Prevod

Once upon a time there lived an old queen who was a sorceress, and her daughter was the most beautiful maiden under the sun. But the old woman thought of nothing except how she might lure people to their doom. Whenever a suitor came, she declared that anyone who wished to have her daughter must first perform a task, or else he must die. Many were so dazzled by the maiden's beauty that they ventured to try, but they could not accomplish what the old woman demanded of them. Then there was no mercy: they had to kneel down and have their heads struck off.

A king's son had also heard of the maiden's great beauty, and he said to his father, "Let me go there. I mean to ask for her hand."

"Never," answered the king. "If you go, you go to your death." Then the son took to his bed and fell deathly ill, and he lay there for seven years, with no physician able to help him. When his father saw that there was no hope left, he said to him with a sorrowful heart, "Go, then, and try your luck. I know no other way to help you." When the son heard this, he rose from his bed, recovered his health, and joyfully set out.

As he was riding across a heath, he happened to see something lying on the ground in the distance that looked like a great haystack. When he came nearer, he could make out that it was the belly of a man who had stretched himself out there; but his belly looked like a little mountain. When the fat man caught sight of the traveller, he sat up and said, "If you need someone, take me into your service."

The prince answered, "What am I to do with such an unwieldy fellow?" "Oh," said the fat man, "that is nothing. If I really spread myself out, I am three thousand times as fat."

"If that is so," said the prince, "I can make use of you. Come with me." So the fat man followed the prince, and after a while they found another man lying on the ground with his ear pressed to the turf. The prince asked, "What are you doing there?"

"I am listening," the man replied. "What are you listening for so intently?" "I am listening to what is happening in the world just now, for nothing escapes my ears. I can even hear the grass grow."

The prince asked, "Tell me, what do you hear at the court of the old queen who has the beautiful daughter?" The man answered, "I hear the swish of the sword as it strikes off a suitor's head." The prince said, "I can make use of you. Come with me." They went on, and presently they saw a pair of feet lying on the ground, and part of a pair of legs as well, but they could not see where they ended. After walking a good way, they came to the body, and at last to the head. "Well," said the prince, "what a long fellow you are!"

"Oh," answered the tall man, "this is nothing at all. When I stretch my limbs out properly, I am three thousand times as tall, and higher than the highest mountain on earth. I would gladly serve you, if you care to take me on."

"Come with me," said the prince. "I can make use of you." They went on and found a man sitting beside the road with his eyes bound. The prince said to him, "Are your eyes so weak that you cannot bear the light?"

"No," answered the man, "I must not take off the blindfold, for whatever I look at flies apart, so powerful is my gaze. If that would be of use to you, I would gladly serve you."

"Come with me," answered the prince. "I can make use of you." They went on and found a man lying in the full blaze of the sun, shivering and shaking with cold from head to foot, so that not a limb was still. "How can you be cold," said the prince, "when the sun is shining so warmly?"

"Ah," answered the man, "my nature is quite different. The hotter it is, the colder I grow, and the frost pierces me to the very bones. And the colder it is, the hotter I grow. In the midst of ice I cannot bear the heat, and in the midst of fire I cannot bear the cold."

"You are a strange fellow," said the prince, "but if you wish to serve me, come along." They went on and saw a man standing with his neck craned, looking about him and gazing out beyond all the mountains. The prince said, "What are you looking for so intently?"

The man answered, "My eyes are so keen that I can see beyond all the forests and fields, valleys and mountains, and across the whole world." The prince said, "Come with me, if you wish, for I was still in need of such a man."

Now the prince entered the city where the old queen lived, with his six servants. He did not say who he was, but declared, "If you will give me your beautiful daughter, I will accomplish whatever you demand of me." The sorceress was delighted that another such handsome youth had fallen into her net, and said, "Three times I shall set you a task. If you succeed each time, you shall be my daughter's lord and husband."

"What is the first to be?" he asked. "You must bring me a ring that I dropped into the Red Sea." The prince went back to his servants and said, "The first task is no easy one. A ring must be fetched from the Red Sea. Now, what can we do?" The man with the keen eyes said, "I shall see where it lies." He gazed down into the sea and said, "There it is, caught on a pointed rock." The tall man carried them there and said, "I could fetch it out easily enough, if only I could see it."

"If that is all," cried the fat man, and he lay down and put his mouth to the water. The waves poured into it as though into an abyss, and he drank the whole sea dry, until it was as dry as a meadow. The tall man bent down a little and picked up the ring in his hand. The prince was delighted to have the ring, and took it to the old woman.

She was astonished and said, "Yes, this is the right ring. You have successfully performed the first task, but now comes the second. Do you see those three hundred fat oxen grazing in the meadow before my castle? You must eat them, hide and hair, bones and horns. And down in the cellar there are three hundred casks of wine, which you must drink with them. If a single hair of the oxen or a single drop of the wine remains, your life is forfeit to me."

The prince said, "May I not invite a few guests? No meal tastes good without company." The old woman laughed wickedly and answered, "You may invite one to keep you company, but no more."

The prince went to his servants and said to the fat man, "Today you shall be my guest, and for once you shall eat your fill." So the fat man spread himself out and ate the three hundred oxen without leaving a single hair, then asked whether there was nothing more than breakfast to be had. As for the wine, he drank it straight from the casks, without needing a glass, and licked the very last drop from his fingernail.

When the meal was over, the prince went to the old woman and told her that the second task was done. She was amazed and said, "No one has ever come so far, but there is still one task left." And she thought, You shall not escape me, and you shall not keep your head on your shoulders. "This evening," she said, "I shall bring my daughter to your chamber, and you must put your arm around her. While you sit there together, take care not to fall asleep. I shall come at the stroke of twelve, and if she is no longer in your arms, you have lost." The prince thought, That is an easy bargain; I can surely keep my eyes open. Nevertheless, he called his servants, told them what the old woman had said, and added, "Who knows what trick lies behind this? It is best to be careful. Keep watch and see that the maiden does not leave my chamber."

When night fell, the old woman came with her daughter and led her into the prince's arms. Then the tall man curled himself in a circle around them both, and the fat man stationed himself before the door, so that not a living soul could come in. There the two sat, and the maiden spoke not a word, but the moon shone through the window onto her face, so that the prince could see her wondrous beauty. He did nothing but gaze at her, filled with joy and love, and no weariness came into his eyes.

This lasted until eleven o'clock, when the old woman cast a spell over them all, so that they fell asleep, and at that very moment the maiden was spirited away.

They slept soundly until a quarter to twelve. Then the spell lost its power, and they all awoke. "Oh, misery and misfortune!" cried the prince. "Now I am lost!" His faithful servants began to lament as well, but the listener said, "Be quiet. I shall listen." He listened for a moment and then said, "She is inside a rock three hundred hours' journey from here, bewailing her fate. You alone can help, tall fellow. If you stretch yourself up, you will be there in a few strides."

"Yes," answered the tall man, "but the man with the piercing gaze must come too, so that we can clear away the rock." Then the tall man hoisted the blindfolded man onto his back, and in the twinkling of an eye they were standing before the enchanted rock. At once the tall man took the blindfold from the other's eyes. He merely looked about him, and the rock shattered into a thousand pieces. Then the tall man took the maiden in his arms, carried her back in an instant, and fetched his companion just as swiftly. Before the clock struck twelve, they were all sitting as before, wide awake and in good spirits.

As twelve struck, the old sorceress came creeping in with a mocking look on her face, as if to say, "Now he is mine." She believed her daughter was sitting inside the rock three hundred hours' journey away. But when she saw her in the prince's arms, she started in fright and said, "Here is someone who can do more than I can." Yet she could raise no objection and had to promise him the maiden. Then she whispered in her daughter's ear, "What a disgrace that you must obey common folk and may not choose a husband to your own liking."

At this the maiden's proud heart filled with anger, and she began to plot her revenge. The next morning she had three hundred measures of wood carted together and told the prince that, although the three tasks had been accomplished, she would not become his wife until someone was willing to sit in the middle of the wood and endure the fire. She thought that none of his servants would let himself be burnt for his sake, and that out of love for her he would sit in it himself, and then she would be free. But the servants said, "We have all done something except the chilly fellow. Now it is his turn." They set him in the middle of the woodpile and set it alight. The fire began to blaze and burned for three days, until all the wood was consumed. When the flames died down, the chilly fellow stood in the midst of the ashes, trembling like an aspen leaf, and said, "Never in all my life have I suffered such cold! If it had lasted any longer, I should have frozen stiff."

Now there was no further excuse to be found, and the beautiful maiden had to take the unknown youth for her husband. But as they drove to the church, the old woman said, "I cannot bear this disgrace," and sent her soldiers after them with orders to cut down everyone in their path and bring her daughter back. The listener, however, had pricked up his ears and heard the old woman's secret words.

"What shall we do?" he said to the fat man. But the fat man knew what to do. Once or twice he spat out some of the seawater he had drunk behind the carriage, and a great lake formed, in which the soldiers became trapped and drowned. When the sorceress heard of this, she sent her armoured horsemen, but the listener heard the clatter of their armour and unbound his companion's eyes. He gave the enemy a rather sharp look, and they shattered like glass. Now the travellers drove on undisturbed, and when the couple had received the marriage blessing in church, the six servants took their leave and said to their master, "Your wishes have been fulfilled. You have no further need of us, and we shall go on our way and seek our fortunes."

Half an hour's journey from the castle stood a village, and outside it a swineherd was tending his herd. When they came there, the prince said to his wife, "Do you really know who I am? I am no prince, but a swineherd, and the man over there with the herd is my father. The two of us must help him tend the pigs." Then he went with her to lodge at the inn and secretly told the innkeepers to take away her royal clothes during the night. When she awoke in the morning, she had nothing to put on, and the innkeeper's wife gave her an old skirt and a pair of old woollen stockings, making out that it was a great gift and saying, "If it were not for your husband, I would never have given them to you." Then she believed that he really was a swineherd, and she tended the herd with him, thinking, I have deserved this through my arrogance and pride. This went on for eight days, and then she could bear it no longer, for her feet had grown sore. Some people came and asked whether she knew who her husband was.

"Yes," she answered, "he is a swineherd, and he has just gone out to do a little trading in ribbons and cords." But they said, "Come with us. We shall take you to him," and led her up to the castle. When she entered the hall, there stood her husband in royal robes. She did not recognize him until he threw his arms around her neck, kissed her, and said, "I have suffered so much for you that you had to suffer for me as well." Only then was the wedding celebrated, and the man who told this tale wished he had been there too.