indow. The
armlet he sent as a present to the Queen, and the bracelet to the
Princess.

[Illustration: The Merman warns Banvilda in vain.]

After some days had passed, and Gram and Skule had not returned, the
King ordered a search to be made for them, and that very evening some
sailors brought back their boat, which had drifted into the open sea.
Their bodies, of course, were not to be found, and the King ordered a
splendid funeral feast to be prepared to do them honour. On this
occasion the new drinking cups were filled with mead, and, besides her
necklace, Banvilda wore the ring which her father had taken long
ago from Wayland's house. As was the custom, the feast lasted long,
and the dead Princes were forgotten by the guests, who drank deeply
and grew merry. But at midnight their gaiety suddenly came to an end.
The King was in the act of drinking from the cup of mead when he felt
a violent pain in his head and let the vessel fall. The hues of the
armlet became so strange and dreadful that the Queen's eyes suffered
agony from looking at them, and she tore the armlets off her; while
Banvilda was seized with such severe toothache that she could sit at
table no longer. The guests at once took leave, but it was not till
the sun rose that the pains of their hosts went away.

In the torture of toothache which she had endured during the night
Banvilda had dashed her arm against the wall, and had broken some of
the ornaments off the ring. She feared to tell her father, who would
be sure to punish her, and was in despair how to get the ring mended
when she caught sight of the island on which Wayland's tower stood.
'If I had not mocked at him he might have helped me now,' thought she.
But no other way seemed to offer itself, and in the evening she
loosened a boat and began to row to the tower. On the way she met an
old merman with a long beard, floating on the waves, who warned her
not to go on; but she paid no heed, and only rowed the faster.

She entered the tower by a false key, and, holding the ring out to
Wayland, begged him to mend it as fast as possible, so that she might
return before she was missed. Wayland answered her with courtesy, and
promised to do his best, but said that she would have to blow the
bellows to keep the forge fire alight. 'How comes it that these
bellows are sprinkled with blood?' asked Banvilda.

'It is the blood of two young sea dogs,' answered Wayland; 'they
troubled me for long, but I caug