there was once on a time a king who had a little boy of whom it had been foretold that he should be killed by a stag when he was sixteen years of age, and when he had reached that age the huntsmen once went hunting with him. in the forest, the king’s son was separated from the others, and all at once he saw a great stag which he wanted to shoot, but could not hit. at length he chased the stag so far that they were quite out of the forest, and then suddenly a great tall man was standing there instead of the stag, and said, "it is well that i have thee. i have already ruined six pairs of glass skates with running after thee, and have not been able to get thee." then he took the king’s son with him, and dragged him through a great lake to a great palace, and then he had to sit down to table with him and eat something. when they had eaten something together the king said, "i have three daughters, thou must keep watch over the eldest for one night, from nine in the evening till six in the morning, and every time the clock strikes, i will come myself and call, and if thou then givest me no answer, to-morrow morning thou shall be put to death, but if thou always givest me an answer, thou shalt have her to wife."