r, and, drawing out a
lute, played on it, and Slagfid, flinging away his sword and coat of
mail, began to climb the mountain. Half way up it seemed to him as if
a hand from behind was pulling him back, and turning he fancied he
beheld his mother and heard her say, 'My son, seek not after vain
shadows, which yet may be your ruin. Strive not against the will of
Odin, nor against the Norns.' The words caused Slagfid to pause for a
moment, then the figure of Swanvite danced before him and beckoned to
him again, and his mother was forgotten. There were rivers to swim,
precipices to climb, chasms to leap, but he passed them all gladly
till at last he noticed that the higher he got the less the figure
seemed like Swanvite. He felt frightened and tried to turn back, but
he could not. On he had to go, till just as he reached the top of the
mountain the first rays of the sun appeared above the horizon, and he
saw that, instead of Swanvite, he had followed a black elf.

He paused and looked over the green plain that lay thousands of feet
below him, cool and inviting after the stony mountain up which he had
come. 'A time of death,' whispered the black elf in his ear, and
Slagfid flung himself over the precipice.

* * * * *

After his brothers had forsaken him Wayland went to bed lonely and
sad; but the next morning he got up and looked at the three keys that
the Norns had left behind them. One was of copper, one was of iron,
and one was of gold. Taking up the copper one, he walked to the
mountain till he reached a flat wall of rock. He laid his key against
it, and immediately the mountain flew open and showed a cave where
everything was green. Green emeralds studded the rocks, green crystals
hung from the ceiling or formed rows of pillars, even the copper which
made the walls of the cave had a coating of green. Wayland broke off a
huge projecting lump and left the cave, which instantly closed up so
that not a crack remained to tell where the opening had been.

He carried the lump home, and put it into the fire till all the earth
and stones which clung to it were burned away; and then he fashioned
the pure copper into a helmet, and in the front of the helmet he set
three of his largest emeralds.

This occupied some days, and when it was done he took the iron key,
and went to another mountain, and laid the key against the rock, which
flew open like the other one. But now the walls were of iron, whi