With that he gave him one blow on the five necks, and sent the five heads flying through the air. After a while the heads were coming down, croning (singing the coronach), Arthur caught them, and struck the giant’s breast with them; the body and heads fell dead on the ground. The wife of the son of the King of Lochlin ran out now, smothered Arthur with kisses, washed him with tears, and dried him with a cloak of fine silk; she put her hand under his arm, and they went to the castle of the giant. The two had good entertainment, plenty to eat, and no bit dry. They made three parts of that night,—one part for conversation, one for tales, and one for soft sleep.
When they rose in the morning, the woman said, “It is a poor thing for us to go and leave here behind all the gold the giant had.”
“Let us not be in so great a hurry; we’ll find a cure for that,” said Arthur.
They went out, found three ships belonging to the giant, and filled them with gold. When the three ships were laden, Arthur took hawsers and lashed the first ship to the second, the second to the third, raised the anchors, and sailed away. When he was in sight of Lochlin, a messenger was walking toward the water, and saw the ships coming. He ran to the castle, and cried to the king’s son, “The servant-boy is coming, and bringing your wife with him.”
“That I will never believe,” said the king’s son, “till she puts her hand in my hand.”
The king’s son had kept his head by the fire, without rising from the hearth, all the time that Arthur was away. When the wife came in, and put her hand on his hand, he rose up, and shook seven tons of ashes from himself, with seven barrels of rust.
There was great gladness in the castle; and the king’s son was ready to do anything for Arthur, he was so thankful to him. Arthur’s time was out on the following day. The king’s son spoke to him, and asked, “What am I to give you now for the service? What wages do you expect?”
“No more than is just. I hope that you will find out for me who is the birth that has never been born, and that never will be.”
“That is no great thing for me to discover,” said the king’s son.