at his sister and remembered why he had come all that way. So he
dashed the bowl to the ground, and said: "Not a sup will I swallow,
nor a bit will I bite, till Burd Ellen is set free."

Just at that moment they heard the noise of some one approaching, and
a loud voice was heard saying:

"Fee, fi, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of a Christian man,
Be he dead, be he living, with my brand,
I'll dash his brains from his brain-pan."

And then the folding-doors of the hall were burst open, and the King
of Elfland rushed in.

"Strike then, Bogle, if thou darest," shouted out Childe Rowland, and
rushed to meet him with his good brand that never yet did fail. They
fought, and they fought, and they fought, till Childe Rowland beat the
King of Elfland down on to his knees, and caused him to yield and beg
for mercy. "I grant thee mercy," said Childe Rowland, "release my
sister from thy spells and raise my brothers to life, and let us all
go free, and thou shalt be spared." "I agree," said the Elfin King,
and rising up he went to a chest from which he took a phial filled
with a blood-red liquor. With this he anointed the ears, eyelids,
nostrils, lips, and finger-tips, of the two brothers, and they sprang
at once into life, and declared that their souls had been away, but
had now returned. The Elfin king then said some words to Burd Ellen,
and she was disenchanted, and they all four passed out of the hall,
through the long passage, and turned their back on the Dark Tower,
never to return again. And they reached home, and the good queen,