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Tales from the Fjeld

As she stood there, a young man and an old man came by, who also wished to take shelter; but the princess drew away farther into a corner, so that they did not see her.

"Why is it," said the young man, "that the king's castle is hung with black?"

"Don't you know," said the greybeard, "the prince here is sick to death, he whom they call the Green Knight?" And so he went on telling him how it had all happened. So when the young man had listened to the story, he asked if there was any one who could make him well again.

"Nay, nay," said the other; "there is but one cure, and that is if the maiden who was shut up in the