United States or Togo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The daughter then made the oven as hot as could be, and took Esben out of his prison in order to roast him. She brought the oven spade, and told Esben to seat himself on it, so that she could shoot him into the oven. Esben accordingly took his seat on it, but when she had got him to the mouth of the oven he spread his legs out wide, so that she could not get him pushed in.
Esben had been coming along behind them, and had followed the same way, and had also found the same house in the forest. He slipped into this, without either the witch or her daughters noticing him, and hid himself under one of the beds. A little before midnight he crept quietly out and wakened his brothers. He told these to change night-caps with the witch's daughters.
'Was it also you that took my boar? 'Ye e s! 'And it was you that made me kill my eleven daughters? 'Ye e s! 'And now you have taken my lamp, and drowned my twelfth daughter in the well? 'Ye e s! 'Are you coming back again? 'That may be, said Esben. 'Then you'll catch it, said the witch.
The brothers saw no reason for this, but, to get rid of Esben's persistence, they made the exchange, and slept soundly again. When midnight came Esben heard the old witch come creeping along. She had a broad-bladed axe in her hand, and went over all the eleven beds.
'If I could have let you go, and kept your eleven brothers at home, it would have been better for me in my old age. 'Well, you will soon be rid of me at any rate, said Esben. As he could get no other horse, he went into the forest, broke off a branch, stripped the bark off it, so that it became still whiter than his brothers' horses, and, mounted on this. rode off after his eleven brothers.
Then he ran and seized the coverlet, but as soon as he did so it sounded so that it could be heard over eight kingdoms, and the witch, who was at Troms Church, came flying home, and shouted, 'Hey! is that you again, Esben? 'Ye e s! 'It was you that made me kill my eleven daughters? 'Ye e s! 'And took my dove? 'Ye e s! 'And my beautiful boar? 'Ye e s!
Esben thought that this was the worst errand that he had had yet, but he could not do worse than fail, and so he would make the attempt. He again took his little white stick, set himself on it, and said, Fly quick, my little stick, Carry me across the stream. Next moment he was across the river and beside the witch's house.
Now this was just the very time that the witch had to go to Troms Church, where all the witches gather once every year, so she had no time to deal with Esben herself. She therefore told her daughter to heat up the big oven while she was away, take Esben out of his prison, and roast him in there before she came back. The daughter promised all this, and the witch went off on her journey.
'What good would it do to tell you, you little fool? You can't help us. 'Oh, you don't know that, answered Esben. 'I have helped you before. In the end they told him how unreasonable the king was, and how he had ordered them to get for him a dove with feathers of gold and silver time about. 'Give me a bag of peas' said Esben, 'and I shall see what I can do for you.
The daughter did so, but when the witch bit it she cried, 'Uh! no, no! This is nothing but skin and bone; he must be fattened much longer yet. So Esben was fed for a while longer on sweet milk and nut-kernels, until one day the witch thought that now he must surely be fat enough, and told her daughter again to go and cut a finger off him.
Word Of The Day