“The Skillful Huntsman”
There once was a locksmith who decided he
didn’t like locksmithing anymore and decided to become a huntsman. He met a
huntsman who agreed to teach him. After a few years of training, the new
huntsman set off on his own. The old huntsman had an air-gun that always hit
what it was aimed at, and he gave it to the younger man.
As the huntsman was traveling in a forest,
he climbed a tree to spend the night. Around midnight, he saw a light off in
the distance. He went towards it, and found it to be a large fire where three
giants were roasting an ox. One giant went to taste the meat to see if it was done,
and the huntsman shot it out of his hand. He did this a couple more times.
At first, the giant thought another one
had snatched it out of his hand, but they soon figured it must be a
sharpshooter. So they called out that if he came to the fire they wouldn’t hurt
him, but if they made them look for him they would kill him.
The huntsman went to the fire and the
giants told him that there was a princess in a tower they wished to carry off,
but there was a little dog that barked and woke the castle. So if the huntsman
would shoot the dog, the giants would reward him.
So the huntsman went and killed the dog.
The giants were ready to go for the princess, but the huntsman told them to
wait and he went into the castle. In the first room he found a great sword with
a sealed letter. The huntsman opened the letter and found that the sword would
kill anyone it was used on. So the huntsman took it.
The next door was the princess’ bedroom.
She was so beautiful, the huntsman knew that he couldn’t give her to the giants.
So he cut off part of her neck-kerchief, part of her nightdress, and took one
of her slippers.
So the huntsman had the giants crawl in
through a hole in the wall one at a time. As they came in, he cut off their
heads. He then cut out their tongues and put them in his knapsack with the
slipper and everything else. He then went back home.
The next morning the king found the dead
giants. He called everyone together to ask who had done it. The king’s captain
was a hideous man and he claimed that he had killed the giants. The king wanted
to marry his daughter to him, but she refused. So the king said she should put
on peasant clothes and go be a potter.
So the princess got some pots to sell in
the town, but the king paid some peasants to drive over her wares and break
them all. The king figured she would be so destitute she would agree to marry
the captain.
But instead, the king had a hut built in
the middle of the forest where she was to stay the rest of her days cooking for
everyone, but not taking any payment.
After several years, the huntsman heard of
this cooking maiden. When he went in, she saw his sword and knew where it came
from, and he told his story. They told the king everything, and he said they
should marry. So they dressed the huntsman as a foreign lord and had a feast.
Afterwards, the king asked the captain what should happen to anyone who lied
about killing giants, and the captain said they should be torn into pieces. So
he was. And the huntsman and the princess were married and lived happily ever
after.
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So, the old huntsman just had a magic
air-gun laying around? Was it an extra one he had? Why would he part with such
a weapon?
Why did the new huntsman decide to shoot
the meat out of the giant’s hand? What was the point?
So the giants couldn’t just … step on the
little dog and be done with it?
You know how you have sealed letters just
lying about telling you the magical properties of a sword. So anyone could just
walk into the castle and go right to the armory and the princess’ bedroom?
So instead of just killing the giants and
taking credit, he decides it’s better to steal a slipper. Makes sense.
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