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'Ah! said Shortshanks, 'now we have got so far; but how we are to get back is another story.
But when he had wandered on a long, long way, he met a third time an old, old crook-backed hag, with only one eye. This eye, too, Shortshanks stole; and when the hag screamed and made a great to-do, bawling out what had become of her eye, Shortshanks said: 'What will you give me to get back your eye? Then she answered: 'I'll give you the art how to brew a hundred lasts of malt at one strike.
Then the Ogre struck at him with his iron club; it was even bigger than that which the first Ogre had, and the earth and stones flew up ten yards into the air. My! said Shortshanks, 'that was something like a blow now you shall see a stroke of mine. Then he grasped his sword, and cut off all the Ogre's ten heads at one blow, and sent them dancing away over the sand.
Then the Princess said again to him, 'Lie down and sleep a little while on my lap'; and while Shortshanks lay there, she threw over him a silver robe.
In tale No. xx, when Shortshanks meets those three old crookbacked hags who have only one eye, which he snaps up, and gets first a sword 'that puts a whole army to flight, be it ever so great', we have the 'one-eyed Odin', degenerated into an old hag, or rather by no uncommon process we have an old witch fused by popular tradition into a mixture of Odin and the three Nornir.
'Oh! answered Shortshanks, 'I went home for a bit, and there I found these hoops, which had fallen off some old pails of ours, so I laid hands on them for you, if you must know. Well! when the kitchen-maid heard they were for her, she said nothing more about the matter, but thanked Shortshanks, and they were good friends again.
Then he grasped the sword he had got from the old crook-backed hag, and cut at the Ogre; and away went all his five heads flying over the sand. So when the Princess saw she was saved, she was so glad that she scarce knew what to do, and she jumped and danced for joy. 'Come, lie down, and sleep a little in my lap', she said to Shortshanks, and as he slept she threw over him a tinsel robe.
'Oh', said Shortshanks, 'never fear, it shall be stinging stuff'; and with that he began to brew without more fuss, but all at once he cried out: 'I must have more of you Ogres to help in the brewing, for these I have got a'nt half strong enough. Well, he got more so many, that there was a whole swarm of them, and then the brewing went on bravely.
But when he came into the Princesses' bower they thought it was Shortshanks, and both ran up to him to kiss him; but the elder, who was stronger and bigger, pushed her sister on one side, and threw her arms round King Sturdy's neck, and gave him a kiss; and so he got her for his wife, and Shortshanks got the younger Princess.
'I'll give you a ship', said the woman, 'which can sail over fresh water and salt water, and over high hills and deep dales. 'Well! out with it', said Shortshanks. So the old woman gave him a little tiny ship, no bigger than he could put in his pocket, and she got her eye back again, and they each went their way.
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