But Thor changed, too, to a huge sea-gull, And the salmon-trout seized in his beak; He cried: Thor, traitor, I know thee well, And dear shalt thou pay thy freak! Thy caitiff’s bones to a meal I’ll pound, As a mill-stone 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 Bauta-stone,[7] By Mimer’s well, and by Odin’s eye, And by Mjolner, 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. Him answered Thor: Why, thou brazen knave, To my face to mock me dost dare? Thou know’st well that Mjolner is now ’neath the wave With Ran, and wilt still by it swear? O a better hammer for thee I’ll obtain; And he shook like an aspen-tree, For whose stroke shield, buckler and greave shall be vain, And the giants with terror shall flee! Not so! cried Thor, and his eyes flashed fire; Thy base treason calls loud for blood, And hither I’m come with my sworn brother Frey, To make thee of ravens the food. I’ll take hold of thy arms and thy coal-black hair, And Frey of thy heels behind, And thy lustful body to atoms we’ll tear, And scatter thy limbs to the wind. O spare me, Frey, thou great-souled king! And, weeping, he kissed his feet; O mercy, and thee I’ll a courser bring, No match in the wide world shall meet. Without whip or spur round the earth you shall ride; He’ll ne’er weary by day nor by night; He shall carry you safe o’er the raging tide, And his golden hair furnish you light. Loke promised as well with his glozing tongue That the asas at length let him go, And he sank in the earth, the dark rocks among, Near the cold-fountain, far below. He crept on his belly, as supple as eel, The cracks in the hard granite through, Till he came where the dwarfs stood hammering steel, By the light of a furnace blue. I trow ’t was a goodly sight to see The dwarfs, with their aprons on, A-hammering and smelting so busily Pure gold from the rough brown stone.