called Blind the Evil. He told the
King that Hromund was alive and was being nursed secretly in the home
of the peasant couple. The King refused to believe it, declaring that
they would not dare to conceal him; but he ordered a search to be
made. Blind and some other men went to the dwelling of Hagal and his
wife and asked if Hromund was under their care. The woman said he
would not be found there. Blind searched thoroughly, but did not find
Hromund because the woman had hidden him under her cauldron. Blind and
his companions went away, and when they had gone some distance Blind
said:

"Our quest has not been fruitful. We must go back again."

They did so. They went back and found the woman. Blind told her that
she was a crafty one and had hidden Hromund under her cauldron.

"Look there then and see if you can find him," said she. This she
said because, when she saw them returning, she had dressed Hromund in
woman's clothes and set him to grind and turn the handmill. The men
now made search in the house and when they came upon the girl turning
the handmill they sniffed all round the place, but she cast an
unfriendly look on the King's men, and they went away again without
finding anything.

And when they had gone away, Blind said that the peasant's wife
had made things look different from what they were, and he had his
suspicions that it must have been Hromund who was turning the mill,
dressed as a woman.--"And I see we have been deceived. We shall do no
good struggling with the woman for she is more cunning than we."

They cursed her and went back home to the King, leaving matters as
they stood.

IX. In the following winter Blind saw many things in a dream, and on
one occasion he told his dream to the King, saying:

"I dreamed that a wolf came running from the east, and bit you and
wounded you, O King."

The King said he would interpret his dream as follows:

"A King will come here from some other land, and his coming will be
terrible at first; yet afterwards peace will be brought about."

And Blind said that he dreamed he saw many hawks perched on a
house--"And there I espied your falcon, Sire. He was all bare and
stripped of his feathers."

The King said: "A wind will come from the clouds and shake our
castle."

Blind related a third dream as follows.

"I saw a herd of swine running from the south towards the King's hall
and rooting up the earth with their snouts."

The King said: "That signifies