Nothing-Nothing
Once upon a time, there lived a king and a queen. They lived and thrived, just as others before them had lived. They had been married for a long time, but they had no children. Finally, the queen gave birth to a boy. At that time, the king was not at home—he had traveled to distant lands—so the queen decided not to baptize the child without the father present.“Until the king returns,” she said, “we will call the boy Nothing-Nothing.”
The king did not return for a long time, and the boy grew into a handsome, stately young man.
Finally, the king began his journey back home. On the way, he encountered a deep, turbulent river and could not find a way to cross it. Then a giant approached him and said:
“Do you want me to carry you across the river?”
“And how much will you charge for that?” asked the king.
“Nothing-Nothing, and that will be enough for me. Well, climb onto my back, and I’ll carry you across quickly.”
The king, of course, did not know that his son was called Nothing-Nothing, so he replied:
“Nothing so nothing, nothing so nothing! Take my gratitude as well.”
The king returned home and was overjoyed to see his wife and son. The queen told him that they had not yet given their son a proper name and simply called him Nothing-Nothing.
At this, the poor king became distressed.
“What have I done!” he said. “I promised to give Nothing-Nothing to the giant who carried me across the river on his back.”
The king and queen grieved for a long time and finally decided:
“When the giant comes, we will give him the son of our poultry maid. He won’t notice that the boy has been switched.”
The next day, the giant arrived to claim what was promised. The king ordered the poultry maid’s son to be brought, the giant hoisted him onto his back, and carried him away.
The giant walked for a long time and finally saw a suitable rock. He sat down to rest and asked:
“Hey, you there on my back, runt-laborer, what time is it?”
And the poor boy replied:
“The same time when my mother, the poultry maid, collects eggs for the queen’s breakfast.”
The giant became very angry. He threw the boy onto the rock and killed him.
Furious, the giant returned to the king. This time, the king and queen gave him the gardener’s son. The giant hoisted the boy onto his back and set off again. Once more, he reached the rock, sat down to rest, and asked:
“Hey, you there on my back, runt-laborer, what time is it?”
And the gardener’s son replied:
“Probably the same time when my mother gathers vegetables for the royal dinner.”
At this, the giant became enraged and killed this boy as well.
Then, beside himself with fury, he returned to the royal castle and threatened to destroy everyone there if they did not hand over Nothing-Nothing this time.
They had no choice but to give him the prince. When the giant reached the rock, he asked:
“What time is it?”
And Nothing-Nothing replied:
“The same time when my father, the king, sits down to dinner.”
“Now I have what I wanted!” the giant rejoiced. And he carried Nothing-Nothing to his home.
So Nothing-Nothing stayed with the giant and lived there until he grew up.
The giant had a beautiful daughter, and she fell in love with Nothing-Nothing, and he with her. One day, the giant said to Nothing-Nothing:
“Here’s your task for tomorrow. I have a stable seven miles long and seven miles wide. It hasn’t been cleaned in seven years. Clean it by tomorrow evening, or you’ll end up as my dinner!”
The next morning, the giant’s daughter brought breakfast to Nothing-Nothing and found him in despair: no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t clean the stable. He would shovel out the dirt, but it would immediately pile up again. Then the girl said she would help him. She called out to all the creatures of the earth and all the birds of the sky, and immediately animals and birds gathered from all over. They carried out all the dirt from the stable, and by the time the giant returned, the stable was clean. The giant saw this, called Nothing-Nothing, and said:
“Shame on the trickster who helped you! But no matter, tomorrow I’ll have an even harder task for you! I have a lake seven miles long, seven miles deep, and seven miles wide. Drain it by tomorrow evening, or you’ll end up as my dinner!”
The next morning, Nothing-Nothing started working early—he began scooping water from the lake with a bucket. But the lake did not decrease by a single drop. What could he do? Then the giant’s daughter called all the fish of the sea and ordered them to drink the lake’s water. The fish quickly drank all the water and drained the lake.
When the giant saw that the task was done, he became angry and said:
“Well, wait, tomorrow I’ll give you a task that’s even harder! I have a tree seven miles high without a single branch. At the very top is a nest with seven eggs. Bring all the eggs down intact, or you’ll end up as my dinner!”
At first, the giant’s daughter didn’t know how to help her beloved. She thought and thought, and finally came up with a plan: she cut off her fingers and toes and made steps out of them. Nothing-Nothing climbed the tree and took the eggs from the nest. While he was descending, all the eggs were intact, but as soon as he stepped on the ground, one of them broke. What could he do? He decided to run away with his beloved. The giant’s daughter took a magical vial from her room, and they ran without looking back.
But before they had crossed three fields, they looked back and saw the giant chasing them at full speed.
“Quickly, quickly!” cried the giant’s daughter. “Take the comb from my hair and throw it on the ground!”
Nothing-Nothing pulled the comb from her hair and threw it on the ground. Immediately, thick thorny bushes grew from its teeth. It took the giant a long time to make his way through the thorny thicket! By the time he finally broke through, Nothing-Nothing and his beloved had run far ahead. But the giant began to catch up again—he was about to grab them. Then his daughter shouted to her beloved:
“Take the dagger from my hair and throw it on the ground, and quickly, quickly!”
Nothing-Nothing pulled the dagger from her hair and threw it on the ground. In that instant, a fence of sharp, crisscrossing knives blocked the path. It was not easy for the giant to pass through them. He moved carefully, but by then the fugitives had run even farther and were almost out of sight.
Finally, the giant made his way through the fence, caught up with them again, and was about to grab Nothing-Nothing, but the girl took her magical vial and threw it on the ground. The vial shattered, and a huge wave poured out. It grew and grew; first it covered the giant up to his waist, then up to his neck; it reached his head, and the giant drowned.
Nothing-Nothing and the girl ran on and on until they reached a place where the castle of his parents was visible. But the giant’s daughter was so exhausted that she could not take another step. Then Nothing-Nothing went to find shelter, telling the girl to wait. He went straight toward the lights of the royal castle but wandered into the hut of the poultry maid, the same one whose son the giant had killed. She immediately recognized Nothing-Nothing, and if she had hated him before—after all, it was because of him that her son had died!—now her hatred burned even fiercer! And so, when Nothing-Nothing asked her how to get to the castle, she cast a spell on him, and as soon as he entered, he fell onto a bench and fell into a deep sleep.
In the castle, no one recognized him. No matter how hard the king and queen tried to wake the unfamiliar young man, they could not. Then the king promised to marry him to whoever could wake him.
Meanwhile, the giant’s daughter waited and waited for her beloved. Finally, she climbed a tree to see where he had gone. At that moment, the gardener’s daughter approached. There was a spring under the tree, and she was about to draw water when she suddenly saw the girl’s reflection in it. She thought it was her own reflection.
“How beautiful I am!” she said. “How lovely! How can anyone send such a beauty to fetch water!”
Then she threw down the bucket and decided to try her luck—to wake the stranger and marry him. She went to the poultry maid, who taught her how to briefly break the spell on Nothing-Nothing so that he would stay awake just long enough for her, the gardener’s daughter, to claim him. Then she went to the castle and sang the spell. When she briefly woke Nothing-Nothing, the king and queen promised to marry him to her.
Meanwhile, the gardener himself came to the spring and also saw the girl’s face in the water. He looked up and saw the girl sitting in the tree. He helped the giant’s daughter down from the tree and brought her to his home. At home, he boasted that his daughter was getting married, and he took the girl to the castle to show her his daughter’s fiancé. And it was Nothing-Nothing! He was sleeping in a chair.
The giant’s daughter saw him and cried:
“Wake up, wake up! Say just one word to me!” But he did not wake up. Then she said:
“What haven’t I done: cleaned the stable, drained the lake, climbed the tree—all to save you, my beloved. And you sleep without waking, without saying a word to me!”
The king and queen heard her words and approached. She told them:
“No matter how hard I try to wake him, I can’t. Nothing-Nothing won’t say a single word to me!”
They were very surprised: how did she know about Nothing-Nothing? They asked the girl: where was this Nothing-Nothing now?
“Here he is, sitting in the chair!” she replied. Then they rushed to the sleeping young man, began to kiss him, and called him their dear, beloved son. Then they summoned the gardener’s daughter and forced her to sing the spell. Nothing-Nothing woke up and told his parents how the giant’s daughter had saved him and how kind she was. The king and queen embraced and kissed the girl, saying that from now on she would be their daughter and that their son would marry her.
The poultry maid was executed, and everyone else lived happily ever after.
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