The Dwarves

Loke sat and thought, till his dark eyes gleam

With joy at the deed he'd done;

When Sif looked into the crystal stream,

Her courage was wellnigh gone.

For never again her soft amber hair

Shall she braid with her hands of snow;

From the hateful image she turned in despair,

And hot tears began to flow.

In a cavern's mouth, like a crafty fox,

Loke sat 'neath the tall pine's shade,

When sudden a thundering was heard in the rocks,

And fearfully trembled the glade.

Then he knew that the noise good boded him naught,

He knew that 't was Thor who was coming;

He changed himself straight to a salmon trout,

And leaped in a fright in the Glommen.

But Thor changed too, to a huge seagull,

And the salmon trout seized in his beak;

He cried: Thou, traitor, I know thee well,

And dear shalt thou pay thy freak!

Thy caitiff's bones to a meal I'll pound,

As a millstone crusheth the grain.

When Loke that naught booted his magic found,

He took straight his own form again.

And what if thou scatter'st my limbs in air?

He spake, will it mend thy case?

Will it gain back for Sif a single hair?

Thou 'lt still a bald spouse embrace.

But if now thou 'lt pardon my heedless joke,--

For malice sure meant I none,--

I swear to thee here, by root, billow and rock,

By the moss on the Beata-stone,

By Mimer's well, and by Odin's eye,

And by Mjolmer, greatest of all,

That straight to the secret caves I'll hie,

To the dwarfs, my kinsmen small;

And thence for Sif new tresses I'll bring

Of gold ere the daylight's gone,

So that she will liken a field in spring,

With its yellow-flowered garment on.