Bonde Værskjegg (Farmer Weathersky) is a Norwegian folktale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen.
Synopsis[]
A father set out to find an apprenticeship for his son Jack. He comes across a man named Farmer Weathersky, who forcefully takes the boy as his apprentice and will not tell the father where he lives.
Searching for his son, the father meets an old lady with a nose so long she could use it to retrieve water from a well, who tells him to ask her two sisters where Farmer Weathersky resides. Finally, the third sister finds an eagle who knows the way. The father enters the castle and is instructed by the eagle to capture the hare that lives in the stable, then to steal some wood chips, a stone, and some feathers from Farmer Weathersky's hair.
When Farmer Weathersky summons a flock of crows to capture them, the father throws the feathers, which become a flock of ravens that drive the crows away. Farmer Weathersky then begins to pursue them on foot, so the father throws down the wood chips, which become a forest. When Farmer Weathersky cuts through the forest, the father throws down the stone and it becomes a mountain. Returning home, the father uses dirt from the churchyard to transform the hare back into his son Jack.
Having learned magic and wanting to prove his worth, Jack transforms himself into a horse and has his father sell him three times. The third time, he is purchased by Farmer Weathersky. He escapes in the form of a dove, and Farmer Weathersky pursues in the form of a hawk. He comes across a princess and becomes her ring.
Farmer Weathersky then makes the king ill, and demands the ring as payment for curing him. The princess throws the ring into the soot of a fireplace, and Farmer Weathersky becomes a chicken to scrape around in the soot, only for Jack to transform into a fox and bite Farmer Weathersky's head off.