But there was no release, no release, no release.

The last four months that I was in prison,
I swore in my wrath I'd take my deliverer's life,
Whoever he might be."

Whereupon the fisherman opened his coat and showed him the belt.
Then the merman immediately cooled down, and said:

"Oh, that's how I came into this trouble."

Then he asked the fisherman with the belt what had happened, and he
told him the whole story.

Then the queen told the fisherman to take the girdle off and put it
back on the merman, and he did so; and suddenly the merman took to
the sea, and began to sing from a rock:

_"As I sit upon the rock,
I am like a statue block,
And I straighten my hair,
That is so long and fair.
And now my eyes look bright,
For I am in great delight,
Because I am free in glee,
To roam over the sea."_

After that the hamlet was joyful again, for the fishermen began to
catch plenty of fish; for the merman showed them where to cast their
nets, by colouring the water as of old.