and wondered who it was that dared to be there, and said they would
tear him to pieces, so small that there should not be a bit of him
left. But up rose the lions and tore the Trolls into small pieces, so
that the place looked as if a dung heap had been tossed about it; and
when they had finished the Trolls they lay down again. The lad did
not wake till late in the afternoon, and when he got on his knees and
rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he began to wonder what had been
going on, when he saw the marks of hoofs. But when he went towards
the castle, a maiden looked out of a window who had seen all that had
happened, and she said:

'You may thank your stars you weren't in that tussle, else you must
have lost your life.'

'What! I lose my life! No fear of that, I think,' said the lad.

So she begged him to come in, that she might talk with him, for she
hadn't seen a Christian soul ever since she came there. But when she
opened the door the lions wanted to go in too, but she got so
frightened that she began to scream, and so the lad let them lie
outside. Then the two talked and talked, and the lad asked how it
came that she, who was so lovely, could put up with those ugly
Trolls. She never wished it, she said; 'twas quite against her will.
They had seized her by force, and she was the King of Arabia's
daughter. So they talked on, and at last she asked him what he would
do; whether she should go back home, or whether he would have her to
wife. Of course he would have her, and she shouldn't go home.

After that they went round the castle, and at last they came to a
great hall, where the Trolls' two great swords hung high up on the