meet. They began the battle. The prince was a
hero, but the dragon was the youngest of three brothers! They fought
with swords, who knows how long? then, when they saw that neither
could conquer the other in that way, they fought hand to hand, while
the Poor Boy held up the palace, that it might not fall down on their
heads.

When the Poor Boy saw that his strength was failing and neither was
conquering the other, he called loudly: "Seize him and throw him on
the ground, I can hold out no longer."

The prince grasped the dragon, summoned up all his strength, and
hurled him on the ground so that his bones cracked and he lay
senseless; then he hastily took to flight, ran through the half-open
gate, and pulled the Poor Boy after him; the walls fell, the huge
splendid palaces toppled down, and, as it were, buried the dragon
alive. Nothing remained standing except the glass tower, now empty and
deserted. The Bodiless Maiden had vanished from it the very moment
that there was no longer any one who could have stolen her from the
other world.

The two comrades thanked the Lord that they had been able to
accomplish their task so far, and journeyed on, walking and walking,
till they reached the palace of the second dragon. Already in the
distance they saw the glass tower and heard the wailing song; but the
Poor Boy's heart beat higher, because the nearer he approached the
more distinctly he recognized his sister's voice. When they reached
the beautiful great palace and saw the girl in the glass tower, both
rushed up to break into the turret and clasp her in their arms.

But affairs could not be managed so easily. The girl in the glass
tower, who was really the Poor Boy's sister, looked at them in
surprise; but when he told her that he had come to rescue her from the
dragon's claws, she replied that she did not know him, and that
neither in face nor form did he bear any resemblance to her brother.
Great was the Poor Boy's grief when he saw that his sister wanted to
have nothing to do with him, though for her sake he had crossed so
many moors and encountered so many dangers, but his sorrow became
still greater when she began to complain that she was dying of love
for the dragon. Every day, she said, he came and gazed ardently at
her, yet day after day kept her a prisoner and did not marry her.
Still, this was endurable to the Poor Boy, because she was only his
sister; but when the prince saw the girl, heard her voice, and
pe