The Brown Fairy Book, part 12 · page 21 2101It seemed as if Rosald, being the smaller of the two, MUST fall over, when, with his left hand, he drew the robber’s sword out of its sheath and plunged it into his heart.102Then he took from the dead man a beautiful ring set with a large stone, and put it on his own finger.103The fame of this wonderful deed soon spread through the country, and people would often stop Geirald’s horse, and ask leave to see the robber’s ring, which was said to have been stolen from the father of the reigning king.104And Geirald showed them the ring with pride, and listened to their words of praise, and no one would ever have guessed anyone else had destroyed the robbers.105In a few days they left the kingdom and rode on to another, where they thought they would stop through the remainder of the winter, for Geirald liked to be comfortable, and did not care about travelling through ice and snow.106But the king would only grant them leave to stop on condition that, before the winter was ended, they should give him some fresh proof of the courage of which he had heard so much.107Rosald’s heart was glad at the king’s message, and as for Geirald, he felt that as long as Rosald was there all would go well.108So they both bowed low and replied that it was the king’s place to command and theirs to obey.109“Well, then,” said his Majesty, “this is what I want you to do: In the north-east part of my kingdom there dwells a giant, who has an iron staff twenty yards long, and he is so quick in using it, that even fifty knights have no chance against him.110The bravest and strongest young men of my court have fallen under the blows of that staff; but, as you overcame the twelve robbers so easily, I feel that I have reason to hope that you may be able to conquer the giant.111In three days from this you will set out.”112“We will be ready, your Majesty,” answered Rosald; but Geirald remained silent.113“How can we possibly fight against a giant that has killed fifty knights?” cried Geirald, when they were outside the castle.114“The king only wants to get rid of us!115He won’t think about us for the next three days—that is one comfort—so we shall have plenty of time to cross the borders of the kingdom and be out of reach.”116“We mayn’t be able to kill the giant, but we certainly can’t run away till we have tried,” answered Rosald.117“Besides, think how glorious it will be if we DO manage to kill him!118I know what sort of weapon I shall use.119Come with me now, and I will see about it.”120And, taking his friend by the arm, he led him into a shop where he bought a huge lump of solid iron, so big that they could hardly lift it between them.121However, they just managed to carry it to a blacksmith’s where Rosald directed that it should be beaten into a thick club, with a sharp spike at one end.122When this was done to his liking he took it home under his arm.checked by a teacher123Very early on the third morning the two young men started on their journey, and on the fourth day they reached the giant’s cave before he was out of bed.124Hearing the sound of footsteps, the giant got up and went to the entrance to see who was coming, and Rosald, expecting something of the sort, struck him such a blow on the forehead that he fell to the ground.125Then, before he could rise to his feet again, Rosald drew out his sword and cut off his head.1 2← previousThe Brown Fairy Book, part 11next →The Brown Fairy Book, part 13↑ back to The Brown Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/12/page/2/