Thirteenth (fairy tale)

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Thirteenth is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, the boy steals the giant's treasures.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A family had many sons, the thirteenth of which was known as Thirteenth. Their mother gave herb soup to whichever one came home first, and Thirteenth always got it. The king proclaimed that whoever brought him the ogre's coverlet would win a measure of gold. Thirteenth's envious brothers told him that Thirteenth had bragged of being able to do it.

Despite Thirteenth's protests, the king dispatched him. He sneaked in the home when only the ogress was there and hid under the bed. In the night, he pulled off the coverlet, distracting the ogre and ogress by meowing when they reacted, and carried it off.

When the king offered gold to whoever stole the ogre's horse, Thirteenth asked for a silk ladder and a bag of cakes. He used the ladder to scale the ogre's castle, and fed the horse cakes all the way back to the king. Then he tried to steal the ogre's bolster, but the bells on it gave him away. The ogre stuffed him in a barrel and tried to fatten him on raisins and figs, but when he told Thirteenth to stick a finger out, to tell how fat he was getting, Thirteenth stuck out a mouse's tail, and then a spindle, but the third time, he had to put out his finger.

The ogre arranged a feast, but when the ogress went to put Thirteenth in the oven, he asked her what the black thing inside was. When she bent to look, he pushed her in and escaped with the ogre's bolster and other treasure.

The king wanted the ogre himself. Thirteenth disguised himself as a monk and went to the ogre's castle. There, he told him that Thirteenth had killed his superior, and he intended to shut him up in the chest, but he did not know what he looked like. The ogre said that Thirteenth was as tall as he was, so Thirteenth asked him to get in the chest so he could see whether it was large enough. Then he fastened it and carried the ogre off. The king rewarded Thirteenth richly.