Loki’s malice was in reality the occasion of the acquiring by the Æsir of all the precious weapons and treasures that served them in such good stead during their warfare with the Giants. Once upon a time Loki cut off all of Sif’s hair. When Thor found out what had happened, he seized upon Loki and threatened to crush every bone in his body; he relented only on Loki’s swearing that he would get the Dark-Elves to fashion for Sif hair from gold that would grow like other hair. Loki went with his task to certain Dwarfs known as the Sons of Ivaldi; and they, made not only the hair but also the ship Skidbladnir and the spear Gungnir. Loki promptly laid a wager of his own head with another Dwarf, named Brokk, that the Dwarf’s brother Sindri was not craftsman enough to make three other talismans as precious as these. Brokk and Sindri repaired to the smithy, where Sindri, laying a pig’s hide in the forge, asked Brokk to blow the bellows without pause until he himself returned to take the hide out again. No sooner had Sindri gone than a fly alighted on Brokk’s arm and stung him; he kept the bellows going nevertheless, and when Sindri lifted his workmanship from the forge, it turned out to be a boar with golden bristles. Next he laid some gold in the forge, asked Brokk to blow as before, and went away; at once the fly came back, settled on Brokk’s neck, and stung him twice as hard as the first time. Brokk notwithstanding held out until Sindri returned and lifted from the forge the gold ring Draupnir. Then he laid some iron in the fire and asked Brokk to blow, insisting that the work would be spoiled if the blowing stopped; but the fly came once more, settled between Brokk’s eyes, and stung him on the eyelids so that the blood ran down and blinded him. He could not refrain from loosing his hold on the bellows with one hand to drive the fly away. Just at that moment the smith returned and declared that his handiwork had been on the very point of coming to naught; he lifted it from the forge, and it proved to be a hammer. Giving all three pieces to Brokk, he told him to make his way to Asgard and demand payment of the wager. The Æsir took their places on the judgment seats and came to the decision that Odin, Thor, and Frey were to judge between Loki and Brokk. Loki gave to Odin the spear Gungnir, which never failed of its mark; to Thor he gave the golden hair, which took root as soon as it was fixed on Sif’s head; and to Frey he gave the ship Skidbladnir, which always found favoring winds and which could be folded up and placed in a pocket as occasion might befall. Brokk gave to Odin the ring Draupnir, from which each ninth night there dropped eight other rings as heavy as itself. To Frey he gave the boar Gullinbusti, who was able to run through the air and over the sea more swiftly than any horse; no night was so black, no murky region so dark as not to be illumined by his passage, so powerful was the light that shone from his bristles. To Thor he gave the hammer Mjollnir; with it he could strike as hard a blow as he pleased at anything that came in his way, and yet the hammer suffered not the least dent; he could throw it so as always to hit what he aimed at, and the hammer would return to his hand of its own power; when he so desired, he could make it small and put it in his pocket; he had but one fault to find: the shaft was rather short. The Æsir promptly judged that Brokk had won the wager; in Mjollnir they had acquired the very best defence against the Rime-Thursar. Loki wanted to redeem his head, but the Dwarf would not consent. “Catch me if you can,” said Loki; and no sooner had he spoken than he was far away, for he wore shoes that could carry him through the air and over the seas. The Dwarf asked Thor to seize him, and Thor did so. Brokk was about to cut off Loki’s head, but Loki declared that the wager called for his head only, and not for his neck. Brokk then began sewing Loki’s lips together. He was unable to make an incision with his own knife, but with his brother’s awl he managed to make openings through which, he could sew the mouth up tight; that done, he tore out through the lips the thong he had used in sewing them together.
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