He spoke to the boy , and asked him why he was so unhappy ; and the boy told him how he had sworn to bring the Terrible Head , and knew not how to begin to set about the adventure . Then the beautiful lady also spoke , and said that `` it was a foolish oath and a hasty , but it might be kept if a brave man had sworn it . '' Then the boy answered that he was not afraid , if only he knew the way . Then the lady said that to kill the dreadful woman with the golden wings and the brass claws , and to cut off her head , he needed three things : first , a Cap of Darkness , which would make him invisible when he wore it ; next , a Sword of Sharpness , which would cleave iron at one blow ; and last , the Shoes of Swiftness , with which he might fly in the air . The boy answered that he knew not where such things were to be procured , and that , wanting them , he could only try and fail . Then the young man , taking off his own shoes , said : `` First , you shall use these shoes till you have taken the Terrible Head , and then you must give them back to me . And with these shoes you will fly as fleet as a bird , or a thought , over the land or over the waves of the sea , wherever the shoes know the way . But there are ways which they do not know , roads beyond the borders of the world . And these roads have you to travel . Now first you must go to the Three Gray Sisters , who live far off in the north , and are so very cold that they have only one eye and one tooth among the three . You must creep up close to them , and as one of them passes the eye to the other you must seize it , and refuse to give it up till they have told you the way to the Three Fairies of the Garden , and they will give you the Cap of Darkness and the Sword of Sharpness , and show you how to wing beyond this world to the land of the Terrible Head . '' Then the beautiful lady said : `` Go forth at once , and do not return to say good-by to your mother , for these things must be done quickly , and the Shoes of Swiftness themselves will carry you to the land of the Three Gray Sisters -- for they know the measure of that way . '' So the boy thanked her , and he fastened on the Shoes of Swiftness , and turned to say good-by to the young man and the lady . But , behold ! they had vanished , he knew not how or where ! Then he leaped in the air to try the Shoes of Swiftness , and they carried him more swiftly than the wind , over the warm blue sea , over the happy lands of the south , over the northern peoples who drank mare 's milk and lived in great wagons , wandering after their flocks . Across the wide rivers , where the wild fowl rose and fled before him , and over the plains and the cold North Sea he went , over the fields of snow and the hills of ice , to a place where the world ends , and all water is frozen , and there are no men , nor beasts , nor any green grass . There in a blue cave of the ice he found the Three Gray Sisters , the oldest of living things . Their hair was as white as the snow , and their flesh of an icy blue , and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream , and their frozen breath hung round them like a cloud . Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow , and it was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters .
But , floating XXXXX the Shoes of Swiftness , the boy just managed to steal in , and waited till one of the sisters said to another , who had their one eye : `` Sister , what do you see ?
after at beyond in of on over till with without