The Skilful Huntsman

Once upon a time, there was a young man who had learned the trade of locksmith. He told his father that he wanted to go out into the world and seek his fortune. "Very well," said his father, "I am happy with that," and gave him some money for the journey.

So he traveled around and looked for work. After a while, he decided he did not want to be a locksmith anymore because he no longer liked it. Instead, he wanted to become a hunter.

As he wandered, he met a hunter dressed in green, who asked him where he came from and where he was going. The young man said he was a locksmith’s apprentice, but that trade no longer pleased him, and he wanted to learn hunting.

"Oh yes," said the hunter, "if you will come with me." So the young man went with him, stayed with him for several years, and learned the art of hunting. After that, he wanted to try his luck elsewhere.

The hunter gave him no payment except an air-gun, but this gun had a special property: it always hit its target whenever he shot with it.

Then he set out and found himself in a very large forest, so big that he could not reach the end in one day. When evening came, he climbed a tall tree to escape from wild animals. Around midnight, he thought he saw a tiny little light glimmering in the distance.

He looked down through the branches toward it and kept its location in mind. First, he took off his hat and threw it down in the direction of the light, so that he could use it as a marker when he climbed down.

Then he got down, went to his hat, put it on, and walked straight ahead. The farther he went, the larger the light grew. When he got close, he saw that it was an enormous fire, and three giants were sitting by it.

They had an ox on a spit and were roasting it. Presently, one of them said, "I must taste if the meat is ready to eat," and pulled off a piece. He was about to put it in his mouth when the hunter shot it out of his hand.

"Well, really," said the giant, "if the wind has not blown the piece out of my hand!" He took another piece, but just as he was about to bite into it, the hunter shot it away again.

At this, the giant slapped the one sitting next to him and cried angrily, "Why are you snatching my piece away from me?" "I did not snatch it," said the other, "a sharpshooter must have shot it away from you." The giant took another piece, but again could not hold onto it because the hunter shot it out.

Then the giant said, "That must be a good shot to shoot a piece out of one’s very mouth. Such a one would be useful to us." And he called out loudly, "Come here, you sharpshooter, sit by the fire with us and eat your fill. We will not hurt you.

But if you do not come and we have to bring you by force, you are a lost man!" So the young man went up to them and told them he was a skilled hunter and that whatever he aimed at with his gun, he hit for sure.

Then they said that if he would go with them, he would be well treated. They told him that outside the forest there was a great lake, behind which stood a tower, and in the tower a lovely princess was imprisoned, whom they wanted to carry off.

"Yes," said he, "I will soon get her for you." Then they added, "But there is something else. There is a tiny little dog that begins to bark as soon as anyone goes near. As soon as it barks, everyone in the royal palace wakes up, and for that reason we cannot get there.

Can you shoot it dead?" "Yes," said he, "that will be a bit of fun for me." After that, he got into a boat and rowed across the lake. As soon as he landed, the little dog came running out and was about to bark, but the hunter took his air-gun and shot it dead.

When the giants saw that, they rejoiced and thought they already had the princess safe. But the hunter wanted first to see how things stood, and told them they must stay outside until he called them.

Then he went into the castle. Everything was perfectly quiet inside, and everyone was asleep. When he opened the door of the first room, a sword hung on the wall. It was made of pure silver and had a golden star on it, and the name of the King.

On a table nearby lay a sealed letter, which he broke open. Inside was written that whoever had the sword could kill everything that opposed him. So he took the sword from the wall, hung it at his side, and went on.

Then he entered the room where the King’s daughter was sleeping. She was so beautiful that he stood still and looked at her, holding his breath. He thought to himself, "How can I give an innocent maiden into the power of the wild giants, who have evil in their minds?" He looked around.

Under the bed stood a pair of slippers. On the right one was her father’s name with a star, and on the left her own name with a star. She also wore a great silk neck-kerchief embroidered with gold.

On the right side was her father’s name, and on the left her own, all in golden letters. Then the hunter took a pair of scissors and cut the right corner off, and put it in his knapsack.

Then he also took the right slipper with the King’s name and put it in. The maiden still lay sleeping, and she was quite sewn into her nightdress. He cut a piece from this also and put it in with the rest. He did all this without touching her.

Then he went out and left her lying undisturbed. When he came to the gate again, the giants were still standing outside waiting for him, expecting that he was bringing the princess. But he called to them that they should come in, for the maiden was already in their power.

He said he could not open the gate for them, but there was a hole through which they must creep. Then the first giant approached. The hunter wound the giant’s hair around his hand, pulled the head in, and cut it off with one stroke of his sword.

Then he pulled the rest of the giant in. He called to the second and cut his head off likewise, and then he killed the third also. He was well pleased that he had freed the beautiful maiden from her enemies. He cut out their tongues and put them in his knapsack.

Then he thought, "I will go home to my father and let him see what I have done. Afterwards, I will travel about the world. The luck that God pleases to grant me will easily find me."

But when the King in the castle awoke, he saw the three giants lying there dead. So he went into his daughter’s bedroom, woke her, and asked who could have killed the giants. She said, "Dear father, I do not know, I was asleep." But when she got up and wanted to put on her slippers, the right one was gone.

When she looked at her neck-kerchief, it was cut, and the right corner was missing. When she looked at her nightdress, a piece was cut out of it. The King summoned his whole court together, soldiers and everyone else, and asked who had set his daughter free and killed the giants.

Now it happened that he had a captain, who was one-eyed and ugly, and he said that he had done it. Then the old King said that since he had accomplished this, he should marry his daughter.

But the maiden said, "Rather than marry him, dear father, I will go out into the world as far as my legs can carry me." The King said that if she would not marry him, she should take off her royal garments and wear peasant’s clothing, and go to a potter and start a trade in earthen vessels.

So she took off her royal clothes, went to a potter, and borrowed enough crockery for a stall. She promised to pay for it if she sold it by evening. Then the King said she was to sit in a corner with it and sell it.

He arranged with some peasants to drive over it with their carts so that everything would be broken into a thousand pieces. So when the King’s daughter had set up her stall in the street, the carts came and broke everything into tiny fragments.

She began to weep and said, "Alas, how shall I ever pay for the pots now?" The King had wanted to force her to marry the captain, but instead she again went to the potter and asked if he would lend to her again.

He said no, she must first pay for the things she already had. Then she went to her father and cried and lamented, and said she would go out into the world. Then he said, "I will have a little hut built for you in the forest.

In it you shall stay all your life long and cook for everyone, but you shall take no money for it." When the hut was ready, a sign was hung on the door that said, "Today given, tomorrow sold." There she stayed for a long time.

Word spread around the world that a maiden was there who cooked without asking for payment, and that this was written on a sign outside her door.

The hunter heard about it too, and thought to himself, "That would suit you. You are poor and have no money." So he took his air-gun and his knapsack, in which all the things he had taken from the castle as tokens of truth still lay, and went into the forest.

He found the hut with the sign, "Today given, tomorrow sold." He had put on the sword with which he had cut off the heads of the three giants. Thus he entered the hut and ordered something to eat.

He was charmed by the beautiful maiden, who was indeed as lovely as a picture. She asked where he came from and where he was going. He said, "I am roaming about the world." Then she asked where he had gotten the sword, for truly her father’s name was on it.

He asked if she were the King’s daughter. "Yes," she answered. "With this sword," he said, "I cut off the heads of three giants." And he took their tongues out of his knapsack as proof.

Then he also showed her the slipper, the corner of the neck-kerchief, and the piece of the nightdress. At that she was overjoyed and said that he was the one who had saved her. Then they went together to the old King and brought him to the hut.

She led him into her room and told him that the hunter was the one who had truly freed her from the giants. When the aged King saw all the proofs, he could no longer doubt.

He said he was very glad to know how everything had happened, and that the hunter should marry his daughter. The maiden was happy at heart. Then she dressed the hunter as if he were a foreign lord, and the King ordered a feast to be prepared.

When they went to the table, the captain sat on the left side of the King’s daughter, but the hunter sat on the right. The captain thought he was a foreign lord who had come on a visit.

When they had eaten and drunk, the old King said to the captain that he would put something before him that he must guess. "Suppose someone said he had killed the three giants, and he were asked where the giants’ tongues were.

He would be forced to go and look, and there would be none in their heads. How could that happen?" The captain said, "Then they cannot have had any." "Not so," said the King. "Every animal has a tongue." Then he also asked what someone would deserve who made such an answer.

The captain replied, "He ought to be torn in pieces." Then the King said he had pronounced his own sentence. The captain was put in prison and then torn into four pieces. But the King’s daughter was married to the hunter.

After that, the hunter brought his father and mother, and they lived with their son in happiness. After the death of the old King, he received the kingdom.