CHAPTER LII
KALI GOES INTO DOLLS CAVE.
One summer Kali went to Thrándheim; he was detained by weather in an island called Dolls, and there was a cave called Dollshellir. It was said that money was hidden there. The merchants went into the cave, and found it very difficult to penetrate into it. They came to a sheet of water stretching across the cave, and no one dared to cross it except Kali, and one of Sölmund’s domestics called Hávard. They swam across the lake, having a rope between them. Kali also carried firewood and fire-making gear between his shoulders. They came to the opposite shore, which was rugged and stony; the smell also was there very bad, so that they could hardly make a light. Kali said they should not go any farther, and piled up stones as a monument. Then Kali sang a song:
Here I raise a mighty stone-pile,
In remembrance of our daring,
In this Dolls cave, dark and gloomy,
Where we sought the goblins’ treasure.
Yet I know not how the captain
Of the ocean’s gliding snow-skates
May re-cross the dismal water:
Long and dreary is the journey.