stranger
promised that he would set her free if she would take him for her
husband, and the princess joyfully consented.

When the giant appeared the stranger set his dog at him, and it took him
by the throat and throttled him till he died; so the princess was set
free.

Now when the king heard of it he gladly consented to the marriage, and
the wedding took place with great rejoicings. The young bridegroom abode
in the palace one hundred and one weeks. Then he began to find it
too dull, and he desired to go out hunting. The king would fain have
prevented it, but in this he could not succeed. Then he begged his
son-in-law at least to take sufficient escort with him, but this, too,
the young man evaded, and took only his horse and his dog.

He had ridden already a long way, when he saw in the distance a hut, and
rode straight towards it in order to get some water to drink. There
he found an old woman from whom he begged the water. She answered that
first he should allow her to beat his dog with her little wand, that it
might not bite her while she fetched the water. The hunter consented;
and as soon as she had touched the dog with her wand it immediately
turned to stone. Thereupon she touched the hunter and also his horse,
and both turned to stone. As soon as that had happened, the cypress
trees in front of his father's house began to wither. And when the other
brother saw this, he immediately set out in search of his twin. He came
first to the town where his brother had slain the giant, and there fate
led him to the same old woman where his brother had lodged. When she saw
him she took him for his twin brother, and said to him: 'Do not take
it amiss of me, my son, that I did not come to wish you joy on your
marriage with the king's daughter.'

The stranger perceived what mistake she had made, but only said: 'That
does not matter, old woman,' and rode on, without further speech, to
the king's palace, where the king and the princess both took him for
his twin brother, and called out: 'Why have you tarried so long away? We
thought something evil had befallen you.'

When night came and he slept with the princess, who still believed him
to be her husband, he laid his sword between them, and when morning came
he rose early and went out to hunt. Fate led him by the same way which
his brother had taken, and from a distance he saw him and knew that he
was turned to stone. Then he entered the hut and ordered the old woman
to