Dapplegrim nodded after hearing the boy. “The princess is kept on top of a mountain by the troll. The mountain is straight as a house wall and looks like it is made of glass.” Dapplegrim nodded again. “But we will be able to do it.”
The boy looked happy as Dapplegrim continued. “But you need to go to the king and ask for ten pounds of iron and twelve pounds of steel.”
The boy was surprised as Dapplegrim continued. “Using all that, two iron smiths should make horse shoes for me.”
The boy nodded as Dapplegrim finished. “Using this we should be able to get to the top of the mountain.”
Everybody in the kingdom was willing to help the boy and soon Dapplegrim had fine shoes.
They set off towards the mountain where the princess had been kept captive.
In the first attempt, Dapplegrim climbed one fourth of the mountain, but it slipped there. In the second attempt, Dapplegrim slipped again after reaching half the mountain.
Picking themselves up, the horse and the boy tried again and in the third time they reached the top. Once there, Dapplegrim sped off and the boy was able to carry off the princess from the top, even before the troll could recover.
The boy brought the princess back to the kingdom, and the king was very happy with this.
But slowly the others managed to convince the king that the boy did not deserve half the kingdom or the princess’s hand for what he had done.
So the king decided to set up another competition for the boy and his horse.
Adapted from Norwegian Folktales
No comments:
Post a Comment