The Dwarf's hoard and the curse that it brought (2)

“There is one thing,” said Loki, “the ring that you, Andvari, snatched from the heap.”
“I snatched nothing,” said the Dwarf. But he shook with anger and his teeth gnashed together. “I snatched nothing from the heap.”
But Loki pulled up his arm and there fell to the ground the ring that Andvari had hidden under his armpit.
It was the most precious thing in the entire hoard. Had it been left with him Andvari would have thought that he still possessed a treasure, for this ring itself could make gold. It was made out of gold that was refined of all impurities and it was engraved with a rune of power.
Loki picked up this most precious ring and put it on his finger. Then the Dwarf screamed at him, turning his thumbs toward him in a curse.
“The ring with the rune of power upon it, may it weigh down your fortune,and load you with evil, You, Loki, and all who wish to possess the ring.
As Andvari uttered this curse Loki saw a figure rise up in the cave and move toward him. As this figure came near he knew who it was: Gulveig, a Giant woman who had once been in Asgard.
Far back in the early days, when the Gods had come to their holy hill and before Asgard was built, three women of the Giants had come amongst the Æsir. After the three had been with them for a time, the lives of the Æsir changed. Then they began to value and hoard the gold that they had played with. Then they thought of war. Odin hurled his spear amongst the messengers that came from the Vanir, and war came into the world.
The Three were driven out of Asgard. Peace was made with the Vanir. The Apples of Lasting Youth were grown in Asgard. The greed for gold was stopped. But the Æsir were never again as happy as they were before the women came to them from the Giants.
Gulveig was one of the Three who had affected the early happiness of the Gods. She was in the cave where Andvari had hoarded his treasure and with a smile on her face she was advancing toward Loki.
“So, Loki,” she said, “you see me again. Odin who sent you to this cave will see me again. Loki! I go to Odin to be your messenger and to tell him that you come with Andvari’s hoard.”
After having said this, and smiling into his face, Gulveig went out of the cave with swift and light steps. Loki drew the ends of the Magic Net together and gathering all the treasures in it he, too, went out.
Odin, the Eldest of the Gods, stood leaning on his spear and looking at the skin of the otter that was spread out before him. Someone came into the house swiftly. Odin saw that it was Gulveig who, once with her two companions, had troubled the happiness of the Gods. Odin raised his spear to throw it at her.
“Put your spear down, Odin,” she said. “I lived for a long time in the Dwarf’s cave. But your word released me, and the curse said over Andvari’s ring has sent me here. Put your spear down, and look at me, Eldest of the Gods.
“You threw me out of Asgard, but your word has brought me back to you. If you two, Odin and Loki, have bought yourselves free with gold and may enter Asgard, surely I, Gulveig, am free to enter Asgard also.”
Odin lowered his spear, sighing deeply. “Surely it is so, Gulveig,” he said. “I may not forbid you to enter Asgard. I wish I had thought of giving the man Kvasir’s Mead or Mimir’s well water rather than this gold as compensation.”
As they spoke Loki came into Hreidmar’s home. He laid on the floor the Magic Net. Old Hreidmar with his sharp eyes, and huge Fafnir, and lean and hungry-looking Regin came in to gaze on the gold and gems that shone through the net. They began to push each other away from gazing at the gold. Then Hreidmar cried out, “No one may be here but these two kings and I while we measure out the gold and gems and see whether the compensation is sufficient. Go outside, go outside, my sons.”
Then Fafnir and Regin were forced to go out of the house. They went out slowly, and Gulveig went with them, whispering to both.
With shaking hands old Hreidmar spread out the skin that once covered his son. He drew out the ears and the tail and the paws so that every single hair could be shown. For a long time he was on his hands and knees, his sharp eyes searching over every line of the skin. Still on his knees he said, “Begin now, kings, and cover with a gem or a piece of gold every hair on the skin that was my son’s.”
Odin stood leaning on his spear, watching the gold and gems being laid out. Loki took the gold,the ingots, and the lumps and the bracelets. He took the rubies, and the emeralds and the sapphires, and he began to place them over each hair. Soon the middle of the skin was all covered. Then he put the gems and the gold over the paws and the tail. Soon the otter-skin was so glittering that one would think it could light up the world. Still Loki went on finding a place where a gem or a piece of gold might be put.
At last he stood up. Every gem and every piece of goldhad been taken out of the net. Every hair on the otter’s skin had been covered with a gem or a piece of gold.
Still old Hreidmar on his hands and knees was peering over the skin, searching for a hair that was not covered. At last he lifted himself up on his knees. His mouth was open, but he was speechless. He touched Odin on the knees, and when Odin bent down he showed him a hair on the lip that was left uncovered.
“What do you mean?” Loki cried, turning on the crouching man.
“Your ransom is not paid yet.Look, here is still a hair uncovered. You may not go until every hair is covered with gold or a gem.”
“Peace, old man,” said Loki roughly. “All the Dwarf’s hoard has been given to you.”
“You may not go until every hair has been covered,” Hreidmar said again.
“There is no more gold or gems,” Loki answered. “Then you may not go,” cried Hreidmar, springing up.
It was true. Odin and Loki couldnot leave that house until the compensatione they had agreed to was paid in full. Where would the Æsir go for gold?
Then Odin saw the gleam of gold on Loki’s finger.It was the ring he had forced from Andvari. “Your ring,” said Odin. “Put your ring over the hair on the otter’s skin.”
Loki took off the ring that was engraved with the rune of power, and he put it on the lip hair of the otter’s skin. Then Hreidmar clapped his hands and screamed aloud. Huge Fafnir and lean and hungry looking Regin came inside, and Gulveig came behind them. They stood around the skin of the son and the brother that was all glittering with gold and gems. But they looked at each other more than they looked at the glittering mass, and very deadly were the looks that Fafnir and Regin gave their father and each other.
All of the Æsir and the Vanir that had been at old Ægir’s feast—Frey and Freya, Frigga, Iduna, and Sif; Tyr with his sword and Thor in his chariot drawn by the goats went over Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge,.
Loki came behind them, and behind them all came Odin, the Father of the Gods. He went slowly with his head bent, for he knew that an unwelcome one was following—Gulveig, who once had been thrown out of Asgard and whose return now the Gods could not prevent.
FOREBODING IN ASGARD
What happened afterwards was the shame of the Gods, and mortals could hardly speak of it. Gulveig the Witch came into Asgard, because Heimdall could not forbid her entrance. She came inside and she sat amongst the Æsir and the Vanir. She walked through Asgard with a smile on her face, and where she walked and where she smiled dreadful foreboding came.
Those who felt the foreboding most deeply were Bragi the Poet and his wife, the fair and simple Iduna, who gathered the apples that kept old age from those in Asgard. Bragi stopped telling his never ending tale. Then one day, overcome by the fear and the foreboding that was creeping through Asgard, Iduna slipped down Ygdrassil, the World Tree, and no one was left to pluck the apples with which the Æsir and the Vanir stayed young.
Then everyone in Asgard was dismayed. Strength and beauty began to fade from all of them. Thor found it hard to lift Miölnir, his great hammer, and the flesh under Freya’s necklace lost its white radiance. And still Gulveig the Witch walked smiling through Asgard, although now she was hated by everyone.
It was Odin and Frey who went in search of Iduna. She would have been found and brought back without delay if Frey had had the magic sword with him that he had bartered for Gerda. In his search he had to fight against the one who guarded the lake wherein Iduna had hidden herself. Beli was the one he fought against. He overcame him in the end with a weapon made of stags’ antlers. It was not then but later that Frey regretted the loss of his sword. It was when the Riders of Muspell came against Asgard, and the Vanir, who might have won, but didnt because of the loss of Frey’s sword.
They found Iduna and brought her back. But still worry and foreboding crept through Asgard. It was known, too, that the witch Gulveig was changing the thoughts of the Gods.
At last Odin had to judge Gulveig. He judged her and sentenced her to death. Only Gungnir, the spear of Odin could kill Gulveig, who was immortal.
Odin hurled Gungnir. The spear went through Gulveig. But still she stood smiling at the Gods. A second time Odin hurled his spear. A second time Gungnir pierced the witch. She looked dead but did not fall down. A third time Odin hurled his spear. Then, pierced for the third time, the witch gave a scream that made all Asgard shudder and she fell dead on the ground.
“I have killed in these halls where killing is forbidden,” Odin said. “Take the corpse of Gulveig and burn it on the ramparts, so that no trace of the witch who has troubled us will remain in Asgard.”
They took the corpse of Gulveig the witch out onto the ramparts and they lit fires under the pile on which they laid her.
Loki was far away when all this was being done. Now he often went from Asgard, and his journeys were to look at that marvelous treasure that had passed from the keeping of the Dwarf Andvari. It was Gulveig who had kept the imagination of that treasure in his mind.
Now, when he came back and heard the whispers of what had been done, a rage flamed up in him. For Loki was one of those whose mind was changed by the presence and the whispers of the witch Gulveig.
His mind was being changed to hatred of the Gods. Now he went to the place where Gulveig was burnt. All her body was in ashes, but her heart had not been devoured by the flames. Loki, in his rage, took the heart of the witch and ate it. It was black and terrible in Asgard, the day that Loki ate the heart that the flames would not devour!