'
'Ah, son,' quoth Stone-face, 'thou wilt look to see other kind of
beasts than elks. Things may ye fall in with there who may not be
impounded in the snow like to elks, but can go light-foot on the top
of the soft drift from one place to another.'
Said Gold-mane: 'Father, fear me not; I shall either refrain me from
the wood, or if I go, I shall go to hunt the wood-deer with other
hunters. But since thou hast come to me, tell me more about the
wood, for thy tales thereof are fair.'
'Yea,' said Stone-face, 'fair tales of foul things, as oft it
befalleth in the world. Hearken now! if thou deemest that what thou
seekest shall come readier to thine hand because of the winter and
the snow, thou errest. For the wights that waylay the bodies and
souls of the mighty in the wild-wood heed such matters nothing; yea
and at Yule-tide are they most abroad, and most armed for the fray.
Even such an one have I seen time agone, when the snow was deep and
the wind was rough; and it was in the likeness of a woman clad in
such raiment as the Bride bore last night, and she trod the snow
light-foot in thin raiment where it would scarce bear the skids of a
deft snow-runner.
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