The Master-Maid: The Princess Who Outwitted a Giant

Long ago, a king had several sons, but the youngest was restless. He longed to leave the palace, explore the world, and discover what fortune awaited him beyond his father’s kingdom. Eventually, the king allowed him to go.

After travelling for several days, the prince reached the house of a giant and took a position as his servant.

The giant appeared generous. On the prince’s first morning, he instructed him to clean the stable and promised that he would have no other work that day. However, he gave him one strict warning.

“You must not enter any of the rooms beyond the one where you slept. If you disobey me, you will lose your life.”

The prince thought his new master was surprisingly kind, but his curiosity soon overcame his caution. He decided to explore the forbidden rooms before attending to the stable.

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In the first room, he discovered a cauldron boiling without a fire beneath it. He dipped a strand of his hair into the liquid, and it turned the colour of copper.

In the next room, another cauldron transformed his hair to silver. In the third, the liquid made it shine like gold.

The prince marvelled at these strange discoveries. What other wonders could the giant be hiding?

He entered the fourth room and found a beautiful maiden sitting on a bench. She was more lovely than anyone he had ever seen.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I came yesterday to serve the giant,” he replied.

“Then I hope you find another place soon,” she said. “Serving him is no blessing.”

The prince explained that his first task was simply to clean the stable. The maiden warned him that ordinary methods would make the work impossible. For every forkful of muck he removed, ten more would appear.

She showed him the trick: he must turn his pitchfork upside down and use its handle instead of its prongs. The stable would then clean itself.

The prince thanked her, and the two began talking. Before long, they had fallen in love and agreed that they would marry if they could escape the giant.

When evening approached, the maiden reminded him to finish his work. The prince first tried cleaning the stable in the usual way, but the mess quickly overwhelmed him. He then followed her instructions, and the stable became spotless in an instant.

When the giant returned, he inspected the stable and was astonished by the result.

“You have certainly been talking to my Master-Maid,” he declared.

The prince pretended not to understand. He asked who this Master-Maid could be and insisted that he would be delighted to meet her.

The giant merely told him to wait.

Three Impossible Tasks

The following morning, the giant gave the prince another task. He was to fetch a horse from the mountainside and bring it home.

Once again, the giant warned him to stay out of the forbidden rooms.

The prince ignored the warning and went to consult the maiden.

“Do not approach the horse carelessly,” she told him. “Fire will stream from its nostrils. Take the bridle hanging by the door and throw the bit straight into its mouth. It will then become gentle.”

The prince followed her advice. When he reached the mountain, the horse rushed towards him, flames bursting from its nostrils. At the right moment, he threw the bit into its mouth. The fiery creature immediately became tame, and he led it safely home.

The giant inspected the horse and again accused him of seeking the Master-Maid’s help. The prince continued pretending ignorance.

On the third day, the giant gave him a more difficult assignment. He must go beneath the mountain and collect the giant’s taxes.

The prince returned to the maiden, who explained what to do. He was to find a club near a rocky wall, strike the rock, and speak to the fiery being that emerged. When asked how much treasure he wanted, he must answer, “As much as I can carry.”

The prince did exactly as instructed. The being led him into the mountain, where gold and silver lay in enormous heaps. He gathered as much as he could manage and returned with a heavy load.

When the giant saw the treasure, his suspicions became certainty.

“You have been talking to my Master-Maid,” he said angrily. “Tomorrow, I shall take you to her myself.”

The prince knew that danger was close, but the maiden already had a plan.

The Great Escape

The next day, the giant led the prince to the maiden and ordered her to kill him and boil him in a large cauldron. He then lay down on a bench and fell into a deep sleep.

The maiden cut the prince’s little finger and placed three drops of his blood on a wooden stool. She filled the cauldron with old rags, scraps of leather, and discarded shoe soles. She also packed a chest with gold dust, took a lump of salt, a flask of water, a golden apple, and two golden chickens.

Then she and the prince fled.

They travelled until they reached the sea, where they somehow obtained a ship and sailed away.

Meanwhile, the giant awoke and called out to ask whether the meal was ready. The first drop of blood answered that it was just beginning to boil. Later, the second announced that it was halfway done, and the third finally declared it ready.

When the giant approached the cauldron, he discovered the rubbish inside and realised that the maiden and the prince had escaped.

Furious, he rushed after them. At the sea, he summoned a creature capable of drinking enormous quantities of water. After several great draughts, the water level dropped, revealing the fugitives in their ship.

The maiden immediately told the prince to throw the lump of salt into the sea. It became a towering mountain that blocked the giant’s path and prevented the water-drinking creature from continuing.

The giant then summoned a hill-boring creature to pierce the mountain. As soon as a hole opened and the water-drinker prepared to resume its work, the maiden told the prince to sprinkle a few drops from the flask into the sea.

The water returned at once, filling the sea before the creature could drink again. The prince and the maiden reached land safely.

At last, they could travel towards the prince’s father and prepare for their marriage. But the prince insisted that his beloved should not have to walk to the palace. He would return home for his father’s seven horses and a carriage.

The maiden feared that he would forget her if he returned to the palace.

“How could I forget you after everything we have suffered together?” he promised.

Before letting him go, she warned him not to greet anyone, accept food, or taste anything. He must go straight to the stable, harness the horses, and return.

The prince promised to obey.

Unfortunately, one of his brothers was preparing for a wedding, and the palace was full of guests. Everyone crowded around the prince, asking questions and inviting him inside. He resisted their invitations and went directly to the stable.

When they realised that he would not stop, the wedding party brought him food and drink. He refused everything until the bride’s sister rolled an apple towards him, suggesting that he might at least take a bite.

The prince picked it up and ate a piece.

Immediately, he forgot the Master-Maid and their escape. He could no longer understand why he had wanted the carriage and horses. He returned them to the stable and went into the palace, where arrangements were made for him to marry the bride’s sister.

The Master-Maid waited by the shore for a long time. When the prince failed to return, she finally left and found a small hut in the woods near the royal palace.

The hut belonged to an old, ill-tempered troll-woman who reluctantly allowed her to stay. The place was filthy, so the maiden decided to make it more beautiful. She threw some gold dust into the fire, and the gold spread throughout the hut until the entire building gleamed.

The old woman was so terrified by the transformation that she fled through the doorway without bending down, struck her head, and died.

The following morning, a sheriff passing through the woods discovered the golden hut and the beautiful maiden inside. He immediately fell in love with her and asked her to marry him.

The maiden asked whether he had plenty of money. He assured her that he did and returned with a bag holding two bushels of money.

Once they were seated together, she pretended to remember that she had forgotten to tend the fire. When the sheriff offered to do it for her, she instructed him to take hold of the shovel. Then she enchanted the shovel so that he was forced to hold it and pour red-hot coals over himself until morning. He fled as soon as he was released.

The next day, an attorney discovered the golden hut and fell in love with the maiden too. He returned with an even larger sack of money, this time holding four bushels.

The maiden said she had forgotten to secure the porch door. The attorney volunteered to do it. When he took hold of the latch, she enchanted the door, which trapped him in a terrible struggle until dawn. He escaped in terror, abandoning his money and his hopes of marriage.

On the third day, a bailiff arrived and became equally infatuated with the maiden. He brought six bushels of money and agreed to marry her. This time, she said she had forgotten to bring a calf into the byre.

The bailiff hurried out to help. As soon as he seized the calf’s tail, she enchanted it so that he was forced to follow the animal around the world until daylight. Exhausted and dishevelled, he finally escaped, forgetting everything he had brought.

The Wedding and the Forgotten Bride

The next day, the prince’s brother was to marry his bride, while the prince was to marry her sister. Yet the wedding party encountered a series of strange difficulties.

First, the carriage’s trace-pins kept breaking. The sheriff remembered the maiden in the woods and suggested borrowing her shovel handle, which proved strong enough to serve as a replacement.

Then the bottom of the carriage repeatedly fell apart. The attorney recommended borrowing half of the maiden’s porch door, which held the carriage together.

Finally, the horses could not move the carriage, no matter how many were harnessed to it. The bailiff suggested borrowing the maiden’s calf. Though the idea seemed ridiculous, the wedding party had no better option.

They harnessed the calf to the carriage, and it pulled them wildly over hills, rough ground, and stones. At the church, the carriage spun around like a wheel, and the passengers struggled to get out. The return journey was even more chaotic.

When everyone gathered for the wedding feast, the prince remarked that they ought to invite the maiden who had lent them the three things. Without her help, they would never have reached the church.

The king agreed and sent messengers to invite her to the palace. The maiden refused to come merely because the king had summoned her. If he wished her to attend, she said, he could come to her himself.

The king went to the golden hut and escorted her to the palace, seating her beside the prince at the place of honour.

During the feast, the maiden placed her golden apple on the table and set the golden cock and hen beside it. The birds began fighting over the apple.

The prince watched them and remarked on their quarrel.

“Yes,” said the maiden, “and that is how we fought to escape from the mountain.”

At once, the prince remembered everything. He recognised the woman he had loved, the woman who had saved his life and whom he had abandoned through his own carelessness.

His joy at finding her again was immense. The story ends with the prince ordering the troll-woman who had tricked him with the apple to be torn apart by twenty-four horses. At last, the wedding celebrations truly began, with the sheriff, attorney, and bailiff joining in despite their earlier humiliating experiences.

And so the prince and the Master-Maid were reunited after all their trials.

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Moral

Intelligence, patience, and courage can overcome strength, but loyalty must be supported by action. The prince survives the giant’s challenges because he trusts the Master-Maid’s wisdom, yet nearly loses her because he fails to keep his promise. The tale reminds readers that the people who help us through difficult times deserve to be remembered and valued.

Knowledge Check

1. Why did the prince enter the giant’s forbidden rooms?

He was curious about what the giant was hiding and wanted to explore the house.

2. How did the Master-Maid help the prince complete his tasks?

She taught him how to clean the stable, tame the fiery horse, and collect the giant’s treasure.

3. How did the prince forget the Master-Maid?

He ate a piece of an enchanted apple offered to him at the palace.

4. Why did the Master-Maid enchant the sheriff, attorney, and bailiff?

She used their offers to help with household tasks to teach them difficult lessons and drive them away after they tried to win her through their wealth.

5. How did the prince finally recognise the Master-Maid?

She placed the golden apple and the golden cock and hen before him. When she referred to their struggle to escape the mountain, he remembered their shared past.

6. What is one important theme of the story?

The power of intelligence over physical strength, as well as the importance of loyalty and keeping promises.

Source

The supplied text is titled “The Master-Maid”. A closely matching version appears as “The Mastermaid” in Popular Tales from the Norse, translated into English by Sir George Webbe Dasent from the Norwegian folktale collection associated with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. In the 1912 new edition, the tale begins on printed page 71.

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