The princess, bound to a tree, was waiting for the dragon to come and destroy her.

I borrowed a horse and rode in with a huge mirror. I put it against the trunk of a tree, took the maiden’s veil, and covered the mirror with it. I told her to hide behind the mirror, and, when the dragon came, to tear the veil from the mirror.

The dragon stopped short when he saw a monster before him as strong and ferocious as himself. He shook his mane with rage and his enemy did the same. He roared and the other roared back. At last he fell upon his foe and the mirror broke into a thousand pieces. He thought he had been smashed into atoms!

The Knight Who Uses a Mirror to Meet a Dragon in The Knights of the Fish, Brown Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford.