Just to show the grown-up Viking sailors who laugh at his desire to go to sea, little Eric builds his own ship, equips it with bread, fish. and water, and pushes off alone. Eric is ""not afraid at all"" of a monstrous whale he meets in the water, and when he meets a hungry lion on an island he feeds it fish, makes it a friend, and brings it home along with fruit and flowers. Thus Eric becomes a famous hero, in the simple, wish-fulfilling European manner that is paralleled here in coarsely colored folk-childlike pictures.