The Giants and the Herd-boy is a Bukovinian fairy tale collected by Dr Heinrich von Wlislocki in ''Märchen und Sagen der Bukowinaer und Siebenbürger Armenier''.

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...

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The Yellow Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...

''.Andrew Lang, ''The Yellow Fairy Book''
"The Giants and the Herd-boy"
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Synopsis

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

tended sheep for a lord. One day, he found an injured

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

, who promised to reward him, if he bound up his foot. The herdboy did that, with his own shirt, and the giant took him to a giants' wedding, giving him a belt to make him invisible, and then underground, where he ate a good meal and stole a loaf of bread. The next day, he tried to tear off a piece of bread to eat, but he could not, until he finally bit it. It still did not break, but he found a gold piece dropped from his mouth. He used the gold to buy food. The lord had a beautiful daughter who was always polite to the herdboy. He decided to give her a bag of gold on her birthday, using the belt to leave it secretly. It gave him so much pleasure that he did it for seven more nights. The eighth night, the girl and her parents watched for who did it, and the herdboy forgot his belt and so was caught. The lord sent him from his service. The herdboy spent his gold on fine clothing and a coach with horses, and returned. They were astounded, and when they heard of his good fortune, agreed that he should marry their daughter.

References

Romanian fairy tales Fiction about giants {{story-stub