Giant Prince of the Three Damsels’ Fire Tale

Overview

Helga reaches the cave while seeking fire for her family. Unlike her favored elder sisters, she finishes the cooking and waits for permission without eating. An enormous, ugly giant arrives with a savage-looking dog. He rewards the careful work with food and shelter. Helga first rests in the dog’s place, but successive crashing noises frighten her closer to the giant’s bed.

When she finally lies beside him, the giant-shape falls away and a handsome prince appears. Helga destroys the discarded shape; he thanks her for freeing him from the spell. The account does not name the caster. Before she returns home, he gives her a hidden tunic and a chest of valuable clothes; the dog gives her a ring. Her family seizes the visible treasures but does not discover the tunic.

The prince later arrives by ship and demands to see all the daughters. Helga’s parents initially conceal her existence, then disparage her appearance. The hidden tunic reveals his chosen bride, and he confronts the family’s mistreatment. They leave and marry in his kingdom, where the ending explicitly gives them children and grandchildren. The tale’s Helga is distinct from the similarly named heroine who frees Dordingull in the Búkolla account.

Origins & earliest records

Icelandic Legends, second series (1866), The Tale of how Three Damsels went to fetch Fire, pp. 490–498.

Records & interpretation

Complete collected tale in the surviving alternate-copy OCR; extraordinary acts are reported within this particular narrative.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Icelandic Legends, second series: The Tale of how Three Damsels went to fetch Fire, pp. 490–498

   Collected by Jón Árnason; translated by George E. J. Powell and Eiríkr Magnússon · 1866

   Complete tale read through its marriage and descendants ending; anonymous characters are not supplied invented names.

Family, evolution & connections

The fire-fetching prince and Helga - stated descendants

Only the collective children and grandchildren explicitly stated on p. 498.

Two descendant generations are shown collectively, without inventing individual households. No names, counts or sex assignments are supplied for descendants. Collective branches do not mean every child had children. Helga is specific to this telling; same-named heroines in other tales are not merged.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textIcelandic Legends, surviving 1866 alternate copyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.