Popular Tales from the Norse Part 66

So when the Moon stood clear and bright over the tree-tops, the old wife went out.

'THOU MOON, THOU MOON', she screamed, 'canst thou tell me the way to SORIA MORIA CASTLE?'

'No', said the Moon, 'that I can't, for the last time I shone there a cloud stood before me.'

'Wait a bit still', said the old wife to Halvor, 'by and bye comes the West Wind; he's sure to know it, for he puffs and blows round every corner.'

'Nay, nay', said the old wife when she went out again, 'you don't mean to say you've got a horse too; just turn the poor beastie loose in our "toun", and don't let him stand there and starve to death at the door.'

Then she ran on:

'But won't you swop him away to me?--we've got an old pair of boots here, with which you can take twenty miles at each stride; those you shall have for your horse, and so you'll get all the sooner to SORIA MORIA CASTLE.'

That Halvor was willing to do at once; and the old wife was so glad at having the horse, she was ready to dance and skip for joy.

'For now', she said, 'I shall be able to ride to church. I too, think of that.'

As for Halvor, he had no rest, and wanted to be off at once, but the old wife said there was no hurry.

'Lie down on the bench with you and sleep a bit, for we've no bed to offer you, and I'll watch and wake you when the West Wind comes.'

So after a while up came the West Wind, roaring and howling along till the walls creaked and groaned again.

Out ran the old wife.

'THOU WEST WIND, THOU WEST WIND! Canst thou tell me the way to SORIA MORIA CASTLE? Here's one who wants to get thither.'

'Yes, I know it very well', said the West Wind, and now I'm just off thither to dry clothes for the wedding that's to be; if he's swift of foot he can go along with me.'

Out ran Halvor.

'You'll have to stretch your legs if you mean to keep up', said the West Wind.

So off he set over field and hedge, and hill and fell, and Halvor had hard work to keep up.

'Well', said the West Wind, 'now I've no time to stay with you any longer, for I've got to go away yonder and tear down a strip of spruce wood first before I go to the bleaching-ground to dry the clothes; but if you go alongside the hill you'll come to a lot of la.s.sies standing washing clothes, and then you've not far to go to SORIA MORIA CASTLE.'

In a little while Halvor came upon the la.s.sies who stood washing, and they asked if he had seen anything of the West Wind who was to come and dry the clothes for the wedding. 'Aye, aye, that I have', said Halvor, 'he's only gone to tear down a strip of spruce wood. It'll not be long before he's here', and then he asked them the way to SORIA MORIA CASTLE.

So they put him into the right way, and when he got to the Castle it was full of folk and horses; so full it made one giddy to look at them. But Halvor was so ragged and torn from having followed the West Wind through bush and brier and bog, that he kept on one side, and wouldn't show himself till the last day when the bridal feast was to be.

So when all, as was then right and fitting, were to drink the bride and bridegroom's health and wish them luck, and when the cupbearer was to drink to them all again, both knights and squires, last of all he came in turn to Halvor. He drank their health, but let the ring which the Princess had put upon his finger as he lay by the lake fall into the gla.s.s, and bade the cupbearer go and greet the bride and hand her the gla.s.s.

Then up rose the Princess from the board at once.

'Who is most worthy to have one of us', she said, 'he that has set us free, or he that here sits by me as bridegroom?'

Well they all said there could be but one voice and will as to that, and when Halvor heard that he wasn't long in throwing off his beggar's rags, and arraying himself as bridegroom.

'Aye, aye, here is the right one after all', said the youngest Princess as soon as she saw him, and so she tossed the other one out of the window, and held her wedding with Halvor.

BRUIN AND REYNARD

The Bear and the Fox had once bought a firkin of b.u.t.ter together; they were to have it at Yule and hid it till then under a thick spruce bush.

After that they went a little way off and lay down on a sunny bank to sleep. So when they had lain a while the Fox got up, shook himself, and bawled out 'yes'.

Then he ran off straight to the firkin and ate a good third part of it. But when he came back, and the Bear asked him where he had been, since he was so fat about the paunch, he said:

'Don't you believe then that I was bidden to ba.r.s.el, to a christening feast.'

'So, so', said the Bear, 'and pray what was the bairn's name.'

'Just-begun', said the Fox.

So they lay down to sleep again. In a little while up jumped the Fox again, bawled out 'yes', and ran off to the firkin.

This time too he ate a good lump. When he came back, and the Bear asked him again where he had been, he said:

'Oh, wasn't I bidden to ba.r.s.el again, don't you think.'

'And pray what was the bairn's name this time', asked the Bear.

'Half-eaten', said the Fox.

The Bear thought that a very queer name, but he hadn't wondered long over it before he began to yawn and gape and fell asleep. Well, he hadn't lain long before the Fox jumped up as he had done twice before, bawled out 'yes' and ran off to the firkin, which this time he cleared right out. When he got back he had been bidden to ba.r.s.el again, and when the Bear wanted to know the bairn's name, he answered:

'Licked-to-the-bottom.'

After that they lay down again, and slept a long time; but then they were to go to the firkin to look at the b.u.t.ter, and when they found it eaten up, the Bear threw the blame on the Fox, and the Fox on the Bear; and each said the one had been at the firkin while the other slept.

'Well, well', said Reynard, 'we'll soon find this out, which of us has eaten the b.u.t.ter. We'll just lay down in the sunshine, and he whose cheeks and chaps are greasiest when we wake, he is the thief.'

Yes, that trial Bruin was ready to stand; and as he knew in his heart he had never so much as tasted the b.u.t.ter, he lay down without a care to sleep in the sun.

Then Reynard stole off to the firkin for a morsel of b.u.t.ter, which stuck there in a crack, and then he crept back to the Bear, and greased his chaps and cheeks with it; and then he, too, lay down to sleep as if nothing had happened.

So when they both woke, the sun had melted the b.u.t.ter, and the Bear's whiskers were all greasy; and so it was Bruin after all, and no one else, who had eaten the b.u.t.ter.

TOM TOTHERHOUSE

Once on a time there was a Goody who had a deaf husband. A good, easy man he was, but that was just why she thought more of the lad next door, whom they called 'Tom Totherhouse'. Now the lad that served the deaf man saw very well that the two had something between them, and one day he said to the Goody: