64 loki
Once the creation of these fine gifts was finished, Loki still wanted more. With Brokk, Loki bet his own head that the dwarf’ s brother, Eitri, could not make three finer treasures. The dwarf accepted the bet. While Brokk worked the bellows to keep the fire hot, Eitri went to work using his magic to make three precious objects: Gullinbursti, a boar with golden bristles and mane which Loki would give to Frey; Draupnir, a magical arm ring of gold for Odin that every ninth night would produce eight more rings; and finally, Mjollnir, a massive iron hammer for Thor.
All the time that Eitri worked, Loki pestered Brokk, trying to interrupt his steady work on the bellows and win the bet through trickery. The god transformed himself into a fly and buzzed around the dwarf’ s head and bit him several times, but Brokk was not bothered. Finally, while Mjollnir was forming in the fire, Loki stung Brokk’ s eyelid so hard that blood dripped into the dwarf’ s eye. Swiftly Brokk reached up to wipe it, taking only one hand from the handle of the bellows and only for a brief moment. That moment was long enough to spoil the handle of the great hammer. Thus Thor’ s hammer has a short handle, although it still had the ability to always return to its master after he threw it. Brokk, proud of his work, felt he had won the bet, but Loki, using fast talk and cunning, escaped with nothing worse than sore lips when Brokk tried to sew up his wicked mouth.
Loki took the six precious gifts and presented them to the gods, who marveled at their beauty and attributes, but they all agreed that the hammer with the stunted handle was the best for it would help protect them from the giants of Jotunheim.
Loki’ s Mocking Loki could be playful and charming, but as time went on, he became sinister, evil, and bad-tempered. The story of Loki’ s mocking of the gods and goddesses, part of the Lokasenna in the Poetic Edda, shows Loki at his worst.
Aegir, the lord of the sea, invited the gods to a banquet in his coral caves under the island of Hlesey. He brewed the ale in the huge cauldron that Thor and Tyr had taken from the giant Hymir.
It was soon after the death of Balder and the gods were subdued, talking quietly among themselves. Loki listened impatiently as they praised Aegir’ s servants, Fimafeng and Eldir. Suddenly Loki sprang up and stabbed Fimafeng with his knife, then fled. He soon returned, and this time his targets were the gods and goddesses and his weapons were poisonous words.
He insulted Bragi, the god of poetry, by calling him a soft coward. One by one he accused each of the goddesses, Idunn, Gefjon, Frigg, Freya, and Sif, of being deceitful and unvirtuous. He laughed at Njord for being a hostage from the vanir gods and at Tyr for losing his hand in the jaws of the wolf Fenrir. No one escaped, not even Frey’ s servants, Byggvir and his wife Beyla, nor Heimdall, who was mocked as being a mere servant of the gods. Even the great god Odin did not escape Loki’ s evil tongue. Loki sneered at him for once having turned himself into a witch,“ a woman through and through.”
At last Thor, who had been absent, entered the hall. His eyes glowed with rage, and his whiskers bristled when he heard Loki’ s vicious insults. He threatened to kill Loki there and then with his hammer, and Loki swiftly left.
The Pursuit of Loki-Salmon After Loki insulted the gods and goddesses at a feast given by Aegir, the sea god, he fled from the wrath of the gods and built himself a hut in the mountains. The hut had doors on all four sides so Loki could escape easily, for he knew the gods wanted to punish him for his evil words and also for the death of the gentle god Balder.
By day Loki, the shape-shifter, turned himself into a salmon and swam in the mountain torrent at Franang’ s Falls. To distract himself in the evening, he fashioned a fine net— some say, the first fishing net.( In other poems the sea ogress Ran, Aegir’ s wife, invented the fishing net to catch drowning sailors and bring them to her domain under the waves.)
From his high seat, Hlidskjalf, Odin could see far and wide over all Nine Worlds. When he finally saw where Loki was hiding and in what guise, Odin went with a party of gods to capture the troublemaker. Loki saw them coming and quickly threw the fishing net into the fire, then sprinted down to the stream and leapt in as a salmon.
The gods entered the hut and saw the remains of the net. Kvasir( 2), a very wise god, concluded that a finished net might be very useful to the gods for catching slippery Loki-Salmon. The gods sat up all night repairing and completing the net. At dawn they set out to catch Loki.
Loki escaped their clutches for quite a while, as they used the net to drag the stream, but in the end Thor caught him in midair as he made a flying leap over the net. To this day, the salmon is noted for