Les Contes des Landes: The Four Dextrous Brothers

There was a man who had four sons and when they had grown, he told to them:
“All of you must go and learn a trade, whatever you prefer. Return here in a year to the day.”
After a year, the boys returned home. The father asked the first, “Well, what trade did you learn?”
“As for me, I am a franc (1) diviner,” said the son.
“And you,” said the father to the second, “which trade have you chosen?”
“As for me, I am a franc thief.”
“And you,” said the father to the third, “what do you do?”
“As for me, I am a franc marksman.”
“And you?” asked the father to the fourth.
“As for me, I am a franc repairman,” said the fourth and youngest.

“So, you have told me that you are true in your professions, but I want to see that you are as able as you say. To you,” the father said to the first, “the diviner. There is very close to here, behind the house, a great pine. Can you tell me what is at the top of the pine?”
The son responded, “At the top of the pine, is a magpie nest. In the nest are two eggs and the magpie is covering them.”
“It’s true!” said the father. “To you, now, the thief. You will climb the tree and take the eggs without startling the mother.”
The youth climbed the pine, lifted the eggs without startling the mother and brought them to his father. The old man took the eggs and said: “To you, the marksman, you will throw these in to the air and fire two shots breaking them each in two.”
The third son launched them in to the air, first one, then the other. He brought his gun to bear and fired two shots right through the middle of each of the eggs.
“Ah! To you, the repairman, take these eggs put fix them in a fashion that it is impossible to tell they were ever broken.”
The youngest, the repairman, took the broken bits of the eggs and made them look new. The father was very satisfied by his four sons.

After some days, the king of the land, who wanted to speak with the lads, sent for them to be found. When the four brothers arrived at the castle, the king asked them what they’re respective trades were. They each responded as they did to their father. The king asked to the diviner:
“Well, if you are a diviner, do you know why I have sent for you?”
He responded, “I do know why. For seven years, your daughter has been imprisoned by a demon and you don’t know where to find her. You have asked us here to find her.”
“It’s true,” said the king. “You are able to find her? Ask me for anything you would like to aid you, I will make it so. After she is found, she will be married to you.”
The diviner brother asked for a beautiful boat and captain and crew to pilot the boat across the sea. The next morning, they embarked to find the king’s daughter.

They started to sail and for a long time they sailed trying to find evidence of the king’s daughter, but they could not see land. Finally, after many days, they decided it was hopeless but as they were to give up they spotted an island from the boat. The island had a large moutain right in the center that was crowned with a forest. Then, the diviner said they must stop, as the princess was imprisoned in the castle in the forest on top of the mountain on the island.
He told his brothers, “To you, the thief, the moment has come to employ your skill. When you arrive in the demon’s castle, you will find a tapestry of gold or money. The walls will be made of gold, but you must touch nothing. When you make your way through the castle, touching nothing, you will find the princess sleeping in a chair of gold. Lift her out of the chair and bring her here, but still, do not take any of the beautiful things that you see around you, otherwise the demon will find you and kill you both.”
After the thief penetrated the castle and brought her to the boat, the demon realized that she was missing. The diviner shouted to the his brother, the marksman, as the boat turned away from the island, “When the devil arrives, fire at him and destroy him!” Next he turned to his last brother, “After the demon is destroyed, he will break in to two pieces and the fire inside his body will fall on to the deck of the ship. You must quickly repair the ship if we are to ever see home!”
Soon the demon appeared and the marksman raised his gun. He took aim and with one perfectly placed shot, the demon was split in to two pieces. Pieces of the devil fell to the deck and burned holes straight through the ship. Luckily, the fourth brother, the repairman, was ready and patched up the boat before even a drop of water was able to leak in to the boat. The boat turned back home, with the princess on board and the demon perished.

When they arrived at the king’s castle, he asked each brother, starting with the diviner, “Ah! To you, the diviner, what role did you play in finding my daughter?”
The diviner answered, “I indicated the place where your daughter was held captive and told my brothers how they could rescue her. Without me, everything would have been lost.”
The king asked the same question to the second brother. The thief answered, “I was able to free your daughter from the demon’s clutches and brought her back to the boat.”
The king asked the same question to the third brother. The marksman answered, “When the demon arrived, I took aim and destroyed him with my steady shot. Without me, he would have overtaken us and all would have been lost.”
The king asked the same question to the fourth brother. The repairman answered, “When the demon’s dead body fell to the ground, I repaired the boat from the damage it caused. Without me, we all would have drowned.”
“I am very happy with all of you,” said the king. “You have returned my daughter, but I can not marry her to you all. I will ask her who she prefers.
The young woman said to her father, “Daddy, if you give me my choice between thes four brothers, I would like to marry the thief. He is the first person that I had seen and fell in love when he took me from that place.”
The franc thief and the daughter of the king were married. To console the other brothers, they were all named generals in the king’s army.
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(1) The story uses the word “franc” before each of the word’s describing the sons’ trades. Translated, it means “frank” so I suppose earnest or true, but when I asked the owner of the coffeshop I go to what it meant, he said it was an old usage of the word, and while it roughly means “true”, it is not a direct translation. Oh well. Such is my understanding of French, rough and never exact.