The Legend of the White Reindeer 
II 
Each springtime when the Reindeer passed 
over Sveggum’s mill-run, as they moved from 
the lowland woods to the bleaker shore of Utro- 
vand, the Fossekal was there to sing about 
the White Storbuk, which each year became 
more truly the leader. 
That first spring he stood little higher than a 
Hare. When he came to drink in the autumn, 
his back was above the rock where Sveggum’s 
stream enters Utrovand. Next year he barely 
passed under the stunted birch, and the third 
year the Fossekal on the painted rock was look- 
ing up, not down, at him as he passed. This 
was the autumn when Rol and Sveggum sought 
the Hoifjeld to round up their half-wild herd 
and select some of the strongest for the sled. 
There was but one opinion about the Storbuk. 
Higher than the others, heavier, white as snow, 
with a mane that swept the shallow drifts, 
breasted like a Horse and with horns like a 
storm-grown oak, he was king of the herd, and 
might easily be king of the road. 
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