ly
wore, golden hair covered their shoulders.

The hearts of the brothers beat as they looked on the maidens, who were
such as they had often dreamed of, but had never seen; and as they drew
near they found to their surprise that the maidens were dressed each in
red, green, and blue garments, and the meadow was so thickly dotted
with yellow flowers that it seemed as if it were a mass of solid gold.

[Illustration: The three women by the stream]

"Hail, noble princes! Hail, Slagfid, Eigil, and Wayland," sang the
maidens.

"Swanvite, Alvilda, and Alruna are sent by the Norns,
To bring joy to the princes of Finmark"

Then the tongues of the young men were unloosed, and Slagfid married
Swanvite, Eigil Alruna, and Wayland Alvilda.

PART III.

For nine years they all lived on the shores of the lake, and no people
in the world were as happy as these six; till one morning the three
wives stood before their husbands and said with weeping eyes:--

"Dear lords, the time has now come when we must bid you farewell, for
we are not allowed to stay with you any longer.. We are Norns--or, as
some call us, Valkyrie. Nine years of joy are granted to us, but these
are paid for by nine years during which we hover round the combatants
on every field of battle. But bear your souls in patience, for on
earth all things have an end, and in nine years we will return to be
your wives as before."

"But we shall begetting old then," answered the brothers, "and you will
have forgotten us. Stay now, we pray you, for we love you well."

"_We_ are not mortals to grow old," said the Norns, "and true love does
not grow old either. Still, we do not wish you to fall sick with
grieving, so we leave you these three keys, with which you may open the
mountain, and busy yourselves by digging out the treasures it contains.
By the time the nine years are over you will have become rich and men
of renown." So they laid down the keys and vanished.

For a long while the young men only left their houses to seek for food,
so dreary had the Valley of Wolves become. At last Slagfid and Eigil
could bear it no longer, and declared they would travel through the
whole world till they found their wives; but Wayland, the youngest,
determined to stay at home.

"You would do much better to remain where you are," said he. "You do
not know in which direction to look for them, and it is useless to seek
on earth for those who fly through the air. You wi