第13章 SORIA MORIA CASTLE(2)

With that Halvor cut off the first head, and so on with all the rest.The Princess was now exceedingly delighted, but then she remembered her sisters, and wished that they too were free.Halvor thought that might be managed, and wanted to set off immediately;but first he had to help the Princess to remove the Troll's body, so it was not until morning that he set forth on his way.

It was a long way to the castle, and he both walked and ran to get there in time.Late in the evening he caught sight of it, and it was very much more magnificent than either of the others.And this time he was not in the least afraid, but went into the kitchen, and then straight on inside the castle.There a Princess was sitting, who was so beautiful that there was never anyone to equal her.She too said what the others had said, that no Christian folk had ever been there since she had come, and entreated him to go away again, or else the Troll would swallow him up alive.The Troll had nine heads, she told him.

`Yes, and if he had nine added to the nine, and then nine more still, I would not go away,' said Halvor, and went and stood by the stove.

The Princess begged him very prettily to go lest the Troll should devour him; but Halvor said, `Let him come when he will.'

So she gave him the Troll's sword, and bade him take a drink from the flask to enable him to wield it.

At that same moment the Troll came, breathing hard, and he was ever so much bigger and stouter than either of the others, and he too was forced to go sideways to get in through the door.

`Hutetu! what a smell of Christian blood there is here!' said he.

Then Halvor cut off the first head, and after that the others, but the last was the toughest of them all, and it was the hardest work that Halvor had ever done to get it off, but he still believed that he would have strength enough to do it.

And now all the Princesses came to the castle, and were together again, and they were happier than they had ever been in their lives;and they were delighted with Halvor, and he with them, and he was to choose the one he liked best; but of the three sisters the youngest loved him best.

But Halvor went about and was so strange and so mournful and quiet that the Princesses asked what it was that he longed for, and if he did not like to be with them.He said that he did like to be with them, for they had enough to live on, and he was very comfortable there; but he longed to go home, for his father and mother were alive, and he had a great desire to see them again.

They thought that this might easily be done.

`You shall go and return in perfect safety if you will follow our advice,' said the Princesses.

So he said that he would do nothing that they did not wish.

Then they dressed him so splendidly that he was like a King's son; and they put a ring on his finger, and it was one which would enable him to go there and back again by wishing, but they told him that he must not throw it away, or name their names; for if he did, all his magnificence would be at an end, and then he would never see them more.

`If I were but at home again, or if home were but here!' said Halvor, and no sooner had he wished this than it was granted.

Halvor was standing outside his father and mother's cottage before he knew what he was about.The darkness of night was coming on, and when the father and mother saw such a splendid and stately stranger walk in, they were so startled that they both began to bow and curtsey.

Halvor then inquired if he could stay there and have lodging for the night.No, that he certainly could not.`We can give you no such accommodation,' they said, `for we have none of the things that are needful when a great lord like you is to be entertained.It will be better for you to go up to the farm.It is not far off, you can see the chimney-pots from here, and there they have plenty of everything.'

Halvor would not hear of that, he was absolutely determined to stay where he was; but the old folks stuck to what they had said, and told him that he was to go to the farm, where he could get both meat and drink, whereas they themselves had not even a chair to offer him.

`No,' said Halvor, `I will not go up there till early to-morrow morning; let me stay here to-night.I can sit down on the hearth.'

They could say nothing against that, so Halvor sat down on the hearth, and began to rake about among the ashes just as he had done before, when he lay there idling away his time.

They chattered much about many things, and told Halvor of this and of that, and at last he asked them if they had never had any child.

`Yes,' they said; they had had a boy who was called Halvor, but they did not know where he had gone, and they could not even say whether he were dead or alive.

`Could I be he?' said Halvor.

`I should know him well enough,' said the old woman rising.

`Our Halvor was so idle and slothful that he never did anything at all, and he was so ragged that one hole ran into another all over his clothes.Such a fellow as he was could never turn into such a man as you are, sir.'

In a short time the old woman had to go to the fireplace to stir the fire, and when the blaze lit up Halvor, as it used to do when he was at home raking up the ashes, she knew him again.

`Good Heavens! is that you, Halvor?' said she, and such great gladness fell on the old parents that there were no bounds to it.And now he had to relate everything that had befallen him, and the old woman was so delighted with him that she would take him up to the farm at once to show him to the girls who had formerly looked down on him so.She went there first, and Halvor followed her.

When she got there she told them how Halvor had come home again, and now they should just see how magnificent he was.`He looks like a prince,' she said.

`We shall see that he is just the same ragamuffin that he was before,' said the girls, tossing their heads.