yellow fairy tale book

Chapter 45 Helmed and Hadover

Once upon a time there was a king and queen, who had a beautiful only daughter named Hadover, who was the sole future heir of this kingdom.The king and queen also adopted a son named Hemud, who was about the same age as Hadover, not only handsome in appearance, but also very intelligent.These two children were childhood sweethearts, and they made a private engagement very early after they grew up.

Later, the queen fell ill.She felt that she was dying, so she sent for the King to her bed, and said that she would not live long, and asked him to promise only one thing: if he wanted to marry again, he must marry Queen Heidelan.The king agreed to her, and soon the queen died.

After a few days, the king got tired of his celibacy, prepared a ship and set sail to sea.He encountered thick fog at sea and completely lost his way. After many twists and turns, he finally found land.He parked the boat on the shore and went ashore alone.After walking for a while, he came to a forest, and stopped after walking for a short distance. It turned out that he heard a pleasant sound of a harp.He searched for the sound and came to a clearing in the forest, where he saw three women, one of whom sat on a golden chair, who was very beautiful and richly dressed; she held a harp in her hand, and looked very sad.The second woman was also well-dressed, but much younger, and she too was sitting in a chair, although it was not as grand as the first woman's.The third woman stood beside them, she was very handsome, and she was covered with a green cloak, so it was not difficult to see that she was the maid of the other two women.

The king watched them for a while, and then went up to greet them.The woman in the golden chair asked who he was and where he was going, and the king told her that he was a king, and that he was widowed, and that he was going to Headland to propose to the queen.The woman sitting in the golden chair replied that the arrangement of fate was really ingenious-a few days ago, pirates invaded the kingdom of Heidland and killed the king. She was just what the king was looking for; the other two were her daughter and her maid.The king immediately proposed to her, and the woman immediately accepted, and they embarked together, and without further ado, the king returned to his own country.After returning home, the king gave a big banquet to celebrate his union with Queen Headland, and thereafter there was no incident for a while.

Hemund and Hadover paid little attention to the queen and her daughter, but Hadover was very friendly with Olof, the queen's handmaiden, and Olof often visited her in Hadover's castle.Soon, the king went to war. As soon as he left, the queen talked to Hemud and asked him to marry her daughter.Hemurd told her frankly that he could not obey, and the queen said to him angrily that in this case, he would never want to marry Hadover, and she would subdue him with a spell and let him go to a desert island where he was a lion during the day, At night he returned to human form; he could think of Hadover all the time, but it would only increase his misery, and he would never be free from the spell unless Hadover burned his lion's skin, which was difficult.

Hearing this, Hemud replied that he would curse her also: once he was freed from her spell, he would make her and her daughter become rats, and fight each other in the great hall until they were stabbed by him with his sword. die.

Since then, Hemud has disappeared, and no one knows his whereabouts.The queen pretended to send someone to look for it, but of course there was no result.Once, Olof came to visit Hadover and asked him if he knew where Hemud had gone, but Hadover said sadly that he didn't know at all.

"Then let me tell you," said Olof, "that I know best. The disappearance of Hemud is a trick of the Queen, who and her daughter are witches, despite their beautiful appearance Hemud refused to marry her daughter as the queen wanted, so she bewitched him with a spell, and banished him to a desert island, where he was a lion by day and turned back into a man at night. Unless you burn the lion skin , so he can get rid of the magic." Olof said, "Besides, she has arranged a marriage for you. She has a brother who lives in the underworld, a three-headed giant, and she intends to make him a handsome prince and You marry. It is not uncommon for a queen to do such evil things. She snatched me from my parents and forced me to work for her, but she couldn't hurt me, because my green cloak protected me from any demons. impact of the technique.”

Hadov was more sad than before when he thought of the marriage that the queen had promised her, so he begged Olof to find a way to save her.

"In my opinion," said Olof, "the giant who proposes to you will emerge from under the castle floor to seek you, and you must have a cauldron of boiling tar ready, to hear his coming, to see the floor When it cracks, pour tar into the crack. That's enough for him!"

The King returned from his expedition to learn that Hemud was missing, which was a heavy blow to him.But the queen tried to comfort him in every possible way, so that after a while the king thought little of the matter.

Hadover remained in the castle to "meet" the suitor.One night not long after, she heard a loud noise under the floorboards, and at once guessing what it was, she bade her maids to be ready to help her.The sound was like rumbling thunder, and it grew louder, and the ground began to crack, and at the same time Hadover had his maids pour a great cauldron of boiling tar into the crack.The sound gradually weakened, and at last it could no longer be heard.

The next morning the queen got up early, and when she came to the gate of the palace, she found her giant brother dead there.She stepped forward, and said to his dead body, "I will cast a spell, and you will become a handsome prince, so that Hadover will have nothing to say."Turn the giant into a handsome prince After that, the queen went to the palace to find the king.

"I think," she said to the king, "that your daughter is not as good as they say. My brother came to propose to her, and she killed him—I found his body just now at the palace gates. "

The king and queen went to see the corpse together, feeling very strange.Such a handsome fellow, he said, would be a perfect match for Hadover, and he himself would approve of the match.The queen asked her to decide how to punish Hadover, and the king agreed without saying a word, because it was better than punishing his own daughter himself.The queen decided to let the king send someone to dig a big tomb for her brother, and at the same time, Hadover was also buried in the tomb.

Olof learned all the queen's plans, and ran to tell the princess what the queen was up to, and Hadover begged her eagerly to tell him what to do.

"The first thing you have to do," said Olof, "is that you must wear a large cloak over your clothes before you are thrown into the grave. While you two remain there, his ghost will surely carry Two dogs are following you. He will ask you to cut off his leg and give it to the dogs. You must not agree to this, but first ask him to tell you where Hemud is and how to find him. Then he will Puts you on his shoulders, and says he'll help you out of the grave; but that's only a lie, he'll grab your cloak and drag you back; you'll have to be careful that the cloak hangs loose shoulders, so that all he has to hold on to is a cloak."

By this time the grave had been dug, and the giant's body had been put in, and Hadover had to go in too, without any resistance from her.When they were the only ones left in the tomb, what happened was just as Olof said: the prince became a giant again, and asked Hadover to cut off his leg and feed it to the dogs; but She did not answer, but asked the giant to tell her where Hemud was, and how to find him.The giant said that Helmed was on a desert island where she could not go, unless she made a pair of shoes out of the skin of his heel, which would enable her to walk on land and sea.So Hadover made such a pair of shoes as he said, and then the giant let her climb on his shoulders, saying that he would help her climb out of the grave.When she jumped out, the giant grabbed her by the cloak. Fortunately, she was prepared, but the giant only grabbed the cloak, but she ran away.

Then, she came to a place on the seashore that was closest to the deserted island where Hemud was. Putting on the shoes, she crossed the strait smoothly and came to the deserted island.She found a sandy beach by the sea with cliffs on it, but she could not find a way up the mountain, and because of her grief and fatigue from the long journey, she lay down and fell asleep.She dreamed that a tall woman came up to her and said, "I know you are Princess Hadover, and you are looking for Hemud. He is on this island, but you will hardly find him without help." Yes, as you have no strength to climb these crags, I have hung a rope from the crags, with which you may climb; Put it next to you, you just need to hold on to the end of the thread, and the ball of thread will roll in front to guide you; I also put a belt beside you, you can wear it when you wake up, it can prevent you from fainting from hunger.”

After saying this the woman disappeared, and Hadover awoke, and found that all her dreams were true.The rope is hung on the cliff, and the ball of thread and the belt are also at the side.She put on her belt, climbed up the mountain with the rope, and let the ball of thread lead the way, and finally she came to the entrance of a small cave.She went into the cave and saw a bed there, so she climbed onto the bed and lay down.

When night fell, she heard footsteps outside, and knew that the lion had entered the cave and was shaking off its fur, and then she heard the sound of a man walking towards the floor.She decided it was Helmd, for she heard him talking to himself, complaining of his situation, and thinking of Hadover and many past events.Hadover remained silent, and waited till he was sound asleep, and then crept out of the cave, and burned the lion's skin which he had left outside.Then she climbed back to the cave again, and shook Hemund awake, and the two met each other, naturally, they were full of joy.

The next morning, they talked about their plans for the next step, and they were at a loss as to how to leave the desert island.Hadover told Helmd the dream she had had, and said she guessed there must be someone on the island who could help them.Helmed said that he knew there was a witch here, who was very helpful, and he could only go to her now.So they came to the Witch's cave, and seeing the Witch with her fifteen young sons, begged her to help them get back to the land.

"That will be no easy task," said she, "and there awaits you the buried giant, who has turned into a great whale, and will attack you on his way. I will lend you a boat, and if When you meet a whale and your life is threatened, call out my name."

After thanking the witch for her help, they set off to leave the deserted island, but on the way they encountered a huge whale swimming towards them, setting off turbulent waves.They concluded that it was the giant who had turned into a whale, and thinking that this was enough to call the witch to her aid, they called out the witch's name aloud, and had hardly finished calling when they saw a larger whale swimming behind him, followed by fifteen smaller ones. whale.The group of whales passed the boat and swam towards the one in front of them, and a fierce struggle began. The sea raised a huge wave and almost sank the boat.This fierce fight lasted for a long time, and the sea was stained red with blood.In the end, the larger whale swam away with fifteen younger whales, and they returned to the mainland safe and sound.

Now, let us return to some strange events which took place in the king's hall at the same time.The queen and her daughter disappeared, but two mice were always fighting there.Many people want to drive them away, but no one knows how to drive them away.The disappearance of the queen had already made the king sad, and the two mice made him mad.

One night, when the king and his courtiers were sitting in the great hall with their heads downcast, Hemud came to the king with a sword in his hand, and said hello to him.The king thought he was long gone, and now he was overjoyed to see him come back safely.Before he could sit still, however, Hemund approached the two fighting mice, and killed them with his sword.To everyone's surprise, it was not two dead mice lying on the floor of the hall, but two witches!

Hemud then told the king exactly what had happened, and the king was glad to be free from the two wicked witches.Then, Hemud asked him to marry Hadov to him, and the king readily agreed. Considering that he was old, he also handed over the throne to Hemud, and Hemaud became king.

Later, Olof also married a handsome nobleman, and the story ends here.

(End of this chapter)