When the lads' mother learnt that the lad had exchanged her grey hog for a dog, she became very angry. She gave blows to the boy and she did not stop. At first the boy asked his mother to stop, but the mother did not stop. Then the boy suddenly called his dog. “Hold on!”
The dog came running and caught the old woman and the dog kept its hold on her so firmly that she could not move and neither could the old woman hurt the lad anymore.
The old woman was forced to promise that she would not hurt her son.
The old man who had bartered the gray hog for the dog was called Old Greybeard.
Old Grey beard came to the forest the next day too when the boy went there and this time, too Old Greybeard had another dog with him.
This time too the old man exchanged the dog for another grey hog.
The second dog was called ‘Tear’ and according to the old man, the second dog was capable of ripping even the greediest ogre in any mountain.
The boy bartered the second hog for the dog and this time too, his mother was furious with this. However, this time, the mother did not hit the boy because she was afraid of the two big dogs that the boy had.
However, this happened the next day too when Old Greybeard came with the third dog.
The third dog's name was ‘List’ and the third dog had such a fine sense of hearing that the dog could know what was happening even a few miles away. So much so that the dog could even hear the sounds that the trees and the grass made when they grew.
Naturally, the boy got the third dog in exchange for his mother's third hog.
Adapted from Swedish Fairy Tales
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