Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/356

334 So the stepdaughters were to speak first, as you may fancy, and say what they wished.

Well, the first wished for a golden spinning-wheel, so small that it could stand on a sixpenny-piece; and the second, she begged for a golden winder, so small that it could stand on a sixpenny-piece; that was what they wanted to have, and till they had them there was no spinning or winding to be got out of them. But his own daughter, she would ask for no other thing than that he would greet the Green Knight in her name.

So the king went out to war, and whithersoever he went he won, and however things turned out he brought the things he had promised his stepdaughters; but he had clean forgotten what his own daughter had begged him to do, till at last he made a feast because he had won the day.

Then it was that he set eyes on a Green Knight, and all at once his daughter's words came into his head, and he greeted him in her name. The Green Knight thanked him for the greeting, and gave him a book which looked like a hymn-book with parchment clasps. That the king was to take home and give her; but he was not to unclasp it, or the princess either, till she was all alone.

So, when the king had done fighting and feasting he went home again, and he had scarce got inside the door before his stepdaughters clung round him to get what he had promised to buy them. Yes, he said, he had brought them what they wished; but his own daughter, she held back and asked for nothing, and the king forgot all about it too, till one day when he was going