The Magic Longship

Once, long ago, there was a viking prince called Hrothgar who set out to sea in his dragon headed longship with a crew of 40 brave viking warriors.
While they were travelling across the sea, however, they passed by a black coloured rocky island that exerted a powerful, mysterious force upon the ship, almost like a magnet pulling upon an iron nail.
Hrothgar immediately ordered his crewmen to row in the opposite direction but, though they were a crew of forty and though each man was a warrior, tall and strong, still they couldn't row against the force that was pulling them towards the island and, fearful that their ship would be smashed upon its rocky shore, they all decided to jump out of the ship.
But then, no sooner had they abandoned their longship when, from beneath the sea, there came a giant terrifying beast with 40 long tentacles and, wrapping a tentacle around each of Hrothgars crew, it pulled them down under the water.
Fortunately, Hrothgar survived the terrible beast, managing to swim towards and scramble onto the shore of the island.
But then, while he was on the island, Hrothgar began to despair.
"How shall I ever escape this island without a ship or crew?", he said to himself.
As he was sitting on a rock feeling sorry for himself, however, looking down, he noticed that, sitting on a pebble near to his feet was a tiny man who also looked very miserable.
Curious, he asked the little man,
"Little fellow. What problem can you have that makes you so sad?".
Looking up at him the little man explained that he was a gnome and that gnomes were magical master builders,
"But I've lost my little hammer", he said, "And without my little hammer I can't build anything".
Hrothgar rubbed his chin in thought.
He wished to help the gnome but he didn't know how he could.
Just then, however, he noticed the little hammer of Thor pendant that he, like all vikings, wore around his neck for protection and, taking it from around his neck and removing the pendant from its chain, he offered it to the gnome.
"Perhaps you can use this", he said.
The gnome took hold of the hammer and, as he did, he started to smile.
"Oh yes", he said, "This will do very well, thank you".
But then, to show his gratitude to Hrothgar, the gnome set about building him a new long ship and the gnome worked so fast, almost like a little whirlwind, that within only a few minutes the ship was finished.
And it was a very fine longship, made from planks of gold and silver with golden oars, a silken sail and a dragon mast head that had green emeralds for eyes.
"Its a beautiful ship", said Hrothgar but then, sighing, added, "If only I had a strong crew to row it".
But then the gnome told Hrothgar that the ship didn't need a crew.
"It's a magic ship", said the gnome, "And so it will do whatever you command it to, even row its own oars".
So then the prince, getting into the longship and saying fairwell to the gnome, commanded the boat to row itself and, all at once, the 40 golden oars of the ship began to row, pushing the boat out to sea.
But then, just as before, Hrothgar felt the powerful force of the island pulling upon his boat and dragging it towards some large and jagged rocks.
"Row faster", he shouted to the longboat, starting to panic, "You must row faster or we'll be smashed by the rocks".
And, hearing his command, the oars of the ship began to row faster; faster, infact than a crew of 40 mortal men could ever row.
But, even so, his ship was still not able to row itself fast enough to resist the pull of the island and, looking at the sail of the longboat, Hrothgar despaired,
"Oh, if only there was wind enough to fill the sail and blow the ship far from the island".
No sooner had he said this, however, when suddenly a strong wind blew from nowhere and, swelling the large sail of the longship, gave it the extra push that it needed to escape the islands pull.
But then, just as Hrothgar was about to thank Odin for his good fortune, up from under the sea came the giant sea creature with forty tentacles that had killed his crew.
"What am I to do now?", thought Hrothgar, "If that creature wraps its slimy tentacles around my boat then, magic or no magic, it will drag it under the sea".
And, just as he had feared, then he saw the creature begin to grab hold of the ship with its long snake like arms.
However, as it was trying to pull the longship beneath the water, suddenly the dragon like masthead of the longship came to life and, roaring fiercely, it snapped at the forty tentacles of the seamonster with its jaws full of sharp, iron teeth, biting off at least twenty of them and, not only that, but the ships 40 oars also became golden dragon legs with sharp iron claws that tore at the seamonsters head.
Finally, realising that it was no match for the magical ship, the seamonster gave up, returning to its lair deep beneath the sea.
And, after that, Hrothgar commanded the longship to row as fast as it could back to his homeland.
And when he got home, because he could not bring the whole longship, he took one of the golden oars to show his wife and, when she saw him again, she greeted him happily, kissing him upon the cheek.
Unfortunately, she was not really his wife.
You see, while Hrothgar had been away, a Troll had entered his house and, creeping up behind his wife and young son had swallowed them both up whole.
And the Troll might have done the same thing to Hrothgar but, fortunately, then the golden oar that the Prince had brought back to show his wife touched the Troll and, because the oar was magical, it revealed the Trolls true form and when Hrothgar saw this he raised up the oar and struck the Troll with it.
Not only did he kill the troll but he split it completely in two and, inside it, were his wife and young son, still alive and perfectly healthy.
After that, because of his magic longship and his courage, Hrothgar became a famous Viking warrior and he, his wife and son lived happily evermore.