‘The little fish saw it,’ said the fool.
‘Would you know her?’ said the troll.
‘Yes, bring her forward,’ said the fool.
The troll made a whole crowd of women go past them, one after the other, but all these were nothing but shadows and deceptions. Amongst the very last was the troll’s real daughter, who pinched the fool as she went past him to make him aware of her presence. He thereupon caught her round the waist and held her fast, and the troll had to admit that his first riddle was solved.
Then the troll asked again: ‘Where is my heart?’
‘It is in a fish,’ said the fool.
‘Would you know that fish?’ said the troll.
‘Yes, bring it forward,’ said the fool.
Then all the fishes came swimming past them, and meanwhile the troll’s daughter stood just by the youth’s side. When at last the right fish came swimming along she gave him a nudge, and he seized it at once, drove his knife into it, and split it up, took the heart out of it, and cut it through the middle.
At the same moment the troll fell dead and turned into pieces of flint. With that a,ll the bonds that the troll had bound were broken; all the wild beasts and birds which he had caught and hid under the ground were free now, and dispersed themselves in the woods and in the air.