Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 (25 page)

Having promised this, he joyfully returned home, and
as he was riding through the forest he could perfectly
understand all that the birds said. He heard a thrush say
to a magpie: "How stupid men are! they cannot understand
the simplest thing. It is now quite a year since the
maiden was transformed into a water-lily, and, though
she sings so sadly that anyone going over the bridge must
hear her, yet no one comes to her aid. Her former bridegroom
rode over it a few days ago and heard her singing,
but was no wiser than the rest."

"And he is to blame for all her misfortunes," added the
magpie. "If he heeds only the words of men she will remain
a flower for ever. She were soon delivered were the
matter only laid before the old wizard of Finland."

After hearing this, the Prince wondered how he could
get a message conveyed to Finland. He heard one swallow
say to another: "Come, let us fly to Finland; we can build
better nests there."

"Stop, kind friends!" cried the Prince. "Will you do
something for me?" The birds consented, and he said:
"Take a thousand greetings from me to the wizard of
Finland, and ask him how I may restore a maiden transformed
into a flower to her own form."

The swallows flew away, and the Prince rode on to the
bridge. There he waited, hoping to hear the song. But
he heard nothing but the rushing of the water and the
moaning of the wind, and, disappointed, rode home.

Shortly after, he was sitting in the garden, thinking
that the swallows must have forgotten his message, when
he saw an eagle flying above him. The bird gradually
descended until it perched on a tree close to the Prince
and said: "The wizard of Finland greets thee and bids me
say that thou mayest free the maiden thus: Go to the river
and smear thyself all over with mud; then say: 'From a
man into a crab,' and thou wilt become a crab. Plunge
boldly into the water, swim as close as thou canst to the
water-lily's roots, and loosen them from the mud and
reeds. This done, fasten thy claws into the roots and
rise with them to the surface. Let the water flow all over
the flower, and drift with the current until thou comest to
a mountain ash tree on the left bank. There is near it a
large stone. Stop there and say: 'From a crab into a man,
from a water-lily into a maiden,' and ye both will be
restored to your own forms."

Full of doubt and fear, the Prince let some time pass
before he was bold enough to attempt to rescue the
maiden. Then a crow said to him: "Why dost thou hesitate?
The old wizard has not told thee wrong, neither
have the birds deceived thee; hasten and dry the maiden's
tears."

"Nothing worse than death can befall me," thought the
Prince, "and death is better than endless sorrow." So he
mounted his horse and went to the bridge. Again he
heard the water-lily's lament, and, hesitating no longer,
smeared himself all over with mud, and, saying: "From a
man into a crab," plunged into the river. For one moment
the water hissed in his ears, and then all was silent. He
swam up to the plant and began to loosen its roots, but so
firmly were they fixed in the mud and reeds that this took
him a long time. He then grasped them and rose to the
surface, letting the water flow over the flower. The current
carried them down the stream, but nowhere could he
see the mountain ash. At last he saw it, and close by the
large stone. Here he stopped and said: "From a crab into
a man, from a water-lily into a maiden," and to his
delight found himself once more a prince, and the maiden
was by his side. She was ten times more beautiful than
before, and wore a magnificent pale yellow robe, sparkling
with jewels. She thanked him for having freed her
from the cruel witch's power, and willingly consented to
marry him.

But when they came to the bridge where he had left his
horse it was nowhere to be seen, for, though the Prince
thought he had been a crab only a few hours, he had in
reality been under the water for more than ten days.
While they were wondering how they should reach his
father's court, they saw a splendid coach driven by six
gaily caparisoned horses coming along the bank. In this
they drove to the palace. The King and Queen were at
church, weeping for their son, whom they had long
mourned for dead. Great was their delight and astonishment
when the Prince entered, leading the beautiful
maiden by the hand. The wedding was at once celebrated
and there was feasting and merry-making throughout the
kingdom for six weeks.

Some time afterward the Prince and his bride were
sitting in the garden, when a crow said to them:
"Ungrateful creatures! Have you forgotten the two poor
maidens who helped you in your distress? Must they
spin gold flax for ever? Have no pity on the old witch.
The three maidens are princesses, whom she stole away
when they were children together, with all the silver
utensils, which she turned into gold flax. Poison were her
fittest punishment."

The Prince was ashamed of having forgotten his promise
and set out at once, and by great good fortune reached
the hut when the old woman was away. The maidens had
dreamed that he was coming, and were ready to go with
him, but first they made a cake in which they put poison,
and left it on a table where the old woman was likely to
see it when she returned. She
did
see it, and thought it
looked so tempting that she greedily ate it up and at once
died.

In the secret chamber were found fifty wagon-loads of
gold flax, and as much more was discovered buried. The
hut was razed to the ground, and the Prince and his bride
and her two sisters lived happily ever after.

Once upon a time there was a king whose only child
was a girl. Now the King had been very anxious to have
a son, or at least a grandson, to come after him, but he
was told by a prophet whom he consulted that his own
daughter's son should kill him. This news terrified him
so much that he determined never to let his daughter be
married, for he thought it was better to have no grandson
at all than to be killed by his grandson. He therefore
called his workmen together, and bade them dig a deep
round hole in the earth, and then he had a prison of brass
built in the hole, and then, when it was finished, he locked
up his daughter. No man ever saw her, and she never
saw even the fields and the sea, but only the sky and the
sun, for there was a wide open window in the roof of the
house of brass. So the Princess would sit looking up at
the sky, and watching the clouds float across, and wondering
whether she should ever get out of her prison. Now
one day it seemed to her that the sky opened above her,
and a great shower of shining gold fell through the window
in the roof, and lay glittering in her room. Not very
long after, the Princess had a baby, a little boy, but when
the King her father heard of it he was very angry and
afraid, for now the child was born that should be his
death. Yet, cowardly as he was, he had not quite the
heart to kill the Princess and her baby outright, but he
had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and thrust
out to sea, that they might either be drowned or starved,
or perhaps come to a country where they would be out of
his way.

So the Princess and the baby floated and drifted in the
chest on the sea all day and night, but the baby was not
afraid of the waves nor of the wind, for he did not know
that they could hurt him, and he slept quite soundly.
And the Princess sang a song over him, and this was her
song:

"Child, my child, how sound you sleep!
Though your mother's care is deep,
You can lie with heart at rest
In the narrow brass-bound chest;
In the starless night and drear
You can sleep, and never hear
Billows breaking, and the cry
Of the night-wind wandering by;
In soft purple mantle sleeping
With your little face on mine,
Hearing not your mother weeping
And the breaking of the brine."

Well, the daylight came at last, and the great chest was
driven by the waves against the shore of an island. There
the brass-bound chest lay, with the Princess and her
baby in it, till a man of that country came past, and saw
it, and dragged it on to the beach, and when he had
broken it open, behold! there was a beautiful lady and a
little boy. So he took them home, and was very kind to
them, and brought up the boy till he was a young man.
Now when the boy had come to his full strength the King
of that country fell in love with his mother, and wanted
to marry her, but he knew that she would never part
from her boy. So he thought of a plan to get rid of the
boy, and this was his plan: A great Queen of a country not
far off was going to be married, and this king said that all
his subjects must bring him wedding presents to give her.
And he made a feast to which he invited them all, and
they all brought their presents; some brought gold cups,
and some brought necklaces of gold and amber, and some
brought beautiful horses; but the boy had nothing, though
he was the son of a princess, for his mother had nothing to
give him. Then the rest of the company began to laugh
at him, and the King said: "If you have nothing else to
give, at least you might go and fetch the Terrible Head."

The boy was proud, and spoke without thinking:

"Then I swear that I
will
bring the Terrible Head, if it
may be brought by a living man. But of what head you
speak I know not."

Then they told him that somewhere, a long way off,
there dwelt three dreadful sisters, monstrous ogrish
women, with golden wings and claws of brass, and with
serpents growing on their heads instead of hair. Now these
women were so awful to look on that whoever saw them
was turned at once into stone. And two of them could
not be put to death, but the youngest, whose face was
very beautiful, could be killed, and it was
her
head that
the boy had promised to bring. You may imagine it was
no easy adventure.

When he heard all this he was perhaps sorry that he had
sworn to bring the Terrible Head, but he was determined
to keep his oath. So he went out from the feast, where
they all sat drinking and making merry, and he walked
alone beside the sea in the dusk of the evening, at the
place where the great chest, with himself and his mother
in it, had been cast ashore.

There he went and sat down on a rock, looking toward
the sea, and wondering how he should begin to fulfill his
vow. Then he felt some one touch him on the shoulder;
and he turned, and saw a young man like a king's son,
having with him a tall and beautiful lady, whose blue eyes
shone like stars. They were taller than mortal men, and
the young man had a staff in his hand with golden wings
on it, and two golden serpents twisted round it, and he
had wings on his cap and on his shoes. He spoke to the
boy, and asked him why he was so unhappy; and the boy
told him how he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head,
and knew not how to begin to set about the adventure.

Then the beautiful lady also spoke, and said that "it
was a foolish oath and a hasty, but it might be kept if a
brave man had sworn it." Then the boy answered that
he was not afraid, if only he knew the way.

Then the lady said that to kill the dreadful woman with
the golden wings and the brass claws, and to cut off her
head, he needed three things: first, a Cap of Darkness,
which would make him invisible when he wore it; next,
a Sword of Sharpness, which would cleave iron at one
blow; and last, the Shoes of Swiftness, with which he
might fly in the air.

The boy answered that he knew not where such things
were to be procured, and that, wanting them, he could
only try and fail. Then the young man, taking off his
own shoes, said: "First, you shall use these shoes till you
have taken the Terrible Head, and then you must give
them back to me. And with these shoes you will fly as
fleet as a bird, or a thought, over the land or over the
waves of the sea, wherever the shoes know the way. But
there are ways which they do not know, roads beyond the
borders of the world. And these roads have you to travel.
Now first you must go to the Three Gray Sisters, who live
far off in the north, and are so very cold that they have
only one eye and one tooth among the three. You must
creep up close to them, and as one of them passes the eye
to the other you must seize it, and refuse to give it up till
they have told you the way to the Three Fairies of the
Garden, and
they
will give you the Cap of Darkness and
the Sword of Sharpness, and show you how to wing beyond
this world to the land of the Terrible Head."

Then the beautiful lady said: "Go forth at once, and do
not return to say good-by to your mother, for these things
must be done quickly, and the Shoes of Swiftness themselves
will carry you to the land of the Three Gray Sisters—for
they know the measure of that way."

So the boy thanked her, and he fastened on the Shoes
of Swiftness, and turned to say good-by to the young man
and the lady. But, behold! they had vanished, he knew
not how or where! Then he leaped in the air to try the
Shoes of Swiftness, and they carried him more swiftly
than the wind, over the warm blue sea, over the happy
lands of the south, over the northern peoples who drank
mare's milk and lived in great wagons, wandering after
their flocks. Across the wide rivers, where the wild fowl
rose and fled before him, and over the plains and the cold
North Sea he went, over the fields of snow and the hills of
ice, to a place where the world ends, and all water is frozen,
and there are no men, nor beasts, nor any green grass.
There in a blue cave of the ice he found the Three Gray
Sisters, the oldest of living things. Their hair was as white
as the snow, and their flesh of an icy blue, and they
mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream, and their frozen
breath hung round them like a cloud. Now the opening
of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not easy to
pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters. But,
floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy just managed
to steal in, and waited till one of the sisters said to another,
who had their one eye: