9. Interpretations of Fairy Tales

But now they were curious and wanted to know what the poplar tree was all about. So one evening they went out and sat under the poplar tree, lit a fire, and fell asleep. The eldest had to keep watch. As he paced back and forth with his sword, something appeared that was eating the fire, and when he looked closer, it was a three-headed dragon. He began to fight the three-headed dragon. He defeated it, buried it, but told his brothers nothing about it, and the next morning they went home. The next evening they went out again. They lit a fire and lay down. This time the second brother had to keep watch. Soon he saw something eating the fire, and when he looked closer, it was a six-headed dragon. He began to fight with the six-headed dragon. He defeated it and buried it, but said nothing, and his brothers believed that nothing had happened. And they went home the next morning. On the third evening, they did the same thing, lit a fire, and this time the youngest brother had to keep watch. No sooner had the others fallen asleep and he was pacing back and forth with his sword than he saw something eating at the fire. He looked more closely and hesitated a little, and some time passed. Then he began to fight with the dragon, which was now nine-headed. But when he had defeated it, the fire had gone out. Now he did not want to surprise his brothers, so he set off to find some light. Then he saw some light between the branches; he wanted to fetch it, but it was not enough. Then he saw something fighting in the air and asked what it was, and the fighting beings said, “We are the sun and the dawn; we are fighting for the day.” So he untied the ribbon with which he had tied his leggings and tied the sun and the dawn together so that the day could not begin. Then he went on to find light and fire. He came to a place where three giants were sleeping by a mighty fire. He took some fire, but as he was trying to climb over one of the giants, some of the fire fell on the giant, who woke up. He grabbed him by the hand, showed him to the others, and said, “Look what I've caught!” The prince was extremely unhappy, for the giants wanted to kill him. But first they wanted something from him, so they made a deal with him. They wanted to get three princesses, but there was a dog and a chicken that made such a racket that they couldn't get there. The prince promised to help them, and the giants agreed to let him go in return.