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Shortshanks has not gone far before he meets "an old crook-backed hag," who has only one eye; and he commences his career by gouging out or "snapping up" the single comfort of this helpless creature.
'Oh! said the younger, 'my name shall be Shortshanks; and yours, what shall it be? 'I will be called King Sturdy', answered the eldest. So they christened each other in the brook, and went on; but when they had walked a while they came to a cross road, and agreed they should part there, and each take his own road. So they parted, but they hadn't gone half a mile before their roads met again.
After that Shortshanks ran back to the palace, as he had done before; but he went first on board the Ogre's ship, and took a whole heap of gold, silver, and precious stones, and out of them he gave the kitchen-maid another great armful of gold and silver rings.
'Fire and flame! roared out the Ogre. 'Fire and flame yourself! said Shortshanks. 'Can you fight? screamed the Ogre. 'If I can't, I can learn', said Shortshanks. 'I'll soon teach you', screamed the Ogre, and struck at him with his iron club, so that the earth and stones flew up fifteen yards into the air.
To get her eye back again, she gives Shortshanks a sword that will put a whole army to flight; and he, charmed with the result of his first manoeuvre, puts it in practice successively upon two other decrepit, half-blind women, who, to get their eyes again, give him, one, a ship that can sail over fresh water and salt water and over high hills and deep dales, the other, the art how to brew a hundred lasts of malt at one strike.
But Shortshanks answered that he had been home a while, and that the hoops had fallen off some old pails, so he had laid his hands on them for his friend the kitchen-maid. So when the third Thursday evening came, everything happened as it had happened twice before; the whole palace was hung with black, and all went about mourning and weeping.
But of a manful contest on equal terms, or of a victory obtained over tyrannous power by a union of patience, boldness, and honest skill, or even by undegrading stratagem, the collection affords no instance that we remember. The story of Shortshanks may be taken as a fair, and even a favorable example of the tone of these Norse tales.
Shortshanks and King Sturdy are twin brothers, who set out to seek their fortunes within a few minutes of their birth, driven thereto by a precocious perception of the res angustæ domi.
But he didn't do this Ogre much harm either, for when the time came that they looked for the Ogre, he said, as he had said before: ''Tis better one should lose life than two', and crept up into his tree again. But Shortshanks begged the kitchen-maid to let him go down to the strand for a little. 'Oh! asked the kitchen-maid, 'and what business have you down there?
'Well, well! said the kitchen-maid, 'off with you; but don't let me catch you staying there a bit over the time when the brose for supper must be set on the fire, and the roast put on the spit; and let me see; when you come back, mind you bring a good armful of wood with you. Yes! Shortshanks would mind all that; so off he ran down to the strand.
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