cattle were all safe and sound in the folds." From this it follows that
the dragon might have appeared and killed all the cattle, so far as the
king knew; he had paid no attention to the matter in the night; he had
apparently been asleep. The question was not whether the monster had
attacked the hall; it was not expected to attack the hall; and the fact
that it had not attacked the hall signified nothing as to whether it had
made its appearance. The question was whether the cattle had suffered;
and when the king asked if the beast "had showed itself anywhere in the
night," the answer was that "the cattle were all safe and sound in the
folds." The extreme danger to which the cattle were exposed, and the
entire safety of the men if they remained in the hall during the night,
show again that this was no hall-attacking monster, but "et kongsgården
hjemsögende uhyre," a troll that destroyed cattle and did not endanger
the men unless they left the hall in the night and exposed themselves to
attack.

Among the Icelandic legends collected by Jón Arnason is a story which,
in certain important particulars, is very much like the story about
Bjarki's fight with the troll-dragon. A portion of it is as follows:--

"A man named Gudmundur lived once upon a time at a farm called
Silfrúnarstadir, in the bay of Skagafjördur. He was very rich in
flocks, and looked upon by his neighbours as a man of high esteem
and respectability. He was married, but had no children.

"It happened one Christmas Eve, at Silfrúnarstadir, that the
herdsman did not return home at night, and, as he was not found at
the sheep-pens, the farmer caused a diligent search to be made for
him all over the country, but quite in vain.