The Red Fairy Book - Andrew Lang (best novels for beginners TXT) 📗

be his, for now no

one could say that the sun was not shining into the palace. But

the other people in the palace had again stirred up the King, and

he answered that the youth should have her, and that he had never

intended that he should not; but first of all he must get her quite

as good a horse to ride to the wedding on as that which he had

himself. The youth said that the King had never told him he was to

do that, and it seemed to him that he had now really earned the

Princess; but the King stuck to what he had said, and if the youth

were unable to do it he was to lose his life, the King said. The

youth went down to the stable again, and very sad and sorrowful

he was, as anyone may well imagine. Then he told Dapplegrim

that the King had now required that he should get the Princess as

good a bridal horse as that which the bridegroom had, or he should

lose his life. `But that will be no easy thing to do,’ said he, `for

your equal is not to be found in all the world,’

 

`Oh yes, there is one to match me,’ said Dapplegrim. `But it

will not be easy to get him, for he is underground. However, we

will try. Now you must go up to the King and ask for new shoes

for me, and for them we must again have ten pounds of iron,

twelve pounds of steel, and two smiths, one to hammer and one

to hold, but be very particular to see that the hooks are very sharp.

And you must also ask for twelve barrels of rye, and twelve

slaughtered oxen must we have with us, and all the twelve ox-hides

with twelve hundred spikes set in each of them; all these things

must we have, likewise a barrel of tar with twelve tons of tar in it.

The youth went to the King and asked for all the things that

Dapplegrim had named, and once more, as the King thought that

it would be disgraceful to refuse them to him, he obtained them all.

 

So he mounted Dapplegrim and rode away from the Court, and

when he had ridden for a long, long time over hills and moors,

Dapplegrim asked: `Do you hear anything?’

 

`Yes; there is such a dreadful whistling up above in the air

that I think I am growing alarmed,’ said the youth.

 

`That is all the wild birds in the forest flying about; they are

sent to stop us,’ said Dapplegrim. `But just cut a hole in the corn

sacks, and then they will be so busy with the corn that they will

forget us.’

 

The youth did it. He cut holes in the corn sacks so that barley

and rye ran out on every side, and all the wild birds that were in

the forest came in such numbers that they darkened the sun. But

when they caught sight of the corn they could not refrain from it,

but flew down and began to scratch and pick at the corn and rye,

and at last they began to fight among themselves, and forgot all

about the youth and Dapplegrim, and did them no harm.

 

And now the youth rode onwards for a long, long time, over

hill and dale, over rocky places and morasses, and then Dapplegrim

began to listen again, and asked the youth if he heard anything now.

 

`Yes; now I hear such a dreadful crackling and crashing in the

forest on every side that I think I shall be really afraid,’ said the

youth.

 

`That is all the wild beasts in the forest,’ said Dapplegrim;

`they are sent out to stop us. But just throw out the twelve

carcasses of the oxen, and they will be so much occupied with them that

they will quite forget us.’ So the youth threw out the carcasses of

the oxen, and then all the wild beasts in the forest, both bears and

wolves, and lions, and grim beasts of all kinds, came. But when

they caught sight of the carcasses of the oxen they began to fight

for them till the blood flowed, and they entirely forgot Dapplegrim

and the youth.

 

So the youth rode onwards again, and many and many were the new scenes

they saw, for travelling on Dapplegrim’s back was not travelling slowly,

as may be imagined, and then Dapplegrim neighed.

 

`Do you hear anything? he said.

 

`Yes; I heard something like a foal neighing quite plainly

a long, long way off,’ answered the youth.

 

`That’s a full-grown colt,’ said Dapplegrim, `if you hear it so

plainly when it is so far away from us.’

 

So they travelled onwards a long time, and saw one new scene

after another once more. Then Dapplegrim neighed again.

 

`Do you hear anything now?’ said he.

 

`Yes; now I heard it quite distinctly, and it neighed like a full-grown horse,’ answered the youth.

 

`Yes, and you will hear it again very soon,’ said Dapplegrim;

`and then you will hear what a voice it has.’ So they travelled on

through many more different kinds of country, and then Dapplegrim

neighed for the third time; but before he could ask the youth

if he heard anything, there was such a neighing on the other side

of the heath that the youth thought that hills and rocks would be

rent in pieces.

 

`Now he is here!’ said Dapplegrim. `Be quick, and fling over

me the ox-hides that have the spikes in them, throw the twelve

tons of tar over the field, and climb up into that great spruce fir

tree. When he comes, fire will spurt out of both his nostrils, and

then the tar will catch fire. Now mark what I say—if the flame

ascends I conquer, and if it sinks I fail; but if you see that I am

winning, fling the bridle, which you must take off me, over his

head, and then he will become quite gentle.’

 

Just as the youth had flung all the hides with the spikes over

Dapplegrim, and the tar over the field, and had got safely up into

the spruce fir, a horse came with flame spouting from his nostrils,

and the tar caught fire in a moment; and Dapplegrim and the

horse began to fight until the stones leapt up to the sky. They

bit, and they fought with their fore legs and their hind legs, and

sometimes the youth looked at them. and sometimes he looked

at the tar, but at last the flames began to rise, for wheresoever

the strange horse bit or wheresoever he kicked he hit upon

the spikes in the hides, and at length he had to yield. When

the youth saw that, he was not long in getting down from the tree

and flinging the bridle over the horse’s head, and then he became

so tame that he might have been led by a thin string.

 

This horse was dappled too, and so like Dapplegrim that no

one could distinguish the one from the other. The youth seated

himself on the dappled horse which he had captured, and rode

home again to the King’s palace, and Dapplegrim ran loose by his

side. When he got there, the King was standing outside in the

courtyard.

 

`Can you tell me which is the horse I have caught, and which

is the one I had before?’ said the youth. `If you can’t, I think

your daughter is mine.’

 

The King went and looked at both the dappled horses; he

looked high and he looked low, he looked before and he looked

behind, but there was not a hair’s difference between the two.

 

`No,’ said the King; `that I cannot tell thee, and as thou hast

procured such a splendid bridal horse for my daughter thou shalt

have her; but first we must have one more trial, just to see if thou

art fated to have her. She shall hide herself twice, and then thou

shalt hide thyself twice. If thou canst find her each time that

she hides herself, and if she cannot find thee in thy hiding-places,

then it is fated, and thou shalt have the Princess.’

 

`That, too, was not in our bargain,’ said the youth. `But we will

make this trial since it must be so.’

 

So the King’s daughter was to hide herself first.

 

Then she changed herself into a duck, and lay swimming in a

lake that was just outside the palace. But the youth went down

into the stable and asked Dapplegrim what she had done with herself.

 

`Oh, all that you have to do is to take your gun, and go down to

the water and aim at the duck which is swimming about there,

and she will soon discover herself,’ said Dapplegrim.

 

The youth snatched up his gun and ran to the lake. `I will

just have a shot at that duck,’ said he, and began to aim at it.

 

`Oh, no, dear friend, don’t shoot! It is I,’ said the Princess.

So he had found her once.

 

The second time the Princess changed herself into a loaf, and

laid herself on the table among four other loaves; and she was so

like the other loaves that no one could see any difference between

them.

 

But the youth again went down to the stable to Dapplegrim,

and told him that the Princess had hidden herself again, and that

he had not the least idea what had become of her.

 

`Oh, just take a very large bread-knife, sharpen it, and pretend

that you are going to cut straight through the third of the four

loaves which are lying on the kitchen table in the King’s palace

—count them from right to left—and you will soon find her,’ said

Dapplegrim.

 

So the youth went up to the kitchen, and began to sharpen the

largest bread-knife that he could find; then he caught hold of the

third loaf on the left-hand side, and put the knife to it as if he

meant to cut it straight in two. `I will have a bit of this bread

for myself,’ said he.

 

`No, dear friend, don’t cut, it is I!’ said the Princess again;

so he had found her the second time.

 

And now it was his turn to go and hide himself; but Dapplegrim

had given him such good instructions that it was not easy to find

him. First he turned himself into a horse-fly, and hid himself in

Dapplegrim’s left nostril. The Princess went poking about and

searching everywhere, high and low, and wanted to go into

Dapplegrim’s stall too, but he began to bite and kick about so

that she was afraid to go there, and could not find the youth.

`Well,’ said she, `as I am unable to find you, you must show

yourself; `whereupon the youth immediately appeared standing there

on the stable floor.

 

Dapplegrim told him what he was to do the second time, and

he turned himself into a lump of earth, and stuck himself between

the hoof and the shoe on Dapplegrim’s left fore foot. Once more

the King’s daughter went and sought everywhere, inside and outside,

until at last she came into the stable, and wanted to go into

the stall beside Dapplegrim. So this time he allowed her to go

into it, and she peered about high and low, but she could not look

under his hoofs, for he stood much too firmly on his legs for that,

and she could not find the youth.

 

`Well, you will just have to show where you are yourself, for I

can’t