Soria Moria Castle

There was once a poor couple who had a son named Halvor. Ever since he was little, he would do nothing at all except sit by the hearth and poke about in the ashes. His parents often sent him off to learn one trade or another, but Halvor never stayed anywhere. After a day or two he would run away from his master and not stop until he was back in the chimney corner, stirring the cinders.

One day a ship’s captain came by and asked Halvor whether he would like to go to sea with him and see strange lands. Yes, Halvor would like that very much, and he was ready in no time.

How long they sailed I really can’t say, but in the end they ran into a terrible storm. When it had blown over and all was calm, they had no idea where they were, for they had been driven to a strange coast that none of them knew.

There was no wind at all, so they lay there waiting for one, and Halvor asked the captain if he might go ashore and look around; he would rather do that than lie about sleeping.

“Do you think you’re fit to be seen by anyone?” said the captain. “You have nothing to wear but those rags.”

But Halvor kept asking, and at last he was allowed to go, on condition that he came back the moment the wind began to blow. Off he went, and he found a beautiful country, with wide, flat fields of grain and rich meadows everywhere he looked, but not a living soul in sight.

Soon the wind began to blow, but Halvor felt he hadn’t seen enough yet and wanted to walk a little farther to see whether he could meet anyone. After a while he came to a broad highway, so smooth and level that you could have rolled an egg along it. He followed it, and as evening came on, he saw a great castle far away, shining in the sunset.

He had walked all day without anything to eat and was as hungry as a hunter, but the closer he came to the castle, the more frightened he felt. In the castle kitchen a great fire was blazing, and Halvor went in. He had never seen such a kitchen in all his life. It was magnificent, full of silver and gold dishes, but there was still not a living soul. When he had stood there a while and no one came, he opened a door, and inside sat a princess spinning at a spinning wheel.

“Oh, no!” she cried. “How dare a human being come here? You had better go away at once, unless you want the troll to gobble you up, for a troll with three heads lives here.”

“It’s all the same to me,” said the lad. “I’d be just as glad if he had four more heads. I’d like to see what sort of fellow he is. I won’t go anywhere. I’ve done no harm. But you must give me something to eat, for I’m nearly starving.”

When Halvor had eaten his fill, the princess told him to see if he could swing the sword that hung on the wall. No, he couldn’t swing it; he couldn’t even lift it. “Then you must take a drink from the flask that hangs beside it,” said the princess. “That’s what the troll does every time he goes out to use the sword.”

Halvor took a drink, and in the blink of an eye he could swing the sword as if it were nothing. Now he thought it was high time the troll came, and just then up came the troll, puffing and blowing. Halvor jumped behind the door.

“HUTETU!” said the troll, poking his head through the door. “I smell a human being!”

“Yes,” said Halvor, “and you’ll soon find out what that costs you.” And with that he cut off all three of the troll’s heads.

The princess was so happy to be free that she danced and sang. But suddenly she thought of her sisters. “If only my sisters were free too!” she said.

“Where are they?” asked Halvor.

She told him all about it. One had been carried off by a troll to his castle fifty miles away, and the other by another troll to his castle fifty miles farther still. “But first,” she said, “you must help me get this ugly troll out of the house.”

Halvor was so strong now that he cleared everything away and had the place clean and tidy in no time. They had a good and happy evening, and the next morning at the first gray light he set off. He took no rest along the way but ran and walked all day long.

When he first caught sight of the second castle, he felt a little afraid, for it was far grander than the first, but here too there was not a living soul to be seen. Halvor went into the kitchen and, without stopping, straight on into the house.

“Oh, no!” cried the princess there. “How dare a human being come here? I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but in all that time I haven’t seen a human face. You’d better get away as fast as you came, for a troll with six heads lives here.”

“I won’t go,” said Halvor, “even if he has six more heads.”

“He’ll pick you up and swallow you alive,” said the princess.

But it was no use. Halvor would not go. He wasn’t a bit afraid of the troll, but he must have food and drink, for he was half starved after his long journey. He got as much as he wanted, and then the princess begged him to leave. “No,” said Halvor, “I won’t. I’ve done no harm, and I have nothing to fear.”

“He won’t stop to ask about that,” said the princess. “He’ll grab you without a word. But since you won’t go, see if you can swing the sword over there, the one the troll uses in battle.” He couldn’t swing it, so she told him to drink from the flask beside it, and when he had, he could.

Just then the troll came home. He was so fat and huge that he had to turn sideways to squeeze through the door. As soon as his first head came in, he cried, “HUTETU! I smell a human being!” But at that very moment Halvor cut off the first head, and then all the others as they popped in.

The princess was overjoyed, but then she thought of her sister and wished out loud that she were free too. Halvor thought that could easily be managed and wanted to set off at once, but first he had to help the princess clear the troll away, so he could not leave until the next morning.

It was a long way to the third castle, and he had to walk fast and run hard to get there in time, but at nightfall he saw it, far finer and grander than the other two. This time he wasn’t the least bit afraid. He walked straight through the kitchen and into the castle. There sat a princess so beautiful that there was no end to her loveliness. Like the others, she told him that no human being had come there since she arrived and begged him to go, or the troll would swallow him alive. “And do you know,” she said, “he has nine heads.”

“Yes, yes,” said Halvor, “if he had nine more heads, and nine more on top of that, I still wouldn’t go.” And he stood his ground by the stove. The princess kept pleading so sweetly with him to leave before the troll could swallow him, but Halvor said, “Let him come whenever he likes.” So she gave him the troll’s sword and told him to drink from the flask so that he could swing it.

Just then the troll came home, puffing and blowing and stomping along. He was far fatter and bigger than the other two, and he too had to turn sideways to get through the door. When his first head came in, he said, like the others, “HUTETU! I smell a human being!”

At that very moment Halvor cut off the first head, and then all the rest. But the last head was the toughest of all, and it was the hardest work Halvor ever did to cut it off, though he knew well he had the strength.

Then all the princesses came together at that castle, which was called Soria Moria Castle, and they were happier than they had ever been in their lives. They were all fond of Halvor, and he of them, and he could choose whichever one he liked best as his bride, but the youngest loved him most of all.

But after a while Halvor began to go about looking strange and gloomy and silent. The princesses asked him what was wrong and whether he no longer liked living with them. Yes, he did, for they had plenty of everything and he was well off in every way, but somehow he longed to go home, because his father and mother were still alive and he wanted very much to see them.

That could be done easily enough, they said. “You shall go there and come back safe and sound, if only you follow our advice.” Yes, he would be sure to do everything they said.

So they dressed him up as grandly as a king’s son and put a ring on his finger, a ring that could carry him wherever he wished. But they told him he must never take it off and never speak about them to others, or all his good fortune would be over and he would never see them again.

“I wish I were standing at home!” said Halvor, and so it happened. There he stood at the door of his father’s cottage before he knew it. It was dusk, and when the old couple saw such a grand, stately lord walk in, they were so alarmed that they began to bow and scrape. Halvor asked if he might stay the night.

“We can’t possibly put you up,” they said, “for we haven’t any of the things a lord like you is used to. Your lordship had better go up to the farm nearby. You can see its chimneys from here, and they have plenty of everything.”

Halvor wouldn’t hear of it; he wanted to stay. But the old couple insisted he would do better at the farmer’s, where he would get food and drink, while they didn’t even have a chair to offer him.

“No,” said Halvor, “I won’t go up there until early tomorrow. Let me stay here tonight. If worst comes to worst, I can sit in the chimney corner.” They couldn’t say no to that, so Halvor sat down by the hearth and began to poke about in the ashes, just as he used to do when he lived at home and lazed about.

They chatted about many things, and the old couple told him this and that, and he asked whether they had any children. Yes, they said, they once had a boy named Halvor, but they didn’t know where he had wandered off to, nor whether he was dead or alive.

“Couldn’t it be me?” said Halvor.

“Let me see. I’d know him well enough,” said the old woman, getting up. “Our Halvor was so lazy and dull he never did a thing, and he was so ragged that one tatter hung onto the next. No, there was never the makings of a fine gentleman like you in him, sir.”

A little later the old woman went to the hearth to stir up the fire, and when the blaze lit up Halvor’s face, just as in the old days when he sat poking in the ashes, she knew him at once. “Why, is it really you, Halvor?” she cried.

Then the old couple were overjoyed, and there was no end to it. He had to tell them everything that had happened to him, and his mother was so fond and proud of him that nothing would do but he must go up to the farm right away and show himself to the girls there, who had always looked down on him. Off she went first, with Halvor following, and when she got there, she told them all that her Halvor had come home and they should just see how grand he was. “He looks like nothing less than a king’s son,” she said.

“A likely story,” said the girls, tossing their heads. “We’ll bet he’s the same ragged beggar boy he always was.”

Just then Halvor walked in, and the girls were so taken aback that they jumped up from where they sat mending clothes by the fire and ran out in a flurry, leaving their sewing behind. When they came back in, they were so embarrassed they hardly dared look at Halvor, to whom they had always been so proud and haughty.

“Well, well,” said Halvor, “you always thought yourselves so pretty and fine that no one could compare with you. But you should see the eldest princess I set free. Next to her you look like milkmaids. The middle one is prettier still, but the youngest, my sweetheart, is fairer than the sun and the moon. I wish to heaven she were here, then you’d see something!”

The words were hardly out of his mouth when there the princesses stood. But then he felt terrible, for now he remembered what they had told him. Up at the farm a great feast was prepared for the princesses, and a great fuss was made of them, but they would not stay. “No, we want to go down to see your father and mother,” they told Halvor, “so let’s go out and look around.”

He went down with them, and they came to a large lake just outside the farm. By the water was a lovely green bank, and the princesses said they would sit and rest there a while, for they thought it so pleasant to look out over the water. When they had sat a little, the youngest princess said, “Let me comb your hair for you, Halvor.”

So Halvor laid his head in her lap, and she combed his fine curls, and before long he fell fast asleep. Then she took the ring from his finger and put another in its place, and she said, “Now hold on to me, all of you! I wish we were all in Soria Moria Castle.”

When Halvor woke, he knew at once that he had lost the princesses, and he began to weep and wail. He was so miserable that no one could comfort him. Whatever his parents said, he would not stay. He said goodbye to them, telling them he did not expect to see them anymore, for if he could not find the princesses, life was not worth living.

He still had three hundred dollars left, so he put them in his pocket and set off. After walking a while, he met a man with a fine horse and began to bargain for it. “To tell the truth, I never thought of selling him,” said the man, “but if we can strike a deal, perhaps…”

“What do you want for him?” asked Halvor.

“I didn’t pay much for him, and he isn’t worth much,” said the man. “He’s good for riding but can’t pull a cart. Still, he’s strong enough to carry your pack and you, taking turns.”

At last they agreed on a price, and Halvor loaded his pack on the horse and walked a while and rode a while, by turns. At night he came to a green plain with a great tree, and he sat down among its roots. He let the horse graze, but instead of lying down to sleep, he opened his pack and had a meal. At first light he set off, for he could not rest.

He rode and walked all day long through a wide forest full of green clearings that shone bright and lovely between the trees. He had no idea where he was or where he was going, and he allowed himself no more rest than when his horse nibbled some grass and he ate a bite from his pack in one of the clearings. On he went, walking and riding by turns, and the forest seemed to have no end.

At dusk on the second day, he saw a light glimmering through the trees. “I hope there are people there,” thought Halvor, “so I can warm myself and get a bite to keep body and soul together.”

When he got closer, he saw that the light came from a shabby little hut, and through the window he saw a very old couple inside, as gray as a pair of doves. And the old woman had such a nose! It was so long that she used it as a poker to stir the fire as she sat by the hearth.

“Good evening,” said Halvor.

“Good evening,” said the old woman. “But what business brings you here? No human being has come this way for more than a hundred years.”

Halvor told her all about himself and how he wanted to reach Soria Moria Castle, and asked if she knew the way.

“No, I don’t,” said the old woman, “but look, here comes the Moon. I’ll ask her. She’ll know, for doesn’t she shine on everything?” When the Moon rose clear and bright over the treetops, the old woman went out. “MOON, MOON!” she shrieked. “Can you tell me the way to Soria Moria Castle?”

“No,” said the Moon, “I can’t, for the last time I shone there, a cloud was in front of me.”

“Wait a little longer,” the old woman told Halvor. “By and by the West Wind will come. He’s sure to know, for he puffs and blows around every corner.” Then, going out a second time, she said, “Why, you have a horse too! Turn the poor creature loose in our yard. Don’t leave him standing at the door to starve. But won’t you trade him to me? We have an old pair of boots that go twenty miles at every step. You shall have them for your horse, and you’ll reach Soria Moria Castle all the sooner.”

Halvor agreed at once, and the old woman was so delighted with the horse that she was ready to dance and skip for joy. “Now I’ll be able to ride to church too,” she said. “Just think of it!”

Halvor wanted to be off right away, but the old woman said there was no hurry. “Lie down on the bench and sleep a little, for we have no bed to offer you. I’ll keep watch and wake you when the West Wind comes.”

After a while up came the West Wind, roaring and howling so that the walls creaked and groaned. Out ran the old woman. “WEST WIND, WEST WIND! Can you tell me the way to Soria Moria Castle? Here’s someone who wants to go there.”

“Yes, I know it well,” said the West Wind. “I’m just on my way there to dry the clothes for the wedding that’s coming. If he’s quick on his feet, he can come with me.”

Out ran Halvor. “You’ll have to stretch your legs if you want to keep up,” said the West Wind. Off they went over field and hedge, hill and mountain, and Halvor had a hard job keeping up.

“Well,” said the West Wind, “I can’t stay with you any longer, for I have to go over there and tear down a stretch of spruce forest before I go to the drying field. But if you follow the side of the hill, you’ll come to some girls washing clothes, and then you won’t have far to go to Soria Moria Castle.”

Soon Halvor came upon the girls doing the washing, and they asked if he had seen the West Wind, who was supposed to come and dry the wedding clothes. “Yes, I have,” said Halvor. “He’s just gone to tear down a stretch of spruce forest. He won’t be long.” Then he asked them the way to Soria Moria Castle, and they set him on the right road.

When he reached the castle, it was so crowded with people and horses that it made you dizzy to look at them. But Halvor was so ragged and torn from following the West Wind through bushes, briars and bogs that he kept out of sight and did not show himself until the last day, when the wedding feast was to be held.

When everyone drank the health of the bride and bridegroom and wished them luck, as was the custom, the cupbearer went around drinking to them all, knights and squires alike, and last of all he came to Halvor. Halvor drank their health, but he let the ring the princess had put on his finger as he lay by the lake drop into the glass, and he asked the cupbearer to greet the bride and hand her the glass.

At once the princess rose from the table. “Who most deserves to have one of us,” she said, “the one who set us free, or the one who sits beside me as bridegroom?”

Everyone agreed there could be only one answer to that. When Halvor heard it, he lost no time in throwing off his beggar’s rags and dressing as a bridegroom.

“Yes, yes, here is the right one after all,” said the youngest princess as soon as she saw him. And she sent the other bridegroom packing out of the window and held her wedding with Halvor.

About this story

“Soria Moria Castle” is one of the classic Norwegian tales gathered by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe and translated into English by George Webbe Dasent in Popular Tales from the Norse (1859). Soria Moria is the third and finest castle Halvor reaches in this telling; it becomes the destination of his second, harder journey.

Halvor is an “ash lad,” the lazy-looking boy by the fire who turns out to be a hero. Like many fairy-tale heroes, he loses his good fortune by breaking a promise and must win it back through a long, hard journey, helped by an old woman, magical boots and the West Wind. The Moon is asked for directions but cannot provide them.

Read the original: Popular Tales from the Norse (Project Gutenberg)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with guidance for threats of being eaten, repeated beheadings and Halvor’s despair after losing the princesses.

Two journeys require different strengths

In the first journey Halvor refuses to leave danger, but his boldness is not enough. Each princess knows how the flask and sword work, and supplies the help that lets him fight. In the second journey he cannot force a route to Soria Moria. He must accept shelter, trade for the boots, wait for the wind and follow directions.

His boast at home uses the princesses’ beauty to humiliate the neighbours, and the wish breaks the condition of his visit. The youngest princess then removes the travelling ring herself, leaving a different ring that later identifies him. The ending shows her choosing Halvor, but the guests’ language about who “deserves” her need not be adopted as a rule: rescuing someone does not purchase a marriage.

Compare the two rings

For the travelling ring and its replacement, write what it can do, who controls it and when its importance becomes clear. Then compare the mother recognising Halvor by the hearth with the princess recognising the ring in her cup. What identifies him beneath changes of clothes and status?

Questions to ask

• Why do you think everyone underestimated Halvor?
• What promise did Halvor break, and what happened because of it?
• How did Halvor let the princess know he had come to the wedding?

More stories like this

• The Three Princesses of Whiteland — another hero who frees three princesses from trolls
• The Princess on the Glass Hill — another boy from the ashes who wins a princess
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon — another long journey with help from the winds