The Brave Boy

Once upon a time there was a very stubborn boy who made something out of nothing made his next, whether it was his parents or relatives were full of grief; They could not frighten him with anything. When they They took him to the priest, whom they had thought it was best suited to make something out of the boy and to tame his courage.

When the boy came to the priest, the same thing soon became apparent: there was nothing he was afraid of, whatever the priest did But the boy showed no interest in the priest, Defiance and inquisitiveness as against those with whom he had been before was now. And this gave himself an effort to do him in any way to move in horror, but he never succeeded. Three bodies were brought to the church to be buried but because they arrived so late in the day, they were in the church to be buried the next day. It was At that time it was customary in this country that the bodies were not placed in coffins were buried, and so it happened that these corpses only had the burial clothes attached. the priest had them carried across the aisle between the pews at the front of the church, next to each other, but with a small Space between each two. During the evening the priest said to the boy: »Oh, go to church for me for a moment over there, my boy, and fetch me the book that lies on the altar." The boy obeyed immediately; for he was not disobedient, even if he was stubborn. He went into the church, closed the door and wanted to walk up the aisle. When he had a little Was away from the door, he stumbled across something he was with the feet. However, he was not frightened and felt around with his hands around him and then realized that he had fallen over a corpse, which he took and hurled between the benches on one side. He Now went on, but he fell over a body for the second time. treated her in the same way as with the first. Then he went Continued, but stumbled across a third, which he like the two others from the floor between the pews. Then he went to the altar, took the book, and after he had closed the church again, he brought it to the priest. The priest took the book and asked if he had noticed something. The boy answered: "No," and pointed no change. The priest asked: »Have you nothing of the bodies lying in the corridor?' The boy replied: »Oh yes, I noticed the corpses; I didn’t really know what the pastor meant.« »Well, and how did you notice them?« the pastor said, "they were in the way?" "It is not the one Worth talking about," said the boy. "What did you do to get through the to come to church?' asked the priest. 'I picked them up from the floor picked up and thrown between the pews, and there they lie still. ”The pastor shook his head and no longer spoke to him about this. Priest to the boy: »Now you must leave here; I want to take you to my house no longer, since you are so reckless that you Don't be ashamed of disturbing the calm of the sleepers. ”The boy replied politely, but told the pastor and the people in the yard Then live.

Now he moved around for a while without having a stain where he could lay his head. But on a farm where he could He stayed overnight and heard that the bishop had died at Skalholt. So he made a small detour and walked towards Skalholt. When he got there, the day began to go on and so he asked for shelter for the night. He was told that would be happy to grant him this, but he would have to ensure his own safety. He asked if there would be any evil in staying there, and what It caused it. The people replied that the situation after the death of the bishop had changed so much that no one could bear to stay at home because of all the spooks, as soon as it Dark begins, and that's why all the people of I prefer to stay here. However, the people of the courtyard asked him not to speak; It was really no fun to stay there. When it got dark, people gradually began to leave the farm and with heavy hearts they said goodbye to the boy because they did not expect him The guy was back. Then he went around in the house and looked around. came was the kitchen. There was great prosperity in the economy; a Quantity cocks hung together, and everything he was lined up saw, was proportionate to that. The boy had not had dried meat for a long time Seen, and he started getting an appetite when he saw that there was such an abundance of it here. He did not want to sleep, to to be able to see all the better, and he therefore decided to fire fire to light it, and then he chopped wood and put a pot of Water over the fire, then cut a sheep's hull and put it in the pot. Until now he had not noticed anything spooky. But when everything was put into the pot, he heard that up in the chimney with a dull A voice said, "May I fall?" He replied, "Why should you not fall? ”The whole part of a man fell through the Chimney down, a head with shoulders and arms and hands attached, and for a while this lump lay on the ground without moving. Immediately afterwards the boy heard a question from up in the chimney: »May I fall?« He answered as before: »Why should you not fall?« And down the chimney fell the middle part of a man up to the loins. This lump fell next to the other and remained lying there without moving. Then the boy heard once that someone asked up in the chimney: »May I fall?« He answered as before: "Why should you not fall? You must have something have something to stand on!' Then a man's feet fell down; They were incredibly large, like the lumps that first fell down After falling, all the lumps lay quietly on the ground. When the boy got tired of this, he went to them and said: “Now that everything that belongs to you has come down, it's probably best that you start bumping around.« All lumps pushed together and became a terribly large man. He said not a word to the boy, but went out of the kitchen and into the front house. The boy followed the tall man wherever he went. The man went into a room at the front of the house and stood over a large chest. He opened it and the boy saw that it was full of money. The big Man took one handful of money after another out of the chest, threw the coins over his head and let them fall behind him. In this Wisely he kept it up until late at night until he had emptied the chest Then he reached into the pile that he had thrown on the floor and shoveled it in the same way over his head back into the chest back.

The boy stood next to the ghost while it passed the money back and forth back and saw it rolling around on the floor. The Ghost now set out with all his might to get the money back into the chest, and scraped together with his hands what was left of the down the pile and rolled across the floor; and the boy could from this that it believed that the day was near and that it wanted to hurry as much as possible. Now it happened that the Ghost had thrown all the money back into the chest, and then the boy that it wanted to rush out of the room. The boy found it There would be no reason to hurry so much, but the ghost said that was the case, because the day had now arrived. It was past the boy, who tried to stop it by He held it tight, but this only lasted until the ghost became angry grabbed the boy and said that it was no longer advisable for him to prevent it from coming out. The boy caught the ghost, but soon realized that his strength was too low and therefore slowly retreated, trying to avoid heavy To avoid blows and to avoid tripping, they drove it for a while. Once, when the ghost had his back against the door turned to the door, which was open, and wanted to lift the boy to his chest, to hurl him to the ground even harder. The boy saw clearly what it had in mind and could already imagine that the would lead to his death. He therefore resorted to a ruse. When the Ghost made the first effort to pull him to himself, he jumped with such force in the middle of his arms that it fell backwards and his back straight onto the doorstep, while the boy was It so happened that the ghost with the Head flew out of the room and the light, in the middle of the sky stood, caught his eye; it therefore fell in two pieces into the down to the earth where it lay, a part on each side of the threshold, and the ground closed again immediately as soon as the pieces disappeared Although the boy was a little stiff in the limbs and bruised was from the handles of the ghost, but he immediately started two To make crosses out of wood, which he pushed into the floor, where the pieces were submerged, one outside, the other inside the room door. Then he lay down in bed and slept until the people of the Court came home in the morning and it was broad daylight.

They said good morning to him and now had happier faces that they saw him alive, as the previous evening when they said goodbye, and they asked him if he had noticed anything about the ghost in the night The boy replied that he had not noticed any ghosts. People didn't want to believe him what he was doing to convince them.

He stayed there the next day because he was very taken away by his fight with the ghost, and the people of the court also wanted to Not to lose everything in the world because he understood it so well, to give them courage. In the evening, when he saw that they were preparing to leave, he tried in every possible way to persuade her, to stay in the house and said that the spook has no damage to them But nothing helped him. People believed him not and continued like the evening before; Persuasion and encouragement have achieved so much that they have no fear to leave him behind. When they had left the farm, the boy went to bed, rested carefree and slept until broad daylight. In the morning the people returned to the farm and asked him about the ghost, but he replied that he had not noticed anything, and found that they no longer need to fear in this regard have.

He told them everything that had happened the previous night was, showed them the cross signs on the ground, where the parts of the body were sunken and led them to the money. Boys with well -designed words for his brave demeanor, asked to demand from him whatever he might wish from them, as payment for the help he would have given them, regardless of whether he had given money or property, and said that he should stay at Skalholt, As long as he would like to. Offer, but he needs neither wealth nor anything else, he said, and he did not want to stay there any longer after that day. The next night he stayed there, and that night all the people at home slept in the yard, and neither this time nor Later they noticed something spooky. In the morning the boy ready to leave Skalholt; the people wanted him not lose it, but it was no use, he wanted to leave. He said that he had nothing more to do there now, since the people on He then left Skalholt, very much against the will of the people, and headed north.

Nothing remarkable happened on his way until one fine One day he came to a cave. He went in. He could not find any man discover, but in a side cave he saw twelve beds, which facing each other, six in a row. All Beds were unmade, and since the day was not yet over, so that he could not wait for the cave dwellers to return home soon he began to make all the beds. When he had finished he lay down in the bed that was too far on one side the cave, wrapped the blanket carefully around himself and slept After a while he woke up because someone in the cave He heard that a crowd of people had come and wondering who might have come in and given them the kindness to make their beds; he would have deserves sincere thanks for that, they said. After they had, as it seemed to him, After having eaten dinner, they went to bed. But when the owner of the bed in which he lay, he threw back the covers, he saw the The cave dwellers thanked him for his help, the had served them so well, and asked him to come and stay with them stay to help them in the cave, because they themselves did not have much time, they had to enter the cave at sunrise leave, otherwise their enemies would come and fight them there, and from For this reason, they could not do anything at home.

The boy said that he would accept her offer and stay for some time with wanted to stay with them. He then asked her how it was that she to face such a difficult struggle every day, which never The cave dwellers said that those men were enemies, with whom they had often been in heated dispute in the past, and who were always inferior in battle. They said that they still overpowered and killed every night. But it was always so that their enemies went around the next morning and each time more wildly and more impetuous than ever before, and without doubt they would be their opponents will be attacked in their cave if they are not at sunrise on the battlefield. Then they went to bed and slept until the next morning.

As soon as the sun rose, the cave dwellers went to the teeth armed, but first asked the boy to leave the cave and the to take on housework, which he also promised them. During the course of the day the boy went to a nut tree forest that was in the direction in the direction he had seen them disappear as they left the cave to to find out where the fight was taking place. When he discovered the battlefield he hurried back into the cave. First he made the Beds of the cave dwellers, swept the whole cave and did what else Tired and exhausted, the cave dwellers returned home in the evening Back and were pleased when they saw that the boy the whole economy, so that they themselves had nothing else to do than to eat and to see the bed after the end of the meal, whereupon everyone fell asleep except the boy.

He lay awake and wondered how he could get clarification about that the cave dwellers dealt at night. his new comrades had fallen asleep, he stood up, chose among their weapons the one he liked best and took it with him. Then he hiked after the battleground and reached it shortly after Midnight. There was nothing to see except the fallen and their Happened heads.

But at daybreak he saw a hill not far from the battlefield. open, from which a woman came out; she was wearing a blue coat Dressed and wore a pot in his hand. go to the battlefield, to one of the fallen, and something from Spread the contents of the pot on the piece of the neck that is on the Sitting upper body of the dead, and on the piece that was sitting on the head, and then put the head on the torso; it was immediately stuck, and the Dead people came back to life. She used the same tricks on two or Three others who were also brought to life immediately. Then the boy jumped at the old woman and gave her the death blow; for Now, however, he could understand how it came that the enemies of the Cave dwellers repeatedly bypassed; then he brought those who she had called back to life. himself and tried whether he would succeed, the fallen to revive her in the same way as she had done; he struck some of the contents of the pot to the edge of the neck, and he succeeded just as good as before.

Now he amused himself by taking turns to resurrect the fallen to revive and kill those he brought into life had called until the sun opened; the cave, fully armed; they had become strangely aware, because he had disappeared and some weapons with him; but when they The Walstatt came and saw their enemies dead, seemed to them the matter seems to have taken a positive turn. The cave dwellers were happy to see the boys and asked how he did it He then told them how everything had happened, and how the woman of grace had intended to He showed them the ointment jar, took one of the fallen, rubbed him with the oil and put the head on his head. He soon came back to life, but the people immediately beat him to death again.

The cave dwellers thanked him with many and beautiful words for the courage he had shown; they asked him to stay with them as long as he would like to, and offered him money for his help, which he He thanked them for their kind offer and said that he would gladly accept to stay with them. After all this, the cave dwellers were so happy and glad about the boy that they all sorts of mischief, and it was suggested to try what it would be like to die, since they call each other back to life They killed each other, put ointment on the wound and lived immediately. This continued for a whole year, much to her delight. For a while.

But once, when the boy’s head had been cut off and she had made it grow back to the torso with the help of the ointment, the face was turned backwards, but the back of the head was facing forward. When the boy saw his backside, because his head was upside down he became mad with fear and begged her to take him away for God's sake. from these torments. The cave dwellers immediately ran to cut off the head again and placed it properly on the body. he regained his sanity and was since then just as brave as he had always been before.

Then the people collected all the dead bodies, took away their weapons and burned them together with the woman who was with the ointment jar from the hill. Then they went into the hill in, took everything that was of monetary value and dragged it home to their cave. The boy always stayed with them later, From this time on, however, there are no more stories about him.