Part 21 (1/2)

”Here it is for you,” said Shaking-head, taking the comb out of his pocket. ”And now,” said he, ”the whole kingdom is coming to this castle to-day to see your head put on the last spike in the garden of King Behind the Gold, for all men think the same will happen to you that has happened to every king's son before you. Go up on your steed and ride to the summer-house where the king and his daughter are sitting, and give her the comb.”

The king's son did as Shaking-head bade him. When he saw the comb the king said, ”Now you have my daughter two-thirds won.” But her face went from the princess entirely, she was so vexed that any man should know of her dealings with the giant.

The third night when he was going to bed the princess said to the king's son, ”If you will not have at my father's castle to-morrow morning the head I will kiss to-night, you'll die to-morrow, and your own head will be put on the last spike in my father's garden.” Later in the night she came to the bedside of the king's son with a draught, which he drank, and before she was back in her chamber, he slept. Then she made such music all over the castle that not a soul was awake when the music had ceased. That moment she hurried away with her maid to the eastern world; but Shaking-head followed her in his cloak of darkness. This time he carried with him the two-handed sword that never failed a blow.

When she came to the rock in the eastern world and entered the house of the giant, the princess said, ”You let my two gifts go with the son of the king in Erin, and he'll have me won to-morrow if he'll have your head at my father's castle in the morning.”

”Never fear,” said the giant, ”there is nothing in the world to take the head off me but the double-handed sword of darkness that never fails a blow, and that sword belongs to my brother in the western world.”

The princess gave the giant a kiss at parting; and as she hurried away with her maid the giant turned to look at her. His head was covered with an iron cap; but as he looked he laid bare a thin strip of his neck.

Shaking-head was there near him, and said in his mind: ”Your brother's sword has never been so close to your neck before;” and with one blow he swept the head off him. Then began the greatest struggle that Shaking-head ever had, to keep the head from the body of the giant. The head fought to put itself on again, and never stopped till the body was dead; then it fell to the ground. Shaking-head seized, but couldn't stir the head,--couldn't move it from its place. Then he searched all around it and found a (_bar an suan_) pin of slumber near the ear. When he took the pin away he had no trouble in carrying the head; and he made no delay but came to the castle at daybreak, and threw the head to a herd of pigs that belonged to the king. Then he went to the king's son, and asked:

”What happened to you last night?”

”The princess came to me, and said that if I wouldn't bring to her father's castle this morning the head she was to kiss last night, my own head would be on the last spike to-day.”

”Come out with me now to the pigs,” said Shaking-head.

The two went out, and Shaking-head said: ”Go in among the pigs, and take the head with you to the king; and a strange head it is to put before a king.”

So the king's son went on his steed to the summer-house, and gave the head to the king and his daughter, and turning to the princess, said:

”This is the head you kissed last night, and it's not a nice looking head either.”

”You have my daughter won now entirely,” said the king, ”and she is yours. And do you take that head to the great dark hole that is out there on one side of my castle grounds, and throw it down.”

The king's son mounted his steed, and rode off with the head till he came to the hole going deep into the earth. When he let down the head it went to the bottom with such a roaring and such a noise that every mare and cow and every beast in the whole kingdom cast its young, such was the terror that was caused by the noise of the head in going to the bottom of the hole.

When the head was put away the king's son went back to the castle, and married the daughter of King Behind the Gold. The wedding lasted nine days and nights, and the last night was better than the first.

When the wedding was over Shaking-head went to the king, and said: ”You have provided no fortune for your daughter, and it is but right that you should remember her.”

”I have plenty of gold and silver to give her,” said the king.

”It isn't gold and silver that your son-in-law wants, but men to stand against his enemies, when they come on him.”

”I have more treasures than men,” said King Behind the Gold; ”but I won't see my daughter conquered for want of an army.”

They were satisfied with the king's word, and next day took the road to Erin, and kept on their way till they came opposite the grave-yard. Then Shaking-head said to the king's son: ”You are no good, you have never told me a story since the first day I saw you.”

”I have but one story to tell you, except what happened since we met.”

”Well, tell me what happened before we met.”

”I was pa.s.sing this place before I saw you,” said the king's son, ”and four men were fighting over a coffin. I spoke to them, and two of them said they were burying the body of their brother which was in the coffin, and the others said the dead man owed them five pounds, and they wouldn't let the coffin into the ground until they got the money. I paid five pounds and the body was buried.”

”It was my body was in the coffin,” said Shaking-head, ”and I came back into this world to do you a good turn; and now I am going, and you'll never see me again unless trouble is on you.”