or cut off the first head, and so on with all the rest.
The Princess was now exceedingly delighted, but then she remembered her
sisters, and wished that they too were free. Halvor thought that might
be managed, and wanted to set off immediately; but first he had to help
the Princess to remove the Troll's body, so it was not until morning
that he set forth on his way.

It was a long way to the castle, and he both walked and ran to get there
in time. Late in the evening he caught sight of it, and it was very much
more magnificent than either of the others. And this time he was not in
the least afraid, but went into the kitchen, and then straight on inside
the castle. There a Princess was sitting, who was so beautiful that
there was never anyone to equal her. She too said what the others had
said, that no Christian folk had ever been there since she had come, and
entreated him to go away again, or else the Troll would swallow him up
alive. The Troll had nine heads, she told him.

'Yes, and if he had nine added to the nine, and then nine more still, I
would not go away,' said Halvor, and went and stood by the stove.

The Princess begged him very prettily to go lest the Troll should devour
him; but Halvor said, 'Let him come when he will.'

So she gave him the Troll's sword, and bade him take a drink from the
flask to enable him to wield it.

At that same moment the Troll came, breathing hard, and he was ever so
much bigger and stouter than either of the others, and he too was forced
to go sideways to get in through the door.

'Hutetu! what a smell of Christian blood there is here!' said he.

Then Halvor cut off the first head, and after that the others, but the
last was the toughest of them all, and it was the hardest work that
Halvor had ever done to get it off, but he still believed that he would
have strength enough to do it.

And now all the Princesses came to the castle, and were together again,
and they were happier than they had ever been in their lives; and they
were delighted with Halvor, and he with them, and he was to choose the
one he liked best; but of the three sisters the youngest loved him best.

But Halvor went about and was so strange and so mournful and quiet that
the Princesses asked what it was that he longed for, and if he did not
like to be with them. He said that he did like to be with them, for they
had enough to live on, and he was very comfortable there; but he longed
to go home, for his