4

Loki and the Giants

Loki now lived in Asgard, accepted as one of the Æsir, and no one seemed to suspect that he had first betrayed Iduna to the Storm Giant and then won her back.

Indeed this was ever Loki’s way, for he took such a delight in mischief that he would often do whatever came into his head, without counting the cost. Nevertheless his cunning was very great, and his powers were often useful to the Æsir. Indeed at first he was one of the most important guardians of Asgard, and saved them from disaster more than once.

Odin believed that Loki had overcome and would forget his Giant nature; and remembering that he had made him his blood-brother, he saw to it that he was treated as if he were in truth Bestla’s child and not merely her cousin’s son.

Very early in the history of Midgard, Loki showed his prowess by dealing with the Giant Skrymsli who proved too much for both Odin and Honir.

For it chanced that the three Æsir were wandering the earth once more, as they did frequently in those early days, and came to the house of a farmer in the Faroe Islands.

The farmer, who did not recognize them in their disguise, welcomed the three travellers into his kitchen and set a good supper before them. But he did not make one of the party as they made merry round the fire with their horns of mead, and Odin noticed that he turned aside from time to time to weep.

‘What troubles you, kind host?’ asked Odin at length. ‘Is there anything in which we can assist or comfort you?’

‘Alas, noble sir,’ answered the farmer, with the tears streaming down his face, ‘no mortal man may help us. In the morning the terrible Giant Skrymsli is coming for our darling youngest son Rogner whom he has chosen for his dinner tomorrow, and though we have begged and prayed for mercy, nothing will persuade him to spare our beloved child.’

‘This must never be!’ cried Odin, springing to his feet, and letting fall his disguise. ‘Tomorrow the boy shall be hidden safely from Skrymsli – and if I cannot hide him, then Honir my brother shall do so!’

Then, while the farmer and his wife knelt before the three Æsir, Odin strode to the door and, holding out his arms, began to chant great rolling Runes which he had learnt from Mimir his uncle, the wise Giant.

As he chanted the corn grew over many a wide acre, till, when the sun rose, as far as the eye could see there stretched a great golden harvest ripe for the sickle.

Then Odin took the boy Rogner and hid him in a single grain of corn in one ear on one straw in the midst of the great cornfield. Then the three Æsir stood in the doorway of the farmhouse to see what would happen, and before long the huge Giant came striding down from the mountains.

‘Give me the boy Rogner!’ cried Skrymsli.

‘He is hiding in the cornfield,’ said the farmer.

‘Then I shall find him before sunset,’ answered the Giant, and drawing his sharp sword he began to reap the corn with it, shaking each sheaf as he gathered it and flinging it aside until he had built a high stack at the end of the field.

Evening was falling as Skrymsli cut the fatal stalk of corn, shook the grains into his hand, and picked out the very one in which Rogner was hidden.

In his terror the child called to Odin for help, and one of his ravens flew down, snatched the grain out of Skrymsli’s hand, and carried it to the farmhouse, where at once Rogner regained his own shape and size.

‘I have done all I can to help you,’ said Odin to the farmer. ‘The sun has set, Skrymsli has gone, and the boy is safe.’

That night the three Æsir remained in the farmhouse, and in the morning they saw the Giant Skrymsli striding towards them again. Then Honir took Rogner’s hand and led him quickly out by the back door and into a wood where two silvery-white swans flew down, and Honir changed the boy into a tiny feather on the neck of one of them.

Meanwhile the Giant had come to the farmhouse door.

‘Give me the boy Rogner!’ he cried.

‘He is hiding in the greenwood,’ said the farmer.

‘Then I shall find him before sunset,’ answered Skrymsli, and away he went into the wood.

All day he searched among the birds and the beasts who dwelt there, and in the evening he caught the very swan on whose neck Rogner was hidden. With a shout of triumph he raised the bird to his lips and bit at it. But Honir was watching, and sent a gust of wind which blew the feather away from the Giant’s lips and carried it to the farmhouse, where the terrified boy became himself again.

‘I have done all I can to help you,’ said Honir to the farmer. ‘The sun has set, Skrymsli has gone, and the boy is safe.’

Yet the three Æsir tarried still another night in the farmhouse, and next morning they saw the Giant Skrymsli striding towards them once more.

This time Loki took Rogner’s hand and led him quickly out by the back door and down to the seashore. He set him in a boat, rowed out to sea, and casting his line soon caught three flounders. He hid the boy in the tiniest egg in the roe of one of them, and threw the three fishes overboard.

Meanwhile the Giant had come to the farmhouse door.

‘Give me the boy Rogner!’ he cried.

‘He has gone out fishing,’ said the farmer.

‘Then I shall find him before sunset,’ answered Skrymsli, and away he went down to the seashore, where he got into his boat and rowed out from land. When he reached deep water he met Loki, who instantly steered his own boat so that Skrymsli’s crashed into it and sank it.

Loki climbed into the Giant’s boat, and sat shivering in the stern, begging Skrymsli to take him back to the shore before he died of cold.

But Skrymsli ignored him and rowed on until he was well out to sea, and there he anchored and cast his line.

Very soon he caught three flounders, and amongst them Loki recognized the fish in which he had hidden Rogner.

‘Good master Giant,’ begged Loki, ‘give me that little fish. There’s nothing like raw fish for a man who’s just been half-drowned.’

‘So you’re hungry, are you?’ growled Skrymsli, picking up the fish. ‘Well, I am afraid you will have to wait until sunset!’

With that he opened the three fishes and counted every egg in their roes until he came to the one in which Rogner was hidden.

But Loki was watching carefully, and the moment he saw that Skrymsli had the egg he turned himself into a falcon, snatched it from the Giant’s hand, and flew with it to the shore.

There he turned Rogner back into his own shape and size and said to him:

‘Wait where you are until the Giant actually sets foot on shore, then run your fastest across that stretch of very white sand and put up this iron pole at the far end of it.’

Rogner did as he was told, and the sand seemed to move and whistle strangely beneath his feet as he sped across. But when he had turned and stuck in the iron pole as he had been instructed, he saw that the Giant was sinking in the sand.

Down went Skrymsli to his knees, and then with a tremendous effort and a fearful roar of rage, he dragged out one leg and plunged forward. He tripped and fell, and put out his hands to save himself. But both his hands and arms went down into the quicksand as though it had been water, and he struck his head so hard on the iron pole that he knocked himself unconscious. Before he could recover his wits, he had gone down head first into the quicksand and was smothered. Only his legs stuck up out of the ground, and Loki came along with the Giant’s own sharp reaping hook and cut them both off.

After Loki had dealt so successfully with Skrymsli, Odin and the other Æsir were still more inclined to take his advice in matters concerning Giants – and very soon his cunning was again put to the test, but in a far more serious matter.

This time it was not merely a farmer’s son, but the very existence of Asgard which was in danger. It happened that Odin and the other Æsir were met in council to decide how to build a wall round Asgard to be a sure defence against their enemies.

While they were discussing the difficulties of this undertaking, Heimdall, the guardian of the Bridge Bifrost, came to them and said:

‘Father Odin, there stands a man in the plain below the gate of Asgard who offers to build a wall that shall keep out both the Hill Giants and the Rime Giants. But he would speak with you all and make a bargain over the price you are to pay for his labours.’

So Odin and the other Æsir came to the gate of Asgard and looked down to where the man stood, his arm through the reins of a fine white stallion. He was tall and grim-looking, but there seemed to be nothing unusual about him, except that he was in an exceedingly bad temper.

‘Are you the master mason who offers to build our wall?’ asked Odin.

‘I am,’ answered the man. ‘And I swear to build the whole wall in three years, strong enough and high enough to keep out all the Giant race.’

‘And what is your price for doing so great a feat of building?’ asked Odin.

‘Your solemn oath to give me Freya, Lady of the Vanir, as my bride,’ answered the man, ‘as well as the Sun and the Moon.’

When the Æsir heard this, they were about to treat it as a joke and send the man away with a warning against such impudence.

But Loki said: ‘Perhaps there is more to this. You know very well that none of us could build such a wall in three years. It is not possible that a man should either, but he may know some craft which we lack. So agree to his terms, but insist that he must build the wall to the very last stone in one winter, with no one to help him, and that if on the first day of summer any part of the work remains undone, he will receive no wages … He cannot possibly complete it, but he may at least lay a good foundation, which we shall get for nothing.’

It seemed as if Loki had drunk of Kvasir’s Blood, for the Æsir were persuaded by his words, and Odin proposed the conditions to the man.

‘To all this will I agree,’ he replied, ‘and no man shall help me. But you must allow me to use my horse here.’

There seemed no harm in this, so all the Æsir swore solemn oaths to give him Freya, with the Sun and the Moon, if the work were completed by the first day of summer.

The next day was the beginning of winter, and the strange mason set to work. By nightfall the watching Æsir were already feeling uneasy, for the mason’s horse Svadilfari carried and hauled such amazing quantities of such huge stones that it seemed little short of miraculous. Moreover the mason himself squared every one of those stones before morning and set each in position, firmly mortared to the next.

So the work went on. Every day Svadilfari hauled vast loads of stone, and night after night his master built them up until, as winter drew towards an end, the wall was nearing completion.

Then the Æsir met in council once more, in a great state of alarm and consternation.

‘It is only three days until the beginning of summer,’ said Odin, ‘and you can all see that this mason will easily finish the wall by then. Shall we therefore be obliged to give one of our number, Freya the Beautiful, to a stranger from Midgard? And must we destroy both Midgard and Asgard by losing the Sun and the Moon – which this wizard may sell to the Giants our enemies?’

‘But we have sworn an oath – we cannot break that,’ the son of bright Baldur, Forseti the Oathkeeper, reminded him.

‘Why did we ever swear so foolish – so wicked an oath?’ asked Tyr, the War-lord, angrily. ‘We could have fought the Giants without a wall!’

‘We were persuaded to it by cunning Loki,’ said Odin slowly.

‘You all agreed that what this mason offered was an impossible boast,’ Loki reminded the Æsir. ‘You must not blame me for what was only a suggestion – which you were quite ready to follow.’

‘I was not here,’ grumbled Thor, his red beard bristling. ‘I was away guarding against Giants. And I’m certain Loki, the son of Laufey, tricked you. He got us into this trouble, he must get us out of it – or he’ll have me to reckon with.’

Most of the Æsir seemed to agree with Thor, and Loki began to feel frightened. ‘I had no more idea than you that the man’s horse had magic powers,’ he protested. ‘I’m sure I can think of a way to prevent the mason from earning his prize – my mind is full of schemes. But it pains me to think that you suspect me of bringing this terrible danger upon us by anything but the merest accident.’

‘No one distrusts you, Loki,’ answered Odin. ‘You are one of us, and my brother by blood. But Thor is right: in you there is more cunning than any of us possess. You advised us to make this bargain – and you must save us from having to keep it.’

‘But without breaking our oath or staining our honour,’ murmured Forseti. And to this the Æsir agreed, and the council broke up.

Loki at once went away out of Asgard by himself and Thor muttered suspiciously that he was taking refuge with the Giants, and that Heimdall the Watchman of Asgard should not have let him cross Bifrost.

But the other Æsir said nothing: only they took their places on the almost completed wall and looked down to see what would happen.

As night fell the mason arrived leading the great stallion Svadilfari with another load of stones. They had almost reached the foot of the wall, when suddenly, out of a little wood nearby, sprang another horse, a beautiful white mare, neighing and prancing.

At once Svadilfari seemed to go mad. He reared up, neighing in answer to the white mare, and with a sudden plunge broke his traces, oversetting the load of stones, and dashed away into the darkness.

All that night and all the next day Svadilfari followed the white mare, and Svadilfari’s master followed him, shouting and cursing in vain. But on the last night of winter he came limping back to Asgard without his horse.

Over Bifrost he strode, and stood in the midst of the Æsir, and cursed them as cheats and oath-breakers. Greater and greater grew his fury; until suddenly it overcame all his cunning, and he grew greater too, huger and uglier and more evil. Then the Æsir knew him for one of their enemies the Rime Giants from Jotunheim, and they gathered round him angry and threatening.

But Odin in his wisdom placed the shield Svalin in the eastern sky to hide the rising sun. Suddenly the Giant paused in his threats of tearing down Asgard and casting the Æsir except Freya into Nifelheim, and with a cry of dismay he sprang up on to his new wall for he had seen the sun shining round the edge of the shield.

Then Odin cast down Svalin, and the risen sun shone on the Giant and turned him into a stone, which tipped forward off the wall, fell down, down to the plain of Midgard far below, and broke into a mass of splinters.

But Loki came back to Asgard some months later leading the wonderful grey horse Sleipnir, the fastest horse in the world, which had eight legs. It was the foal of Svadilfari and the white mare, and it became Odin’s horse and bore him ever afterwards through the clouds and over Midgard, wherever he had a mind to go.