Once there was a boy who left home with nothing but his sword, to seek his fortune.
He walked into the forest and the first thing he saw was a wolf with its paw caught in a steel trap. The boy prised the trap open with his sword and the wolf said, “Thank you for freeing me. If you ever need my help, just call me.”
The boy walked on and saw a hawk with its feet caught in birdlime on a post. The boy eased the hawk’s talons loose and the hawk said, “Thank you for freeing me. If you ever need my help, just call me.”
The boy walked on, thinking that he wasn’t making his fortune, but at least he was making friends.
By the river, he saw an otter tangled in a fishing net. He cut the net open with his sword and the otter said, “Thank you for freeing me. If you ever need my help, just call me.”
The boy walked on, deeper and deeper into the forest, until he heard a scream ahead of him. He ran to the edge of a clearing in the trees, where he saw a girl with a charred rope round her waist being dragged through the grass by a huge giant.
“Let me go!” the girl screamed.
“No!” boomed the giant. “I will not let you escape again. I will chain you up if you keep burning through my ropes. And I won’t let you go until your father stops sending heroes to kill me and starts sending gold to ransom you!”
As he wrapped a chain round the girl’s waist and shoved her into a dark cave, the giant said, “If I don’t get money soon, I’m going to eat you, just like I’ve eaten all those boys with their swords.”
On the edge of the clearing, the boy with the sword shivered. But he couldn’t leave a human being in a trap when he had rescued a wolf, a hawk and an otter, so he waited until night fell, then he crept up to the cave entrance. He crouched down by an old tree stump and listened. He heard monstrously loud snoring, which he hoped was the giant, and he crept in.
In the light of the fire flickering in the centre of the cave, he saw rugs and stools, barrels and pots, shelves and cupboards. He saw the girl curled up under a thin lace shawl by one side of the fire, and on the other side, the giant sleeping under a velvet quilt, with an axe by his huge hand.
The boy tiptoed up to the giant. He lifted his sword high and slashed down hard. The giant’s head rolled off his neck, and the boy said, “Yes!”
Then he ran to the girl. “I have saved you!”
“No you haven’t. Hide yourself. Now!”
“But…”
“Don’t argue. Don’t be like the others. Don’t waste time arguing. Just hide!”
So the boy hid behind a big barrel.
And he saw the giant sit up, pick up his head and put it back on his neck, with a squelchy grinding sound.
Then the giant stood up and grabbed his axe. “Who did that? Where is he? I’ll roast him for my breakfast.”
“No, you won’t,” said the girl calmly. “He ran off. He didn’t wait around like the others for you to eat him. He’ll be long gone now. Just go back to sleep.”
So the giant lay down and once he was snoring again, the girl lifted her chain quietly and came round behind the barrel.
“Thanks for trying to save me,” she whispered to the boy. “But this giant can’t be killed with a sword.”
“Why not? I cut off his head. That’s usually a killing blow.”
“He can’t be killed that easily because his heart isn’t in his body. It’s hidden in a safe place, so his body can’t die.”
“Where is his heart then?” the boy asked.
“Well, he says it’s in that cupboard there…”
So the boy got up, climbed the cave wall, opened the cupboard quietly and looked inside.
It was empty.
He climbed down and tiptoed back to the girl.
“It’s empty.”
“Of course it’s empty. I’ve been here for weeks, I’ve already looked. Anyway, he’s not daft enough to tell me where it really is, when I just ask him a straight question. But if you would like to help me, perhaps we can find his heart together. Could you stay hidden here, and just watch and listen?”
The boy nodded, then spent an uncomfortable night and morning crunched up between the barrel and the cave wall. First he watched the giant sleep, then wake, then have his breakfast. Then he watched the giant go out hunting, leaving the girl on a long chain so she could cook and clean and shake the rugs and quilt out at the entrance to the cave.
The boy stood up and stretched. “Why don’t I break your chain with my sword right now, rather than waiting for a chance to find the giant’s heart?”
She smiled. “No, he never goes very far away, so if we make too much clattering and clanging trying to break the chain, he’ll hear us and rush back. Please hide again, and let me find the heart my own way.”
Then the girl stood on a giant-sized stool and polished the cupboard door. The boy watched as she hung garlands of flowers round it, painted little love hearts on it and tied her own hair ribbon round the handle.
When the giant came back in the evening, the boy watched and listened as the giant pointed to the cupboard and said, “What’s all that?”
“I just wanted to make the cupboard pretty,” said the girl, “because you said it was where you kept your heart.”
“Why would you do that?”
The girl looked a bit embarrassed, and muttered, “Because in the weeks I’ve been here, dear giant, I’ve grown fond of you. And I wanted to show you how my heart felt, by decorating your heart’s home.”
The giant sniggered. “You silly little girl. I’m holding you hostage! I’m going to eat you if your father doesn’t fill my cave with gold. Why would you try to decorate my heart’s home? You foolish little girl!”
The girl blushed. “Well, I know you’re a nasty big giant, but I’m lonely here and I feel like you’re my only friend.”
The giant laughed out loud, showing all his crooked brown teeth. “I’m not your friend! And I’m not impressed by flowers and ribbons. Anyway, that’s not even where my heart is, you daft little girl!”
“Isn’t it? So I’ve decorated the wrong place!” She sniffled. “Oh dear. Because I thought if I decorated your heart’s home, you might like me even just a little bit more…”
“Ha! I’m not that stupid! Anyway, you can’t decorate my heart’s true home, because that chain I’ve got round your waist won’t reach as far as the tree stump outside the cave! And even if you could decorate the tree stump with ridiculous ribbons and wimpy flowers, you couldn’t reach inside the stump to decorate the stag, or the duck inside the stag, or the salmon inside the duck, or the egg inside the salmon, which is where my heart really is. So give up, girl. I don’t want ribbons and flowers. I want gold. And if I don’t get gold, I’m going to eat you up, whether you simper and smile at me or not.”
The giant laughed again and ripped the ribbon off the cupboard door. The girl sat down and sobbed. But the boy sat behind the barrel and smiled. Now he knew what he had to do the next day.
The boy and the girl waited all night, listening to the giant’s snores, then once the giant left the cave, the boy stood up and stretched, and joined the girl at the cave entrance.
The chain around her waist wouldn’t allow the girl to reach the tree stump, but the boy took three steps forward, lifted his sword and sliced open the tree stump.
A sleek stag leapt out and started to run off. The boy called “Wolf!” and the wolf he had freed sprinted out of the forest and chased the deer.
When the wolf brought the stag down, a shining duck flew out of the deer’s mouth and flapped off into the air. The boy called “Hawk!” and the hawk swooped down out of the sky and grasped the duck in its talons.
A silver salmon fell out of the duck’s beak, landed in the river and swam away. The boy called “Otter!” and the otter slid into the water and chased the salmon. When the otter dragged the salmon out of the river, a black egg rolled out of the salmon’s mouth.
The boy stamped on the egg, but his foot bounced off, and the egg didn’t break. He sliced at the egg with his sword blade and hammered at the egg with the hilt, but the egg didn’t break.
He ran back to the girl at the mouth of the cave, and gave her the black egg. She bashed the egg against the wall of the cave, but the egg didn’t break.
The boy and the girl looked at each other. They looked at the splintered tree stump and the shiny unbreakable egg.
And they heard the giant’s footsteps coming back.
The boy said, “We can’t break it. And he’ll see the broken stump, so he’ll know you’ve tried to get at his heart. He’ll eat you tonight!”
The girl said, “No, he won’t.” She took off her lacy shawl. “Please cover the stump with this, as if I threw it from here.”
Then she said, “I think I can guess who has to break the egg.”
They heard the giant’s footsteps get louder.
The boy nodded. “You’re probably right. But how will we –?”
“Hide,” said the girl. “Hide and leave it to me.”
So the boy draped her lacy shawl over the shattered stump, and the girl put the cold black egg under the bearskin rug at the entrance to the cave.
The giant appeared out of the trees, just as the boy hid behind the barrel.
They both watched as the giant walked into the cave, wiped his feet on the edge of the rug, then took a giant stride right over the lump in the middle.
The giant smirked at the girl. “I saw your shawl on the stump. Did you throw it on?”
“Yes, I wanted to keep your heart warm, just as the sight of you warms my heart.”
He snorted. “Foolish girl.”
She pulled the egg out from under the rug, held it behind her back and walked swiftly to the middle of the cave, where she put it under the cushion on the giant’s stool by the fire.
Before he sat down, the giant pulled the stool back from the heat of the fire, and the egg rolled out from under the cushion and fell towards the floor.
The girl caught it before it hit the ground.
The giant asked, “So what are you going to do next, you daft lassie, knit a scarf for the stag, a hat for the duck and nice little mittens for the salmon’s fins?” He laughed loudly.
“No,” she said. “I will make crowns for them and the crowns will circle their heads like this…”
She put her left hand on his head and walked round him until she had her fingers on his forehead. The giant laughed at her. Then she lifted her right hand and smashed the egg as hard as she could into the thick strong bone of the giant’s skull.
The egg cracked open.
And the giant fell backwards off the stool, with a thump like thunder.
The giant was dead.
So the girl borrowed the boy’s sword for the long and noisy job of breaking the links of her chain. Then the two of them roasted the deer, the duck and the salmon, and shared a meal with the wolf, the hawk and the otter.
And I don’t know what happened next. Perhaps the boy and the girl decided that they made a good team, got married and lived happily ever after together.
But it’s just as likely that they shook hands, went their separate ways, and lived happily ever after on different sides of the forest.