last they ceased altogether.

Next morning the Queen rose early, and went out to the Palace gate,
and there she found her brother the Giant lying dead. She went up to
him and said, 'I pronounce this spell, that you become a beautiful
prince, and that Hadvor shall be unable to say anything against the
charges that I shall bring against her.'

The body of the dead Giant now became that of a beautiful prince, and
the Queen went in again.

'I don't think,' said she to the King, 'that your daughter is as good
as she is said to be. My brother came and asked her hand, and she has
had him put to death. I have just found his dead body lying at the
Palace gate.'

The King went along with the Queen to see the body, and thought it all
very strange; so beautiful a youth, he said, would have been a worthy
match for Hadvor, and he would readily have agreed to their marriage.
The Queen asked leave to decide what Hadvor's punishment should be,
which the King was very willing to allow, so as to escape from
punishing his own daughter. The Queen's decision was that the King
should make a big grave-mound for her brother, and put Hadvor into it
beside him.

Olof knew all the plans of the Queen, and went to tell the Princess
what had been done, whereupon Hadvor earnestly entreated her to tell
her what to do.

'First and foremost,' said Olof, 'you must get a wide cloak to wear
over your other clothes, when you are put into the mound. The Giant's
ghost will walk after you are both left together in there, and he will
have two dogs along with him. He will ask you to cut pieces out of his
legs to give to the dogs, but that you must not promise to do unless
he tells you where Hermod has gone to, and tells you how to find him.
He will then let you stand on his shoulders, so as to get out of the
mound; but he means to cheat you all the same, and will catch you by
the cloak to pull you back again; but you must take care to have the
cloak loose on your shoulders, so that he will only get hold of that.'

The mound was all ready now, and the Giant laid in it, and into it
Hadvor also had to go without being allowed to make any defence. After
they were both left there everything happened just as Olof had said.
The prince became a Giant again, and asked Hadvor to cut the pieces
out of his legs for the dogs; but she refused until he told her that
Hermod was in a desert island, which she could not reach unless she
took the skin off the soles of his f