So the first head asked:  “A thing without an end; what’s that?”

But the young man knew not.

Then the second head said:  “The smaller the more dangerous; what’s that?”

But the young man knew not.

And then the third head asked:  “The dead carrying the living? riddle me that.”

But the young man knew not.

So the lad not being able to answer one of these questions, the Red Ettin took a mallet from behind the door, knocked him on the head, and turned him into a pillar of stone.

Now on the morning after this happened the younger brother took out the knife to look at it, and he was grieved to find it all brown with rust.  So he told his mother that the time was now come for him to go away upon his travels also.  At first she refused to let him go; but at last she requested him to take the can to the well for water, that she might make a cake for him.  So he went, but as he was bringing home the water, a raven over his head cried to him to look, and he would see that the water was running out.  Now being a young man of sense, and seeing the water running out, he took some clay and patched up the holes, so that he brought home enough water to bake a large cake.  And when his mother put it to him to take the half cake with her blessing, he took it instead of having the whole with her malison.

So he went away on his journey with his mother’s blessing.  Now after he had travelled a far way, he met with an old woman who asked him if he would give her a bit of his cake.  And he said, “I will gladly do that”; so he gave her a piece of the cake.  Then the old woman, who was a fairy, gave him a magic wand, that might yet be of service to him, if he took care to use it rightly; and she told him a great deal that would happen to him, and what he ought to do in all circumstances; and after that, she vanished in an instant, out of his sight.  Then he went on his way until he came up to the old man who was herding the sheep; and when he asked him to whom the sheep belonged, the answer was: 

  “To the Red Ettin of Ireland
     Who lives in Ballygan,
   He stole King Malcolm’s daughter,
     The king of fair Scotland. 
   He beats her, he binds her,
     He lays her on a band;
   And every day he strikes her
     With a bright silver wand. 
   But now I fear his end is near,
     And death is close at hand;
   For you’re to be, I plainly see,
     The heir of all his land.”

So the younger brother went on his way; but when he came to the place where the dreadful, terrible, horrible beasts were standing, he did not stop nor run away, but went boldly through amongst them.  One came up roaring with open mouth to devour him, when he struck it with his wand, and laid it in an instant dead at his feet.  He soon came to the Ettin’s castle, where he found the door shut, but he knocked boldly, and was admitted.  Then the old woman who sat by the fire warned him of the terrible Ettin, and what had been the fate of his brother; but he was not to be daunted, and would not even hide.