Читать книгу Collected Folk Tales - Alan Garner, Alan Garner - Страница 20

tsar had three sons and three daughters, and when he was dying, he told his sons that they should give their sisters in marriage to the first who might come for them.

He died, and shortly after the funeral there was a knocking at the palace gate, and a tearing of the air, and such disturbances of nature that the foundations of the palace quaked. Then came a voice.

“O princes, open the door!”

“Don’t open!” cried the eldest brother.

“Don’t!” said the second.

“I must open!” said the youngest. And he did so.

Something came in, but what it was the princes could not see, whether it was a fallen star or a coal of hell, and out of the dazzling brightness the voice spoke again.

“I have come for your eldest sister to take her for wife.”

“I will not give her,” said the first brother.

“I have no time to spare,” said the voice. “I must take her now.”

“I will not,” said the second brother. “How can I give my sister to one I can’t see, and whom I do not know, nor can guess?”

But the youngest brother said, “I will give her. Our father’s last words were that we should do just this.” He took his sister gently by the hand, and led her towards the light. “I hope that she will be a good wife.”

Lightning and thunder blinded and deafened the whole palace then, and when it had cleared, both the presence and the sister were gone.

And the next night a voice came again.

“O princes, open the door!”

They were too frightened to resist, and when the light stood on the floor it said, “Give me your second sister.”

“I will not!” said the eldest brother.

“I will not,” said the second brother.

“I will,” said the youngest brother. “It was our father’s last wish on earth.”

And on the third night, “O princes, open the door!”

“We will not give our sister by night,” said the first and second brothers together.

“I will,” said the youngest brother. “May you have joy and happiness together.”

The next dawn all three princes decided to go out into the world to find their sisters, to be sure that they were happy and well. They travelled for many days until they lost their way in a dark forest, and at nightfall they looked for a place to camp, and they built their fire by the side of a lake. After they had eaten, they settled down to sleep, while the eldest prince kept watch.

At midnight the lake boiled, and the eldest prince saw a black hump driving a wave right for him. It was a water monster, but the prince fought it, and swung his sword through its head. He cut off the ears, and put them in a bag, then he threw the body into the lake and went to sleep.

The whole of the following day the brothers tramped through the forest until they came to another lake at sunset, and there they made a fire, and the second brother stood guard that night. And a monster attacked, as the other had done, but this one had two heads, which the brother split with his sword. He cut off both pairs of ears and put them in a bag, then he slept.

On the third night, by the third lake, the third brother watched, and the third water monster came, and it had three heads. The youngest brother killed the beast, and put three pairs of ears in a bag, and then he slept. Nor had any of the brothers mentioned any of the monsters to each other.

Now they left the forest behind them, and came into a fearsome desert, where the sun burnt them by day, and the winds chilled them by night. They built a fire of dead thorn bush, and while two brothers made a shelter the youngest went off in search of wood for the fire.

He had not gone far when he came to the top of a rocky height, and below him he saw flames in a valley. He climbed down to beg wood of the people there, but when he came near he saw that the fire was burning in the mouth of a cave, and round the fire sat nine giants, roasting two men on spits. A cauldron seethed the limbs of more men, and there were long shapes hanging from hooks in the cave roof.

“Hello!” said the young prince, and he stepped forward into the light. “I have been looking everywhere for you, my friends!”

The giants sized him up, but made no move. “Welcome,” they said, “since you are one of us. And since you are one of us, take a joint of this man now, eh? And then you will help us when we go a-foraging, eh?”

“By all means,” said the prince, “and thank you.”

He joined the circle round the fire, and dipped his hand in the cauldron.

After this supper the giants said that they would have to go to find their breakfast before they slept, and the prince would come with them.

“Naturally,” said the prince. “You will find a dwarf giant very useful, I promise.”

“We need not be long,” said the biggest giant. “The city is not far away from which we have filled our larder these nineteen years.”

When they came to the city, the giants uprooted two pine trees, and put one against the wall. The prince, being small and light, went up the tree, and the giants then gave him the second tree to lean against the wall on the other side.

“I don’t quite understand what it is you want me to do,” said the prince. “Come and show me.”

So one of the giants climbed to the top of the wall, and propped the tree on the city side. The prince drew his sword in the shadow of the parapet, and when the giant bent forward to secure the tree against the wall, the prince took off his head with the sword, and pushed the body from the parapet into the dark of the street below.

“All clear,” he said to the giants outside the city, “so up you come: one at a time, please, and don’t rush. There’s plenty for all.”

When the giants were headless, the prince went down into the city. He found the place empty.

But there was one light shining in the city. It came from a window at the top of a tall tower. The prince found the door and the stairway, and climbed to the room. It was furnished with silks and jewels, and on a bed of silver lay a beautiful girl, asleep.