“We are not foals. We are the brothers of the princess whom you are to marry if you tell the king what we eat and drink.” The foal told Cinderlad. “A Troll cast a spell over us and the only thing that can break the spell is if the king knows what we eat and drink. But we cannot tell the king that because of the spell.” The foal nodded at Cinderlad. “The spell will be broken if you kill us in the foal form.”
Cinderlad nodded.
Then he rode on one of the foals further away.
This time after riding for a long time, Cinderlad saw a bluish streak far away.
“That is a river.” The foal told Cinderlad. “We need to cross it.”
There was a bridge and they crossed it carefully and rode on for some time.
Then they came into a church tower and the seven foals turned into men and had bread and wine there. Cinderlad took some of it with him.
Then the princes turned to foals again and Cinderlad rode on one of them.
They went back the same way that they had come and this time they rode so fast that Cinderlad could not even hear the words that the old witch shrieked from the cleft of the rock.
The king asked Cinderlad what the foals ate and drank for the whole day. Cinderlad showed the bread and the wine to the king.
The king was thrilled and as promised he gave Cinderlad half of his kingdom.
Cinderlad and the princess were to get married and on that day, Cinderlad went to the stables and killed all the seven foals, just as he had been asked to do.
The seven foals turned into princes.
The king was thrilled with Cinderlad. He gave the whole kingdom to Cinderlad because he was sure that now his sons were princes they could conquer other kingdoms and rule it.
Cinderlad married the princess and ruled the entire kingdom after the king.
Adapted from the Norwegian Folktales
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