On the third morning Sigurd once more laid down his ball, and it rolled
far away, till at last it stopped under a very high rock indeed, over
the top of which the most hideous giantess that ever was seen looked
down.
When she saw who was there she cried out: “Ah, this is just what I
wanted! Here comes Prince Sigurd. Into the pot he goes this very night.
Come up here, my friend, and wrestle with me.” And she hauled him up
just as her sisters had done.
Sigurd then gave her his stepmother’s message and the last and largest
ring. The sight of the red gold delighted the giantess, and she
challenged Sigurd to a wrestling match. This time the fight was fierce
and long, but when at length Sigurd’s strength was failing the giantess
gave him something to drink, and after he had drunk it he soon brought
her to her knees. “You have beaten me,” she gasped, so now, listen to
me. “Not far from here is a lake. Go there; you will find a little girl
playing with a boat. Try to make friends with her, and give her this
little gold ring. You are stronger than ever you were, and I wish you
good luck.”
With these words they took leave of each other, and Sigurd wandered on
till he reached the lake, where he found the little girl playing with a
boat, just as he had been told. He went up to her and asked what her
name was.
She was called Helga, she answered, and she lived near by.
So Sigurd gave her the little gold ring, and proposed that they should
have a game. The little girl was delighted, for she had no brothers or
sisters, and they played together all the rest of the day.
When evening came Sigurd asked leave to go home with her, but Helga at
first forbade him, as no stranger had ever managed to enter their house
without being found out by her father, who was a very fierce giant.
However, Sigurd persisted, and at length she gave way; but when they
came near the door she held her glove over him and Sigurd was at once
transformed into a bundle of wool. Helga tucked the bundle under her
arm and threw it on the bed in her room.
Almost at the same moment her father rushed in and hunted round in
every corner, crying out: “This place smells of men. What’s that you
threw on the bed, Helga?”
“A bundle of wool,” said she.
“Oh, well, perhaps it was that I smelt,” said the old man, and troubled
himself no more.
The following day Helga went out to play and took the bundle of wool
with her under her arm. When she reached the lake she held her glove
over it again and Sigurd resumed his own shape.
They played the whole day, and Sigurd taught Helga all sorts of games
she had never even heard of. As they walked home in the evening she
said: “We shall be able to play better still to-morrow, for my father
will have to go to the town, so we can stay at home.”
When they were near the house Helga again held her glove over Sigurd,
and once more he was turned into a bundle of wool, and she carried him
in without his being seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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