Dapplegrim is a Norwegian
fairy taleA fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, gnomes, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events...
collected by
Peter Christen AsbjørnsenPeter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...
and
Jørgen MoeJørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author.He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen....
in their
Norske FolkeeventyrNorwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
.
Andrew LangAndrew Lang was a prolific Scots man of letters. He was a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to anthropology...
included it in
The Red Fairy Book.
The
youngestThe youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters....
of twelve sons goes off to serve the king for a year. The king's daughter had been carried off by
trollA troll is a member of a race of fearsome creatures from Norse mythology.Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of England – to a devious, more human-like...
s, but no one can discover anything about where she is, although the king has offered half the kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage to anyone who can bring her back.
When he returns home, his parents had died, and his brothers had already split up the entire estate except twelve mares, and they give them to him as his portion.
Dapplegrim is a Norwegian
fairy taleA fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, gnomes, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events...
collected by
Peter Christen AsbjørnsenPeter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...
and
Jørgen MoeJørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author.He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen....
in their
Norske FolkeeventyrNorwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors....
.
Andrew LangAndrew Lang was a prolific Scots man of letters. He was a poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to anthropology...
included it in
The Red Fairy Book.
Synopsis
The
youngestThe youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters....
of twelve sons goes off to serve the king for a year. The king's daughter had been carried off by
trollA troll is a member of a race of fearsome creatures from Norse mythology.Originally more or less the Nordic equivalents of giants, although often smaller in size, the different depictions have come to range from the fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of England – to a devious, more human-like...
s, but no one can discover anything about where she is, although the king has offered half the kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage to anyone who can bring her back.
When he returns home, his parents had died, and his brothers had already split up the entire estate except twelve mares, and they give them to him as his portion. When he goes to see them, they each have a foal, and there is, in addition, a dapple-gray colt. It persuades him to kill all the foals so that it can suckle from all twelve mares all year. The effects are so amazing that the colt persuades him to do it two more years. At the end of the
thirdThe rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. From slogans to films, many things are structured in threes...
year, the youth trades with his brothers, the twelve mares and their new foals for equipment for his horse, Dapplegrim, and the youth rides off to rejoin the king's household.
The rest of the king's men grow envious of him, and tell the king he had said he could rescue the king's daughter. The king, despite the youth's denials, orders him to do it. Dapplegrim instructs him to tell the king he must have his horse wellshod. The king agrees, and Dapplegrim is, after three tries, able to climb the hill where the princess was carried, and they carry off the princess.
The king is glad to see her, but the envious men persuade him not keep his word. He tells the youth that he must let the sun into the king's hall first, although the king's hall was built under a ridge. Dapplegrim asks to be shod again, and then tramples the ridge to nothing. Once again, the envious men persuade the king to break his promise, and the king says that his bride must have as fine a horse as he has. Dapplegrim tells the youth that they must retrieve the horse from Hell, and therefore they will not only need him to be reshod, but more supplies.
When they ride off, birds are sent to stop them, but the youth spills rye and barley, and the birds eat and forget them. Beasts are sent to stop them, but the youth throws down twelve ox carcasses, and the beasts eat and forget them. Then Dapplegrim neighs as they ride along, three times, and each time the response grows louder. Dapplegrim has the youth cover him with oxhides covered with spikes, and then set down a tar barrel. When the horse comes it sets the tar barrel on fire, and when Dapplegrim defeats it, the youth throws a bridle on it, which tames it.
The king says that the princess shall hide herself twice, and the youth has to find her, and then the youth has to hide himself twice, and the princess not find him. With Dapplegrim's advice, he finds her as a duck and as a loaf of bread. Then he hides as a tick in Dapplegrim's stall, and Dapplegrim neighs and kicks so that the princess does not dare come in. Then, he hides as a clod of earth under Dapplegrim's hoof. The princess comes into the stall, but can not get him to budge his feet, and so can not find the youth.
The king agrees to the marriage, and the youth rides on Dapplegrim, and the bride on Dapplegrim's match, to the church.
See also
- Thirteenth
Thirteenth is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales. It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, the boy steals the giant's treasures.-Synopsis:...
- Esben and the Witch
Esben and the Witch is a Danish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book. A version of the tale also appears in A Book of Witches and A Choice of Magic, by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327B, the small boy defeats the ogre.-Synopsis:A farmer had twelve sons, and...
- Corvetto
Corvetto is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.It is Aarne-Thompson type 531. Other tales of this type include The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa, Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful, King Fortunatus's Golden Wig, and The...
- The Gold-bearded Man
The Gold-bearded Man is an Hungarian fairy tale collected in Ungarische Mahrchen. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.-Synopsis:...
- Boots and the Troll
-Synopsis:An old man died. His three sons set out to seek their fortune. The two older would have nothing to do with the youngest son, whom they said was fit for nothing but to sit and poke about in ashes. The youngest brought a kneading-trough, the only thing their parents had left behind,...
- The Little Girl Sold with the Pears
"The Little Girl Sold with the Pears" is an Italian fairy tale collected by Italo Calvino in Italian Folktales, from Piedmont. Ruth Manning-Sanders included a variant, as "The Girl in the Basket", in A Book of Ogres and Trolls.-Plot summary:...
- The Three Aunts
The Three Aunts is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.-Synopsis:A poor man made his living by shooting. He had lost his wife, and one day, his pretty daughter decided to go seek her fortune. She got a place with the queen, and...
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