“Before you go to work for the king, you need to ask for a huge stable and good hay for me.” Dapplegrim told the boy.
The boy promised Dapplegrim that he would definitely ask the king that.
As soon as the boy and his huge horse came to the kingdom, the king could not but stare at the horse.
The king was even more thrilled when he realized that the boy with the fine horse wanted to work for him. The king agreed to it and he even happily agreed to the boy’s condition of the stable and hay for his horse.
Dapplegrim was so huge that all the other horses from the stable had to be vacated and the horse was given the finest hay as food.
The other horsemen were envious of this. But they did not want to openly badmouth the boy before the king. So the other horsemen came up with an ingenious way to get rid of the boy.
It so happened that the princess of the kingdom had been carried away from a troll a long time back. However, unfortunately, the troll that had carried away the princess was huge and powerful and no one was strong enough to bring her back.
The king had announced that anyone who brought back the princess would get half his kingdom and even the princess as his wife.
But fearing the troll no one was willing to do this, even after several years.
The other horsemen in their jealousy soon led the king to believe that the boy had volunteered to free the princess from the clutches of the troll.
After hearing this, the king was thrilled and promised the reward if he freed the princess.
The boy knew that there was no point in denying all this and went to Dapplegrim with his problem.
Adapted from Norwegian Folktales
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