upon the ground a huge copper kettle half-full of sweet mead, and, by
the side of it, a drinking-horn of pure gold. In the corner lay against
the wall a stringed instrument not unlike a dulcimer, which, as people
believe, the giantesses used to play on. They gazed on what was before
them full of admiration, but without venturing to lay their hands on
anything; but great and fearful was their amazement when, on turning
about, they saw sitting at the table an immense figure, which Orm
instantly recognised as the giant whom Guru had animated by her embrace.
He was now a cold and hard stone. While they were standing gazing on it,
Guru herself entered the room in her giant form. She wept so bitterly
that the tears trickled down on the ground. It was long ere her sobbing
permitted her to utter a single word. At length she spoke--

"Great affliction have you brought on me, and henceforth must I weep
while I live. I know you have not done this with evil intentions, and
therefore I forgive you, though it were a trifle for me to crush the
whole house like an egg-shell over your heads."

"Alas!" cried she, "my husband, whom I love more than myself, there he
sits petrified for ever. Never again will he open his eyes! Three
hundred years lived I with my father on the island of Kunnan, happy in
the innocence of youth, as the fairest among the giant maidens. Mighty
heroes sued for my hand. The sea around that island is still filled with
the rocky fragments which they hurled against each other in their
combats. Andfind won the victory, and I plighted myself to him; but ere
I was married came the detestable Odin into the country, who overcame
my father, and drove us all from the island. My father and sisters fled
to the mountains, and since that time my eyes have beheld them no more.
Andfind and I saved ourselves on this island, where we for a long time
lived in peace and quiet, and thought it would never be interrupted.