Hermod and Hadvor
Hermod and Hadvor is an Icelandic fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.
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 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 she and her daughter are both wicked witches.
Soon, the King went to war, and the stepmother 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 that the Queen planned to marry her off to a giant from the Underworld. When this monster did arrive, Hadvor was prepared and killed him with burning pitch. The Queen found the body and turned into that of a man and 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 Hermod killed the evil Queen and her daughter with magic and sword. The King married the two of them and resigned his kingdom, while Olof married a nobleman.