“‘Stand there as a stone till the last day!’ and in the same instant my unhappy husband became a mass of rock.  The ship went on unimpeded, and ran direct against the mountain, which it cut through, separating from it the little island which lies yonder.”

“Ever since my happiness has been annihilated, and lonely and melancholy have I passed my life.  On Yule eve alone can petrified giants receive back their life, for the space of seven hours, if one of their race embraces them, and is, at the same time, willing to sacrifice a hundred years of his own life.  Seldom does a giant do that.  I loved my husband too well not to bring him back cheerfully to life, every time that I could do it, even at the highest price, and never would I reckon how often I had done it that I might not know when the time came when I myself should share his fate, and, at the moment I threw my arms around him, become the same as he.  Alas! now even this comfort is taken from me.  I can never more by any embrace awake him, since he has heard the name which I dare not utter, and never again will he see the light till the dawn of the last day shall bring it.”

“Now I go hence!  You will never again behold me!  All that is here in the house I give you!  My dulcimer alone will I keep.  Let no one venture to fix his habitation on the little islands which lie around here.  There dwell the little underground ones whom you saw at the festival, and I will protect them as long as I live.”

With these words Guru vanished.  The next spring Orm took the golden horn and the silver ware to Drontheim where no one knew him.  The value of the things was so great that he was able to purchase everything a wealthy man desires.  He loaded his ship with his purchases, and returned to the island, where he spent many years in unalloyed happiness, and Aslog’s father was soon reconciled to his wealthy son-in-law.

The stone image remained sitting in the house.  No human power was able to move it.  So hard was the stone that hammer and axe flew in pieces without making the slightest impression upon it.  The giant sat there till a holy man came to the island, who, with one single word, removed him back to his former station, where he stands to this hour.  The copper kettle, which the underground people left behind them, was preserved as a memorial upon the island, which bears the name of House Island to the present day.

THE ICELANDIC SORCERESSES.

“Tell me,” said Katla, a handsome and lively widow, to Gunlaugar, an accomplished and gallant young warrior, “tell me why thou goest so oft to Mahfahlida?  Is it to caress an old woman?”

“Thine own age, Katla,” answered the youth inconsiderately, “might prevent thy making that of Geirrida a subject of reproach.”

“I little deemed,” replied the offended matron, “that we were on an equality in that particular—­but thou, who supposest that Geirrida is the sole source of knowledge, mayst find that there are others who equal her in science.”