Seven Inches pointed behind, after the Prince had his dinner.
The third princess was in the castle of Seven Inches.
The third Prince and the princess were in each other's embrace and each found the other to be in good condition.
Seven Inches pointed at the sun and spoke to the third Prince. “If you are to save the other two princesses that is the direction that you have to take. Let your princess be here. Then you can go towards the first castle of the giant and first you will find the second princess.” Seven Inches nodded at the Prince. “After traveling another day from there you shall find the eldest princess in the castle of another giant. Here are two knives which will help you. Use it in case of any trouble. Go ahead and bring the two princesses back safely.”
The Prince went goodbye to his own princess and rode on.
There he found that the second princess had been kept captive by a huge giant of the castle. She was very happy to see the Prince and she was sure that she could be taken away from the castle of the giant.
When the Prince had gone to the castle where the second princess was kept captive, the giant had gone out of the castle.
So the second princess cooked for the Prince and gave him food.
That evening when the giant came back the second princess hid the Prince in the closet.
The giant felt that there was a human in the castle but the second princess lied to the giant saying that it was probably something else.
The next day when the Giant had gone out, the Prince left the second princess back in the castle.
From there Prince rode on and the next day he reached the castle of the eldest princess who was being held captive in another castle owned by another giant.
This time too the giant was outside when the prince had come there.
The princess was very happy to see the prince and cooked for the prince.
That evening the giant came back and went to sleep at night.
At that time, the prince took the eldest princess on a horse from the stable of the second giant and escaped from the castle.
As they rode away from the castle the horse of the princess made sounds on the stones outside the castle.
The giant woke up and chased the two of them.
At this time the prince threw the knife which he had been given.
A wooden plank sprang up between him and the giant, creating a huge distance between them and the first giant.
This helped the prince, as the Prince and the eldest princess reached the castle where the second princess was being held captive.
The first giant was not there in the castle of the second princess.
So using another horse from the castle of the first giant, the three of them now rode on.
However the second giant was still chasing them when the Prince threw the second knife as well.
Another wooden plank sprang up between the three of them and the giant and the wind blew them closer to the castle of Seven Inches.
There was a huge lake of black water around the castle of Seven Inches and once the Prince and the two princesses had crossed that a huge high thorny ledge opened itself making sure that the giant could not come through.
The giant went back to his castle unhappily.
The three sisters were very happy to see each other.
Seven Inches tapped the marble statue of the two princes with a rod and they came back alive. However Seven Inches was still not done. He took three sets of crowns: one made of gold, one made of silver and the third of copper and gave each one to one of the princesses. “Remember ladies, all the three of you have to keep your crowns safe. You will have to be married on the same day. If you are not so married, a curse may befall you.”
Then Seven Inches led the 6 of them to the bottom of the draw-well which had brought them inside this kingdom.
It was decided that the first princess and her lover and the second princess and her lover would go out of the basket leading out of the draw-well, first and second respectively.
Adapted from Irish folk tales
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