Niels and the giants

hall, and took down the horn again. `Perhaps I have to drink all that is in it before I can move the sword,` he thought; so he put it to his lips again and drank till it was quite empty. When he had done this, he could wield the sword with the greatest of ease, and felt himself strong enough to do anything, even to fight the giants he had left outside, who were no doubt wondering why he had not opened the gate to them before this time. To kill the giants, he thought, would be using the sword for the right; but as to winning the love of the princess, that was a thing which the son of a poor sheep-farmer need not hope for.
When Niels came to the gate of the castle, he found that there was a large door and a small one, so he opened the latter.
`Can`t you open the big door?` said the giants; `we shall hardly be able to get in at this one.`
`The bars are too heavy for me to draw,` said Niels; `if you stoop a little you can quite well come in here.` The first giant accordingly bent down and entered in a stooping posture, but before he had time to straighten his back again Niels made a sweep with the sword, and off went the giant`s head. To push the body aside as it fell was quite easy for Niels, so strong had the wine made him, and the second giant as he entered met the same reception. The third was slower in coming, so Niels called out to him: `Be quick,` he said, `you are surely the oldest of the three, since you are so slow in your movements, but I can`t wait here long; I must get back to my own people as soon as possible.` So the third also came in, and was served in the same way. It appears from the story that giants were not given fair play!
By this time day was beginning to break, and Niels thought that his folks might already be searching for him, so, instead of waiting to see what took place at the castle, he ran off to the forest as fast as he could, taking the sword with him. He found the others still asleep, so he woke them up, and they again set out on their journey. Of the night`s adventures he said not a word, and when they asked where he got the sword, he only pointed in the direction of the castle, and said, `Over that way.` They thought he had found it, and asked no more questions.
When Niels left the castle, he shut the door behind him, and it closed with such a bang that the porter woke up. He could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the three headless giants lying in a heap in the courtyard, and could not imagine what had taken place. The whole castle was soon aroused, and then everybody wondered at the affair: it was soon seen that the bodies were those of the king`s great enemies, but how they came to be there and in that condition was a perfect mystery. Then it was noticed that the drinking-horn was empty and the sword gone, while the princess reported that half of her handkerchief and one of her slippers had been taken away. How the giants had been killed seemed a little clearer now, but who had done it was as great a puzzle as before. The old knight who had charge of the castle said that in his opinion it must have been some young knight, who had immediately set off to the king to claim the hand of the princess. This sounded likely, but the messenger who was sent to the Court returned with the news that no one there knew anything about the matter.
`We must find him, however,` said the princess; `for if he is willing to marry me I cannot in honour refuse him, after what my father put on the horn.` She took council with her father`s wisest men as to what ought to be done, and among other things they advised her to build a house beside the highway, and put over the door this inscription:`Whoever will tell the story of his life, may stay here three nights for nothing.` This was done, and many strange tales were told to the princess, but none of the travellers said a word about the three giants.
In the meantime Niels and the others tramped on towards Rome. Autumn passed, and winter was just beginning when they came to the foot of a great range of mountains, towering up to the sky. `Must we go over these?` said they. `We shall be frozen to death or buried in the snow.`
`Here comes a man,` said Niels; `let us ask him the way to Rome.` They did so, and were told that there was no other way.
`And is it far yet?` said the old people, who were beginning to be worn out by the long journey. The man held up his foot so that they could see the sole of his shoe; it was worn as thin as paper, and there was a hole in the middle of it.
`These shoes were quite new when I left Rome,` he said, `and look at them now; that will tell you whether you are far from it or not.`
This discouraged the old people so much that they gave up all thought of finishing the journey, and only wished to get back to Denmark as quickly as they could. What with the winter and bad roads they took longer to return than they had taken to go, but in the end they found themselves in sight of the forest where they had slept before.
`What`s this?` said Rasmus. `Here`s a big house built since we passed this way before.`
`So it is,` said Niels; `let`s stay all night in it.`
`No, we can`t afford that,` said the old people; `it will be too dear for the like of us.`
However, when they saw what was written above the door, they were all well pleased to get a night`s lodging for nothing. They were well received, and had so much attention given to them, that the old people were quite put out by it. After they had got time to rest themselves, the princess`s steward came to hear their story.
`You saw what was written above the door,` he said to the father. `Tell me who you are and what your history has been.`
`Dear me, I have nothing of any importance to tell you,` said the old man, `and I am sure we should never have made so bold as to trouble you at all if it hadn`t been for the youngest of our two sons here.`
`Never mind that,` said the steward; ` you are very welcome if you will only tell me the story of your life.`
`Well, well, I will,` said he, `but there is nothing to tell about it. I and my wife have lived all our days on a moor in North Jutland, until this last year, when she took a fancy to go to Rome. We set out with our two sons but turned back long before we got there, and are now on our way home again. That`s all my own story, and our two sons have lived with us all their days, so there is nothing more to be told about them either.`
`Yes there is,` said Rasmus; `when we were on our way south, we slept in the wood near here one night, and I shot a stag.`
The steward was so much accustomed to hearing stories of no importance that he thought there was no use going further with this, but reported to the princess that the newcomers had nothing to tell.
`Did you question them all?` she said.
`Well, no; not directly,` said he; `but the father said that none of them could tell me any more than he had done.`
`You are getting careless,` said the princess; `I shall go and talk to them myself.`
Niels knew the princess again as soon as she entered the room, and was greatly alarmed, for he immediately supposed that all this was a device to discover the person who had run away with the sword, the slipper and the half of the handkerchief, and that it would fare badly with him if he were discovered. So he told his story much the same as the others did (Niels was not very particular), and thought he had escaped all further trouble, when Rasmus put in his word. `You`ve forgotten something, Niels,` he said; `you remember you found a sword near here that night I shot the stag.`
`Where is the sword?` said the princess.
`I know,` said the steward, `I saw where he laid it down when they came in;` and off he went to fetch it, while Niels wondered whether he could make his escape in the meantime. Before he had made up his mind, however, the steward was back with the sword, which the princess recognised at once.
`Where did you get this?` she said to Niels.
Niels was silent, and wondered what the usual penalty was for a poor sheep-farmer`s son who was so unfortunate as to deliver a princess and carry off things from her bed-room.
`See what else he has about him,` said the princess to the steward, and Niels had to submit to be searched: out of one pocket came a gold-embroidered slipper, and out of another the half of a gold-hemmed handkerchief.
`That is enough,` said the princess; `now we needn`t ask any more questions. Send for my father the king at once.`
`Please let me go,` said Niels; `I did you as much good as harm, at any rate.`
`Why, who said anything about doing harm?` said the princess. `You must stay here till my father comes.`
The way in which the princess smiled when she said this gave Niels some hope that things might not be bad for him after all, and he was yet more encouraged when he thought of the words engraved on the horn, though the last line still seemed too good to be true. However, the arrival of the king soon settled the matter: the princess was willing and so was Niels, and in a few days the wedding bells were ringing. Niels was made an earl by that time, and looked as handsome as any of them when dressed in all his robes. Before long the old king died, and Niels reigned after him; but whether his father and mother stayed with him, or went back to the moor in Jutland, or were sent to Rome in a carriage and four, is something that all the historians of his reign have forgotten to mention.