f the man who had saved his daughter from the three Trolls;
and it was settled then that Ritter Red should marry her, and receive
half the kingdom.

On the wedding-day, however, the Princess begged that she might have the
little boy who was in the kitchen, and carried wood and water for the
kitchen-maid, to fill the wine-cups at the wedding feast.

'Oh, what can you want with that dirty, ragged boy, in here?' said
Ritter Red, but the Princess said that she insisted on having him as
cup-bearer and would have no one else; and at last she got leave, and
then everything was done as had been agreed on between the Princess and
Minnikin. He spilt a drop on Ritter Red's plate but none upon hers, and
each time that he did it Ritter Red fell into a rage and struck him. At
the first blow all the ragged garments which he had worn in the kitchen
fell from off Minnikin, at the second blow the brass garments fell off,
and at the third the silver raiment, and there he stood in the golden
raiment, which was so bright and splendid that light flashed from it.

Then the King's daughter said: 'Shame on you thus to smite the beloved
of my heart. It is he who delivered me from the Troll, and he is the one
whom I will have.'

Ritter Red swore that he was the man who had saved her, but the King
said: 'He who delivered my daughter must have some token in proof of
it.'

So Ritter Red ran off at once for his handkerchief with the lungs
and tongue, and Minnikin went and brought all the gold and silver and
precious things which he had taken out of the Trolls' ships; and they
each of them laid these tokens before the King.

'He who has such precious things in gold and silver and diamonds,' said
the King, 'must be the one who killed the Troll, for such things are not
to be had anywhere else.' So Ritter Red was thrown into the snake-pit,
and Minnikin was to have the Princess, and half the kingdom.

One day the King went out walking with Minnikin, and Minnikin asked him
if he had never had any other children.

'Yes,' said the King, 'I had another daughter, but the Troll carried her
away because there was no one who could deliver her. You are going to
have one daughter of mine, but if you can set free the other, who has
been taken by the Troll, you shall willingly have her too, and the other
half of the kingdom as well.'

'I may as well make the attempt,' said Minnikin, 'but I must have an
iron rope which is five hundred ells long, and then I m