The Ordinary Giant

Stories for Another Day

In the third kingdom there was a village where everyone who lived there was a giant, and the most ordinary of them all was a giant named Timber. He wasn’t particularly big or strong, and he certainly wasn’t the smartest of the giants – that would be Wezel, who was very clever as well as very tall. Timber was just ordinary.

Timber worked as a carpenter. With a name like his, it seemed silly to work as a brick-layer or a shepherd, so he made his living fixing chairs and beds and things. Sometimes other giants would ask him to make them a table or a cupboard.

One day as he was planing the top of a table he was making to make it smooth and level, there was a knock at the door of his workshop. When he opened the door, there was a very small princess. She wasn’t just small compared to a giant. Even for an ordinary person, she was small. She was little, petite, and dainty.

Timber knew she was a princess, because under her shabby old coat she had on a satin dress and instead of a headband holding back her dark, wavy hair, she had a gold tiara. “I’m looking for a giant to help me,” she said. “Can you help me?”

“You should ask Kale,” Timber said. “He’s very big and strong. He can uproot a tree with one hand!”

“It’s you I want to help me,” said the princess, whose name was Hazel.

“Me?” said Timber. “I’m sure you don’t want me. There are lots of giants here much smarter than me. Wezel is the smartest – he can make onion soup and count backwards at the same time.”

The princess said, “I don’t need anyone to count backwards or to make soup. It’s you I want. Will you help me?”

Tears like tiny pearls gathered in the corners of her eyes. When Timber saw them, he couldn’t resist any longer. “Of course I’ll help you,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

Hazel said, “The Grey Duke has captured my love, Prince Rowan. He is trying to force Rowan to marry his horrible daughter.”

“Oh no! That’s terrible!” said Timber. He knew how awful it was to be separated from the one you love. He had loved a girl called Rose for a long time, but he had never been brave enough to tell her. He lived in daily fear of her marrying someone else. “I’ll go to see the king and ask him to send the royal guard to free Prince Rowan.”

Hazel said, “I’ve already asked the king, but he says the royal guard are away on holidays and they won’t be back until Tuesday. And the wedding is tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow!” said Timber. “Then there’s no time to lose.” Pausing only long enough to make a sandwich for himself and one for Hazel, and to slip his favourite chisel into his pocket in case one of the other giant carpenters came along while he was out and borrowed it and forgot to bring it back, they set out.

The Grey Duke’s castle was made of heavy grey stone, set on the top of a high hill covered in grey thistle-bushes. The great iron gates were barred and the drawbridge was pulled up. Hazel pointed to a row of windows high up in the grey walls. “Those are the windows of the prison cells,” she said. “I know Rowan is inside one of them. All you have to do is reach up and get him out.”

Timber looked up and up. Even though he was a giant, he was only as big as two tall men, and the windows were far, far above his head. “I may be a giant,” he said, “but even I can’t reach that far.” He thought to himself that Wezel would probably be big enough, or if he wasn’t, he would be able to work out a way of climbing up the walls easily.

Hazel ‘s face fell, and her eyes started to fill up with tears. Timber said hastily, “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something.” He racked his brains to think of some way of getting up there. “I know! A ladder!” he said.

“Have you got a ladder?” Hazel asked doubtfully.

“No, I didn’t think of bringing one, but just wait here,” he said. He strode off to the woods. He soon found a fallen tree, and cut footholds in its side with his chisel. He carried it back and propped it against the wall of the castle. It was easy to climb, and he soon reached the first window.

He put his giant eye up to the window and peered in. There was a sudden loud yelling and clashing of swords and shields and helmets and things. It didn’t take Timber long to realise that the first window must belong to the guards’ room. He blinked when he heard all the noise, which was a good thing, because when the guards saw a giant eye looking in at them, they threw their spears at it and tried to poke it with their swords. Timber climbed down again in a hurry.

He gave Hazel a wave to say everything was okay, that was just a practice climb, then he moved his tree-ladder along to the next window. This time he had better luck, because there was a prisoner inside. He was wearing a red head-scarf and he had a gold earring and a parrot on his shoulder. Timber suspected straight away that he wasn’t a prince. “Excuse me, are you a pirate?”

The pirate said, “I used to be a pirate before I was taken prisoner, but I promise I’ll change my ways and never steal or make anyone walk the plank ever again if you let me out.”

“All right,” Timber said. He pulled hard on the iron bars in the window frame. Only a few of them came out, but that was enough for the pirate to slip through, since he was of slim build as many pirates are, because they live mostly on hard biscuits and rum. He scampered down the tree-ladder singing, “Yo-ho-ho, and off I go.”

Timber called out as he ran off, “Which window is Prince Rowan’s?”

“Second one along,” the pirate yelled back as he disappeared into the woods.

Timber moved the ladder again. He gave Hazel an encouraging thumbs-up, and climbed up to the second window along. This time he was more careful. When he reached the window, he called out, “If you are Prince Rowan, I’ve come to rescue you, and save you from being married off to the Grey Duke’s horrible daughter.”

The prisoner said, “I am Prince Rowan,” springing to his feet.

But another voice also called out, “I’m Prince Rowan,” and then another and another, all along the line of windows. Timber thought to himself that maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea after all. He said to the prisoner, “Can you prove that you’re Prince Rowan?”

“Don’t I look like a prince to you?” the prisoner asked. He was wearing a red uniform with shining gold braid on the shoulders and the cuffs.

Timber still wasn’t sure. He may be a prince, but he might not be THE prince. “If you’re Prince Rowan, tell me the name of your love.”

The prisoner said, “Um, is it Brenda?”

“You’re not Prince Rowan,” Timber said. He climbed down again and moved the ladder to the next window, giving Hazel a cheery next-time-lucky smile.

The prisoner was covered in dirt and grime, but Timber knew that didn’t matter. “If you’re Prince Rowan, tell me what your love looks like,” he said to the prisoner.

“She’s very dainty and petite, with dark, wavy hair, and when she cries, tears gather in the corners of her eyes like tiny pearls,” the prisoner said.

A smile spread over Timber’s face. He had found the right man. “We have to hurry,” he said. “I think the prison guards may know that I’m here.” There was a lot of shouting from inside the castle that sounded as if it was coming closer. Timber pulled at the prison bars with all his strength, and bent them out of shape. Rowan got out, and he and Timber climbed down together.

Rowan and Hazel kissed and hugged each other, laughing and crying with joy. Timber smiled to himself. Definitely the right man.

They all hurried off together into the woods. Then Timber went back for a minute and jammed his tree-ladder against the drawbridge so that the guards couldn’t open it.

Prince Rowan and Princess Hazel were married the very next day, before anything else could befall them. Timber was invited to the wedding, and Prince Rowan and Princess Hazel said to him, “Timber, we would like you to stay with us, and be the Captain of the Guard.”

“Me?” said Timber, amazed. “I’m only a carpenter. I couldn’t be captain of the guard!”

Rowan said, “You have more experience and qualifications than anyone we know: courage under enemy attack, safeguarding and rescuing of the Royal Person, assisting and protecting the Royal Person’s true love – you’re perfect for the job!”

Timber thought hard, then he smiled modestly and said, “I’d love to. But there’s something I have to do first.”

He went back to his village and found Rose, and asked her to marry him. Rose smiled happily and said yes at once, because she had loved him for years but she had never been brave enough to tell him and had lived in daily fear of him rescuing a princess and marrying her instead.

So Rose and Timber were married as well, and lived happily ever after. Timber made a very good captain of the guard, and Rose made an excellent deputy captain of the guard, because she was clever and kind, as well as being quite a big giant. When Hazel and Rowan had their first baby, Timber made a beautiful cradle for the baby with his favourite chisel which he had always kept with him, because you never know when a chisel might come in handy. In fact, the cradle actually saved the baby’s life one day, but that’s a story for another day.