A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The three-headed giant first appears in the court’s hidden life, rising through the impostor’s floor with a trough of meat. His greeting identifies her as his sister. After she eats, he descends again. Later the real queen explains that the stone boat carried her through darkness to this same giant. He demanded marriage; when she refused, he confined her separately and made release conditional upon her consent. His dwelling is eventually said to lie directly beneath the palace, connecting the sea journey’s mysterious destination with the court’s underground passages.
The queen proposes consent in exchange for three successive visits to her son. The giant grants the visits but fastens an iron belt around her waist, with a long chain whose other end is secured around his own middle. She rises through the nursery floor, embraces the child, and returns below. After her second visit, her statement that only one remains prompts the nurse to summon Sigurd. On the third, he cuts the chain. Violent noise and shaking follow; the queen interprets these as the giant falling down the passage and dying. This causal explanation belongs to her account within the story, rather than an independently narrated view of his fall.
Origins & earliest records
The Yellow Fairy Book (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894), edited by Andrew Lang, prints The Witch in the Stone Boat with a footnote identifying it as from the Icelandic. The earlier Powell–Magnússon collection prints the related Troll in the Stone-craft in 1866; its available Google scan has cropped leaves, so this account follows the complete 1894 retelling.
Records & interpretation
The complete 1894 narrative distinguishes the queen impersonator from her three-headed brother. The title page identifies H. J. Ford as illustrator; images show the boarding and the chain-cutting encounter.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
The Yellow Fairy Book: The Witch in the Stone Boat
Complete narrative, from Sigurd’s marriage and voyage through restoration of the queen and reward of the nurse. The text supplies no individual storyteller attribution.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary literary retellingLang 1894: complete stone-boat narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
