When at last the right fish came swimming along she gave him a nudge , and he seized it at once , drove his knife into it , and split it up , took the heart out of it , and cut it through the middle . At the same moment the troll fell dead and turned into pieces of flint . With that a , ll the bonds that the troll had bound were broken ; all the wild beasts and birds which he had caught and hid under the ground were free now , and dispersed themselves in the woods and in the air . The youth and his sweetheart entered the castle , which was now theirs , and held their wedding ; and all the kings roundabout , who had been in the troll 's debt , and were now out of it , came to the wedding , and saluted the youth as their emperor , and he ruled over them all , and kept peace between them , and lived in his castle with his beautiful empress in great joy and magnificence . And if they have not died since they are living there to this day . Esben and the Witch From the Danish . There was once a man who had twelve sons : the eleven eldest were both big and strong , but the twelfth , whose name was Esben , was only a little fellow . The eleven eldest went out with their father to field and forest , but Esben preferred to stay at home with his mother , and so he was never reckoned at all by the rest , but was a sort of outcast among them . When the eleven had grown up to be men they decided to go out into the world to try their fortune , and they plagued their father to give them what they required for the journey . The father was not much in favour of this , for he was now old and weak , and could not well spare them from helping him with his work , but in the long run he had to give in . Each one of the eleven got a fine white horse and money for the journey , and so they said farewell to their father and their home , and rode away . As for Esben , no one had ever thought about him ; his brothers had not even said farewell to him . After the eleven were gone Esben went to his father and said , ` Father , give me also a horse and money ; I should also like to see round about me in the world . ' ` You are a little fool , ' said his father . ` If I could have let you go , and kept your eleven brothers at home , it would have been better for me in my old age . ' ` Well , you will soon be rid of me at any rate , ' said Esben . As he could get no other horse , he went into the forest , broke off a branch , stripped the bark off it , so that it became still whiter than his brothers ' horses , and , mounted on this . rode off after his eleven brothers . The brothers rode on the whole day , and towards evening they came to a great forest , which they entered . Far within the wood they came to a little house , and knocked at the door .
There came an old , ugly , bearded hag , and opened it , and they asked her whether all XXXXX them could get quarters for the night .
From about along if in into of on since within