Once upon a time, a king ruled in a certain country. He was married, and he and his wife had two children, a son and a daughter. His son's name was Asmund, and his daughter's name was Signy. They were the best of the royal children that people knew in those days, and they learned all the arts that royal children were supposed to know. They grew up with their father in great favor.
The king gave his son Asmund two oak trees that stood in the forest. For fun, he hollowed them out and made them inside the room. Signy often walked with him and admired the oak trees. She wanted to own them with him. He allowed her to do this, and she carried there various jewelry that her mother gave her.
One day their father went on a campaign, and in the meantime the queen fell ill and died. Then the brother and sister went into the forest and settled in the oak trees. They had supplies with them for a whole year.
Now let's talk about how one king ruled in another country. He had a son whose name was Hring. Hring heard about Signy's beauty and decided to ask for her hand in marriage. He took a ship from his father for the voyage. A fair wind blew for him, and he sailed to the country where Signy lived.
But when he was about to go to the palace, he saw a woman coming towards him, extremely beautiful that he had never seen anything like her. He asked who she was and she replied that she was the royal daughter of Signy. He asked why she was walking alone. She said she was grieving for her mother and her father was not home yet.
The king's son told her what he had to do with her, that he was here to marry her. She accepted this well, but asked him to go to the ships, but she still needed to go to the forest. She went to the oak trees, pulled them out by the roots, then put one on her back and the other in front of her, brought them to the sea and loaded them onto the ship.
She became as beautiful as before and told the king’s son that this was her luggage, and she had no other property. They sailed home, and his parents and sister were very happy for him. He brought Signy to a beautiful castle and ordered oak trees to be planted in front of the windows.
Half a month later he came to her and said that he would like to marry her, and at the same time brought a lot of beautiful fabric for wedding dresses for both of them, and she should sew them.
When he left, she threw the cloth on the floor, made a noise, turned into a disgusting giantess and said that she did not know how to make such dresses, because she had never done anything except eat human flesh and gnaw horse bones. She became even more noisy and said that she would die from the city if her brother Jarnhuis (Iron Skull) did not come with the box, as he had promised.
But at this time three boards in the floor of the castle opened and a giant came out with a very large box. The two of them opened the box and it was filled with human bodies. They swallowed them, and her brother went down the same way, and there was no trace of the passage left in the floor. Having had enough, she made even more noise than before, grabbed the fabric and wanted to tear it to shreds.
Now let's talk about the royal children who were in the oak trees and saw all this. Asmund asked Signy to come out of the oak tree and take this cloth, rather than hear this wild noise day and night.
Signy did this. In six days she sewed the dresses as best she could, then went out with them and laid them on the table. The giantess was happy about this.
So the king's son came to her, and she gave him the dresses. He admired her handiwork, and they parted tenderly.
The giantess behaved as before until Jarnhuis arrived. Now Asmund saw all this entry, went to the king's son and invited him to watch during the day the fun that was taking place in the castle of the newly arrived royal daughter. He was surprised to hear this about his fiancée.
The two of them went and hid so that they could watch her. She raged as before, and said to Järnhuis when he arrived:
“When I marry the king’s son, I will live better than now.” Then I will kill all this rabble in the palace and invite my family here, and then, I think, the trolls will love me and my husband.
The king's son was so angry about this that he set fire to the castle, and it burned to the ground. Now Asmund told him all about the oak trees, and he was very surprised at the beauty of Signy and the fact that they were inside. He wooed Signy, Asmund's sister, and Asmund wooed Hring's sister. Both weddings took place. Asmund returned home to his father. Sons-in-law received states after their fathers and ruled until old age. And so this story ends.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru