Mighty Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. Fillmore Parker
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the King’s Son threw the strong iron chain about her and drew her to him. Then with one mighty sweep of the scythe he severed the silver chains that were attached to her ankles and the silver chains fell chiming into the depths. Another instant and the maiden in his arms was no maiden but a slimy fish that squirmed and wriggled and almost slipped through his fingers. He killed the fish and, lo! it was not a fish but a frightened bird that struggled to escape. He killed the bird and, lo! it was not a bird but a writhing lizard. And so on through many transformations, growing finally small and weak until at last there was only a mosquito. He crushed this and in his arms he found again the lovely Ilona.
“Ah, dear one,” he said, “you are my true bride and not Suyettar who pretended she was you! Come, we will go at once to the castle and confront her!”
But Ilona cried out at this:
“Not there, my Prince, not there! Suyettar if she saw me would kill me and devour me! Keep me from her!”
“Very well, my dear one,” the King’s Son said. “We’ll wait until to-morrow and after to-morrow there will be no Suyettar to fear.”
So for that night they took shelter in the old wise woman’s hut, Ilona and the King’s Son and faithful little Pilka.
The next morning early the King’s Son returned to the castle and had the sauna heated. Just inside the door he had a deep hole dug and filled it with burning tar. Then over the top of the hole he stretched a brown mat and on the brown mat a blue mat. When all was ready he went indoors and roused Suyettar.
“Where have you been all night?” she demanded angrily.
“Forgive me this time,” he begged in pretended humility, “and I promise never again to be parted from my own true bride. Come now, my dear, and bathe for the sauna is ready.”
Then Suyettar, who loved to have people see her go to the sauna just as if she were a real human being, put on a long bathrobe and clapped her hands. Four slaves appeared. Two took up the train of her bathrobe and the two others supported her on either side. Slowly she marched out of the castle, across the courtyard, and over to the sauna.
“They all really think I’m a human princess!” she said to herself, and she was so sure she was beautiful and admired that she tossed her head and smirked from side to side and took little mincing steps.
When she reached the sauna she was ready to drop the bathrobe and jump over the doorsill to the steaming shelf, but the King’s Son whispered:
“Nay! Nay! Remember your dignity as a beautiful princess and walk over the blue mat!”
So with one more toss of her head, one more smirk of her ugly face, Suyettar stepped on the blue mat and sank into the hole of burning tar. Then the King’s Son quickly locked the door of the sauna and left her there to burn in the tar, for burning, you know, is the only way to destroy Suyettar. As she burned the last hateful thing Suyettar did was to tear out handfuls of her hair and scatter them broadcast in the air.
“Let these,” she cried, yelling and cursing, “turn into mosquitos and worms and moths and trouble mankind forever!”
Then her yells grew fainter and at last ceased altogether and the King’s Son knew that it was now safe to bring Ilona home. First, however, he had Osmo released from the place of the serpents and asked his forgiveness for the unjust punishment.
Then he and Osmo together went to the hut of the old wise woman and there with tears of happiness the brother and sister were reunited. The King’s Son to show his gratitude to the old wise woman begged her to accompany them to the castle and presently they all set forth with Pilka frisking ahead and barking for joy.
That day there was a new wedding feast spread at the castle and this time it was not bones and fish heads and burnt crusts but such food as the King’s Son had not tasted for many a day.
To celebrate his happy marriage the King’s Son made Osmo his chamberlain and gave Pilka a beautiful new collar.
“Now at last,” Ilona said, “I am glad I left the house of my forefathers.”
MIGHTY MIKKO
There was once an old woodsman and his wife who had an only son named Mikko. As the mother lay dying the young man wept bitterly.
“When you are gone, my dear mother,” he said, “there will be no one left to think of me.”
The poor woman comforted him as best she could and said to him:
“You will still have your father.”
Shortly after the woman’s death, the old man, too, was taken ill.
“Now, indeed, I shall be left desolate and alone,” Mikko thought, as he sat beside his father’s bedside and saw him grow weaker and weaker.
“My boy,” the old man said just before he died, “I have nothing to leave you but the three snares with which these many years I have caught wild animals. Those snares now belong to you. When I am dead, go into the woods and if you find a wild creature caught in any of them, free it gently and bring it home alive.”
After his father’s death, Mikko remembered the snares and went out to the woods to see them. The first was empty and also the second, but in the third he found a little red Fox. He carefully lifted the spring that had shut down on one of the Fox’s feet and then carried the little creature home in his arms. He shared his supper with it and when he lay down to sleep the Fox curled up at his feet. They lived together some time until they became close friends.
“Mikko,” said the Fox one day, “why are you so sad?”
“Because I’m lonely.”
“Pooh!” said the Fox. “That’s no way for a young man to talk! You ought to get married! Then you wouldn’t feel lonely!”
“Married!” Mikko repeated. “How can I get married? I can’t marry a poor girl because I’m too poor myself and a rich girl wouldn’t marry me.”
“Nonsense!” said the Fox. “You’re a fine well set up young man and you’re kind and gentle. What more could a princess ask?”
Mikko laughed to think of a princess wanting him for a husband.
“I mean what I say!” the Fox insisted. “Take our own Princess now. What would you think of marrying her?”
Mikko laughed louder than before.
“I have heard,” he said, “that she is the most beautiful princess in the world! Any man would be happy to marry her!”
“Very well,” the Fox said, “if you feel that way about her then I’ll arrange the wedding for you.”
With that the little Fox actually did trot off to the royal castle and gain audience with the King.
“My master sends you greetings,” the Fox said, “and he begs you to loan him your bushel measure.”
“My bushel measure!” the King repeated in surprise. “Who is your master and why does he want my bushel measure?”
“Ssh!” the Fox whispered as though he didn’t want the courtiers to hear what he was saying. Then slipping up quite close to the King he murmured in his ear:
“Surely you have heard of Mikko, haven’t you? – Mighty Mikko as he’s called.”
The King had never heard of any Mikko who was known as Mighty Mikko but, thinking that perhaps he should have heard of him, he shook his head and murmured:
“H’m! Mikko! Mighty Mikko! Oh, to be sure! Yes, yes, of course!”
“My master is about to start off on a journey and he needs a bushel measure for a very particular reason.”
“I understand! I understand!” the King said, although he didn’t understand at all, and he gave orders that the bushel measure which they used in the storeroom of the castle be brought in and given to the Fox.
The Fox carried off the measure and hid it in the