There was once upon a time a rich king who had three daughters, who daily went to walk in the palace garden, and the king was a great lover of all kinds of fine trees. There was one, however, for which he had such an affection, that if anyone gathered an apple from it the King wished that person a hundred fathoms underground. Then harvest time rolled around, and the apples on this tree were all as red as blood.

The three daughters went every day beneath the tree, and looked to see if the wind had blown down an apple, but they never found one, and the tree was so loaded with them that it was almost breaking, and the branches hung down to the ground.

Then the king's youngest child had a great desire for an apple, and said to her sisters:

"Our father loves us far too much to wish us a hundred fathoms underground," and while she spoke, she plucked off quite a large apple. "It is my belief that he would only do that to people who were strangers."

With this blood-red apple in her hand, she ran to her sisters, saying:

"Just taste, my dear little sisters, for never in my life have I tasted anything so delightful."

Then the two other sisters also ate some of the apple, whereupon all three sank deep down, a hundred fathoms into the earth, where they could hear no cock crow.

When mid-day came, the king wished to call them to come to dinner, but they were nowhere to be found. He sought them everywhere in his halls and garden, but could not find them. Then he was much troubled, and made known to the whole land that whoever brought his daughters back again should have one of them to wife.

So many young men went about the country in search, that there was no counting them, for everyone loved the three children because they were so kind to all, and so fair of face.

Three young huntsmen also went out, and when they had travelled about for eight days, they arrived at a great Hall, in which were beautiful apartments, and in one room a table was laid on which were delicate dishes which were still so warm that they were smoking, but in the whole of the castle no human being was either to be seen or heard.

They waited there for half a day, and the food still remained warm and smoking, and at length they were so hungry that they sat down and ate, and agreed with each other that they would stay and live in that Hall, and that one of them, who should be chosen by casting lots, should remain in the house, and the two others seek the king's daughters.

They cast lots, and the lot fell on the eldest.

Next day the two younger brothers went out to seek, and the eldest had to stay home.

In the middle of the day there came a tiny gnome who begged the eldest brother for a piece of bread. The brother took some of the bread which he had found there, and cut a round off the loaf and handed it to him. While he was in the act of giving it over, the gnome let it fall, and asked the huntsman to be so good as to give him that piece again.

The huntsman, who usually asked his youngest brother to perform any menial acts there was to be done, was so surprised at this request that - quite without thinking - he stooped to comply. As soon as he bent down, the gnome took a stick, seized him by the hair, and gave him a good beating.

That evening, the oldest brother confided in the middle brother as to what had happened. "Make sure it doesn't happen to you," warned the eldest. The youngest came up and asked them what they were whispering about but they just said that they were deciding in which direction they should search for the princesses.

Next day, the second brother stayed at home, and he fared no better.

When the two others returned in the evening, the eldest said:

"Well, how did you get on?"

"Oh, very badly," said the middle brother, "it happened just exactly as you said it would."

Then they compared bruises together, but still they said nothing about it to the youngest, for they did not like him at all, and always called him stupid Howard, because he did not know the ways of the world.

On the third day, Howard, the youngest stayed at home, and again the little gnome came and begged for a piece of bread.

When Howard gave it to him, the gnome let it fall as before, and asked him to be so good as to give him that piece again. Then Howard said to the gnome:

"What? Can you not pick it up for yourself? If you won't take as much trouble as that for your daily bread, you don't deserve to have it."

Then the gnome grew very angry:

'You must bend over and pick up the bread!"

Howard replied, "That's gratitude for you!"

Again the gnome cried:

'You must bend over and pick up the bread!"

Howard didn't like his good-nature being abused. He picked up the gnome and gave him a thorough beating.

Then the gnome screamed terribly, and cried:

"Stop, stop! Let me go! I will tell you where the king's daughters are."

When Howard heard that, he left off thrashing him and the gnome said:

"I am a gnome, sir, a gnome, and there are more than a thousand like me. If you will only come with me, I will show you where the king's daughters are."

Howard thought he had nothing to lose, so he said, "Show me."

The gnome led him through the vast halls until they came to a deep well.

Howard picked up a stone and dropped it down, but there came no splash of water.

"There's no water in it," said Howard suspiciously.

The Gnome said: "That's not important. What is important is that your two brothers don't want you to be around when they find the missing princesses. Or, if you do happen to be out on the expedition that finds the princesses, then they plan to do you out of your just reward. They would rather split the reward two ways rather than three."

"In other words," said Howard, "you want me to go in with you on my own."

"That's right," said the gnome with a sly smile.

"Why should I trust you?" asked Howard.

"You can trust me, because you know how to handle me. You know how to hammer the truth out of me - unlike your two older brothers."

Howard thought for a moment and realised that the gnome was right. His two brothers would be very glad to recover the king's daughters - preferably without any trouble or danger.

"All right, Mr Gnome-it-all, how do I get to the princesses?"

"Well," replied the gnome, "you are going to need the help of your brothers. But, don't worry, if you can handle me, you can handle those two."

The gnome then explained the set-up at the bottom of the well, and before Howard could stop him, the gnome swiftly vanished.

Howard spent the rest of the day thinking things over. He knew he had a reputation for being the youngest and therefore the simplest of the family, but although he knew he would always be the youngest, it didn't have to follow that he always had to be the simplest.

When it was evening the two brothers came and asked Howard how he had got on.

Howard replied, "Pretty well so far. Funny thing happened at mid-day, though."

The two older brothers exchanged secret smiles and looked interested. "Oh? What happened?"

"This gnome appeared from out of nowhere and begged for a piece of bread. He belly-ached so much about it, that in the end I gave him some just to shut him up. And then, what did the little jerk go and do? He dropped the bread, and then had the nerve to ask me to bend down and pick it up for him."

"And did you?" asked the two brothers.

"You cannot be serious. I picked the gnome up instead and gave him a good thumping. And then, guess what happened?"

The two brothers eyed each other suspiciously, then said, "We give up. What happened?"

"I hammered the truth out of him. He only told me where the king's daughters were."

Howard watched his two brothers closely. Instead of smiling and congratulating him for achieving this breakthrough, he saw that they were so angry and envious that they turned several shades of green and yellow.

"Y'know," he thought to himself, "that gnome was telling me the truth, after all."

Next morning Howard brought them to the well.

"How are we going to get down there?" asked the two older brothers.

"I thought about that," replied Howard. He showed them a basket, large enough to hold a man, and a coil of rope, a hundred fathoms long.

"Since you found it," said the eldest brother, "why don't you go down?"

"All right," said Howard and he climbed into the basket.

When the middle brother saw how ready Howard was to go down, he said quickly:

"Let's draw straws for the privilege. The first one who sees the princesses is bound to be the one who gets to marry the king's youngest daughter."

They drew straws and the eldest brother got to go. As he climbed into the basket, he said:

"Y'know, it's just occurred to me that we might not be prepared for what's at the bottom."

Howard handed him a bell and said, "If you get into trouble, ring this bell and we'll drag you up."

So there was nothing else for it, but the eldest brother had to be lowered down, and as he went over the side, his teeth were chattering with fear.

As the basket went lower and lower, the darkness around him became greater and greater, and finally, about fifty fathoms down, he could stand it no longer. He rang the bell, and they drew him up again.

"What's the matter?" asked Howard.

'There are things down there that would make your hair turn white! I saw them looking at me out of the walls of the well, and my blood froze in horror. I drew my knife to fight them off, but I forgot I had my bell in that hand so when I struck out at these undead horrors, the bell rang and you drew me up."

The middle brother scoffed: "Well, you've had your chance to marry the youngest princess. Let me go down now."

So he took the bell and climbed into the basket and was lowered down.

He went down further than the first, but the words of his brother preyed on his mind and soon he began to imagine the faces peering out at him, and to see the gleam of eyes in the darkness, and very soon - about eighty fathoms down - his nerve broke also and before he could stop himself, he was ringing the bell and demanding to be brought back up.

Howard said nothing when the brother showed up, but merely climbed into the basket and allowed himself to be lowered right down the well to the very bottom.

At the bottom of the well it was all in darkness, except for the flickering firelight shining out from beneath three doorways.

He got out of the basket, drew his knife, and went and stood outside the first door and listened. The gnome had warned him what to expect, so he wasn't too surprised when he heard something snoring on the other side. The noise sounded like thunder, and came from the chest of something extremely large and fierce.

Cautiously, he opened the door, and one of the princesses was sitting there. On her lap were the nine heads of a gigantic dragon.

The princess looked surprised to see him, but Howard held a finger to his lips and signalled for her to keep silent.

Then he took out his knife and tiptoed over to the princess. He hewed at the dragon's heads, and the nine of them fell off.

The princess sprang up, threw her arms round his neck, embraced and kissed him repeatedly.

"Oh, how can I ever repay you?" she gasped.

Howard was pleased with what he saw of the princess and he looked her up and down. She wore a pectoral over her breasts, which was made of pure gold. She took it off and hung it round his neck.

Then he went to the second princess, who had a dragon with five heads, and delivered her also, and to the youngest, who had a dragon with four heads, he went likewise.

They both also rejoiced, and embraced him and kissed him without stopping. Then he rang very loud, so that those above heard him, and he placed the princesses one after the other in the basket, and had them all drawn up, but when it came to his own turn he remembered the words of the gnome, who had told him that his brothers did not mean well by him.

So he took a great stone which was lying there, and placed it in the basket, and when it was about half way up, his false brothers above cut the rope, so that the basket with the stone fell to the ground, and they thought that he was dead, and ran away with the three princesses.

"Thank you for rescuing us," said the youngest princess, "but why did you leave your brother behind?"

"That was no brother of ours," replied the eldest, "but it was the faithless gnome who had imprisoned you in the first place. We beat him black and blue until he told us where he had imprisoned you. Then he told us that he would return you to the outer world only on the promise that you never tell another living, breathing thing about who really rescued you."

There were holes in the story, but the princesses knew better than to do anything about it here, out in the wilderness, so they acquiesced and followed the two brothers.

Soon they returned to the Hall of the king, and the two brothers each demanded a princess in marriage.

In the meantime Howard was wandering about the three chambers in great trouble, fully expecting to have to end his days there, when he saw, hanging on the wall, a flute.

"Why do you hang there? No one can be merry here."

He looked at the dragons' heads likewise and said, "You too cannot help me now."

He walked to and fro for such a long time that he made the surface of the ground quite smooth. At last other thoughts came to his mind, and he took the flute from the wall, and played a few notes on it, and suddenly a number of gnomes appeared, and with every note that he sounded one more came. Then he played until the room was entirely filled.

They all asked what he desired, so he said he wished to get above ground back to daylight. As soon as they heard this, they seized him by every hair that grew on his head, and thus they flew with him onto the earth again.

When he was above ground, he at once went to the king's hall, just as the wedding of one princess was about to be celebrated, and he went to the room where the king and his three daughters were. When the princesses saw him they fainted.

The king was angry, because he thought Howard must have done some injury to his daughters, and ordered him to be put in prison at once. When the princesses came to themselves, however, they entreated the king to set him free again.

The king asked why, and they said,

"We have given solemn oaths that forbid us to tell a living, breathing thing."

Their father thought, "So, they cannot tell a living, breathing thing, eh?"

He then said to his daughters, "Why don't you tell it to the stove? It's not living and it doesn't breathe."

Out he went, only to listen at the door, and as the princesses confessed to the stove, the King heard everything.

Then he caused the two brothers to be hanged on the gallows, and to Howard he gave his youngest daughter, and on that occasion I wore a pair of glass shoes, and I struck them against a stone, and they said "Clink" and were broken.


Based on The (Earth) Elves