George Webbe Dasent

“ There sat a Princess who was so pretty, there wag no end to her loveliness. She, too, like the others, told him there hadn't been Christian folk there ever since she came thither, and bade him go away again, else the Troll would swallow him alive, and do you know, she said, he has nine heads.
"Ay, ay," said Halvor, "if he had nine other heads, and nine other heads still, I won't go away," and so he stood fast before the stove. The Princess kept on begging him so prettily to go away, lest the Troll should gobble him up, but Halvor said,—
"Let him come as soon as he likes." ”

“ So off he set over field and hedge, and hill and fell, and Halvor had hard work to keep up.
"Well," said the West Wind, "now I've no time to stay with you any longer, for I've got to go away yonder and tear down a strip of spruce wood first before I go to the bleaching-ground to dry the clothes; but if you go alongside the hill you'll come to a lot of lassies standing washing clothes, and then you've not far to go to Soria Moria Castle." ”

“ When Halvor had eaten his fill, the Princess told him to try if he could brandish the sword that; hung against the wall; no, he couldn't brandish it, he couldn't even lift it up.
"Oh!" said the Princess, "now you must go and take a pull of that flask that hangs by its side; that's what the Troll does every time he goes out to use the sword." ”

“ How long they sailed I'm sure I can't tell; but the end of it was, they fell into a great storm, and when it was blown over, and it got still again, they couldn't tell where they were; for they had been driven away to a strange coast, which none of them knew anything about. ”