The Water King made Conn-eda welcome and gladly promised him the golden apples, the grand black steed and the magic hound Samur. Nothing would he have refused Conn-eda because he had saved his brother from his enchantment.
A great feast was prepared, and there was shouting and rejoicing, and the Water King begged of Conn-eda that he would stay there till the time given him for his searching was near an end.
To this the Prince gladly agreed, and he lingered there with the Water King and his brother until a year and a day had almost passed, and then he set off for his father’s kingdom. He rode the grand black steed, and in his bosom he bore the golden apples, and the magic hound Samur ran beside him. So he rode; and now the way was clear with nothing to stop nor stay him. Thus he came again to his home, and there, on the high tower, the wicked queen was still sitting, feeding on red wheat, that she took up on the point of her bodkin.
But though the living was lean, her heart rejoiced within her, for she made no doubt but what the Prince Conn-eda was dead, and her own son would reign in the kingdom. And then, on the last day of her forfeit, she looked out from the tower where she was sitting, and there came Conn-eda riding the black steed, and with the hound beside him, and she guessed well that he had also the apples with him.
Then her rage and fear were so great that she threw herself down from the tower and so perished miserably.
But Conn-eda sent for the hen-wife, who was a Princess, and when he saw her she was so handsome and so stately, and withal so tender, that his heart went out to her, and he wished for nothing so much as to have her for a wife.
To this she consented, and they were married with great magnificence. The Water King and his brother came to the wedding, and the third Prince, who had been living near her, was given a high position in the court, and so they all lived in great love and happiness forever.
THE BLUE BELT
A Norse Tale
A beggar woman and her son were walking along through the country, and they came to a crossroad, and there, right in the dust of the road, lay a handsome belt of blue leather.
The lad asked his mother’s leave to pick it up and wear it.