ent of it to my queen. Hold it and guard it, therefore, as hers
and hers alone; and, whatever her bidding may be regarding it, that do."

"Your word is law, and shall be obeyed," said the dwarf, bowing low.

Then the drowsy gate-keeper swung the heavy gate to its place, and the
kingly party rode gayly away.

On their way home the company went, by another route, through the narrow
mountain pass which led towards the sea, and thence through a rocky
gorge between two smoking mountains. And on one side of this road a
great cavern yawned, so dark and deep that no man had ever dared to step
inside of it. And as they paused before it, and listened, they heard,
away down in its dismal depths, horrid groans, sad moanings, and faint
wild shrieks, so far away that it seemed as if they had come from the
very centre of the earth. And, while they still listened, the ground
around them trembled and shook, and the smoking mountain on the other
side of the gorge smoked blacker than before.

"Loki is uneasy to-day," said Siegfried, as they all put spurs to their
horses, and galloped swiftly home.

It was the Cavern of the Mischief-maker which the party had visited;
and that evening, as they again sat in Siegfried's pleasant hall, they
amused themselves by telling many strange old tales of the mid-world's
childhood, when the gods, and the giants, and the dwarf-folk, had their
dwelling on the earth. But they talked most of Loki, the flame, the
restless, the evil-doer. And this, my children, is the story that was
told of the Doom of the Mischief-maker.[EN#30]

The Story.

You have heard of the feast that old AEgir once made for the Asa-folk in
his gold-lit dwelling in the deep sea; and how the feast was hindered,
through the loss of his great brewing-kettle, until Thor had obtained
a still larger vessel from Hymer the giant. It is very likely that
the thief who stole King AEgir's kettle was none other than Loki the
Mischief-maker; but, if this was so, he was not long unpunished for his
meanness.

There was great joy in the Ocean-king's hall, when at last the banquet
was ready, and the foaming ale began to pass itself around to the
guests. But Thor, who had done so much to help matters along, could not
stay to the merry-making: for he had heard that the Storm-giants were
marshalling their forces for a raid upon some unguarded corner of the
mid-world; and so, grasping his hammer Mjolner, he bade his kind host
good-by, and lea