Farmer Weathersky

Farmer Weathersky (Norwegian: Bonde Værskjegg) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Chr. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.

Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book as "Farmer Weatherbeard".

It is Aarne–Thompson type 325, The Magician and His Pupil, and involves several transformation chases. This tale type is well known in India and Europe and notably stable in form. Others of this type include Master and Pupil and The Thief and His Master. A literary variant is Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi.

A version of the tale appears in A Book of Wizards by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

A farmer was trying to apprentice his son, but because his wife insisted that he must learn to be a master above all masters, was unable to find a place until a driver said that he could and had the boy get on his sleigh, whereupon he flew off into the air. His wife learned that he could not tell where his son is, and sent him after him.

He found a hag in the forest, and she consulted all the animals and was unable to tell him where to find Farmer Weathersky. She sent him to her sister, who consulted all the fish and sent him on to the third sister, who consulted all the birds and found an eagle who could help him. The eagle sent him in to steal three crumbs of bread, three hairs from a man who snored, who proved to be Farmer Weathersky himself, a stone, and three chips of wood, and to use the crumbs to catch a hare.

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