And still the dreams came flitting through the forest, and led men’s souls into the plains of Hell.  Then the magician knew that the dreams were from Gaznak.  Therefore he gathered the people of the village, and told them that he had uttered his mightiest spell—­a spell having power over all that were human or of the tribes of the beasts; and that since it had not availed the dreams must come from Gaznak, the greatest magician among the spaces of the stars.  And he read to the people out of the Book of Magicians, which tells the comings of the comet and foretells his coming again.  And he told them how Gaznak rides upon the comet, and how he visits Earth once in every two hundred and thirty years, and makes for himself a vast, invincible fortress and sends out dreams to feed on the minds of men, and may never be vanquished but by the sword Sacnoth.

And a cold fear fell on the hearts of the villagers when they found that their magician had failed them.

Then spake Leothric, son of the Lord Lorendiac, and twenty years old was he:  ‘Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth?’

And the village magician answered:  ’Fair Lord, no such sword as yet is wrought, for it lies as yet in the hide of Tharagavverug, protecting his spine.’

Then said Leothric:  ’Who is Tharagavverug, and where may he be encountered?’

And the magician of Allathurion answered:  ’He is the dragon-crocodile who haunts the Northern marshes and ravages the homesteads by their marge.  And the hide of his back is of steel, and his under parts are of iron; but along the midst of his back, over his spine, there lies a narrow strip of unearthly steel.  This strip of steel is Sacnoth, and it may be neither cleft nor molten, and there is nothing in the world that may avail to break it, nor even leave a scratch upon its surface.  It is of the length of a good sword, and of the breadth thereof.  Shouldst thou prevail against Tharagavverug, his hide may be melted away from Sacnoth in a furnace; but there is only one thing that may sharpen Sacnoth’s edge, and this is one of Tharagavverug’s own steel eyes; and the other eye thou must fasten to Sacnoth’s hilt, and it will watch for thee.  But it is a hard task to vanquish Tharagavverug, for no sword can pierce his hide; his back cannot be broken, and he can neither burn nor drown.  In one way only can Tharagavverug die, and that is by starving.’

Then sorrow fell upon Leothric, but the magician spoke on: 

’If a man drive Tharagavverug away from his food with a stick for three days, he will starve on the third day at sunset.  And though he is not vulnerable, yet in one spot he may take hurt, for his nose is only of lead.  A sword would merely lay bare the uncleavable bronze beneath, but if his nose be smitten constantly with a stick he will always recoil from the pain, and thus may Tharagavverug, to left and right, be driven away from his food.’

Then Leothric said:  ‘What is Tharagavverug’s food?’