earth.

Slagfid struck his reindeer. It bounded forward and struck down an elf
who stood in its road. Then his brothers stood in its path, and
stopped the reindeer, and sang:

Because Slagfid struck his reindeer,
Because Eigil struck his reindeer,
Our hatred shall follow you.
A time of weal, a time of woe, a time of grief, a time of joy.
Because Wayland also forsook us,
Though he struck not the reindeer,
A time of weal, a time of woe, a time of grief, a time of joy.
Farewell, O Finlanders, sons of a King.

Their voices died away as they crossed a bright strip of moonlight
which lay between them and the mountains and were seen no more.

The brothers thought no more about them or their words, but went
swiftly on their way south, sleeping at night in their reindeer skins.

After many days they came to a lake full of fish, in a place which was
called the Valley of Wolves, because of the number of wolves which hid
there. But the Finlanders did not mind the wolves, and built a house
close to the lake, and hunted bears, and caught fish through holes in
the ice, till winter had passed away and spring had come. Then one
day they noticed that the sky was blue and the earth covered with
flowers.

By-and-by they noticed something more, and that was that three maidens
were sitting on the grass, spinning flax on the bank of a stream.
Their eyes were blue, and their skins were white as the snow on the
mountains, while instead of the mantles of swansdown they generally
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.

'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 Finland.

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

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,