Once there was a poor farmer who had a bunch of children. He no longer had anyone in the village to ask to be the godfather of his last, newly born son. So he decided to sit down by the road and ask the first person who passed by to be his son’s godfather.
It wasn’t long before he saw an old man in a grey cloak approaching. The peasant asked him nicely if he would be his godfather, and the old man agreed. He gave the newborn boy a calf as a baptismal gift. It was born on the same day as the boy and had a gold star on its forehead.
As time passed, the calf became a sturdy bull, and the grown boy went out to pasture with him every day. And he also discovered long ago that he was not just any bull… He could talk! He always let the boy rest while he ran off to the heavenly pastures to graze the stars.
And so the boy and the bull spent day after day until the boy was twenty years old. On his twentieth birthday, the bull said to him: “Mount me and we’ll go to the king. Ask him for a seven-foot iron sword. Tell him you are going to rescue his daughter from the dragon.”
The boy had known over the years that if the bull advised him, he would advise him well.
Without asking or talking back, he jumped on the bull’s back, grabbed him by the horns, and they galloped to the king. When the boy stood before the king, he asked for a seven-foot iron sword, exactly as the bull had instructed. The king did not have much faith that his daughter could return, but the boy was well-groomed and seemed determined. So he had the king’s blacksmith make him an iron sword, seven feet long.
Years ago, the princess was taken far from the kingdom by a twelve-headed dragon and no one has ever been able to get to her. A giant mountain stood in the path that no one had ever conquered. Beyond the mountain there was a vast sea that no one had ever crossed. Beyond the sea stood a mighty castle, and its walls were surrounded by flames shooting up. Even if one were able to conquer the mountain and the sea beyond, one would not be able to cross the flames. And if he did, he’d still be eaten by a dragon. It looked hopeless.
But this time things were a little different, because the boy had his bull. He jumped on his back again and they set off towards the mountain. When they stood in front of the great mountains, the boy had doubts about how they could cross them. Then the bull threw him to the ground, turned himself towards the mountains, and ran with a rush towards them. He pushed the high mountains out of the way with his huge horns. The boy jumped on the bull’s back again and they went on until they reached the wide sea.
“Now what? You can’t part the sea with your horns or there’s no other way we can cross it,” the boy lamented. But the bull walked calmly to the water, bowed his head, and drank. He drank until he had drunk the whole sea. All that was left was the ground with pools of water.
The boy and the bull went on, and soon came to a castle surrounded by flames. The heat was scorching, and the boy begged the bull to stop. But the bull kept going, even though the heat was making them both sweat all over. The bull stopped only just short of the flames, at which point he spat the entire sea he had drunk not long before onto the flames. All the flames were thus extinguished, and after the fire was put out, great clouds of smoke rose up to the sky until the sky was completely dark.
Suddenly, an angry dragon burst out of the smoke and aimed directly at the boy. The bull quickly advised him to use his sword and behead the dragon all at once. The boy dug his feet into the ground, gripped his sword tightly with both hands, and as the dragon was coming almost upon him, he swung with all his might so violently that all twelve heads fell from the dragon’s neck to the ground. The boy then ran to the castle, where he found the kidnapped princess in the highest tower without windows.
The boy and the princess returned to the king in the castle. It couldn’t have ended any other way than with a wedding, for the boy had saved the princess from the dragon’s clutches. She wouldn’t marry anyone else. And the magic bull? Now the boy won’t need his help. Together with the princess, they will rule the land and raise their children. The bull said goodbye to the boy and ran off to the heavenly meadow. There he will graze contentedly until some brave boy needs help again to save the princess.
