very happy with her husband, who loved her dearly, but longing
for the moment when he should be set free from the spell that
kept him half his life a fish. When he arrived and had been
introduced by his wife to her brother, he welcomed him warmly,
and gave him a fish-scale, saying, ‘If you are in danger, call to
me, "Come and help me, King of the Fishes," and everything will
go well with you.'

The young man thanked him and took his leave, and when he was
outside the gates he told the boots to take him to the place
where his youngest sister lived. The boots carried him to a dark
cavern, with steps of iron leading up to it. Inside she sat,
weeping and sobbing, and as she had done nothing else the whole
time she had been there, the poor girl had grown very thin. When
she saw a man standing before her, she sprang to her feet and
exclaimed, ‘Oh, whoever you are, save me and take me from this
horrible place!' Then he told her who he was, and how he had seen
her sisters, whose happiness was spoilt by the spell under which
both their husbands lay, and she, in turn, related her story. She
had been carried off in the water-meadow by a horrible monster,
who wanted to make her marry him by force, and had kept her a
prisoner all these years because she would not submit to his
will. Every day he came to beg her to consent to his wishes, and
to remind her that there was no hope of her being set free, as he
was the most constant man in the world, and besides that he could
never die. At these words the youth remembered his two enchanted
brothers-in-law, and he advised his sister to promise to marry
the old man, if he would tell her why he could never die.
Suddenly everything began to tremble, as if it was shaken by a
whirlwind, and the old man entered, and flinging himself at the