Аннотация 19 страница

83 "What happened to you last night?"

84 "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 today."

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

86 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."

87 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,

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

89 "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."

90 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.

91 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.

92 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."

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

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

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

96 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."

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

98 "Well, tell me what happened before we met."

99 "I was passing 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."

100 "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'II never see me again unless trouble is on you."

101 Shaking-head disappeared, and the king's son went home. He wasn't with his father long till the other three kings' sons heard he had come back to Erin with the daughter of King Behind the Gold. They sent word, saying, "We'll take the head off you now, and put an end to your father and yourself."

102 The king's son went out to walk alone, and as he was lamenting the fate he had brought on his father, who should come along to meet him but Shaking-head.

103 "What trouble is on you now?" asked he.

104 "Oh, three kings' sons are coming with their fleets and armies to destroy my father and myself, and what can we do with our one fleet and one army?"

105 "Well," said Shaking-head, "I'll settle that for you without delay." Then he sent a message straight to King Behind the Gold, who gave a fleet and an army, and they came to Erin so quickly that they were at the castle before the forces of the three kings' sons. And when the three came the battle began on sea and land at both sides of the castle.

106 The three fleets of the three kings' sons were sunk, their armies destroyed, and the three heads taken off themselves. When the battle was over and the country safe the king resigned the castle and power to his son, and the son of a king in a province became king over all the land of Erin.

Оглавление

The Son of the King of Erin, and the Giant of Loch Lein

The Three Daughters of the King O'Hara

The Weaver's Son and the Giant of the White Hill

Fair, Brown and Trembling

The King of Erin and the Queen of the Lonesome Island

The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire

The Three Daughters of the King of the East, and the Son of a King in Erin

The Fisherman's Son and the Gruagach of Tricks

The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin

Shaking-Head