Then the father said, “Thou must not say that, if the great men of the town knew of that, thou wouldst come to the gallows.” He, however, would not stop, and was brought to the gallows.

When he was there, he said, “O, my masters, just give me leave to go to the old fisherman’s hut.” Then he put on his old smock-frock, and came back to the great men, and said, “Do ye not now see? Am I not the son of the poor fisherman? Did I not earn bread for my father and mother in this dress?” Hereupon his father knew him again, and begged his pardon, and took him home with him, and then he related all that had happened to him, and how he had got into a forest on a high mountain, and the mountain had opened and he had gone into an enchanted castle, where all was black, and three young princesses had come to him who were black except a little white on their faces. And they had told him not to fear, and that he could deliver them. Then his mother said that might very likely not be a good thing to do, and that he ought to take a holy-water vessel with him, and drop some boiling water on their faces.