“Well,” asked the king of the knight, “have you any man now to cook dinner?”
“He has,” said Dyeermud; “and it’s long since you or he had the like of him. I’ll cook your dinner, and we’ll find the food.”
Out they went to a forest, and brought in twelve wild boars. Dyeermud skinned the game with his sword, dressed, cut, and cooked it. All ate to satisfaction.
Later on in the evening, the king asked the knight, “Have you any man to show action?”
“He has,” said Dyeermud, “if you will put out the same twelve men as you did the first evening.”
The king put them out; and Dyeermud took the end of the chain to pull against them. He pulled till he sank in the floor to his ankles; then he made a whirl of the chain, and swept their twelve heads off the small men. He opened the twelve, put their hearts on a plate, and made the king eat them. “You forced the knight to swallow the hearts of his own sons,” said Dyeermud.
“Walk out of the castle, and punish us no more,” cried the king. “I’ll let out to the knight his sons, with their horses and hounds, and his own horse and hounds, if you will not come to this kingdom again.”
“We will go if you do that,” said Dyeermud; “but you are not to offend the knight or his people; if you do, I am a better guide to find you a second time than I was the first.”
The king took his rod of enchantment, went out to twelve stones, struck the first, out came the first son on horseback, and a pack of hounds after him. The king struck stone after stone till he put the twelve sons in front of the castle, with their horses and hounds; then he struck the thirteenth stone, and the horse and hounds of the knight appeared.