The mermaid and the poor fisherman, By Arizona [online e book reading .txt] 📗

an egg inside the dove, he seized it and headed back for the place, where he found the giant deathly ill and stretched out on his bed.

"Give me the egg, boy," moaned the giant, "and I’ll grant you all my trasures."

"First hand over your keys," answered the shepherd, "every last one." When the ailing giant had done this, the boy grasped the egg tight and said, "Open your mouth wide, because I’m going to toss this inside." With all his strength he hurled the egg, which broke to smithereens on the giant’s forehead and killed him on the spot! Now the young shepherd began to open all the doors of the palace. In one room he found a little princess locked up. And what a lovely girl she was! He opened a second door and found another little princess, even more beautiful than the first. Opening a third door, he found a third princess, lovely without equal. This one the boy married.

After his wedding to the third princess, he returned to visit his master and to see how things were at the ranch.

"My son, don’t go," implored the rich man. "Marry my daughter, for she’s the only one I have, and I’m a man of great wealth."

"It’s not out of scorn that I don’t marry her," answered the boy, "It’s just that I have another." So his master paid him, and he set off for home, telling his wife the story of how he had been married to the mermaid and run away from her and had then become a shepherd.

"Well," she said upon hearing the tale, "see that you never go to the seashore any more, for she could nab you again with no trouble at all."

The days passed in this new life, and the youth became a hunter of birds. Bit by bit, he forgot about the danger of the sea’s edge. One day when he strayed there by chance, the mermaid spied him and pulled him in. He didn’t come home anymore, and his wife was sure that he had finally fallen into the mermaid’s power. She bustled off to a jeweler’s and ordered three golden apples. When these strange fruits were ready, she want to hide in a wood near the mermaid’s haunt. Rummaging around, the young wife took out one of the golden apples and began to juggle it from hand to hand. When the mermaid spied the gleam of the golden fruit, she called, "sell me your apple, princess."

"If you will show me your husband down to his shoulders," she answered, "the apple shall be yours. Not otherwise." So the mermaid grabbed the young man and raised him out of the water to his shoulders. When the princess recognized him as her husband, she threw the apple to the sea-maiden. Then she entered the little wood again and took out another apple even more beautiful than the first. When the mermaid saw this one, she cried, "Oh, princess, sell me your lovely apple."

"Of course. Simply show me your husband to the waist, and you shall have it." The mermaid seized her captive husband and lifted him out up to his waist, whereupon the princess tossed her the apple. Once again she returned to the grove to get the third and most beautiful apple. When the mermaid asked for that one as well, the princess replied, "Certainly I’ll sell it to you if you’ll lift up your husband in the palm of your hand."

When the mermaid did this, the young man turned into a dove and flew far away into the clouds. The princess hurled the apple to the sea-maiden and returned to shore in her little boat. When she got home, her husband was sitting there awaiting her. They were married again, and this time the princess insisted, "Never go hunting again, my love, for now there’s no need. If the mermaid should trap you another time, she would never let you out of her clutches." And that is the story of the mermaid and the poor fisherman.
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Publication Date: 05-19-2010

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