"Why not take it to Wayland to mend?" suggested one of her trusted maidens. So Badhild gave the trinket to the girl and bade her take it to Wayland. She brought it back with her. "Without the command of the king he will not mend it," she said, "unless the king's daughter herself will come to him." Badhild set out immediately for the smithy. There Wayland substituted for her ring his own, which, had the curious magic power of making its wearer fall in love with the smith. The smith slipped the jewel on her finger, gazed into her eyes and said, "This ring you shall keep as well as your own, if you will be my bride." [Illustration: WAYLAND THE SMITH, WEARING THE WINGS HE HAD FASHIONED] [Illustration: ZIDOVIN THREW THE IRON CLUB INTO THE AIR AND CAUGHT IT WITH ONE HAND] The maiden could not refuse, and so the two were married, agreeing to keep their union a secret. About this time Eigil, the brother of Wayland, came to the court of Nidung. He was a celebrated man and the most skilful master of the bow to be found anywhere in the world. The king welcomed him, and he remained a long time at the court. One day Nidung proposed that, since he was such a skilful bowman, he should try shooting an apple from the head of his own son. Eigil agreed. "You may have only one trial," the king said. So an apple was placed on the head of Eigil's three-year-old son, and Eigil, taking his bow, aimed, and with the first arrow struck the apple in the center, so that it fell from the child's head. "Why did you have three arrows?" the king asked. "Sire," replied Eigil, "I will not lie to you. If I had pierced my son with the first arrow, the other two would have pierced you." The king, strange to say, did not take offense at this speech, but on the contrary showed Eigil still greater favor than he had in the past. The archer frequently visited his brother Wayland, but Badhild came but seldom to her husband's house. One day the two came together at Wayland's special request. When they were leaving Wayland embraced Badhild and said to her: "You will be the mother of a boy--your child and mine. It may be that I shall go away from here and never see his face; but you must tell him that I have made for him worthy weapons and stowed them in safety in the place where the water enters and the wind goes out (the forge)." The next time Wayland saw Eigil he bade him bring to him all kinds of feathers, large and small. "I wish to make for myself a doublet of feathers," he explained. Then Eigil shot many birds of prey and brought their feathers to Wayland. From them he made a flying shirt, clad in which he looked more like an eagle than a man. Eigil admired the workmanship and Wayland asked him to try it. "How shall I rise, how fly, and how alight?" asked Eigil. "You must rise against the wind, and fly first low and then high, but you must alight with the wind."