oked round, it seemed to him that the noise in
the ice was following him from behind.

Now he went away running, but as he ran he fainted suddenly away, and
lay a long time so. When he woke again, he was lying down. He thought
a little, and then he remembered. "Au: I am running away!" And then
he got up and turned round, but could not find a break in the ice
anywhere. But he could feel in himself that he had now become a much
greater wizard than before.

He went on farther, and chose his way up over a little hilly slope,
and when he could see clearly ahead, he perceived a mighty beast.

It was one of those monsters which men saw in the old far-off times,
quite covered with bird-skins. And it was so big that not a twitch of
life could be seen in it. He was afraid now, and turned round, until
he could no longer see it. Then he left that way, and came out into
another place, where he saw another looking just the same. He now went
back again in such a manner that it could not find him, but then he
remembered that a wizard can win power to vanish away, even to vanish
into the ground, if he can pull to pieces the skin of such a monster.

When his thoughts had begun to work upon this, he threw away his
burden and went towards it and began to wrestle with it. And it was
not a long time before he began to tear its covering in pieces; the
flesh on it was not bigger than a thumb. Then he went away from it,
and took up his burden again on his head, and went wandering on. When
he was again going along homewards, he felt in himself that he had
become a great wizard, and he could see the door openings of all the
villages in that countryside quite close together.

And when he came home, he caused these words to be said:

"Let the people come and hear."

And now many people came hurrying into the house. And he began calling
up spirits. And in this calling he raised himself up and flew away
towards his wife.

And when he came near her in his spirit flight, and hovered above
her, she was sitting sewing. He went straight down through the roof,
and when she tried to escape through the floor he did likewise,
and reached her in the earth. After this, she was very willing when
he tried to take her home with him, and he took her home with him,
and now he had his wife again, and those two people lived together
until they were very old.

One winter, the frost came, and was very hard and the sea was frozen,
and only a little opening was