When he reached the palace, the princess gave him the sword and broke her ring into two, giving him one ring and keeping the other to signify their betrothal. The young prince and other knights took off for the city to retrieve the sword, The prince got ahead by frightening off the other knights by transforming himself into a lion. The prince left for war with the king, and when the king discovered he had not brought his sword, he promised his entourage that whoever brought his sword back to him would have the hand of the princess and would inherit the throne. He agreed to do so, and told her if he did not return, she should play a violin on the seashore loudly enough to reach the bottom of the sea. Whoever brought it to him would gain her hand. She told him that in three days, her father would go to war and leave his sword behind. The prince wooed the princess and she fell in love with him. So when the prince once more became a man, the guards did not respond to the princess's cries. Once again the prince turned himself into a man and the princess screamed, the guards returned, found nothing and left, this time deciding she was crazy and they would ignore her future screams. He turned himself back into a man and the princess shrieked, but when the guards ran in to protect her they found nothing, so they left. When everyone had retired for the night, the prince turned himself into a bee and flew into the princess's room. The prince continued his adventure and arrived at a city where there lived a young princess who hated all men and would not permit one in her presence. The following day, after he shared his food with a bumblebee he was given a hair from its wing that would transform the prince into a bee so he could fly all day without tiring. That night, the same thing happened with a bear asking for food and repaying the kindness with the tip of his ear that would turn the prince into a bear if he so wished. The prince turned himself into a lion the following day and traveled that way until he tired of it and turned himself back into a man. On his first night, the young prince met a hungry lion and shared his food with the beast the lion repaid the kindness by giving him the tip of its ear and told him this gift would help him transform himself into a lion if he so wished. The king and queen sent the prince out into the world. They raised their son and when the youth was 16, the king and queen decided to have him leave home so the mermaid would not be able to find him when she came to collect on the promise. On his return to his kingdom, he found his first son had been born and he told the queen what he had promised. As the sea became more and more threatening, the king finally agreed. His ship, caught in a storm, was about to founder on the rocks when a mermaid appeared and promised to save him if he, in turn, would promise to give her his firstborn child. Synopsis Ī king, having been married a year, set out to settle disputes among some distant subjects. Later, author Andrew Lang included an English-language version in The Brown Fairy Book with the name The Mermaid and the Boy, in 1904. It was later translated to Norwegian as Gutten, Havfruen og Ridder Rød by Friis and into German as Der Knabe, die Meerfrau und Ritter Roth by Scandinavist Josef Calasanz Poestion. The tale was originally collected by philologist Jens Andreas Friis in 1856 with the Sami title Bardne, Havfruva ja Riddaræva, in a compilation of Sami tales. It tells the story of a prince unknowingly promised to a mermaid before he was born, then obtains magical powers to transform into animals later in the story. The Mermaid and the Boy is a Sámi fairy tale first collected in the mid-19th century. Der Knabe, die Meerfrau und Ritter Roth (German).Gutten, Havfruen og Ridder Rød (Norwegian).The mermaid approaches the king with an offer: his unborn son for calming the storm.
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