Read Ebook: A Viking's love: and other tales of the North by Liljencrantz Ottilie A Ottilia Adelina Becher Arthur E Illustrator

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ed in doing your errand? Then give me the message before you sit down. What one tells after he has had time to sit down and think up fibs, is often of little value."

As Loki happened to be acting honestly for once, he felt somewhat aggrieved at this.

"Well have I succeeded in doing my errand," he answered; "Thrym the King of Giants has your hammer. No man brings it back unless he gives him Freyja as bride."

Thor snorted so that his red beard streamed far out, and down on the earth people thought they had seen the fiery northern lights streak across the sky.

"Is it to win her that he has made all this trouble? Ride we to Freyja without delay."

They mounted the chariot, and in an astonishingly short time the lightning-swift goats had drawn them to Folkvang.

Freyja the Lovely sat in her high-seat playing with her wonderful necklace, whose beads sparkled and flashed like water-drops in the sun. When she heard wheels, she guessed that the Strong-One was approaching and came out into the courtyard to meet him.

"I give you good greeting," she said, smiling kindly as Loki flew to her and dropped the feather-dress at her feet.

But she did not smile so sweetly when Thor had reined in the goats before her and told her of the giant's demand.

"Dress yourself, Freyja, in bridal robes," he finished, "together we will ride to Jotunheim."

The Lovely One straightened up so quickly that her hand caught in her necklace and broke it into a shower of sparkling balls.

"Sooner will I die than put on bridal robes for such a monster," she declared.

The Strong-One looked at her in surprise. The hammer was so important to him and to them all that he thought any one ought to be willing to do anything to recover it.

"It is likely that you will die if I do not get The Crusher back," he said at last. "If the giants should invade the sky, I would have nothing to fight them with and they could get the victory over us."

Freyja answered nothing whatever, but she put back her beautiful shining hair from her beautiful rosy face and looked at him sorrowfully. All at once it occurred to Thor that she was much too lovely to be given to such a wicked old creature. He made only one more very faint attempt.

"I am told for certain that Thrym has got great riches," he said, "he has a herd of all-black oxen and all his cows have gold horns."

Then Freyja stamped her foot.

"I would be a love-sick maid indeed if with you I would ride to Jotunheim!" she said severely. And with that she left them and ran into the house--and I am not sure that she did not close the door pretty hard behind her.

Thor scratched his head thoughtfully.

"Much goes worse than is expected," he said at last. "We will see now what advice my kinsmen have to offer."

Again he puffed and snorted so that the trees on the earth below were stirred and swayed as by a rushing wind.

"Certainly there is going to be a great storm," the earth-people said to each other. And as they heard the chariot-wheels rumbling along above the clouds, they added, "Hark! Do you hear the thunder?"

They must have thought it a very long storm for before he stopped, Thor had driven to almost every palace in the sky. Odin the All-wise Ruler, Balder the Bright, and Heimdal the White One, Tyr, Brage, Vale--he visited each of them. Soon they were all gathered together at their meeting-place on the plains of Ida.

They consulted long and earnestly. At last Heimdal the White One, who had the gift of fore-knowledge, gave them this counsel:

"It is my advice that we play a trick upon the King of the Giants and allow him to believe that we have done as he asked. We will dress Thor in bridal robes and send him to Thrym."

At this, loud laughter went up from the others. You remember that Thor was not only stronger than any man on earth, but he was also mightier than any being in the sky. Imagine dressing him up for a beautiful graceful woman!

"That is cleverly devised!" cried Loki. "With a bridal veil will we hide the red beard, and Thrym shall not know him until the Strong-One has got his hand on his hammer. Then will he know him to his sorrow!"

They all laughed again; but the mighty Thor frowned angrily.

"Never will I submit to it," he growled. "Every living thing would mock at me, should I go dressed in bridal robes."

Perhaps Loki wished to revenge himself on the Strong-One for having spoken so sternly to him when he first brought the message from Jotunheim. Now in his turn he said sternly:

"Be silent, Thor. Stop such talk. Soon will the giants build in the sky if you do not bring your hammer back."

Because he knew this to be true, Thor could say nothing more. He stood frowning and stamping and growling in his beard while they brought Freyja's jewels and her beautiful robes to dress him in.

They put on him a very long gown that trailed about his feet so that he was certain that it would trip him up when he should try to walk. They hung sparkling necklaces around his neck, and placed a bunch of jingling keys at his belt to show that he was a good house-keeper. Broad gold brooches they pinned on his breast, and then they braided his red-gold hair into two beautiful wavy braids.

How the Mighty-One did stamp and fume at all this! And how the others laughed at him! The more they laughed, the angrier he grew--and the angrier he became, the funnier he looked in his bridal robes. The whole vault of the sky echoed and re-echoed with their mirth.

At last he was all dressed and they dropped the bridal veil over his furious face.

Then Loki said, with a slim grimace, that such a lovely bride could not be allowed to travel without at least one serving-maid. So he took the dress of one of Freyja's attendants and put it on himself. As he was young and handsome and with no more beard than either you or I, he made a very pretty waiting-damsel.

He got into the chariot beside Thor, the lightning-swift goats were hitched to the car, and away they went to Jotunheim.

The chariot-wheels rumbled like thunder. The-Goat-That-Gnashes-His-Teeth and The-Goat-That-Flashes-His-Teeth struck out fiery sparks from their gold-shod hoofs. So came Loki and the Strong-One into Jotunheim.

While they were yet a long way off, Thrym heard them coming and laughed exultantly.

"Much wealth have I! Many gifts have I! Freyja, methinks, is all I lack!"

he sang; then he called out to his followers, "Giants, arise and spread the embroidered cloths over the benches. Freyja comes to be my bride."

The servants tumbled over each other in wild excitement. Some covered the seats and the walls with embroidered tapestries. Some strewed fresh straw upon the floor. Others scoured the shields and brought in the tables and set forth the massive golden dishes.

Just as twilight was falling, the chariot thundered into the courtyard.

When he saw Freyja's robes and Freyja's jewels, it never occurred to Thrym to doubt that it was really Freyja under the veil. He took the bride's hand and led her to her seat, laughing exultantly and singing his boastful song:

"Much wealth have I! Many gifts have I! Freyja, methinks, was all I lacked!"

Then he ordered the food to be brought in, and invited every one to help him keep his wedding-feast.

When they began to eat, it was a wonder that Thor's appetite did not betray him the very first thing. Either he was so hungry that he did not care what they thought, or else he forgot that he was pretending to be a dainty lady. Besides all the cheese and the curds and the honey, he ate seven whole salmon and one whole ox, and after that he drank three barrels of the sweet spicy mead. Loki pinched him under the table as a sign for him to stop, but he only growled in his beard and ate one salmon more.

Thrym's eyes grew as big as milk-bowls.

"Saw I never such a hungry bride!" he exclaimed, pushing back to stare at her. "Saw I never a bride eat so much! Saw I never a maid drink so much mead!"

At that, even Thor was a little alarmed, for if the giant king should discover them before they got the hammer, not only would their plan fail but they would lose their lives into the bargain. He could think of nothing to answer, however, so he sat silent. Lucky was it for him that Loki always had his wits about him.

The Sly-One answered quickly, "Hungry is Freyja, thirsty is Freyja, for nothing has she eaten or drunk for eight days--so much did she long to come to Jotunheim."

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