nd the tree of gold,
Round and round dance we,
So doth the great world spin from of old,
Summer and winter, and fire and cold,
Song that is sung, and tale that is told,
Even as we dance, that fold and unfold
Round the stem of the fairy tree!

These grave dancing fairies were very unlike the Grey Women, and they
were glad to see the boy, and treated him kindly. Then they asked him
why he had come; and he told them how he was sent to find the Sword of
Sharpness and the Cap of Darkness. And the fairies gave him these, and
a wallet, and a shield, and belted the sword, which had a diamond blade,
round his waist, and the cap they set on his head, and told him that now
even they could not see him though they were fairies. Then he took it
off, and they each kissed him and wished him good fortune, and then they
began again their eternal dance round the golden tree, for it is their
business to guard it till the new times come, or till the world's
ending. So the boy put the cap on his head, and hung the wallet round
his waist, and the shining shield on his shoulders, and flew beyond the
great river that lies coiled like a serpent round the whole world. And
by the banks of that river, there he found the three Terrible Women all
asleep beneath a poplar tree, and the dead poplar leaves lay all about
them. Their golden wings were folded and their brass claws were crossed,
and two of them slept with their hideous heads beneath their wings
like birds, and the serpents in their hair writhed out from under the
feathers of gold. But the youngest slept between her two sisters, and
she lay on her back, with her beautiful sad face turned to the sky; and
though she slept her eyes were wide open. If the boy had seen her he
would have been changed into stone by the terror and the pity of it,
she was so awful; but he had thought of a plan for killing her without
looking on her face. As soon as he caught sight of the three from far
off he took his shining shield from his shoulders, and held it up like
a mirror, so that he saw the Dreadful Women reflected in it, and did not
see the Terrible Head itself. Then he came nearer and nearer, till he
reckoned that he was within a sword's stroke of the youngest, and he
guessed where he should strike a back blow behind him. Then he drew the
Sword of Sharpness and struck once, and the Terrible Head was cut from
the shoulders of the creature, and the blood leaped out and st