The myth of Loki and the master builder Alex Gendler
Asgard, a realm of wonders, was where
the Norse Gods made their home.
There Odin’s great hall of Valhalla
towered above the mountains
and Bifrost, the rainbow bridge,
anchored itself.
But though their domain was magnificent,
it stood undefended from the giants
and trolls of Jotunheim,
who despised the gods and
sought to destroy them.
One day when Thor, strongest of the
gods, was off fighting these foes,
a stranger appeared,
riding a powerful gray horse.
The visitor made the gods
an astonishing offer.
He would build them the greatest
wall they’d ever seen,
higher than any giant could climb
and stronger than any troll could break.
All he asked in return was the beautiful
goddess Freya’s hand in marriage—
along with the sun and moon from the sky.
The gods balked at this request
and were ready to send him away.
But the trickster Loki
concocted a devious plan.
He told the gods they should
accept the stranger’s offer,
but set such strict conditions that he
would fail to complete the wall in time.
That way, they would lose nothing, while
getting most of the wall built for free.
Freya didn’t like this idea at all,
but Odin and the other
gods were convinced
and came to an agreement
with the builder.
He would only have one winter
to complete the wall.
If any part was unfinished by
the first day of summer,
he would receive no payment.
And he could have no help
from any other people.
The gods sealed the deal with solemn oaths
and swore the mason would come
to no harm in Asgard.
In the morning, the stranger began to dig
the foundations at an astonishing speed,
and at nightfall he set off towards the
mountains to obtain the building stones.
But it was only the next morning,
when they saw him returning,
that the gods began to worry.
As agreed, no other people
were helping the mason.
But his horse Svadilfari was hauling
a load of stones so massive
it left trenches in the ground
behind them.
Winter came and went.
The stranger kept building,
Svadilfari kept hauling,
and neither snow nor rain could
slow their progress.
With only three days left until summer,
the wall stood high and impenetrable,
with only the gate left to be built.
Horrified, the gods realized that not
only would they lose
their fertility goddess forever,
but without the sun and moon the world
would be plunged into eternal darkness.
They wondered why they’d made
such a foolish wager—
and then remembered Loki
and his terrible advice.
Suddenly, Loki didn’t feel so clever.
All of his fellow gods threatened him
with an unimaginably painful death
if he didn’t find some way to prevent
the builder from getting his payment.
So Loki promised to take care of the
situation, and dashed away.
Outside, night had fallen,
and the builder prepared to set off
to retrieve the final load of stones.
But just as he called Svadilfari to him,
a mare appeared in the field.
She was so beautiful that
Svadilfari ignored his master
and broke free of his reins.
The mason tried to catch him,
but the mare ran deep into the
woods and Svadilfari followed.
The stranger was furious.
He knew that the gods were behind
this and confronted them:
no longer as a mild-mannered mason,
but in his true form as a terrifying
mountain giant.
This was a big mistake.
Thor had just returned to Asgard,
and now that the gods knew
a giant was in their midst,
they disregarded their oaths.
The only payment the
builder would receive—
and the last thing he would ever see—
was the swing of Thor’s
mighty hammer Mjolnir.
As they set the final stones into the
wall, the gods celebrated their victory.
Loki was not among them, however.
Several months would pass
before he finally returned,
followed by a beautiful gray
foal with eight legs.
The foal would grow into a magnificent
steed named Sleipnir
and become Odin’s mount, a horse
that could outrun the wind itself.
But exactly where he had come from was
something Loki preferred not to discuss.