THE THREE BROTHERS AND THE GIANT

A STORY OF PICARDY

A GOOD woman had three children, all boys: the first was named Jean; the second, Jeannot; and the third, Jeannois. These three children passed for the sharpest in the canton, and the good woman was very glad of it, as you may imagine. One fine day she went to the wood with them to pick up some dead wood there, and make fagots of it for the approaching winter. The children soon had enough of looking for pieces of dead wood, and preferring to gather mulberries, nuts, and dogberries, they left their mother and plunged into the coppice farther and farther, until they did not hear the cries and calls of the good woman, who after awhile, thinking they had returned to the village, went back to her house.

Soon evening came on, and Jean, Jeannot, and Jeannois perceived with terror that they were lost in the woods.

“What shall we do?” said Jean. “What shall we do?” said Jeannot. “What shall we do?” added Jeannois.

They did not know what to do, and they began to hear the howling of the foxes and wolves in the depth of the forest. At last Jean, the oldest, had an inspiration. He climbed to the top of a great oak-tree which grew near by, and turned in every direction so that he could observe the neighborhood. He discovered a light which shone in the distance, and having well observed the position of it, he came down from the oak and walked with his brothers in the direction of the light.

After they had gone beyond the wood, they saw a palace before them, and went and knocked at the door.

Tap! tap!

“Who is there at this hour?”

“We are three little children lost in the forest, and we want to pass the night in this beautiful palace. Will you give us lodging here?”

A young woman half opened the door.

“Do you not know that this is the palace of the Giant of the Golden Beard? He is out at this moment, but he will be back before long. If you take my advice you will make haste and run away, for he might kill you and eat you as he has done so many persons.”

“But, madam, we do not know which way to go this dark night. Hide us safely somewhere, and to-morrow, at the break of day, we will go away without the Giant’s suspecting anything of it.”

The woman was moved with pity, and let the children come into the castle. She made them go down into the cellar, and gave them good cakes to eat. Then, hearing the Giant’s step in the distance, she charged the lost children to hide themselves well behind a big cask, and went up-stairs as if nothing had happened.

The Giant of the Golden Beard had been on a long tramp and was dying of thirst. He went down into the cellar to refresh himself, in spite of his wife, who besought him to go to bed.

“I smell fresh meat here,” muttered the Giant as he came near the cask behind which the children were cowering.

As he was very thirsty, he took out the bung, lifted the cask as if it had been a straw and drank and drank through it. As he set the great wine cask down on the ground he hurt little Jeannois, who could not help uttering a cry.

“Ah! ah!” cried the Giant of the Golden Beard, “I was sure I smelt fresh meat! It is good! it is good! I shall take you up-stairs and kill you; I shall have an excellent breakfast to-morrow.”

He took the three unfortunate boys in one hand and brought them up into the kitchen.

But the wife who had heard what the Giant had just said, had hastened to hide his big knife, and her husband looked for it in vain: he could not succeed in finding it.

“Very well! very well! You will lose nothing by waiting! Wife, put these three children in my daughters’ room and give them a bed. I will kill them to-morrow. The flesh will be fresher.”

The woman obeyed tremblingly, and every one went to bed.

“We are in a very bad place,” thought Jeannot. And he got down from his bed to examine the Giant’s daughters, who were sleeping in the bed near by.

The moon had risen, and Jeannot perceived that the young girls wore a crown of gold on their heads, and that there were, as in their own case, three of them.

“Suppose the Giant should get up and come to wring our necks during the night,” thought Jeannot. “It is very possible, certainly. I am going to take off the three crowns and put them on my head and my brothers’. The Giant will perhaps be deceived.”

So he did what he had thought of, and went to bed again. He was just in time. The Giant of the Golden Beard had drunk too much wine, and found himself uncomfortable in his bed. To kill time, he determined to get up and go and kill the three little boys whom chance had sent to him.

He went to the bed where the latter were pretending to be asleep and took hold of Jean’s head.

“Idiot!” said he to himself, “I was about to kill my daughters. I have mistaken the bed.” And he went to the other bed and wrung the necks of his own children.

Then, satisfied with his work, he went to bed again.

Jean, Jeannot, and Jeannois dressed themselves hastily and escaped through the window.

Imagine the anger and dismay of the Giant, when on waking the next morning he saw what he had done during the night. He became more wicked than before, and went about through the country killing the travelers, murdering peasants, and setting at defiance the armies that the king sent against him.

As for Jean, Jeannot, and Jeannois, not knowing which way to go, they took at last a highway, which at the end of two days’ journey brought them to the capital of the kingdom. They asked to speak to the king and to tell him their adventures in the palace of the Giant of the Golden Beard. The king appointed them to be pages from that day forth.

I told you that the Giant, made furious by the death of his children, went about ravaging the kingdom. This went on for two or three years. Many knights had gone forth to fight against him, and not one of them had returned. The king also trembled in his palace, fearing that some day this terrible man would take a fancy to come and attack him in his city.

One day Jean, the oldest of the three pages, went to the king and asked the hand of his eldest daughter, with the title of knight. The king refused at first; then, on reflection, he said to the page,—

“I grant you what you desire, on condition that you show yourself worthy of it. You have not forgotten that famous Giant of the Golden Beard, who came near killing both yourself and your brothers. Very well; bring me his golden beard, and I swear to you that I will make you a knight and give you my daughter in marriage.”

Jean accepted these terms. The king wanted to give him arms like those of the knights, but he refused them. He took the road his brothers and he had taken before, and presented himself at the Giant’s castle. It was broad daylight, and the page sounded the horn.

“What do you want?” asked the Man with the Golden Beard.

“I want to fight with you to-morrow morning. I have beaten all the giants I have been able to encounter hitherto, and I want to beat you as I have done all the others.”

“You are very young, handsome page; but no matter. Come into my castle, and to-morrow we will fight.”

Jean did not wait to be persuaded, and entered the palace of the Giant of the Golden Beard, who gave him an invitation to dine with him. The page accepted, and while the Giant had his back turned, he poured out for him a liquor which possessed the quality of causing sleep for several days.

“Here is to your health!”

“Here is to your health!”

And the page and the Giant emptied their glasses with a single draught. At the same moment the latter fell under the table and began to snore so loud that the whole castle shook. Without losing time the young man took the scissors which he had brought, and cut off the Giant’s golden beard. Then he left the palace and set out for the capital, where he arrived two days after.

The king was very much astonished; he had promised his daughter to the page, and he bestowed her upon him, telling him he would dub him knight later on. A short while after that, Jeannot came also to find the king.

“My lord the king,” said he, “I love your daughter, Marie, and I think she loves me. Will you make me a knight and bestow her hand upon me?”

“But you have done nothing that I know of to merit such an honor.”

“I am ready to show myself worthy of it. Command, and I will obey you.”

The king reflected, and then said,—

“Well, you shall have what you ask me for, when you bring me the Giant’s broadsword, that you will remember.”

Jeannot agreed, and set out for the Giant’s castle, wearing neither arms nor shield.

He arrived there at the end of two days and sounded the horn.

“Ah! ah!” cried the Giant, “another one who wishes to rob me! Very well; I will see to it.”

“I do not come for that purpose; but I have been told that you could drink more wine than any one in the world, and I have come to compare myself with you.”

“Is that really true?”

“Perfectly true! But I verily believe that I can beat you. I can drink fifty casks of wine without being hurt by it.”

“We will see; we will see. Come into the castle. I am ready to have a match with you. But who will begin first?”

“You, if you please.”

“Agreed.”

Jeannot went down in the Giant’s cellar, and the latter wishing to drink as much as he possibly could, swallowed ever and ever so much wine, so that soon he staggered and fell down dead-drunk. Jeannot took his broadsword and carried it to the king, who was more astonished than when Jean returned with the golden beard.

Jeannot married the princess Marie, but the king did not make him knight at once.

There was only Jeannois left.

One day he came to the king, and said,—

“My lord the king, I love your youngest daughter; she loves me also, and I come to ask you for her hand, and the title of knight.”

“All that is very well. But you must deserve it.”

“Command, and I will do whatever you order me to do.”

The king thought awhile, and at last he said,—

“Your brothers have taken the Giant’s beard and his broadsword. Could you bring him to me in an iron cage?”

“I will try, my lord the king; farewell.”

Jeannois had a very large iron carriage made and went to the Giant’s castle. When he got there he sounded the horn.

“What do you want? worm of the earth! dust of nothingness!”

“Let me into your castle, and I will tell you.”

“Ah! you are one of those pages who stole my beard and my broadsword. I see what you want, and I am going to kill you.”

“One moment, if you please. Do not be in a hurry. I have just come to find you in order to restore what they stole from you. The two pages are alone in a distant castle, and I have brought my carriage so as to carry us there more quickly.”

THE GIANT GOT INTO THE IRON CARRIAGE.

The Giant allowed himself to be deceived again, and got into the iron carriage, where he found himself imprisoned. And Jeannois returned quickly to the court. The king was very glad, as he well might have been, at having got rid of the robber, who was burned on an immense pile built on the great square of the city. Jeannois married the princess whom he loved, and the king made the three brothers knights of his kingdom. During the feasts that were given, the mother of Jean, Jeannot, and Jeannois came to the city, still searching for her children. Imagine her happiness and that of her sons.

E. H. Carnoy, “Litterature Orale de la Picardie.”