The giant stretch’d his mighty arm;
The ship was nigh his own;
But when St. Oluf rais’d the cross,
He sank knee-deep in stone.
“Here am I, sunk knee-deep in stone!
My legs I cannot move;
But, since my back and fists are free,
My might thou yet shalt prove.”
“Be still, be still, thou noisy guest—
Be still for evermore;
Become a rock and beetle there,
Above the billows hoar.”
Up started then, from out the hill,
The demon’s hoary wife;
She curs’d the king a thousand times,
And brandish’d high her knife.
Sore wonder’d then the little elves,
Who sat within the hill,
To see their mother, all at once,
Stand likewise stiff and still:
“’T is done,” they cried, “by yonder wight,
Who rides upon the waves;
Let’s wade out to him, through the surf,
And beat him with our staves.”
At Hornelummer happen’d then,
What happen’d ne’er before;
The elfins wish’d to leave the hill,
And could not find a door:
They ran their heads against the wall,
And tried to break it through;
They could not break the solid rock,
But broke their necks in lieu.
Now, thanks to God, and Jesus Christ,
And good St. Oluf’s arm,
To Hornelummer we can sail
Without mishap or harm.