Hermod and Hadvor is an Icelandic

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...

included it in ''

The Yellow Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...

''.

Synopsis

A king and a queen had a daughter, Princess Hadvor, and a foster son, Prince Hermod. One day, the Queen died. The King set to sea and found a beautiful woman along with a daughter and their maid. This woman told the King that she was the Queen of Hetland and had been driven from her land. The King married her, not knowing that the Queen and her daughter were both wicked witches. Soon, the King went to war, and the

stepmother A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a non-biological female parent married to one's preexisting parent. A stepmother-in-law is a stepmother of one's spouse. Children from her spouse's previous unions are known as her stepchildren. Culture Ste ...

told Prince Hermod that he had to marry her daughter. He refused, as he secretly loved Hadvor, and the angry Queen cursed him to go to a desert isle and be turned to a lion by day and a man by night, never to be freed until Hadvor burned his skin. But Princess Hadvor became friendly with Queen's maid, Olof, who told Hadvor what had happened, and also informed him that the Queen planned to marry her off to a giant from the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

. When this monster did arrive, Hadvor was prepared and killed him with

burning pitch Early thermal weapons, which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories, were employed in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately the 8th century BC until the mid-16th ...

. The Queen found the body and turned it into that of a man, then convinced the King that her brother has been murdered by the Princess. The King agreed to let the Queen punish Hadvor, but Olof again warned her in time. Hadvor made her way to the sea. In a dream, a woman told her that she was leaving her a rope to climb the cliffs, a thread to follow to find Hermod, and a belt to keep her from going faint with hunger. Hadvor found these when she woke, and used them to find a cave. Hermod came there in the evening and shook off his lion skin; Hadvor burned it. A good Witch gave them a boat to get back, and saved them from a whale attack. They arrived home. Hadvor told her father the whole story, and the evil Queen and her daughter were turned into a rat and a mouse and killed by Hermod. Hadvor and Hermod married, and reigned after the King's abdication, while Olof married a nobleman.

External links

Hermod and Hadvor
Fictional princes Fictional princesses Icelandic fairy tales Literary duos Fiction about shapeshifting Witchcraft in fairy tales