The woodcutter was filled with joy and gratitude when he heard this. He and his wife entreated Halvor to stay there in the forest and make his home with them, but this he refused to do. He was on his way to Denmark to sell his bear to the King, and to Denmark he would go. So off he set, after saying good-bye, and the good wishes of the woodcutter and his wife went with him.
Now the very next year, on St John’s Eve, the woodcutter was out in the forest cutting wood, when a great ugly troll stuck his head out of a tree near by.
“Woodcutter! Woodcutter!” he cried.
“Well,” said the woodcutter, “what is it?”
“Tell me, have you that great white cat with you still?”
“Yes, I have; and, moreover, now she has five kittens, and each one of them is larger and stronger than she is.”
“Is that so?” cried the troll, in a great fright. “Then good-bye, woodcutter, for we will never come to your house again.”
Then he drew in his head and the tree closed together, and that was the last the woodcutter heard or saw of the trolls. After that he and his family lived undisturbed and unafraid.
As for Halvor, he had already reached Denmark, and the King had been so pleased with the bear that he paid a whole bag of money for it, just as Halvor had hoped, and with that bag of money Halvor set up in trade so successfully that he became one of the richest men in Denmark.