Herding the King’s Hares

Each year at Halloween time, I share a folktale. I can relate to this one, as some animals on the farm are much better at being herded than others. Sheep easily flock up and respond to pressure from people or dogs, but pigs are extremely individualistic—as anyone who’s tried to load pigs has witnessed.

In this particular tale from Norway, we have a unique animal in need of herding: hares (as in rabbits). The king was having a terrible time finding someone who could herd his royal hares. He sent out a royal decree, which was announced in all the churches of the realm that whosoever could successfully herd his hares and bring them all back at night to the barn would be rewarded with half the kingdom and the hand of the princess in marriage (the standard payment for achievement in these types of stories).

Many had made attempts to herd the hares, but all had failed and met the fate that was also part of the bargain of taking up the challenge. I don’t know who gets to decide the terrible fates of those who fail the challenge in these tales, but this time around the doom was to be chopped into pieces and thrown into a pit. Yikes!

There was one family in a village not far off from the king’s castle who heard the news of the challenge. This family had three sons: Per (the eldest), Paul, and Espen Cinderlad. One day, Per announces that he’s going to head off to the palace and try his hand at herding the hares, for surely that shouldn’t be such a difficult thing. His mother packs him a lunch and off he goes, traveling through a thick forest on the way.

While heading through the forest, he hears a strange sound. “Help me!” cries a feeble, aged voice. “Please help me. My nose is stuck in a crack in this tree, and I’ve been stuck here for 500 years, would someone please help me out.” Per looks up to see an old woman with her large nose stuck in a tree. But his mind is full of rabbits and the princess, and he refuses to stop and help.

“If you’ve been stuck there for 500 years,” he laughs, “then I suspect you can stay there a bit longer!” And off he goes, paying her no mind. When he arrives at the king’s castle, Per announces his willingness to take up the challenge of herding the king’s hares. The young man is accepted and taken to the barn where hundreds and hundreds of rabbits are kept.

In the morning, the doors of the barn are open, and Per is instructed to keep them all together along the sunken road, with the cow pasture to the left and the hayfield to the right, then let them graze in the forest thicket. All goes well and as planned until the rabbits reach the forest thicket, at which point they scatter off in a thousand directions to do what rabbits do for the day.

Per wasn’t too concerned, thinking he could call them together that evening like you might the cows for milking, but though he whistled and hollered, begged and pleaded, sank to his knees and pounded his fists, not one hare would come out of the forest to head home. As darkness fell, a disparaged Per had to return to the castle empty-handed, and meet his fate.

The next day, Paul said he was going to try his hand at herding the king’s hares, for he thought himself mighty clever. Armed with a lunch packed by his mother, he too had to pass through the forest thicket. And what do you suspect he heard there?

“Help me, please help me! My nose is truck in the crack of a tree, and I’ve been stuck here for 500 years, would you please help me?” It was the old woman again, her large nose just as stuck as it had been before. But Paul was also quite busy in his thoughts with the prospect of winning half the kingdom and the hand of the princess, that he blew off the old lady as well. “If you’ve been stuck here for 500 years, then I suspect you can stay a bit longer!” and off he went.

But as you might expect, Paul met the same fate as well, for he had no more luck than his older brother in bringing the hares safely home. Thwarted in his efforts, he too had to meet his fate as darkness fell, and the king still had no one who could successfully herd his rabbits.

The next day, young Espen Cinderlad announced that he would go and try, but his mother chided him for such a thought, as she had already lost two sons to this endeavor and he was ever so dirty from staying home all day and poking at the ashes from the fire. Surely, he would never succeed, and she even refused to pack him a lunch. Cinderlad had to pocket a few morsels he could snatch from the kitchen and leave without his family’s blessing.

We know what he’ll run into next as he travels through the dense forest, but his response will be different. We’ll pick back up with Cinderlad next week. See you down on the farm sometime.