THE TRAVELING COMPANION
POOR JOHANNES WAS TERRIBLY sad, because his father was very sick and would not live much longer. Only the two of them were in the little room. The lamp on the table was about to burn out, and it was very late at night.
“You’ve been a good son, Johannes,” said his sick father. “The Lord will surely help you further in this life,” and he looked at him with serious gentle eyes, drew a deep breath, and died. It was as if he were sleeping. But Johannes wept. Now he had no one in the world, neither mother nor father, sister nor brother. Poor Johannes! He lay on his knees beside his father’s bed, kissed his hand, and cried a great many salty tears, but finally his eyes closed, and he fell asleep with his head on the hard edge of the bed.
Then he had a strange dream. He saw the sun and moon bow down to him, and he saw his father hale and hearty again, and he heard him laugh, the way he always laughed whenever he was really pleased. A lovely girl with a gold crown on her long beautiful hair reached out her hand to Johannes, and his father said, “Look at the bride you have! She is the most wonderful in the world.” Then he woke up, and all the splendor was gone. His father lay dead and cold in the bed, and there was no one else there. Poor Johannes!
The burial was the next week, and Johannes followed the coffin closely. He could no longer see his kind father, who had loved him so much. He heard the earth falling on the coffin, and saw the last corner of it, but then the next shovelful covered it, and the coffin was gone. He was so sad that he thought his heart would break to pieces from grief. Those around him were singing a beautiful hymn, and tears came to his eyes. He cried, and it felt good to cry in his sorrow. The sun shone brightly on the green trees, as if it wanted to say, “You mustn’t be so sad, Johannes! Can’t you see how blue the sky is? Your father is up there now and is asking the good Lord to watch out for you.”
“I’ll always be good,” Johannes said, “then I’ll also go to heaven and be with my father, and what a joy it’ll be when we see each other again! There’s so much I have to tell him, and he’ll show me many things again, and teach me about the splendors of heaven, just as he taught me here on the earth. Oh, what a joy that will be!”
Johannes imagined this so clearly that he smiled, although the tears were still streaming down his face. Little birds sat in the chestnut trees and chirped, “tweet, tweet.” They were happy even though they were at a burial, but they probably knew that the dead man was in heaven now and had wings much more beautiful and larger than theirs. They knew he was happy because he had been good on earth, and that pleased them. Johannes saw how they flew from the green trees, way out into the world, and he felt a great desire to fly away with them. But first he cut a big wooden cross to place on his father’s grave, and when he brought it there in the evening, the grave was decorated with sand and flowers. Other people had done that, because they were all very fond of his dear departed father, who now was dead.
Early the next morning Johannes packed a little bundle. He put his inheritance in his belt—fifty dollars1 and a couple of silver coins. He was ready to wander out into the world. But first he went to the cemetery to his father’s grave, said the Lord’s Prayer, and then, “Good bye, dear father! I will always be a good person so you can ask God to take care of me.”
In the meadow where Johannes walked, all the flowers looked so beautiful in the warm sunshine, and they nodded in the wind as if they were saying, “Welcome into the green fields, isn’t it nice here?” But Johannes looked back one more time, to see the old church where he had been baptized as a little child, and where he and his old father had gone every Sunday to sing hymns. Way up in one of the little windows in the tower he saw the church pixie with his little pointed red cap. He was shielding his face with his bent arm, so the sun wouldn’t shine in his eyes. Johannes nodded good bye to him, and the little pixie waved his red cap, laid his hand on his heart, and blew kisses again and again to show that he wished him luck and a happy journey.
Johannes thought about all the wonders he would now see in the big marvelous world and walked further and further, further than he had ever been before. He didn’t know the towns he passed through, or the people he met. He was far away among strangers.
The first night he had to sleep in a haystack in a field; he had no other bed. But he thought it was just lovely. The king couldn’t have it any better. The whole field with the river, the haystack, and the blue sky above was a beautiful bedroom. The green grass with the small red and white flowers was the carpet, and the elderberry bushes and the wild rose hedges were flower bouquets. For a wash basin he had the whole river with the clear, fresh water where the rushes curtsied with both evening and morning greetings. The moon was a really big nightlight, high up under the blue roof, and it wouldn’t set the curtains on fire. Johannes could sleep peacefully, and that’s what he did. He didn’t wake up until the sun rose, and all the little birds were chirping, “Good morning! Good morning! Aren’t you up yet?”
The bells rang for church. It was Sunday, and people were going to hear the minister. Johannes went with them, sang a hymn, and heard the word of God. It was as if he were in his own church, where he had been baptized and where he had sung hymns with his father.
There were many graves in the churchyard, and tall grass was growing on some of them. Johannes thought of his father’s grave and that it would look like these too, now that he wasn’t there to weed and tend it. So he sat down and pulled the grass, set up wooden crosses that had fallen over, and laid the wreaths, which the wind had torn from the graves, back in place again. He thought that perhaps someone else would do the same for his father’s grave, now that he couldn’t.
Outside the cemetery gate an old beggar was standing supported by his crutch. Johannes gave him the silver coins he had and went happily on his way into the wide world.
Towards evening a terrible storm came up, and Johannes hurried to find a place of shelter, but soon it was completely dark. He finally reached a small church, standing quite apart on a hill. Fortunately the door was ajar, and he slipped inside. He would stay there until the storm passed.
“I’ll sit down here in a corner,” he said. “I’m pretty tired and need to rest a little.” He sat down, folded his hands, and said his evening prayers, and before he knew it, he slept and dreamed, while thunder and lightning raged outside.
When he awoke, it was the middle of the night, but the storm had passed, and the moonlight came shining through the windows. There was an open casket standing in the middle of the church floor with a dead man in it, soon to be buried. Since he had a clear conscience, Johannes wasn’t afraid at all, and he knew that the dead hurt no one; it’s evil living people who cause harm. Two such living, wicked people were standing by the casket, which had been placed in the church before the burial. They wanted to cause harm by throwing the poor dead man out of his casket and out the church doors.
“Why would you do that?!” asked Johannes. “That’s evil and wicked. Let him sleep in Jesus’ name.”
“Oh, rubbish!” said the two wicked men. “He fooled us and owes us money that he couldn’t repay. Now he’s dead as a doornail, and we won’t get a penny. We want revenge, and so he’ll lie like a dog outside the church doors!”
“I only have 50 dollars,” Johannes said. “That’s my whole inheritance, but I’ll gladly give it to you if you’ll promise me to leave the poor dead man in peace. I’ll manage without the money. I’m healthy and strong, and the Lord will surely help me.”
“Well,” the nasty men said, “If you’ll pay his debt, then we won’t do anything to him, you can be sure of that.” They took the money that Johannes gave them, laughed loudly at his kindness, and went on their way, but Johannes arranged the corpse again in the casket, folded its hands, said good bye, and went quite contentedly further into the big forest.
All around, where the moon shone in through the trees, he could see the lovely little elves playing happily. They weren’t bothered by him because they knew well enough that he was an innocent good person, and only wicked people aren’t allowed to see the elves. Some of them were no bigger than a finger, and their long yellow hair was fastened with golden combs. They seesawed two by two on the large dewdrops that lay on the leaves and high grass. Sometimes the dewdrops rolled so that they fell down between the long blades of grass, and then there was hilarious laughter from the other little ones. It was great fun! They sang, and Johannes recognized very well all the beautiful melodies he had learned as a small boy. Big motley spiders with silver crowns on their heads spun long suspension bridges from one hedge to another, and palaces that looked like glistening glass when the moonshine struck the dew. All this continued until sunrise. Then the little elves crept into the flower buds, and the wind took the bridges and castles, which flew up as great cobwebs into the air.
Johannes had just come out of the forest when he heard a man’s loud voice behind him. “Hello, comrade! Where are you headed?”
“Into the wide world!” Johannes said. “I have neither father nor mother and am a poor lad, but the Lord will surely help me.”
“I’m going into the wide world too,” the stranger said. “Shall we join forces?”
“Yes, let’s do that,” said Johannes, and so they did. They soon came to think very highly of each other since they were both good people. Johannes couldn’t help but notice that the stranger was much more clever than he was. He had been almost everywhere and could tell about all sorts of things that existed in the world.
The sun was already high in the sky when they sat down under a large tree to eat breakfast. All at once an old woman came by. She was very old and quite bent over, supporting herself with a crutch, and on her back she had a bundle of firewood that she had gathered in the forest. Her apron was folded up, and Johannes saw that three big bunches of ferns and willow branches stuck out from it. When she was quite close to them, her foot slipped, and she fell and uttered a loud cry, for she had broken her leg, the poor old thing.
Johannes immediately wanted to carry the old woman to her home. But the stranger opened his knapsack, took out a jar, and said that he had a salve that would heal her leg right away, so that she could walk home herself as though the leg had never been broken. But he wanted her to give him the three bundles she had in her apron.
“I’m going into the wide world too, ” the stranger said.
“That’s a stiff fee,” said the old woman and nodded her head oddly. She didn’t want to part with her bundles, but it wasn’t pleasant lying there with a broken leg either. So she gave him the bundles, and as soon as he smeared the salve on her leg, the old woman got up and walked better than before. That’s how well the salve worked, but you couldn’t get it at the drugstore either.
“What are you going to do with those bundles?” Johannes asked his traveling companion.
“These are three nice bouquets!” he said, “I like them because I’m an odd fellow.”
Then they walked quite a distance.
“There’s a storm brewing,” Johannes said and pointed straight ahead, “Those are some awfully thick clouds!”
“No,” the traveling companion said. “Those aren’t clouds, they’re mountains. Big beautiful mountains, where we’ll come way up over the clouds into the fresh air! You can imagine how marvelous that is! Tomorrow we’ll be that far up in the world!”
They were not as close as they looked. It took them a whole day of walking before they came to the mountains, where the dark forests grew right up towards the sky, and there were rocks as big as whole towns. It would be a long and hard journey over the mountains, so Johannes and his traveling companion went into an inn to rest and gather their strength for the next day’s march.
A whole group of people were gathered down in the big bar in the inn because there was a man there who was going to put on a puppet show. He had just set up his little theater, and people were sitting around waiting to see the play, but an old fat butcher had taken the best place right in front. His big bulldog—Oh, he looked so ferocious!—sat by his side wide-eyed like everyone else.
Then the play started, and it was a fine piece with a king and a queen. They sat on beautiful thrones and had gold crowns on their heads and long trains on their robes because they could afford it. The most gorgeous wooden puppets with glass eyes and big handlebar moustaches stood by all the doors and opened and closed them to let in fresh air. It was a lovely play, and not at all sad, but just as the queen stood up and walked across the floor, then—God knows what the bulldog was thinking, but since the big butcher didn’t keep a hold of him—he leaped right into the scene, and took the queen by her thin waist so it went “crack, crunch!” It was just terrible!
The poor man who directed the play was very frightened and upset about his queen, since it was the most beautiful puppet he had, and now the nasty bulldog had bitten her head off. But when all the people had left, Johannes’s traveling companion said that he could repair her, and he took out his jar and smeared the puppet with the salve he had used on the old woman with the broken leg. As soon as the salve was applied, the puppet was good as new. In fact, it could move its own arms and legs, and it wasn’t necessary to pull the strings any longer. The puppet was like a living person, except that it couldn’t talk. The man who owned the puppet show was very pleased that he didn’t have to hold that puppet any more; it could dance by itself. None of the others could do that.
Later during the night, when all the people in the inn had gone to bed, there was someone who was sighing so loudly and who kept it up for so long that everybody got up to see who it could be. The man who had produced the play went to his lit tle theater because the sighing was coming from there. All the puppets were lying there piled together, the king and all the henchmen, and they were the ones who were sighing so pitifully and starring with their big glass eyes because they desperately wanted to be smeared with the salve like the queen so that they could move by themselves. The queen got down on her knees and held her gold crown into the air, while she begged, “Just take this, but treat my consort and the courtiers!” The poor man who owned the puppet theater and all the puppets could not help crying because he felt so badly for them. He promised to give the traveling companion all the money from the next night’s performance if he would just smear the salve on four or five of the prettiest puppets, but the traveling companion said that he didn’t want anything except the big sword the man had at his side. After he had received it, he smeared the salve on six of the puppets, who right away began dancing, and so beautifully that all the girls, the living human girls, who were watching, started to dance along. The coachman danced with the cook, the waiter and the parlor maid danced, all the guests danced, and the fire shovel danced with the fire tongs, but those two fell over when they made their first leap—Oh, it was a merry night!
The next morning Johannes and his traveling companion left them all and climbed up the high mountains and through the deep spruce forests. They climbed so high up that at last the church steeples down below looked like small red berries, down among the greenery, and they could see far, far away, many, many miles, to where they had never been! Johannes had never seen so much of the beauty of the world at one time, and the sun shone warm in the fresh blue air, and he heard the hunters blowing on their horns in the hills, so gloriously that his eyes filled with tears of joy, and he could not help exclaiming : “Oh my dear God! I could kiss you because you are so good to us all and have given us all the beauties of the earth!”
The traveling companion also stood with his hands folded, looking out over the forests and towns, lying in the warm sunshine. Just then a delightful sound rang out right above their heads, and they looked up to see a big white swan hovering in the air. It was beautiful and sang like they had never heard a bird sing before. But the song became softer and softer as the swan bowed its head and sank quite slowly down by their feet, where the beautiful bird then lay quite dead.
“Two such beautiful wings as white and big as those the bird has are worth a lot,” said the traveling companion. “I’ll take them with me. See, it’s a good thing I have a sword!” Then with one stroke he cut both wings from the dead swan, for he wanted to keep them.
Then they traveled for many, many miles over the mountains until they finally saw a big city with over a hundred towers shining like silver in the sunshine. In the middle of the city was a magnificent marble castle with a roof of red gold, and that’s where the king lived.
Johannes and the traveling companion didn’t enter the city right away. Instead they stayed at an inn on the outskirts because they wanted to get dressed up before appearing in the streets. The innkeeper told them that the king was a very good man, who never did harm to anyone at all. However, his daughter, God help us, was a very wicked princess. She was marvelously beautiful. Indeed, no one was as beautiful and lovely as she was, but what good did that do when she was an evil, wicked witch, who was responsible for the deaths of so many fine princes? She had allowed all sorts of men to court her. Anyone could come, whether he was a prince or a tramp; it didn’t make any difference. He only had to guess three things she was thinking about. If he could do that, she would marry him, and he would become king of the whole country when her father died. But if he couldn’t guess the three things, then she would have him hanged or beheaded. That’s how wicked and evil the beautiful princess was.
Her father, the old king, was very sad about all this, but he couldn’t forbid her from being so bad because he had once said that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her suitors. So, she could do as she pleased. Every time a prince came to claim the princess and make a guess to win her, he would lose, and so he was hanged or beheaded. He had been warned in time, after all. He didn’t have to court her! The old king was so upset about all the sorrow and misery that he kneeled with all his soldiers one whole day every year and prayed that the princess would become good and kind, but this she absolutely refused to do. Old women who drank strong spirits dyed their drinks quite black before they drank them. That’s how grieved they were, and more than that they couldn’t do.
“What a hideous princess!” Johannes said. “She really should have a spanking. That would be good for her. If I were the old king, I’d beat her till she bled!”
Just then they heard the people outside shouting “hurrah!” The princess was riding by, and truly she was so beautiful that everyone forgot how evil she was. That’s why they shouted “hurrah.” Riding beside her on coal-black horses were twelve lovely maidens, all in white silk dresses and holding a gold tulip. The princess herself was riding a chalk-white horse, decorated with diamonds and rubies, her riding outfit was made of pure gold, and the whip she had in her hand looked like a sunbeam. The gold crown on her head was like little stars from the sky, and her coat was sewn from thousands of lovely butterfly wings, but she was even more beautiful than all her clothes.
When Johannes saw her, his face turned as red as dripping blood, and he couldn’t say a word because the princess looked just like the lovely girl with the golden crown that he had seen in his dream the night his father died. He thought she was so beautiful that he couldn’t help falling in love with her. It couldn’t be true, he said, that she was an evil witch who had men hanged or beheaded if they couldn’t guess what she asked of them. “Everyone has the right to propose to her, after all, even the poorest tramp. I’m going up to the castle. I just can’t help myself!”
They all told him not to do it; he would meet the same fate as all the others. The traveling companion also advised him against it, but Johannes was sure it would turn out well. He polished his shoes and brushed his clothes, washed his face and hands, combed his lovely yellow hair, and went quite alone into the city and to the castle.
“Come in!” said the old king when Johannes knocked on the door. He opened the door and saw the old king come towards him, wearing a robe and embroidered slippers. He had a gold crown on his head, a scepter in one hand, and a golden apple in the other. “Just a minute,” he said and put the apple under his arm, so he could shake hands with Johannes. But as soon as he heard that Johannes was a suitor, he began to cry so violently that the scepter and apple fell on the floor, and he had to dry his eyes on his robe. The poor old king!
“Don’t do it!” he said. “It will go badly for you like it has for all the others. Just look at this,” and he led Johannes into the princess’ flower garden, which was frightful! From every tree four or five princes, who had proposed to the princess but were unable to guess her thoughts, were hanging. Whenever it was windy, the bones rattled and scared the little birds so much that they didn’t dare fly into that garden. All the flowers were tied up with human bones, and skulls sat grinning in the herb pots. That was some garden for a princess!
“Just look,” said the king. ”You’ll have the same fate as all these others you see here. Please give it up! You’re really making me unhappy because I take it all to heart.”
Johannes kissed the good, old king on the hand and assured him that it would surely go well, since he was so fond of the lovely princess.
Just then the princess came riding into the castle grounds with all her attendants, and they went out to greet her. She was so lovely and gave Johannes her hand, and now he thought even more of her than before. She certainly couldn’t be the evil, wicked witch that everyone said she was! They went up to the hall, and the little pages brought peppernut cookies and jam for them, but the old king was so sad that he couldn’t eat anything, and the peppernut cookies were too hard for him anyway.
It was decided that Johannes would come back to the castle the next morning, when the judges and the entire council would be gathered, and they would hear how he’d fare at guessing. If it went well, he would come again two more times, but so far no one had guessed the first time, and so they had all lost their lives.
Johannes was not at all worried about how it would go. He was happy thinking only about the lovely princess and believed firmly that the good Lord would help him. He didn’t have the slightest idea how, but he didn’t want to think about it either. He danced along the country road on his way back to the inn, where the traveling companion was waiting for him.
Johannes couldn’t say enough about how nicely the princess had greeted him, and how beautiful she was. He was already longing for the next day when he would return to the castle and try his luck at guessing.
But the traveling companion shook his head and was pretty sad. “I’m really fond of you,” he said, “and we could have been together for a long time yet, but now I’m already going to lose you. Poor, dear Johannes! I could cry, but I don’t want to disrupt your joy on what might be the last evening we’re together. We’ll be merry, really merry. Tomorrow when you’re gone, I’ll allow myself to cry.”
All the people in the city soon found out that a new suitor for the princess had arrived, so there was great sadness. The theater was closed, and all the bakery women put black ribbons on their candied pigs. The king and queen prayed on their knees in church, and there was great misery because it couldn’t turn out any different for Johannes than it had for all the other suitors.
In the evening the traveling companion made a big bowl of punch and told Johannes that they were going to be very merry and drink a toast to the princess. But when Johannes had drunk two glasses, he became so sleepy that he couldn’t hold his eyes open. He had to sleep. The traveling companion lifted him slowly from the chair and put him to bed, and when it was dark, he took the two big wings he had cut from the swan and fastened them to his shoulders. In his pocket he put the largest bundle he had gotten from the old woman who had broken her leg, opened the window, and flew over the city, right to the castle, where he sat in a corner under the window that led to the princess’ bedroom.
It was very quiet throughout the city. When the clock struck 11:15, the window opened, and the princess, dressed in a big white coat and with long black wings, flew out over the city to a large mountain. The traveling companion made himself invisible so she couldn’t see him, flew after her, and whipped the princess with his switch so that blood ran where he struck. They rushed through the air. The wind caught her coat and spread it out on all sides, like a big sail, and the moon shone through it.
“What a hailstorm! What a hailstorm!” the princess cried with every stroke from the whip, and it served her right. Finally she got to the mountain and knocked. It sounded like thunder as the mountain opened, and the princess went inside. The traveling companion followed, for no one could see him; he was quite invisible. They walked through a large, long hallway whose walls sparkled strangely; over a thousand glowing spiders ran up and down the wall, lighting like fire. Then they went into a large chamber, built of silver and gold where red and blue flowers as big as sunflowers shone from the walls, but no one could pick those flowers because the stems were awful, poisonous snakes, and the flowers themselves were fire coming from their mouths. The whole ceiling was bedecked with shining glow worms and sky-blue bats that flapped their thin wings—it looked very strange. There was a throne in the middle of the floor, carried by four horse skeletons that had harnesses of red fire spiders. The throne itself was made of milk-white glass, and the pillows to sit on were small black mice, that bit each other in the tails. There was a canopy over it of rose-colored spider-webs, decorated with the most beautiful little green flies that shone like gemstones. In the middle of the throne sat an old troll with a crown on his ugly head, and a scepter in his hand. He kissed the princess on the forehead, let her sit beside him on the precious throne, and then the music started. Big black grasshoppers played the harmonica, and the owl struck himself on the stomach because he didn’t have a drum. It was a weird concert. Small black pixies with fireflies on their caps danced around the hall. No one could see the traveling companion for he had positioned himself right behind the throne and heard and saw everything. The courtiers, who entered at that point, were so stately and elegant, but anyone with eyes in his head could notice what they were. They were nothing other than broomsticks with cabbage heads that the troll had conjured into life and given embroidered clothes. But it didn’t matter, for they were only for decoration.
When the dancing had gone on for a while, the princess told the troll that a new suitor had arrived, and so she asked what question she should put to him the next morning when he came to the castle.
“Listen,” said the troll, “I’ll tell you something. Think of something really easy, then he won’t come up with it. Think about one of your shoes. He won’t guess that. Then have his head chopped off, but don’t forget to bring me his eyes when you come out here tomorrow night because I want to eat them.”
“Then have his head chopped off. ”
The princess curtsied deeply and said that she wouldn’t forget the eyes. Then the troll opened the mountain, and she flew home again, but the traveling companion followed after her and whipped her strongly with the whisk so that she sighed deeply about the terrible hail, and hurried as fast as she could to get through the window into her bedroom. Then the traveling companion flew back to the inn, where Johannes was still sleeping, took off his wings, and lay down on the bed, for he had reason to be tired.
Johannes woke up very early in the morning. The traveling companion got up too and said that he’d had a very strange dream about the princess and her shoes, and told Johannes to be sure to ask if the princess was thinking about her shoe. Of course that was what he had heard the troll say in the mountain, but he didn’t want to tell Johannes anything about that. So he just told him to ask if she was thinking about her shoe.
“I can just as well ask about that as about something else,” Johannes said. “Maybe what you dreamed is right because I’ve always believed that the Lord will help me. But I’ll say good bye anyway because, if I guess wrong, I’ll never see you again.”
They kissed each other, and Johannes went into the city and to the castle. The whole chamber was quite full of people. The judges were sitting in their easy chairs and had goose-down pillows under their heads because they had so much to think about. The old king stood up and dried his eyes with a white handkerchief. Then the princess walked in. She was even more beautiful than the day before and greeted everyone very warmly. However, to Johannes she gave her hand and said, “Good morning to you!”
Then Johannes had to guess what she had thought about. God, how friendly she looked at him. But when she heard him say the one word “shoe,” her face turned chalk-white, and she trembled all over. Of course, it didn’t do her any good because he had guessed correctly!
Hallelujah! How happy the old king was! He turned a somersault with a vengeance, and all the people clapped their hands for him and for Johannes, who had guessed right the first time.
The traveling companion was also very happy when he heard how well it had gone, but Johannes folded his hands and thanked God, whom he was sure would help him again the next two times. Indeed, he had to go back the very next day to guess again.
The evening went by the same as the one before. While Johannes slept, the traveling companion followed the princess out to the mountain, beating her even harder than the last time, because he had taken two of the switches along. No one saw him, and he heard everything. The princess was going to think about her glove, and he told Johannes all about this as if it had been a dream. So Johannes was able to guess correctly, and there was great joy at the castle. All the courtiers turned somersaults, as they had seen the king do the first time, but the princess just lay on the sofa and would not say a single word. Now it would all depend on whether or not Johannes could guess the third time. If all went well, he would marry the lovely princess and inherit the kingdom when the old king died. If he guessed incorrectly, he would lose his life, and the troll would eat his beautiful blue eyes.
That night, Johannes went to bed early, said his prayers, and slept quite peacefully. Meanwhile the traveling companion strapped the wings to his back, tied the sword to his side, took all three switch bundles with him, and flew away to the castle.
It was a dark and stormy night. It was so stormy that the roof tiles flew off the houses, and the trees in the garden where the skeletons were hanging swayed like rushes in the wind. Lightning struck every minute, and thunder was rolling as though it were a single thunderclap that lasted all night. Then the window flew open, and the princess soared into the air. She was pale as death, but laughed at the terrible weather; she didn’t think it was bad enough. Her white coat swirled around in the air like a huge ship-sail, and the traveling companion beat her with the three switches until blood was dripping on the ground, and until she could barely fly. But at last she came to the mountain.
“It’s hailing and stormy,” she said. “Never have I been out in such weather.”
“Yes, it’s possible to get too much of a good thing,” the troll said. Then she told him that Johannes had guessed correctly the second time too. If he did the same tomorrow, he would win, and she could never come to the mountain again or do witchcraft as before. She was very saddened by this.
“He won’t be able to guess!” the troll said. “I’ll come up with something that he has never imagined, or he’s a better magician than I am. But now we’ll be merry!” He took the princess in both hands and they danced around with all the little pixies and will-o-wisps that were in the hall. The red spiders ran merrily up and down the walls, and the fire flowers were sparkling. The owl played the drum; the crickets chirped; and the black grasshoppers played the harmonica. It was a very merry ball!
When they had danced long enough, the princess had to go home because she could be missed at the castle. The troll said that he would accompany her so they could be together for a while yet.
They flew away in terrible weather, and the traveling companion wore out his three switches on their backs. The troll had never been out in such a hailstorm. Outside the castle the troll said good bye to the princess and whispered to her, “Think about my head,” but the traveling companion heard it all right, and the moment the princess slipped through the window into her bedroom, and the troll turned to go, he grasped him by his long black beard and chopped his nasty troll head off at the shoulders with the sword, so quickly that the troll didn’t even see it. He threw the body out into the ocean for the fish, but he dipped the head in the water. Then he wrapped it up in his silk handkerchief, took it back to the inn, and went to bed.
The next morning he gave Johannes the handkerchief, but told him not to open it until the princess asked what she had thought about.
There were so many people in the big chamber at the castle that they were standing on top of each other like radishes tied in a bunch. The councilors sat in their chairs with their soft pillows, and the old king was wearing new clothes. His gold crown and scepter were polished and looked beautiful, but the princess was quite pale and was wearing a coal-black dress, as though she were going to a funeral.
“What have I been thinking about?” she asked Johannes, and he immediately opened the handkerchief and became frightened himself when he saw the terrible troll head. Everyone shivered because it was dreadful to see, but the princess sat like a statue and could not utter a single word. Finally, she stood up and gave Johannes her hand because he had guessed correctly. She didn’t look at anyone, but sighed deeply and said, “Now you are my master! We’ll have the wedding this evening.”
“I like that!” said the old king, “That’s what we’ll do.” All the people shouted “hurrah,” the guard played music in the streets, bells rang, and the bakery women took the black ribbons off the candied pigs, for now there was joy! Three whole grilled oxen stuffed with ducks and hens were set up in the marketplace; everyone could cut off a piece. The fountains flowed with the most delectable wine, and if you bought a little pastry at the bakery, you got six big buns thrown in, and with raisins in them at that.
In the evening the entire city was lit up, and soldiers fired cannons and boys fired caps, and there was eating and drinking, toasting and dancing at the castle, where all the elegant men and lovely women danced with each other; you could hear their song from far away:
“Here’s many a lovely girl
Who wants to take a swirl,
Shoo shoo—shoo fly shoo.
They prefer a lively tune,
Pretty girls, swing and swoon
Shoo shoo—shoo fly shoo.
Dance and carouse
Until your soles wear out!”
Shoo fly shoo—and shoe fly—!”
But the princess was still a witch, of course, and didn’t care about Johannes at all. The traveling companion knew this, and so he gave Johannes three of the swan feathers and a little flask filled with some liquid and told him that he should have a large tub set by the bridal bed. When the princess was ready to climb into bed, he was to give her a little push so she fell into the water, where he was to dunk her three times after throwing in the feathers and the drops. Then she would be free of her spell and would fall in love with him.
Johannes did everything the traveling companion told him to do. The princess shrieked loudly when he dunked her under the water and squirmed under his hands in the shape of a big black swan with flashing eyes. When she came up the second time, the swan was white except for a black ring around its neck. Johannes prayed piously to the Lord, and let the water for the third time slip over the bird, and in that instant it changed into the most beautiful princess. She was even lovelier than before and thanked him with tears in her marvelous eyes because he had broken the spell.
The next morning the king came with all the court, and the receiving line went on until late in the day. At the very end came the traveling companion. He had his walking stick in his hand and his knapsack on his back. Johannes kissed him over and over and asked him not to go away—he wanted him to stay with them since he was responsible for all his happiness. But the traveling companion shook his head and said mildly and gently, “No, my time is up. I have only repaid my debt. Do you remember the dead man plagued by those wicked men? You gave everything you had so that he could have peace in his grave. That dead man is me!”
He disappeared at once.
The wedding feast lasted for an entire month. Johannes and the princess were very much in love, and the old king lived many happy days. He bounced their little children on his knee and let them play with his scepter. But Johannes was the king of the whole country.
NOTE
1. In 1820 a typical wage for a tradesman would be about ten dollars (Danish rigsdaler) for three weeks’ work; in 1850 wages were about a dollar a day.
