Long ago, in a cottage near Lake Lagarfljot, a woman gave her daughter a gold ring. “How can I benefit the most from this ring, dear mother?”, asked the daughter.
“Place it under a heather worm”, the woman replied.
So the girl puts the gold ring inside a box with the worm on top. A few days later the worm has almost outgrown the box. Frightened, the girl throws the box with everything in it into the lake.
In the lake the worm grew enormously, later causing harm to humans and animals crossing the river. Sometimes it stretched over the river bank, spewing horrible venom.
Not knowing what to do, two Finns were assigned to kill the worm and retrieve the gold. They were unsuccesful but found another worm much worse underneath the gold. They managed to restrain the worm but still it occasionally makes its presence known in the lake, and that is usually regarded as a bad omen.
This is an excerpt from the original.