t they will be like the
hair of Sif, Thor's wife? Only the Dwarfs could make a thing so
wonderful. Ah, there is the bar of gold. Hammer it into those fine
threads, and the Gods themselves will be jealous of your work."

Flattered by Loki's speeches, the Dwarfs who were in the forge took up
the bar of fine gold and flung it into the fire. Then taking it out and
putting it upon their anvil they worked on the bar with their tiny
hammers until they beat it into threads that were as fine as the hairs
of one's head. But that was not enough. They had to be as fine as the
hairs on Sif's head, and these were finer than anything else. They
worked on the threads, over and over again, until they were as fine as
the hairs on Sif's head. The threads were as bright as sunlight, and
when Loki took up the mass of worked gold it flowed from his raised hand
down on the ground. It was so fine that it could be put into his palm,
and it was so light that a bird might not feel its weight.

Then Loki praised the Dwarfs more and more, and he made more and more
promises to them. He charmed them all, although they were an unfriendly
and a suspicious folk. And before he left them he asked them for the
spear and the boat he had seen them make, the spear Gungnir and the
boat Skidbladnir. The Dwarfs gave him these things, though in a while
after they wondered at themselves for giving them.

Back to Asgard Loki went. He walked into the Council House where the
Dwellers in Asgard were gathered. He met the stern look in Odin's eyes
and the rageful look in Thor's eyes with smiling good humor. "Off with
thy veil, O Sif," he said. And when poor Sif took off her veil he put
upon her shorn head the wonderful mass of gold he held in his palm. Over
her shoulders the gold fell, fine, soft, and shining as her own hair.
And the AEsir and the Asyniur, the Gods and the Goddesses, and the Van
and Vana, when they saw Sif's head covered again with the shining web,
laughed and clapped their hands in gladness. And the shining web held to
Sif's head as if indeed it had roots and was growing there.

[Illustration]

HOW BROCK BROUGHT JUDGMENT ON LOKI

It was then that Loki, with the wish of making the AEsir and the Vanir
friendly to him once more, brought out the wonderful things he had
gained from the Dwarfs--the spear Gungnir and the boat Skidbladnir. The
AEsir and the Vanir marveled at things so wonderful. Loki gave the spear
as a gift to Odin, and to Frey,