on a beautiful plain that was on
the top of that high mountain. And they wanted to raise round their
City the highest and strongest wall that had ever been built.

Now one day when they were beginning to build their halls and their
palaces a strange being came to them. Odin, the Father of the Gods, went
and spoke to him. "What dost thou want on the Mountain of the Gods?" he
asked the Stranger.

"I know what is in the mind of the Gods," the Stranger said. "They would
build a City here. I cannot build palaces, but I can build great walls
that can never be overthrown. Let me build the wall round your City."

"How long will it take you to build a wall that will go round our City?"
said the Father of the Gods.

"A year, O Odin," said the Stranger.

Now Odin knew that if a great wall could be built around it the Gods
would not have to spend all their time defending their City, Asgard,
from the Giants, and he knew that if Asgard were protected, he himself
could go amongst men and teach them and help them. He thought that no
payment the Stranger could ask would be too much for the building of
that wall.

That day the Stranger came to the Council of the Gods, and he swore that
in a year he would have the great wall built. Then Odin made oath that
the Gods would give him what he asked in payment if the wall was
finished to the last stone in a year from that day.

The Stranger went away and came back on the morrow. It was the first day
of Summer when he started work. He brought no one to help him except a
great horse.

Now the Gods thought that this horse would do no more than drag blocks
of stone for the building of the wall. But the horse did more than this.
He set the stones in their places and mortared them together. And day
and night and by light and dark the horse worked, and soon a great wall
was rising round the palaces that the Gods themselves were building.

"What reward will the Stranger ask for the work he is doing for us?" the
Gods asked one another.

Odin went to the Stranger. "We marvel at the work you and your horse are
doing for us," he said. "No one can doubt that the great wall of Asgard
will be built up by the first day of Summer. What reward do you claim?
We would have it ready for you."

The Stranger turned from the work he was doing, leaving the great horse
to pile up the blocks of stone. "O Father of the Gods," he said, "O
Odin, the reward I shall ask for my work is the Sun and the Moon, and
F