Once upon a time lived a man and a woman who so long as they were
rich had no children, but when they were poor they got a little boy.
They could find no godfather for him, so the man said he would just
go to another village to see if he could get one there. On his way
he met a poor man, who asked him where he was going. He said he was
going to see if he could get a godfather, because he was so poor that
no one would stand as godfather for him. "Oh," said the poor man,
"you are poor, and I am poor. I will be godfather for you, but I am
so badly off I can give the child nothing. Go home and tell the
midwife that she is to come to the church with the child." When they
all got to the church together, the beggar was already there, and he
gave the child the name of Ferdinand the Faithful.
When he was going out of the church, the beggar said, "Now go home, I
can give you nothing, and you likewise ought to give me nothing." But
he gave a key to the midwife, and told her when she got home she was
to give it to the father, who was to take care of it until the child
was fourteen years old, and then he was to go on the heath where
there was a castle which the key would fit, and that all which was
therein should belong to him.
Now when the child was seven years old and had grown very big, he
once went to play with some other boys, and each of them boasted that
he had got more from his godfather than the other, but the child
could say nothing, and was vexed, and went home and said to his
father, "Did I get nothing at all, then, from my godfather?" "Oh,
yes," said the father, "you have a key. If there is a castle
standing on the heath, just go to it and open it." Then the boy went
thither, but no castle was to be seen, or heard of.
After seven years more, when he was fourteen years old, he again went
thither, and there stood the castle. When he had opened it, there
was nothing within but a horse, - a white one. Then the boy was so
full of joy because he had a horse, that he mounted on it and
galloped back to his father. "Now I have a white horse, and I will
travel," said he.
So he set out, and as he was on his way, a pen was lying on the road.
At first he thought he would pick it up, but then again he thought to
himself, "You should leave it lying there, you will easily find a pen
where you are going, if you have need of one." As he was thus riding
away, a voice called after him, "Ferdinand the Faithful, take it with
you." He looked around, but saw no one, so he went back again and
picked it up.
When he had ridden a little way farther, he passed by a lake, and a
fish was lying on the bank, gasping and panting for breath, so he
said, "Wait, my dear fish, I will help you to get into the water,"
and he took hold of it by the tail, and threw it into the lake. Then
the fish put its head out of the water and said, "As you have helped
me out of the mud I will give you a flute. When you are in any need,
play on it, and then I will help you, and if ever you let anything
fall in the water, just play and I will reach it out to you."
Then he rode away, and there came to him a man who asked him where he
was going. "Oh, to the next place." "What is your name?" "Ferdinand
the Faithful." "So, then we have almost the same name, I am called
Ferdinand the Unfaithful." And they both set out to the inn in the
nearest place.
Now it was unfortunate that Ferdinand the Unfaithful knew everything
that the other had ever thought and everything he was about to do. He
knew it by means of all kinds of wicked arts. There was in the inn
an honest girl, who had a bright face and behaved very prettily. She
fell in love with Ferdinand the Faithful because he was a handsome
man, and she asked him whither he was going. "Oh, I am just
traveling round about," said he. Then she said he ought to stay
there, for the king of that country wanted an attendant or an
outrider, and he ought to enter his service. He answered he could
not very well go to any one like that and offer himself. Then said
the maiden, "Oh, but I will soon do that for you." And so she went
straight to the king, and told him that she knew of an excellent
servant for him. He was well pleased with that, and had Ferdinand
the Faithful brought to him, and wanted to make him his servant. He,
however, liked better to be an outrider, for where his horse was,
there he also wanted to be, so the king made him an outrider.
When Ferdinand the Unfaithful learnt that, he said to the girl,
"What? Do you help him and not me?" "Oh," said the girl, "I will help
you too." She thought, I must keep friends with that man, for he is
not to be trusted. She went to the king, and offered him as a
servant, and the king was willing.
Now when the king met his lords in the morning, he always lamented
and said, "Oh, if I only had my love with me." Ferdinand the
Unfaithful, however, was always hostile to Ferdinand the Faithful. So
once, when the king was complaining thus, he said, "You have the
outrider, send him away to get her, and if he does not do it, his
head must be struck off." Then the king sent for Ferdinand the
Faithful, and told him that there was, in this place or in that
place, a girl he loved, and that he was to bring her to him, and if
he did not do it he should die. Ferdinand the Faithful went into the
stable to his white horse, and complained and lamented, "Oh, what an
unhappy man am I." Then someone behind him cried, "Ferdinand the
Faithful, why do you weep?" He looked round but saw no one, and went
on lamenting. "Oh, my dear little white horse, now must I leave you,
now I must die." Then someone cried once more, "Ferdinand the
Faithful, why do you weep?" Then for the first time he was aware that
it was his little white horse who was putting that question. "Do you
speak, my little white horse? Can you do that?" And again, he said,
"I am to go to this place and to that, and am to bring the bride.
Can you tell me how I am to set about it?" Then answered the white
horse, "Go to the king, and say if he will give you what you must
have, you will get her for him. If he will give you a ship full of
meat, and a ship full of bread, it will succeed. Great giants dwell
on the lake, and if you take no meat with you for them, they will
tear you to pieces, and there are the large birds which would pluck
the eyes out of your head if you had no bread for them. Then the
king made all the butchers in the land kill, and all the bakers bake,
that the ships might be filled."
When they were full, the little white horse said to Ferdinand the
Faithful, "Now mount me, and go with me into the ship, and then when
the giants come, say - peace, peace, my dear little giants, I have
had thought of ye, something I have brought for ye. And when the
birds come, you shall again say - peace, peace, my dear little birds,
I have had thought of ye, something I have brought for ye. Then
they will do nothing to you, and when you come to the castle, the
giants will help you. Then go up to the castle, and take a couple of
giants with you. There the princess lies sleeping. You must,
however, not awaken her, but the giants must lift her up, and carry
her in her bed to the ship." And now everything took place as the
little white horse had said, and Ferdinand the Faithful gave the
giants and the birds what he had brought with him for them, and that
made the giants willing, and they carried the princess in her bed to
the king. And when she came to the king, she said she could not
live, she must have her writings, they had been left in her castle.
Then by the instigation of Ferdinand the Unfaithful, Ferdinand the
Faithful was called, and the king told him he must fetch the writings
from the castle, or he should die. Then he went once more into the
stable, and bemoaned himself and said, "Oh, my dear little white
horse, now I am to go away again, how am I to do it?" Then the little
white horse said he was just to load the ships full again. So it
happened again as it had happened before, and the giants and the
birds were satisfied, and made gentle by the meat. When they came to
the castle, the white horse told Ferdinand the Faithful that he must
go in, and that on the table in the princess's bed-room lay the
writings. And Ferdinand the Faithful went in, and fetched them. When
they were on the lake, he let his pen fall into the water. Then said
the white horse, "Now I cannot help you at all." But he remembered
his flute, and began to play on it, and the fish came with the pen in
its mouth, and gave it to him. So he took the writings to the
castle, where the wedding was celebrated.
The queen, however, did not love the king because he had no nose, but
she would have much liked to love Ferdinand the Faithful. Once,
therefore, when all the lords of the court were together, the queen
said she could do feats of magic, that she could cut off anyone's
head and put it on again, and that one of them ought just to try it.
But none of them would be the first, so Ferdinand the Faithful, again
at the instigation of Ferdinand the Unfaithful, undertook it and she
hewed off his head, and put it on again for him, and it healed
together directly, so that it looked as if he had a red thread round
his throat. Then the king said to her, "My child, and where have you
learnt that?" "Oh," she said, "I understand the art. Shall I just
try it on you also." "Oh, yes," said he. So she cut off his head,
but did not put it on again, and pretended that she could not get it
on, and that it would not stay. Then the king was buried, but she
married Ferdinand the Faithful.
He, however, always rode on his white horse, and once when he was
seated on it, it told him that he was to go on to the heath which he
knew, and gallop three times round it. And when he had done that,
the white horse stood up on its hind legs, and was changed into a
king's son.
