The youngest son follows a broken journey
Six princes leave to find brides, while their youngest brother, Boots, remains with their father. Returning with six princesses, they pass a giant who turns them all to stone. Boots eventually obtains permission to search for them. Along the road he feeds a raven, restores a stranded salmon to water, and gives his worn-out horse to a starving wolf. The wolf then carries him.
At the giant’s dwelling he finds a captive princess. She explains that ordinary attack cannot kill their captor because his heart is not inside his body. Rather than immediately beginning another journey, Boots must hide and listen. The princess’s conversation becomes the means of discovering what force alone cannot locate.
Source: Popular Tales from the Norse · “The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body”: petrified travelers, three animals, and captive princess
Questioning reaches beyond two false answers
The giant first claims that his heart lies beneath the threshold, then in a cupboard. Each unsuccessful search is concealed by the princess’s decoration of the supposed hiding place with flowers, presented as a sign of affection. At last he describes an island in a lake, a church on the island, a well in the church, a duck in the well, and an egg in the duck. His heart is inside the egg.
The wolf transports Boots to the island. The raven retrieves the church keys from the tower, and the salmon recovers the egg when it falls into the well. The earlier encounters now become practical relationships: flight, swimming, and strong movement solve different obstacles. No single helper can replace all the others.
Source: Popular Tales from the Norse · Same tale: two false locations, final disclosure, and recovery of the egg
Rescue includes a broken assurance
By squeezing the egg, Boots causes the giant pain and compels him to restore the petrified travelers. Following the wolf’s advice, he offers to spare the giant if the restoration occurs, but then breaks the egg anyway. The giant dies. Boots frees the princess, and all seven couples return to the king for a wedding celebration.
The narrative rewards this result, yet the assurance of mercy is not kept. That detail deserves attention alongside the generosity toward animals and the princess’s courage. The external heart can be compared with other tales of a life lodged outside the body, but the nested church, well, duck, and egg are specific to this telling. They are not interchangeable parts of one universally shared magical anatomy.
Source: Popular Tales from the Norse · Same tale: pressure on the heart, promised mercy, killing, and return
- Period / witness
- Norwegian collected tales; George Webbe Dasent’s English translation, nineteenth century.
- Recording context
- Asbjørnsen and Moe’s Norwegian collecting and editorial work, read through Dasent. These are recorded folktales, not medieval Eddic witnesses.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
Popular Tales from the Norse ↗
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe; translated by George Webbe Dasent · English collection 1859; online text based on an enlarged edition
Edition & rights note