The man was a fisherman, and one day when he was fishing, he caught a pike, and on going home and cutting it open he found Hromund's sword Mistletoe in its maw, and gave it to him. Hromund was glad to get it and kissed the sword-hilt and rewarded the peasant richly.
In King Hadding's army was a man called Blind the Evil. He told the King that Hromund was alive and was being nursed secretly in the home of the peasant couple. The King refused to believe it, declaring that they would not dare to conceal him; but he ordered a search to be made. Blind and some other men went to the dwelling of Hagal and his wife and asked if Hromund was under their care. The woman said he would not be found there. Blind searched thoroughly, but did not find Hromund because the woman had hidden him under her cauldron. Blind and his companions went away, and when they had gone some distance Blind said:
"Our quest has not been fruitful. We must go back again."
They did so. They went back and found the woman. Blind told her that she was a crafty one and had hidden Hromund under her cauldron.
"Look there then and see if you can find him," said she. This she said because, when she saw them returning, she had dressed Hromund in woman's clothes and set him to grind and turn the handmill. The men now made search in the house and when they came upon the girl turning the handmill they sniffed all round the place, but she cast an unfriendly look on the King's men, and they went away again without finding anything.
And when they had gone away, Blind said that the peasant's wife had made things look different from what they were, and he had his suspicions that it must have been Hromund who was turning the mill, dressed as a woman.—"And I see we have been deceived. We shall do no good struggling with the woman for she is more cunning than we."
They cursed her and went back home to the King, leaving matters as they stood.
IX. In the following winter Blind saw many things in a dream, and on one occasion he told his dream to the King, saying:
"I dreamed that a wolf came running from the east, and bit you and wounded you, O King."
The King said he would interpret his dream as follows: