And the next took up her song,—­

“No longer will Frode sit on his throne, and rule over rings of red gold and mighty millstones.  Now must we grind with all our might—­and, behold! red warriors come forth—­and revenge, and bloodshed, and ruin.”

Then Frode shook from head to foot in his terror, for he heard the tramp of a mighty host of warriors advancing from the sea.  And as he looked for a way of escape, the braces of the millstones broke with the strong grinding, and fell in two.  And the whole world shook and trembled with the mighty shock of that breaking.

But through the crash and din came the voices of the Giant-Maidens, loudly chanting,—­

     “We have turned the stone round;
      Though weary the maidens,
      See what they have ground!”

And that same night a mighty sea-king came up and slew Frode and plundered his city.

When he had sacked the city, the sea-king took on board his ship the two Giant-Maidens, and with them the broken millstones.  And he bade them begin at once to grind salt, for of this he had very scanty store.

So they ground and ground; and in the middle of the night, being weary, they asked the sea-king if he had not got salt enough.

But the sea-king was hard of heart, like Frode, and he roughly bade them go on grinding.  And the maidens did so, and worked to such effect that within a short time the millstones had ground out so much salt that the weight of it began to sink the ship.  Down, down it sank, ship and giants and millstones, and in that spot, in the very middle of the ocean, arose a whirlpool, from whence the salt is carried north and south, east and west, throughout the waters of the earth.

And that is how the sea became salt.

THE CASTLE OF FORTUNE[33]

One lovely summer morning, just as the sun rose, two travellers started on a journey.  They were both strong young men, but one was a lazy fellow and the other was a worker.

As the first sunbeams came over the hills, they shone on a great castle standing on the heights, as far away as the eye could see.  It was a wonderful and beautiful castle, all glistening towers that gleamed like marble, and glancing windows that shone like crystal.  The two young men looked at it eagerly, and longed to go nearer.

Suddenly, out of the distance, something like a great butterfly, of white and gold, swept toward them.  And when it came nearer, they saw that it was a most beautiful lady, robed in floating garments as fine as cobwebs and wearing on her head a crown so bright that no one could tell whether it was of diamonds or of dew.  She stood, light as air, on a great, shining, golden ball, which rolled along with her, swifter than the wind.  As she passed the travellers, she turned her face to them and smiled.

“Follow me!” she said.

The lazy man sat down in the grass with a discontented sigh.  “She has an easy time of it!” he said.