my sons,' she said as soon as she could speak, 'you will have
much happiness, but I shall be forced to part with you. Therefore I
shed tears, for I hoped that only death would divide us! Green is the
grass, blue is the sky, red are the roses, golden is the maiden. The
Norns' (for so in that country they called the Fates) 'beckon you to a
land where green fields lie under a blue sky, fields where
golden-haired maidens lie among the flowers.'

Great was the joy of the three brothers when they heard the words of
their mother; for they hated the looks of the women who dwelt about
them, and longed for the tall stature and white skins of the maidens
of the south.

Next morning they rose early and buckled on their swords and coats of
mail, and fastened on their heads helmets that they had made the day
before from the lump of gold. In the centre of Slagfid's helmet was
the green stone, and in the centre of Eigil's was the blue stone, and
in the centre of Wayland's was the red stone; and when they were ready
they put their reindeer into their sledges, and set out over the snow.

When they reached the mountains where only yesterday they had been
digging they saw by the light of the moon a host of little men running
to meet them. They were dressed all in grey, except for their caps,
which were red; they had red eyes, too, and black tongues, which never
ceased chattering. These were the mountain elves, and when they came
near they formed themselves into a fairy ring, and sang while they
danced round it:

Will you leave us? Will you leave us?
Slagfid, Eigil, and Wayland, sons of a King.
Is not the emerald better than grass?
Is not the ruby better than roses?
Is not the sapphire better than the sky?
Why do you leave the mountains of Finmark?

[Illustration: The Three Women By The Stream]

But Eigil was impatient and struck his reindeer, that willing beast
which flies like the wind and needs not the touch of a whip. It
bounded forward in surprise, and knocked down one of the elves that
stood in its path. But the hands of his brothers laid hold of the
reins, and stopped the reindeer, and sang again,

The Finlander's world, the Finlander's joy,
Lies under the earth;
Seek not without what we offer within,
Despise not the elves, small and dark though they be.
The best is within, do not seek it without:
The Finlander's world, the Finlander's joy,
Lies under the