the stoor worm. A messenger arrives at Leegarth, conveys the news to the family and Assipattle declares he will trounce the beast, drawing mocking responses from his father and brothers. Prospective heroes arrived but all shied away from the challenge when they saw the monster. The king is despondent on the night before the princess is due to be offered to the stoor worm and instructs his servant to ready a boat as he intends to fight the monster himself using the magic sword. Meanwhile, at Leegarth, the family were making plans to watch the demise of the princess; Assipattle was to remain at home but his parents were going to ride on his father's horse, Teetong, which had the reputation of being the speediest horse in the kingdom, to attend the spectacle. Assipattle overheard his parents discussing the instructions necessary for Teetgong to attain his full speed and once his parents were asleep, he crept to Teetgong's stable, mounted the horse and headed to the shore, arriving just as the sun began to rise. After stealing some hot peat from an elderly woman's cottage, he tricks the man guarding the king's boat into coming ashore and takes the boat. The stoor worm is just beginning to awaken and as it opens its mouth to yawn, the boat is carried down to the depths of the creature's stomach until it finally comes to rest. Assipattle plunges the still burning peat into the stoor worm's liver, starting a furnace-like blaze. The pain of its burning liver causes the creature to have a fit of retching that carries Assipattle, who has managed to return to his boat, back out of the monster's mouth. A crowd had gathered on the beach, and Assipattle lands safely among them. The ferocity of the fire burning in the creature's liver increases, causing smoke clouds to be expelled from its mouth and nostrils, turning the skies black. The islanders, believing that the world is about to end, clamber up a hillside to watch the final death throes of the creature at a safe distance from the resulting tidal waves and earthquakes. As it dies, the creature's teeth fall out to become the islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes. The Baltic Sea is created where its tongue falls out, and when the creature finally curls up into a tight knot and dies, its body becomes Iceland. The