Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/94

72 have, and if he got it he gave his word to the old witch that he would let her loose out of the chair.

"Nay, nay," she screeched out; "ask me anything else. Anything else you may have, but not that, for it is my Three-Sister Sword; we are three sisters who own it together."

"Very well; then you may sit there till the end of the world," said the man. But when she heard that, she said he might have it if he would set her free.

So he took the sword and went off with it, and left her still sitting there.

When they had gone far, far away over naked fells and wide wastes, they came to another crossfell. There, too, the companion knocked and bade them open the door, and the same thing happened as happened before; the rock opened, and when they had got a good way into the hill another old witch came up to them with a chair and begged them to sit down. "Ye may well be weary," she said.

"Sit down yourself," said the companion. And so she fared as her sister had fared; she did not dare to say nay, and as soon as she sat down on the chair she stuck fast. Meanwhile the lad and his companion went about in the hill, and the man broke open all the chests and drawers till he found what he sought, and that was a golden ball of yarn. That he set his heart on, and he promised the old witch to set her free if she would give him the golden ball. She said he might take all she had, but that she could not part with; it was her Three-Sister Ball. But when she heard that she should sit there till doomsday unless he got it, she said he might take