There was once a man skilled in many arts. After serving bravely in war, he was dismissed with only three farthings. Angry, he vowed to find the right companions and make the King give up all his treasure.
He went into the forest and met a man who had uprooted six trees as if they were blades of corn. The man agreed to be his servant after taking the "bundle of sticks" to his mother.
Soon, they met a huntsman aiming to shoot a fly's left eye out from two miles away. Impressed, the master invited him to join.
They then saw seven windmills turning with no wind. Walking two miles further, they found a man sitting in a tree, blowing through one nostril to power the mills. He too joined them.
Next, they met a runner who had taken off one leg to slow himself down, as he ran faster than birds could fly. He became the fifth companion.
Finally, they met a man with his cap tilted on one ear. He explained that wearing it straight would cause a terrible frost, freezing all birds. He became the sixth.
"With us six together," said the master, "we can conquer the world."
They arrived at a kingdom where the King proclaimed that whoever won a footrace against his daughter would marry her; the loser would lose his head. The master entered but let the runner compete on his behalf.
The race was to fetch water from a distant well. The runner sped off like the wind, filled his pitcher, but fell asleep on the return journey, using a horse's skull as an uncomfortable pillow. The princess passed him, emptied his pitcher, and ran ahead.
Luckily, the sharp-eyed huntsman saw this from a castle tower. He shot the skull from under the runner's head, waking him without injury. The runner dashed back to the well, refilled his pitcher, and won the race with ten minutes to spare.
The King and princess were dismayed. To get rid of the six, the King lured them into an iron room under the pretense of a feast, locked them in, and ordered a fire lit beneath to suffocate them. The man with the cap set it straight, summoning a frost so intense it extinguished the heat and froze the food.
When the King opened the door, expecting them dead, he found them complaining of the cold. Furious, he tried another plan: he offered the master as much gold as he wanted in exchange for renouncing the princess.
The master asked for as much as his servant could carry. In fourteen days, the strong man arrived with a giant sack sewn by all the kingdom's tailors. He proceeded to put all the King's treasure into it—first a ton of gold, then all the royal wealth, and finally seven thousand carts of gold along with the oxen. The sack still wasn't full.
Enraged at losing his entire fortune, the King sent two regiments of horsemen after them. The blower simply blew through one nostril, scattering the soldiers into the sky. One sergeant begged for mercy and was spared to deliver a warning to the King.
Defeated, the King let them go. The six companions took the riches home, divided them, and lived in contentment for the rest of their lives.