The twelve months were up on that day, and the fairy said to the fisherman:
“Take your chief and your brother, and put out to sea half-a-mile, where you’ll see a red spot, bright as the sun on the water; cast in your net on the sea-side of the spot, and pull to the shore.”
They did as the queen commanded, and when they pulled the net on the shore they found the copper vessel.
“Now open it,” said the queen to the fisherman with the belt, “but cover your belt with your coat first.”
And he did so, and when he opened the copper a ball of smoke rose into the air, and suddenly the merman stood before them, and said:
“The first four months that I was in prison,
I swore I’d make the man as rich as a king,
The man who released me.
But there was no release, no release, no release.
The second four months that I was in prison,
I swore I’d make the water run red,
But there was no release, no release, no release.
The last four months that I was in prison,
I swore in my wrath I’d take my deliverer’s life,
Whoever he might be.”
Whereupon the fisherman opened his coat and showed him the belt. Then the merman immediately cooled down, and said:
“Oh, that’s how I came into this trouble.”
Then he asked the fisherman with the belt what had happened, and he told him the whole story.
Then the queen told the fisherman to take the girdle off and put it back on the merman, and he did so; and suddenly the merman took to the sea, and began to sing from a rock: