The Terrible Head

Once upon a time there was a king whose only child was a girl. The king had wanted a son, or at least a grandson, to rule after him, but a prophet told him that his own daughter's son would kill him.

This news terrified him so much that he decided never to let his daughter marry. He thought it was better to have no grandson at all than to be killed by his own grandson. So he called his workmen together and ordered them to dig a deep round hole in the earth.

Then he had a prison made of brass built in the hole, and when it was finished, he locked up his daughter. No man ever saw her, and she never even saw the fields or the sea—only the sky and the sun, because there was a wide open window in the roof of the brass house.

So the princess would sit looking up at the sky, watching the clouds float across, and wondering whether she would ever get out of her prison.

One day it seemed to her that the sky opened above her, and a great shower of shining gold fell through the window in the roof and lay glittering on the floor. Not long after, the princess had a baby, a little boy.

But when the king, her father, heard about it, he was very angry and afraid. Now the child was born who would be his death. Yet, cowardly as he was, he did not quite have the heart to kill the princess and her baby outright.

Instead, he had them put in a huge brass-bound chest and pushed out to sea, so that they might drown or starve, or perhaps reach a country where they would be out of his way.

So the princess and the baby floated and drifted in the chest on the sea all day and night. But the baby was not afraid of the waves or the wind, because he did not know they could hurt him, and he slept soundly. And the princess sang a song over him, and this was her song:

"Child, my child, how sound you sleep! Though your mother's care is deep, You can lie with heart at rest In the narrow brass-bound chest; In the starless night and drear You can sleep, and never hear Billows breaking and the cry Of the night-wind wandering by; In soft purple mantle sleeping With your little face on mine, Hearing not your mother weeping And the breaking of the brine."

At last daylight came, and the great chest was driven by the waves against the shore of an island. There the brass-bound chest lay, with the princess and her baby inside, until a man from that country came past and saw it. He dragged it onto the beach, and when he broke it open, there was a beautiful lady and a little boy. So he took them home and was very kind to them, and he raised the boy until he became a young man.

Now when the boy had grown to his full strength, the king of that country fell in love with his mother and wanted to marry her. But he knew she would never leave her son. So he thought of a plan to get rid of the boy.

This was his plan: A great queen of a country not far away was going to be married, and this king said that all his subjects must bring him wedding presents to give her. He made a feast to which he invited everyone, and they all brought their presents.

Some brought gold cups, some brought necklaces of gold and amber, and some brought beautiful horses. But the boy had nothing, even though he was the son of a princess, because his mother had nothing to give him.

Then the rest of the company began to laugh at him, and the king said, "If you have nothing else to give, at least you could go and fetch the Terrible Head."

The boy was proud and spoke without thinking: "Then I swear that I will bring the Terrible Head, if it can be brought by a living man. But I do not know what head you mean."

Then they told him that somewhere, far away, lived three dreadful sisters, monstrous ogre women with golden wings and brass claws, and with snakes growing on their heads instead of hair. These women were so horrible to look at that anyone who saw them turned to stone. Two of them could not be killed, but the youngest, whose face was very beautiful, could be killed, and it was her head that the boy had promised to bring. You can imagine it was no easy adventure.

When he heard all this, he was perhaps sorry that he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head, but he was determined to keep his oath. So he left the feast, where everyone sat drinking and making merry, and walked alone beside the sea in the dusk of evening, at the place where the great chest with himself and his mother had been washed ashore.

There he sat down on a rock, looking out to sea, wondering how he should begin to fulfill his vow. Then he felt someone touch him on the shoulder. He turned and saw a young man like a king's son, accompanied by a tall and beautiful lady whose blue eyes shone like stars.

They were taller than mortal people. The young man held a staff with golden wings on it, and two golden serpents twisted around it, and he had wings on his cap and on his shoes. He spoke to the boy and asked why he was so unhappy.

The boy told him how he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head and did not know how to begin the adventure.

Then the beautiful lady also spoke and said, "It was a foolish oath and a hasty one, but it might be kept if a brave man has sworn it." The boy answered that he was not afraid, if only he knew the way.

Then the lady said that to kill the dreadful woman with the golden wings and brass claws and cut off her head, he needed three things: first, a Cap of Darkness that would make him invisible when he wore it; second, a Sword of Sharpness that could cut iron at one blow; and third, the Shoes of Swiftness, with which he could fly through the air.

The boy answered that he did not know where to find such things, and without them he could only try and fail. Then the young man took off his own shoes and said, "First, you shall use these shoes until you have taken the Terrible Head, and then you must give them back to me.

With these shoes you will fly as fast as a bird or a thought, over land or over the waves of the sea, wherever the shoes know the way. But there are ways they do not know, roads beyond the borders of the world. And those roads you must travel.

Now first you must go to the Three Gray Sisters, who live far to the north and are so cold that they have only one eye and one tooth among the three. You must creep up close to them, and as one of them passes the eye to the other, you must seize it and refuse to give it back until they tell you the way to the Three Fairies of the Garden.

They will give you the Cap of Darkness and the Sword of Sharpness, and show you how to fly beyond this world to the land of the Terrible Head."

Then the beautiful lady said, "Go at once, and do not go back to say goodbye to your mother, for these things must be done quickly. The Shoes of Swiftness themselves will carry you to the land of the Three Gray Sisters, for they know the way."

So the boy thanked her, fastened on the Shoes of Swiftness, and turned to say goodbye to the young man and the lady. But look! They had vanished, he knew not how or where! Then he leaped into the air to try the Shoes of Swiftness, and they carried him faster than the wind, over the warm blue sea, over the happy lands of the south, over the northern people who drank mare's milk and lived in great wagons, wandering after their flocks.

Across wide rivers where wild birds rose and fled before him, over plains and the cold North Sea, over fields of snow and hills of ice, he went to a place where the world ends and all water is frozen, where there are no men, no beasts, and no green grass.

There, in a blue cave of ice, he found the Three Gray Sisters, the oldest of all living things. Their hair was white as snow, their flesh was icy blue, and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream. Their frozen breath hung around them like a cloud.

The opening of the cave in the ice was narrow, and it was not easy to slip in without touching one of the Gray Sisters. But floating on the Shoes of Swiftness, the boy managed to steal inside and waited until one of the sisters said to another, who had their one eye:

"Sister, what do you see? Do you see old times coming back?"

"No, sister."

"Then give me the eye, for perhaps I can see farther than you."

Then the first sister passed the eye to the second, but as the second groped for it, the boy caught it cleverly out of her hand.

"Where is the eye, sister?" said the second gray woman.

"You have taken it yourself, sister," said the first gray woman.

"Have you lost the eye, sister? Have you lost the eye?" said the third gray woman. "Shall we never find it again and see old times coming back?"

Then the boy slipped from behind them out of the cold cave into the air, and he laughed aloud. When the gray women heard that laugh, they began to weep, for now they knew that a stranger had robbed them and that they could not help themselves.

Their tears froze as they fell from the hollows where no eyes were, and rattled on the icy ground of the cave. Then they began to beg the boy to give them their eye back, and he could not help feeling sorry for them, they were so pitiful.

But he said he would never give them the eye until they told him the way to the Fairies of the Garden.

Then they wrung their hands miserably, for they guessed why he had come and how he was going to try to win the Terrible Head. Now the Dreadful Women were related to the Three Gray Sisters, and it was hard for them to tell the boy the way.

But at last they told him to keep always south, with the land on his left and the sea on his right, until he reached the Island of the Fairies of the Garden. Then he gave them back the eye, and they began to look out once more for the old times coming back.

But the boy flew south between sea and land, keeping the land always on his left, until he saw a beautiful island covered with flowering trees. There he landed, and there he found the Three Fairies of the Garden.

They were like three very beautiful young women, dressed one in green, one in white, and one in red, and they were dancing and singing around an apple tree with apples of gold. This was their song:

"Round and round the apples of gold, Round and round dance we; Thus do we dance from the days of old About the enchanted tree; Round, and round, and round we go, While the spring is green, or the stream shall flow, Or the wind shall stir the sea!

There is none may taste of the golden fruit Till the golden new time come; Many a tree shall spring from shoot, Many a blossom be withered at root, Many a song be dumb; Broken and still shall be many a lute Or ever the new times come!

Round and round the tree of gold, Round and round dance we, So doth the great world spin from of old, Summer and winter, and fire and cold, Song that is sung, and tale that is told, Even as we dance, that fold and unfold Round the stem of the fairy tree!"

These graceful dancing fairies were very unlike the Gray Women, and they were glad to see the boy and treated him kindly. Then they asked him why he had come. He told them how he was sent to find the Sword of Sharpness and the Cap of Darkness.

The fairies gave him these, along with a wallet and a shield. They belted the sword, which had a diamond blade, around his waist, and set the cap on his head. They told him that now even they could not see him, though they were fairies.

Then he took off the cap, and they each kissed him and wished him good fortune. Then they began again their eternal dance around the golden tree, for it is their duty to guard it until the new times come, or until the end of the world.

So the boy put on the cap, hung the wallet around his waist, and the shining shield on his shoulders, and flew beyond the great river that lies coiled like a serpent around the whole world.

And by the banks of that river, he found the three Terrible Women all asleep under a poplar tree, with dead poplar leaves lying all around them. Their golden wings were folded, and their brass claws were crossed.

Two of them slept with their hideous heads tucked under their wings like birds, and the snakes in their hair writhed out from under the golden feathers. But the youngest slept between her two sisters, lying on her back with her beautiful sad face turned to the sky.

Even though she slept, her eyes were wide open. If the boy had seen her directly, he would have turned to stone from the terror and pity of it, she was so awful. But he had thought of a plan to kill her without looking at her face.

As soon as he caught sight of the three from far away, he took his shining shield from his shoulders and held it up like a mirror, so that he saw the Dreadful Women reflected in it and did not see the Terrible Head itself.

Then he came nearer and nearer until he judged he was within a sword's stroke of the youngest, and he guessed where to strike a backward blow behind him. Then he drew the Sword of Sharpness and struck once.

The Terrible Head was cut from the shoulders of the creature, and the blood leaped out and hit him like a blow. But he thrust the Terrible Head into his wallet and flew away without looking back.

Then the two dreadful sisters who were left woke up and rose into the air like great birds. Even though they could not see him because of his Cap of Darkness, they flew after him up the wind, following by scent through the clouds, like hounds hunting in a wood.

They came so close that he could hear the clatter of their golden wings and their shrieks to each other: "Here, here!" "No, there—this way he went!" as they chased him. But the Shoes of Swiftness flew too fast for them, and at last their cries and the rattle of their wings died away as he crossed the great river that runs around the world.

Now when the horrible creatures were far in the distance, and the boy found himself on the right side of the river, he flew straight eastward, trying to find his own country. But as he looked down from the air, he saw a very strange sight: a beautiful girl chained to a stake at the high-water mark of the sea.

The girl was so frightened or so tired that only the iron chain around her waist kept her from falling, and she hung there as if she were dead. The boy felt very sorry for her and flew down to stand beside her.

When he spoke, she raised her head and looked around, but his voice only seemed to frighten her. Then he remembered that he was wearing the Cap of Darkness and that she could only hear him, not see him.

So he took it off, and there he stood before her—the handsomest young man she had ever seen, with short curly yellow hair, blue eyes, and a smiling face. And he thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

So first, with one blow of the Sword of Sharpness, he cut the iron chain that bound her. Then he asked her what she was doing there and why men treated her so cruelly. She told him that she was the daughter of the king of that country, and that she was tied there to be eaten by a monstrous beast from the sea.

The beast came every day and devoured a girl. Now the lot had fallen on her. Just as she was saying this, a long fierce head of a cruel sea creature rose out of the waves and snapped at the girl.

But the beast had been too greedy and too hasty, so it missed the first time. Before it could rise and bite again, the boy whipped the Terrible Head out of his wallet and held it up.

When the sea beast leaped out once more, its eyes fell on the head, and instantly it turned to stone. And the stone beast is still there on the seacoast to this day.

Then the boy and the girl went to the palace of the king, her father, where everyone was weeping for her death. They could hardly believe their eyes when they saw her return safe and sound.

The king and queen made a great fuss over the boy and could not contain their delight when they found he wanted to marry their daughter. So the two were married with the most splendid rejoicing.

After spending some time at court, they sailed home in a ship to the boy's own country. He could not carry his bride through the air, so he took the Shoes of Swiftness, the Cap of Darkness, and the Sword of Sharpness to a lonely place in the hills.

There he left them, and there they were found by the man and woman who had met him at home beside the sea and had helped him start on his journey.

When this was done, the boy and his bride set off for home and landed at the harbor of his native land. But whom should he meet in the very street of the town but his own mother, running for her life from the wicked king.

The king now wanted to kill her because he found that she would never marry him. She had not liked him much before, but she liked him even less now that he had caused her son to disappear so suddenly.

She did not know where the boy had gone, but thought the king had secretly killed him. So now she was running for her very life, and the wicked king was chasing her with a sword in his hand. Then, look! She ran straight into her son's arms.

He only had time to kiss her and step in front of her when the king struck at him with his sword. The boy caught the blow on his shield and cried to the king:

"I swore to bring you the Terrible Head, and see how I keep my oath!"

Then he drew the head from his wallet, and when the king's eyes fell on it, he instantly turned to stone, just as he stood there with his sword raised.

Now all the people rejoiced because the wicked king would rule them no longer. They asked the boy to be their king, but he said no—he must take his mother home to her father's house. So the people chose as king the man who had been kind to his mother when she first was cast ashore in the great chest.

Soon the boy, his mother, and his wife set sail for his mother's own country, from which she had been driven so cruelly. But on the way they stopped at the court of a king, and it happened that he was holding games, giving prizes to the best runners, boxers, and quoit-throwers.

The boy tried his strength with the rest, but he threw the quoit so far that it went beyond anything ever thrown before, and it fell into the crowd, striking a man so that he died.

Now this man was none other than the father of the boy's mother, who had fled from his own kingdom for fear his grandson would find him and kill him after all. Thus he was destroyed by his own cowardice and by chance, and thus the prophecy was fulfilled.

But the boy, his wife, and his mother went back to the kingdom that was theirs and lived long and happily after all their troubles.