Sabine Baring-Gould

“ And when he got there Vidförull went to him, and fell on his knee, and said, ‘Now I wish, sire, that you and all your suite should take your places, and watch me accomplish my desire, for I have long desired to quit this age and become young again.’ . . . Then he bared his head, and stroked his arms, and all his body and belly and his legs, then he rolled together the skin he was in, and lay down before the post, and muttered to himself, ‘Away with age, that I may have my desire!’ Then all the court laughed as loud as they well could, but he lay a little while motionless. ”

“ And after this had gone on a while, they saw come out at the end of the beam a man’s feet, then a man as far as to his middle. They saw the beam shrink and expand, and it was like a woman in her pangs; at last the post contracted, and shot Vidförull completely out, and he lay a while as though dead; but when the assistants were least expecting it, he sprang up, rolled up the skin from off his head, stepped up to the king, and saluted him. ”