The Skilful Huntsman
There was once a young fellow who had learnt the trade of locksmith,
and told his father he would now go out into the world and seek his fortune. Very well,
said the father, I am quite content with that, and gave him some money for his journey. So
he traveled about and looked for work. After a time he resolved not to follow the trade of
locksmith any more, for he no longer liked it, but he took a fancy for hunting.
Then there met him in his rambles a huntsman dressed in green, who
asked whence he came and whither he was going. The youth said he was a locksmith's
apprentice, but that the trade no longer pleased him, and he had a liking for
huntsmanship, would he teach it to him. "Oh, yes," said the huntsman, "if
you will go with me." Then the young fellow went with him, apprenticed himself to him
for some years, and learnt the art of hunting. After this he wished to try his luck
elsewhere, and the huntsman gave him nothing in the way of payment but an air-gun, which
had, however, this property, that it hit its mark without fail whenever he shot with it.
Then he set out and found himself in a very large forest, which he could not get to the
end of in one day. When evening came he seated himself in a high tree in order to escape
from the wild beasts.
Towards midnight, it seemed to him as if a tiny little light
glimmered in the distance. Then he looked down through the branches towards it, and kept
well in his mind where it was. But in the first place he took off his hat and threw it
down in the direction of the light, so that he might go to the hat as a mark when he had
descended. He got down and went to his hat, put it on again and went straight forwards.
The farther he went, the larger the light grew, and when he got close to it he saw that it
was an enormous fire, and that three giants were sitting by it, who had an ox on the spit,
and were roasting it. Presently one of them said, "I must just taste if the meat will
soon be fit to eat," and pulled a piece off, and was about to put it in his mouth
when the huntsman shot it out of his hand. "Well, really," said the giant,
"if the wind has not blown the bit out of my hand," and helped himself to
another. But when he was just about to bite into it, the huntsman again shot it away from
him. On this the giant gave the one who was sitting next him a box on the ear, and cried
angrily, "Why are you snatching my piece away from me?" "I have not
snatched it away," said the other, "a sharpshooter must have shot it away from
you."
The giant took another piece, but again could not keep it in his
hand, for the huntsman shot it out. Then the giant said, "That must be a good shot to
shoot the bit out of one's very mouth, such an one would be useful to us." And he
cried aloud, "Come here, you sharpshooter, seat yourself at the fire beside us and
eat your fill, we will not hurt you, but if you will not come, and we have to bring you by
force, you are a lost man."
On this the youth went up to them and told them he was a skilled
huntsman, and that whatever he aimed at with his gun, he was certain to hit. Then they
said if he would go with them he should be well treated, and they told him that outside
the forest there was a great lake, behind which stood a tower, and in the tower was
imprisoned a lovely princess, whom they wished very much to carry off. "Yes,"
said he, "I will soon get her for you." Then they added, "But there is
still something else, there is a tiny little dog, which begins to bark directly any one
goes near, and as soon as it barks every one in the royal palace wakens up, and for this
reason we cannot get there, can you undertake to shoot it dead?" "Yes,"
said he, "that will be quite fun for me." After this he got into a boat and
rowed over the lake, and as soon as he landed, the little dog came running out, and was
about to bark, but the huntsman took his airgun and shot it dead.
When the giants saw that, they rejoiced, and thought they already
had the king's daughter safe, but the huntsman wished first to see how matters stood, and
told them that they must stay outside until he called them. Then he went into the castle,
and all was perfectly quiet within, and every one was asleep. When he opened the door of
the first room, a sword was hanging on the wall which was made of pure silver, and there
was a golden star on it, and the name of the king, and on a table near it lay a sealed
letter which he broke open, and inside it was written that whosoever had the sword could
kill everything which opposed him. So he took the sword from the wall, hung it at his side
and went onwards, then he entered the room where the king's daughter was lying sleeping,
and she was so beautiful that he stood still and, holding his breath, looked at her. He
thought to himself, "How can I give an innocent maiden into the power of the wild
giants, who have evil in their minds?" He looked about further, and under the bed
stood a pair of slippers, on the right one was her father's name with a star, and on the
left her own name with a star. She wore also a large scarf of silk embroidered with gold,
and on the right side was her father's name, and on the left her own, all in golden
letters. Then the huntsman took a pair of scissors and cut the right corner off, and put
it in his knapsack, and then he also took the right slipper with the king's name, and
thrust that in. Now the maiden still lay sleeping, and she was quite sewn into her
night-dress, and he cut a morsel from this also, and thrust it in with the rest, but he
did all without touching her.
Then he went forth and left her lying asleep undisturbed, and when
he came to the gate again, the giants were still standing outside waiting for him, and
expecting that he was bringing the princess. But he cried to them that they were to come
in, for the maiden was already in their power, that he could not open the gate to them,
but there was a hole through which they must creep. Then the first approached, and the
huntsman wound the giant's hair round his hand, pulled the head in, and cut it off at one
stroke with his sword, and then drew the rest of him in. He called to the second and cut
his head off likewise, and then he killed the third also, and he was well pleased that he
had freed the beautiful maiden from her enemies, and he cut out their tongues and put them
in his knapsack. Then thought he, "I will go home to my father and let him see what I
have already done, and afterwards I will travel about the world, the luck which God is
pleased to grant me will easily find me."
But when the king in the castle awoke, he saw the three giants lying
there dead. So he went into the sleeping-room of his daughter, awoke her, and asked who
could have killed the giants. Then said she, "Dear father, I know not, I have been
asleep." But when she arose and would have put on her slippers, the right one was
gone, and when she looked at her scarf it was cut, and the right corner was missing, and
when she looked at her night-dress a piece was cut out of it. The king summoned his whole
court together, soldiers and every one else who was there, and asked who had set his
daughter at liberty, and killed the giants.
Now it happened that he had a captain, who was one-eyed and a
hideous man, and he said that he had done it. Then the old king said that as he had
accomplished this, he should marry his daughter. But the maiden said, "Rather than
marry him, dear father, I will go away into the world as far as my legs can carry
me." But the king said that if she would not marry him she should take off her royal
garments and wear peasant's clothing, and go forth, and that she should go to a potter,
and begin a trade in earthen vessels.
So she put off her royal apparel, and went to a potter and borrowed
crockery enough for a stall, and she promised him also that if she had sold it by the
evening, she would pay for it. Then the king said she was to seat herself in a corner with
it and sell it, and he arranged with some peasants to drive over it with their carts, so
that everything should be broken into a thousand pieces. When therefore the king's
daughter had placed her stall in the street, by came the carts, and broke all she had into
tiny fragments. She began to weep and said, "Alas, how shall I ever pay for the pots
now." The king, however, had wished by this to force her to marry the captain; but
instead of that, she again went to the potter, and asked him if he would lend to her once
more. He said, no, she must first pay for what she already had.
Then she went to her father and cried and lamented, and said she
would go forth into the world. Then said he, "I will have a little hut built for you
in the forest outside, and in it you shall stay all your life long and cook for every one,
but you shall take no money for it." When the hut was ready, a sign was hung on the
door whereon was written, to-day given, to-morrow sold. There she remained a long time,
and it was rumored about the world that a maiden was there who cooked without asking for
payment, and that this was set forth on a sign outside her door.
The huntsman heard it likewise, and thought to himself, that would
suit you. You are poor, and have no money. So he took his air-gun and his knapsack,
wherein all the things which he had formerly carried away with him from the castle as
tokens of his truthfulness were still lying, and went into the forest, and found the hut
with the sign, to-day given, to-morrow sold. He had put on the sword with which he had cut
off the heads of the three giants, and thus entered the hut, and ordered something to eat
to be given to him. He was charmed with the beautiful maiden, who was indeed as lovely as
any picture. She asked him whence he came and whither he was going, and he said, "I
am roaming about the world." Then she asked him where he had got the sword, for that
truly her father's name was on it. He asked her if she were the king's daughter.
"Yes," answered she. "With this sword," said he, "did I cut off
the heads of three giants." And he took their tongues out of his knapsack in proof.
Then he also showed her the slipper, and the corner of the scarf, and the piece of the
night-dress.
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 someone 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 have
happened?" 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 punishment should be meted out to anyone 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.
--The End-- |
