But now the king came after, and wanted to know the meaning of all this fondling between them. So they were brought into a room, and told the whole story from first to last. Then the king bade them go and fetch a barber, and scrape the bristles off him, and trim him; and a tailor with a new court dress; and then the king went into the bridal hall, and asked the bridegroom, that emperor's son, what doom should be passed on one who had robbed a man both of life and honour. He answered, —
"'Such a scoundrel should be first hanged on a gallows and then his body should be burnt quick.'
"So he was taken at his word and suffered the doom that he uttered over himself, and the shopboy was wedded to the king's daughter, and lived both long and luckily.
"After that I was no longer with them, and I don't know how they fared; but this I know, that he who last told this Tale is alive this very day, and he is Ole Olsen, of Hitli, in Roldale."
When The Shopboy and his Cheese was over, Anders, who ordered about his cousins like a Turk, called on Christina for Peik; but nothing could get the story out of her. There was something in it she did not like. It was not a girl's story. He had better tell it himself.
"Well, I will," said Anders; "I'm sure there's no harm in it; but judge for yourselves."
PEIK
"Once on a time there was a man, and he had a wife; they had a son and a daughter who were twins, and they were so like, no one could tell the one from the other by anything else than their clothing. The boy they called Peik. He was of little good while his father and mother lived, for he had no mood to do aught else than to befool folk, and he was so full of tricks and pranks that no one could be at peace for him; but when they were dead it got worse and worse, he wouldn't turn his hand to anything; all he would do was to squander what they left behind them, and as for his neighbours he fell out with all of them. His sister toiled and moiled all she could, but it helped little; so at last she said to him how silly this was that he would do naught for her house, and ended by asking him,
"'What shall we have to live on when you have wasted everything?'
"'Oh, I'll go out and befool somebody,' said Peik.
"'Yes, Peik, I'll be bound you'll do that soon enough,' said his sister.
"'Well, I'll try,' said Peik.
"So at last they had nothing more, for there was an end of everything; and Peik trotted off, and walked and walked till he came to the king's grange. There stood the King in the porch, and as soon as he set eyes on the lad, he said, —
"'Whither away to-day, Peik?'
"'Oh, I was going out to see if I could befool anybody,' said Peik.
"'Can't you befool me, now?' said the King.
"'No, I'm sure I can't,' said Peik, 'for I've forgotten my fooling rods at home.'
"'Can't you go and fetch them?' said the King, 'for I should be very glad to see if you are such a trickster as folks say.'
"'I've no strength to walk,' said Peik.
"'I'll lend you a horse and saddle,' said the King.
"'But I can't ride either,' said Peik.
"'Then we'll lift you up,' said the King, 'then you'll be able to stick on.'
"Well, Peik stood and clawed and scratched his head, as though he would pull the hair off, and let them lift him up into the saddle, and there he sat swinging this side and that so long as the King could see him, and the King laughed till the tears came into his eyes, for such a tailor on horseback he had never before seen. But when Peik was come well into the wood behind the hill, so that he was out of the King's sight, he sat as though he were nailed to the horse, and off he rode as though he had stolen both steed and bridle, and when he got to the town, he sold both horse and saddle.
"All the while the King walked up and down, and loitered and waited for Peik to come tottering back again with his fooling rods; and every now and then he laughed when he called to mind how wretched he looked as he sat swinging about on the horse like a sack of corn, not knowing on which side to fall off; but this lasted for seven lengths and seven breadths, and no Peik came, and so at last the King saw that he was fooled and cheated out of his horse and saddle, even though Peik had not his fooling rods with him. And so there was another story, for the King got wroth, and was all for setting off to kill Peik.
"But Peik had found out the day he was coming, and told his sister she must put on the big boiler with a drop of water in it. But just as the King came in Peik dragged the boiler off the fire and ran off with it to the chopping-block, and so boiled the porridge on the block.
"The King wondered at that, and wondered on and on so much that he clean forgot what brought him there.
"'What do you want for that pot?' said he.
"'I can't spare it,' said Peik.
"'Why not?' said the King, 'I'll pay what you ask.'
"'No, no!' said Peik. 'It saves me time and money, woodhire and choppinghire, carting and carrying.'
"'Never mind,' said the King, 'I'll give you a hundred dollars. It's true you've fooled me out of a horse and saddle, and bridle besides, but all that shall go for nothing if I can only get the pot.'
"'Well! if you must have it you must,' said Peik.
"When the King got home he asked guests and made a feast, but the meat was to be boiled in the new pot, and so he took it up and set it in the middle of the floor. The guests thought the King had lost his wits, and went about elbowing one another, and laughing at him. But he walked round and round the pot, and cackled and chattered, saying all in a breath —
"'Well, well! bide a bit, bide a bit! 'twill boil in a minute.'
"But there was no boiling. So he saw that Peik had been out again with his fooling rods and cheated him, and now he would set off at once and slay him.
"When the King came Peik stood out by the barn door. 'Wouldn't it boil?' he asked.
"'No! it would not,' said the King; 'but now you shall smart for it,' and so he was just going to unsheath his knife.
"'I can well believe that,' said Peik, 'for you did not take the block too.'
"'I wish I thought,' said the King, 'you weren't telling me a pack of lies.'
"'I tell you it's all because of the block it stands on; it won't boil without it,' said Peik.
"'Well; what did he want for it?' It was well worth three hundred dollars; but for the King's sake it should go for two. So he got the block and travelled home with it, and bade guests again, and made a feast, and set the pot on the chopping-block in the middle of the room. The guests thought he was both daft and mad, and they went about making game of him, while he cackled and chattered round the pot, calling out 'Bide a bit, now it boils! now it boils in a trice.'
"But it wouldn't boil a bit more on the block than on the bare floor. So he saw again that Peik had been out with his fooling rods this time too. Then he fell a-tearing his hair, and swore he would set off at once and slay him. He wouldn't spare him this time, whether he put a good or a bad face on it.
"But Peik had taken steps to meet him again. He slaughtered a wether and caught the blood in the bladder, and stuffed it into his sister's bosom, and told her what to say and do.
"'Where's Peik!' screeched out the King. He was in such a rage that his tongue faltered.
"'He is so poorly that he can't stir hand or foot,' she said, 'and now he's trying to get a nap.'
"'Wake him up,' said the King.
"'Nay, I daren't; he is so hasty,' said the sister.
"'Well! I'm hastier still,' said the King, 'and if you don't wake him, I will,' and with that he tapped his side where his knife hung.
"Well! she would go and wake him; but Peik turned hastily in his bed, drew out a little knife, and ripped open the bladder in her bosom, so that a stream of blood gushed out, and down she fell on the floor, as though she were dead.
"'What a dare devil you are, Peik,' said the King, 'if you haven't stabbed your sister to death, and here I stood by and saw it with my own eyes.'
"'There's no risk with her body so long as there's breath in my nostrils;' and with that he pulled out a ramshorn, and began to toot upon it, and when he had tooted a bridal tune, he put the end to her body, and blew life into her again, and up she rose as though there was naught the matter with her.
"'Bless me, Peik! can you kill folk and blow life into them again? Can you do that?' said the King.
"'Why!' said Peik, 'how could I get on at all if I couldn't? I'm always killing everyone I come near; don't you know I'm very hasty.'
"'So am I hot-tempered,' said the King, 'and that horn I must have; I'll give you a hundred dollars for it, and besides I'll forgive you for cheating me out of my horse, and for fooling me about the pot and the block, and all else.'
"Peik was very loth to part with it, but for his sake he would let him have it, and so the King went off home with it, and he had hardly got back before he must try it. So he fell a-wrangling and quarrelling with the Queen and his eldest daughter, and they paid him back in the same coin; but before they knew a word about it he whipped out his knife and cut their throats, so that they fell down stone dead, and everyone else ran out of the room, they were so afraid.
"The King walked and paced about the floor for a while, and kept chattering that there was no harm done, so long as there was breath in him, and a pack of such stuff which had flowed out of Peik's mouth, and then he pulled out the horn and began to blow 'Toot-i-too, Toot-i-too,' but though he blew and tooted as hard as he could all that day and the next too, he couldn't blow life into them again. Dead they were, and dead they stayed, both the Queen and his daughter, and he was forced to buy graves for them in the churchyard, and to spend money on their funeral ale into the bargain.
"So he must and would go and cut Peik off; but Peik had his spies out, and knew when the King was coming, and then he said to his sister, —
"'Now you must change clothes with me and set off. If you will do that you may have all we have got.'
"Well! she changed clothes with him, and packed up and started off as fast as she could; but Peik sat all alone in his sister's clothes.
"'Where is that Peik?' said the King, as he came in a towering rage through the door.
"'He has run away,' said Peik.
"'Ah! had he been at home,' said the King, 'I'd have slain him on the spot. It's no good sparing the life of such a rogue.'
"'Yes! he knew by his spies that your Majesty was coming, and was going to take his life for his wicked tricks; but he has left me all alone without a morsel of bread or a penny in my purse,' said Peik, who made himself as soft and mealy-mouthed as a young lady.
"'Come along then to the King's Grange, and you shall have enough to live on. There's no good sitting here and starving in this cabin by yourself,' said the King.
"Yes! he was glad to do that; so the King took him with him, and had him taught everything, and treated him as his own daughter, and it was almost as if the King had his three daughters again, for Miss Peik sewed and stitched, and sung and played with the others, and was with them early and late.
"After a time a king's son came to look for a wife.
"'Yes! I have three daughters,' said the King; 'it rests with you which you will have?'
"So he got leave to go up to their bower to make friends with them, and the end was that he liked Miss Peik best, and threw a silk kerchief into her lap as a love token. So they set to work to get ready the bridal feast, and in a little while his kinsfolk came, and the King's men, and they all fell to feasting and drinking on the bridal eve; but as night was falling Miss Peik daren't stay longer, but ran away from the King's Grange, out into the wide world, and the bride was lost; but there was worse behind, for just then both the other princesses felt very queer, and all at once two little princes came travelling into the world, and folk had to break up and go home just as the fun and feasting were highest.
"The King got both wroth and sorrowful, and began to wonder if it wasn't Peik again that had a finger in this pie.
"So he mounted his horse and rode out, for he thought it dull work staying at home; but when he got out among the ploughed fields, there sat Peik on a stone playing on a Jews' harp.
"'What! are you sitting there, Peik?' said the King.
"'Here I sit, sure enough,' said Peik. 'Where else should I sit?"
"'Now you have cheated me foully, time after time,' said the King; 'but now you must come along home with me, and I'll kill you.'
"'Well, well,' said Peik, 'if it can't be helped it can't; I suppose I must go along with you.'
"When they got home to the King's Grange, they got ready a cask which Peik was to be put in, and when it was ready they carted it up to a high fell; there he was to lie three days thinking on all the evil he had done, then they were to roll him down the fell into the firth.
"The third day a rich man passed by, but Peik sat inside the cask and sang, —
'To heaven's bliss and Paradise,
To heaven's bliss and Paradise.
"'I'd sooner far stay here and not be made an angel.'
"When the man heard that, he asked what he would take to change places with him.
"'It ought to be a good sum,' said Peik, 'for there wasn't a coach ready to start for Paradise every day.'
"So the man said he would give all he had, and so he knocked out the head of the cask and crept into it instead of Peik.
"'A happy journey,' said the King, when he came to roll him down; 'now you'll go faster to the firth than if you were in a sledge with reindeer; and now it's all over with you and your fooling rods.'
"Before the cask was half-way down the fell, there wasn't a whole stave of it left, nor a limb of him who was inside. But when the King came back to the Grange, Peik was there before him, and sat in the courtyard playing on the Jews' harp.
"'What! you sitting here, you Peik?'
"'Yes! here I sit, sure enough; where else should I sit?' said Peik. 'Maybe I can get house-room here for all my horses and sheep and money.'
"'But whither was it that I rolled you that you got all this wealth?' asked the King.
"'Oh, you rolled me into the firth,' said Peik, 'and when I got to the bottom there was more than enough and to spare, both of horses and sheep and of gold and silver. The cattle went about in great flocks, and the gold and silver lay in large heaps as big as houses.'
"'What will you take to roll me down the same way?' asked the King.
"'Oh,' said Peik, 'it costs little or nothing to do it. Besides, you took nothing from me, and so I'll take nothing from you either.'
"So he stuffed the King into a cask and rolled him over, and when he had given him a ride down to the firth for nothing, he went home to the King's Grange. Then he began to hold his bridal feast with the youngest princess, and afterwards he ruled both land and realm, but he kept his fooling rods to himself, and kept them so well that nothing was ever afterwards heard of Peik and his tricks, but only of OURSELF THE KING."
