The Shopboy and His Cheese

Once upon a time there was a shopboy who was so well liked by everyone who knew him that they thought he was too good to stand behind the counter with a yardstick and scales. So they decided to send him on a trading venture to foreign lands, and they let him choose what goods to take. He chose old cheese and set off to Turkey. There he sold his cheeses very well. But as he was on his way home, he met two men who had killed a man, and not content with that, they were mistreating the body. The shopboy could not bear to see such wickedness, so he bought the body from them and used his money to pay for a grave and bury it. That cost him all he had.

After a long, long time, he finally reached home safely, and he was both welcome and unwelcome. Some of those who had helped him thought he had done a good deed, but others were displeased that he had thrown away his money. Still, they were willing to try again, so they let him choose his cargo once more. He chose the same cheese, took the same route, and sold it even better than before. But as he traveled home, he met two men who had stolen a king's daughter. They had put a harness on her and were driving her like a horse; they had stripped her to the waist, and one walked on each side whipping her. The lad's heart melted, for she was a lovely girl. He asked if they would sell her. Yes, if he paid her weight in silver, he could have her. There was no haggling; he paid all they asked.

After a long, long time, he reached home safely, but those who had outfitted him were so displeased with his dealings that they banished him from the land. So he set off to England. There he stayed for four years with his sweetheart. They made a living by her weaving ribbons, which she wove so well that he sold two shillings' worth each day.

One day he met two men who were enemies. One wanted to beat the other because he owed him eighteenpence. The lad thought this was wrong, so he paid the debt for him. Another day he met two travelers who began to talk with him and asked if he had anything to sell. "Nothing but ribbons," he said. They wanted three shillings' worth and asked where he lived, fixing a day to come and fetch them. When the day came, they arrived, and lo and behold, one of them was the princess's brother, and the other was an emperor's son to whom she was betrothed. They got the ribbons they had bargained for and wanted to take her home with them. But she refused to go unless they let the shopboy come along and take care of him, for she would not forsake the man who had freed her as long as she had breath. So they had to give in if they wanted to take her at all. But when they were to go on board ship, the brother and sister went first into the boat.

When the emperor's son was to get in, he pushed the boat away and jumped in himself, leaving the lad standing on the shore. The ship was ready for sea, and they sailed as soon as they came aboard. But then the man for whom the lad had paid the eighteenpence came up in a boat and put him on board. The princess was so glad that she took a gold ring off her finger and gave it to him, and made him go down into the cabin where she lay.

They sailed for many days until they came to a desert island, where they landed to look for game. They arranged that the brother and the Norseman who had saved the princess's life would go to one side of the island, and the emperor's son would go to the middle. When the lad was well away so that they could neither see him nor he them, they got on board and left him to wander the island alone. Then he saw there was no help for it but to stay there. He stayed for seven years. He got his food from a fruit-bearing tree he found. When the seven years were up, a very old man came to him and said, "Today your true love is to be married. They have not gotten a kind word out of her these seven years since you parted; but still the emperor's son wants to marry her because he knows she is wise and witty and very rich."

The man asked if he wanted to attend the wedding. He said yes, of course, but he saw no way to get there. Yet in a little while, he found himself standing in the palace where the wedding was to be. He asked what kind of man had brought him there. The man said he was no man but a spirit; it was he whose body the shopboy had bought and buried in Turkey.

Then the spirit gave him a glass and a bottle of wine and told him to send a message to the cook to come out. "When he comes," said the spirit, "first pour out a glass and drink it yourself; then pour another and give it to the cook; then pour out a third and send it to the bride. But first take the ring off your finger and put it into the glass you send her."

When the cook came in with the glass, everyone cried out, "She mustn't drink!" But the cook said, "First he drank, and then I drank, so she may safely drink the wine." And when she drank the glass, she saw the ring at the bottom, ran out, and as soon as she got outside she recognized him and fell on his neck and kissed him, all shaggy as he was—for you can imagine he had neither lather nor razor on his beard for seven years.

Now the king came and wanted to know the meaning of all this fondling. So they were brought into a room and told the whole story from first to last. Then the king ordered them to fetch a barber to scrape off the bristles and trim him, and a tailor with a new court dress. Then the king went into the bridal hall and asked the bridegroom, that emperor's son, what doom should be passed on someone who had robbed a man of both life and honor. He answered, "Such a scoundrel should first be hanged on a gallows and then his body burned to ashes."

So he was taken at his word and suffered the doom he had uttered over himself. And the shopboy was wedded to the king's daughter and lived long and happily.

After that, I was no longer with them, and I don't know how they fared; but this I know: he who last told this tale is alive this very day, and he is Ole Olsen, of Hitli, in Roldale.