The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body

Long ago there was a king who had seven sons, and he loved them so much that he could never bear to have them all away at the same time; one always had to stay with him. When they were grown, six of them set out to find brides, but the youngest, whom everyone called Boots, was kept at home, and the others were to bring back a princess for him.

The king gave the six the finest clothes you ever saw, so fine that they gleamed from far away, and each rode a horse that had cost many hundreds of dollars. They visited many palaces and met many princesses, until at last they came to a king who had six daughters, the loveliest they had ever seen. Each brother courted one of them, and when they had won them, they set off for home. But they were so head over heels in love that they completely forgot to bring a bride for Boots.

When they had gone a good way, they passed close by a steep hillside, straight as a wall, where a giant had his house. Out came the giant, fixed his eyes on them and turned them all to stone, princes, princesses and all.

The king waited and waited for his six sons, but the longer he waited, the longer they stayed away. He grew so sad that he said he would never be happy again. “If I didn’t still have you,” he told Boots, “I couldn’t go on living, I miss your brothers so.”

“Well, I’ve been meaning to ask if I may go and look for them,” said Boots.

“No, no!” said his father. “You shall never have my leave, for then you would vanish too.”

But Boots had set his heart on it, and he begged and pleaded so long that the king had to let him go. The only horse left for him was a broken-down old nag, because his brothers and their servants had taken all the others, but Boots didn’t care a bit. He jumped onto his sorry old horse. “Goodbye, Father,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll come home, and most likely I’ll bring my six brothers with me.” And off he rode.

After riding a while, he came upon a raven lying in the road, flapping its wings, too starved to get out of the way. “Oh, dear friend,” said the raven, “give me a little food, and I’ll help you when you need it most.”

“I don’t have much food,” said the prince, “and I can’t see how you could ever help me, but I can spare you a little. I can see you need it.” And he gave the raven some of his food.

A little farther on, he came to a brook where a great salmon had flopped onto a dry spot and was thrashing about, unable to get back into the water. “Oh, dear friend,” said the salmon, “push me into the water, and I’ll help you when you need it most.”

“I don’t suppose your help will be worth much,” said the prince, “but it’s a pity for you to lie there and choke.” And he slid the fish back into the stream.

After a long, long way, he met a wolf so famished that it was crawling along the road on its belly. “Dear friend, please let me have your horse,” said the wolf. “I’m so hungry the wind whistles through my ribs. I haven’t eaten for two years.”

“No, that will never do,” said Boots. “First I met a raven and had to give him my food. Then I met a salmon and had to help him into the water. And now you want my horse! I can’t do it, for then I’d have nothing to ride.”

“Ah, but you can help me, dear friend,” said Graylegs the wolf. “You can ride on my back, and I’ll help you when you need it most.”

“I doubt your help will be worth much,” said the prince, “but you may have my horse, since you’re in such need.”

When the wolf had eaten the horse, Boots put the bridle in its mouth and the saddle on its back. Now the wolf was so strong from his meal that he raced off with the prince as if he weighed nothing. Boots had never ridden so fast in his life.

After a while they reached the giant’s house. “Look,” said the wolf, “there are your six brothers, whom the giant turned to stone, and there are their six brides. And over there is the door, and in through that door you must go.”

“I don’t dare go in,” said the prince. “He’ll kill me.”

“No, no,” said the wolf. “Inside you’ll find a princess, and she’ll tell you how to get the better of the giant. Just be sure to do as she says.”

So Boots went in, though to tell the truth he was very scared. The giant was out, but in one of the rooms sat the princess, just as the wolf had said, and she was the loveliest princess Boots had ever seen.

“Heaven help you! Where have you come from?” she cried when she saw him. “This will surely be the end of you. No one can defeat the giant who lives here, because he has no heart in his body.”

“Well, since I’m here, I may as well try,” said Boots. “I’m going to see if I can free my brothers, who are standing out there turned to stone, and I’ll try to rescue you too.”

“If you must, you must,” said the princess. “Let’s think of a plan. Creep under the bed over there and listen carefully to what he and I say. But please, lie as still as a mouse.”

He had scarcely crept under the bed when the giant came home. “Ha!” roared the giant. “I smell a human being in this house!”

“Yes, I know,” said the princess. “A magpie flew over carrying a bone and dropped it down the chimney. I got it out as fast as I could, but the smell doesn’t go away so quickly.”

So the giant said no more about it. Later that evening, as they sat by the fire, the princess said, “There’s something I would love to ask you, if only I dared.”

“What’s that?” asked the giant.

“Just where you keep your heart, since you don’t carry it with you,” said the princess.

“That’s none of your business,” said the giant. “But if you must know, it’s under the doorstep.”

“Aha!” thought Boots under the bed. “Then we’ll soon find it.”

Very early the next morning the giant strode off to the forest, and he was hardly out of the house when Boots and the princess began digging under the doorstep for his heart. But the more they dug and searched, the less they found.

“He’s fooled us this time,” said the princess, “but we’ll try him one more time.” She picked the prettiest flowers she could find and scattered them over the doorstep, which they had put back in its place. When it was time for the giant to come home, Boots crept under the bed, and back came the giant.

Sniff, sniff, went the giant’s nose. “My eyes and limbs! I smell a human being in here!”

“I know,” said the princess. “A magpie dropped a bone down the chimney. I got it out as fast as I could, but I expect that’s what you smell.”

The giant let it go. A little later he asked who had scattered flowers on the doorstep. “Why, I did, of course,” said the princess.

“And what’s the meaning of that?” asked the giant.

“Oh, I’m so fond of you that I couldn’t help it, knowing your heart lay under there,” said the princess.

“You don’t say!” said the giant. “Well, it isn’t there at all.”

That evening the princess asked a second time where his heart was, for she would so love to know. “Well, if you must know,” said the giant, “it’s over there in the cupboard by the wall.”

“So, so!” thought Boots and the princess. “We’ll soon find it.” The next morning, as soon as the giant had gone to the forest, they were in the cupboard hunting for his heart, but the harder they looked, the less they found.

“Well, we’ll just try him one more time,” said the princess. She decorated the cupboard with flowers and garlands, and when it was time for the giant to come home, Boots crept under the bed.

In came the giant. Sniff, sniff! “My eyes and limbs! I smell a human being in here!”

“I know,” said the princess. “A little while ago a magpie dropped a bone down the chimney. I worked hard to get it out, but I expect that’s what you smell.”

The giant said no more about it, but soon he noticed the cupboard all decked with flowers and garlands and asked who had done it. Who could it be but the princess? “And what’s the meaning of all this nonsense?” asked the giant.

“Oh, I’m so fond of you I couldn’t help it, knowing your heart was there,” said the princess.

“How can you be so silly as to believe such a thing?” said the giant.

“How could I help believing it, when you told me so?” said the princess.

“You’re a goose,” said the giant. “You’ll never get anywhere near where my heart is.”

“Even so,” said the princess, “it would be such a pleasure to know where it really is.”

Then the poor giant could hold out no longer. “Far, far away in a lake lies an island,” he said. “On that island stands a church. In that church is a well. In that well swims a duck. In that duck there is an egg, and in that egg lies my heart, my darling.”

Early in the morning, while it was still gray dawn, the giant strode off to the forest. “Now I must be off too,” said Boots, “if only I knew the way.” He said a long, long goodbye to the princess, and when he stepped out of the giant’s door, there stood the wolf waiting for him.

Boots told the wolf everything that had happened and said he wanted to ride to the well in the church, if only he knew the way. The wolf told him to jump on his back; he would soon find it. Away they went, so fast the wind whistled after them, over hedge and field, over hill and valley.

After many, many days, they came to the lake. The prince didn’t know how to cross it, but the wolf told him not to be afraid and just hold on tight. Then he leaped into the lake with the prince on his back and swam over to the island.

They came to the church, but the church keys hung high, high up at the top of the tower, and at first the prince didn’t know how to get them down. “You must call the raven,” said the wolf. So the prince called the raven, and in a flash it came, flew up and fetched the keys, and the prince got into the church.

When he came to the well, there was the duck, swimming back and forth, just as the giant had said. The prince coaxed and coaxed it until it swam to him, and he caught it in his hand. But just as he lifted it from the water, the duck dropped the egg into the well, and Boots was at his wits’ end. “Now you must call the salmon,” said the wolf. The prince called the salmon, and it came and brought the egg up from the bottom of the well.

Then the wolf told him to squeeze the egg, and the moment he did, far away the giant screamed. “Squeeze it harder,” said the wolf, and when the prince did, the giant howled even more pitifully. He begged to be spared and promised to do anything the prince wanted if only he wouldn’t crush his heart.

“Tell him you’ll spare his life if he brings your six brothers and their brides back to life,” said the wolf. The giant was ready to do that, and he turned the six brothers back into princes and their brides back into princesses.

“Now crush the egg,” said the wolf. So Boots squeezed the egg to pieces, and the giant was finished for good.

Then Boots rode the wolf to the giant’s house, and there stood his six brothers, alive and cheerful, with their brides. Boots went into the hillside to fetch his own bride, and they all set off for their father’s palace. You can imagine how happy the old king was to see all seven sons come home, each with a bride. “But the loveliest bride of all is the bride of Boots,” said the king, “and he shall sit at the head of the table with her beside him.”

So he held a great wedding feast, and the merrymaking was loud and long, and if they haven’t finished feasting, why, they’re still at it.

About this story

“The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body” is from Popular Tales from the Norse, George Webbe Dasent’s 1859 translation of the Norwegian folk tales of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. Boots, the youngest son whom everyone underestimates, is a recurring hero in this collection.

The idea of a villain who hides his heart or soul outside his body, tucked inside an egg, a duck and a well, is found in stories from Russia’s Koschei the Deathless to the tales of India. Here, Boots’s help to a hungry raven, a stranded salmon and a hungry wolf makes his journey possible, while the captive princess discovers the crucial secret.

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

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: a horse is eaten, the giant is hurt through the egg, and a promise of mercy is broken before he is killed.

The rescue depends on more than one hero

The raven retrieves a high key, the salmon recovers a submerged egg, and the wolf supplies transport and advice. Boots cannot replace those abilities with fine clothes or strength. He feeds the raven, returns the stranded salmon to water and gives his horse to the wolf; the horse’s loss makes the last exchange much more troubling than a harmless gift.

The captive princess obtains the secret by testing two false answers and disguising her investigation with flowers. After the rescue, Boots follows the wolf’s instruction to crush the egg despite the promise to spare the giant. That ending defeats the captor but breaks the bargain; kindness alone does not explain every choice.

Map the barriers

Draw the island, church, well, duck and egg as nested obstacles. Beside each obstacle, record the helper or information that gets Boots past it. Finish by explaining why restoring the captives and killing the giant are two separate decisions.

Questions to ask

• How did the raven, the salmon and the wolf help Boots?
• How did the princess trick the giant into telling the truth?
• Why do you think the youngest son succeeded where his brothers failed?

Related stories

• Koschei the Deathless — a different Russian tale of a seemingly unbeatable captor
• The Princess on the Glass Hill — another tale of Boots, the youngest brother
• The Widow’s Son — a Norwegian boy and a helpful animal